Thread by @Koryuken

@GUILTYGEAR_PR @ArcSystemWorksU GIGATWEET ABOUT NETPLAY INCOMING. Please RT and Like for Good User Experience and Interface in Multiplayer. This is as important as rollback. I'm sorry @Sajam but your work has only just begun. Warning: Tweet 1 of 18.

With regards to the dev talk: I wish they would talk about how their lobby design plays out in the west. Xrd Player Lobbies were the only functional way of keeping time-between-matches acceptable, and the only mode that offered accurate geographic filtering via lobby names. 2/18

Western players need more control over how they connect with players, and they need fast and broad connection metrics to do it. ArcSys lobbies are notorious for not doing enough in this area, bordering on non-functional and flooding players with inappropriate connections. 3/18

Rollback does wonders for expanding the range of viable connections, but presenting accurate connection metrics as a priority within lobbies cuts down the time between viable matches and improves user experience substantially. It's as important as rollback. 4/18

Any time a player connects with someone and the connection isn't viable (This happens a LOT in ArcSys titles because of poor metric display and player grouping), you've essentially shattered the UX you've crafted for the player. 5/18

This doesn't happen in Xrd player lobbies because the groupings are small and geographically-similar players can easily join each other's player lobbies. I have a feeling the dev team did this by accident. My fear is they haven't realized the reason we left Ranked/World. 6/18

By designing UX exclusively for Japan, developers hamstring Western players dramatically. Western players have required more control over who they connect to since time immemorial because of distance and instability over DSL/Cable. 7/18

This is something @themsfightherds solved by prioritizing presenting connection metrics at a level above or on par with all other features. Getting connection metrics to their players removes the majority of matchmaking bellyaching that naturally develops in ArcSys titles. 8/18

By prioritizing connection metrics before players even match up, players aren't left wondering whether or not an opponent will be viable. In the Strive Beta, not only did Arc not do this, but matches would initiate based on messy proximity. 9/18

Arc lobbies are likely already burdened enough as is, you should not be sending players through the matchmaking process until they're good and ready. Efforts to make connecting with others "seamless" and "aesthetically pleasing" at the expense of control was their downfall. 10/18

Build the User Experience/Interface to prioritize time between viable matches above all else. Hold it in the highest regard and you'll satisfy the western player base. In ArcSys netplay, ground gained here seems to vanish from subsequent titles. 11/18

SOLUTIONS:
1. Players should be able to customize, through text input, where they are located (For better or worse). This needs to display above their head.
2. Offer connection metrics for every player, to every other player, within a lobby, as fast as possible. 12/18

MORE SOLUTIONS:
3. Do not allow players to pool without providing metrics. Remove or sideline all modes without. You're making things terrible for everyone outside Japan.
4. Multithread populating any list of player-generated lobbies. A lot of time is wasted here. 13/18

EVEN MORE SOLUTIONS:
5. Endless rematches without returning to load screens in every single multiplayer mode in the game. Every single one. Reduce ranking/benefits to nothing if you have to. UX for those just looking for matches is effectively "solved" completely by this. 14/18

MORE MORE MORE:
6. Optimize for player counts AFTER you offer full connection metrics in any given mode.
7. Updating ping (in numbers, with frequency) allows players to see stability of the connection and overall quality. "Bars" are too inaccurate.
8. Wifi indicator😐. 15/18

MORE:
9. A master list of player lobbies should be readily accessible at any time, populated dynamically and filtered for general geographical relevance (Let players self label lobby region via text on top of this!). This would let players find matches FAR more easily. 16/18

The problem is, a lot of these features require a lot of optimization and testing. TFH makes huge strides here, but they're not bound by console networking API. Their lobbies are incredibly feature-rich and can hold comparable player counts to ArcSys titles... on PC. 17/18

To work towards this stuff today, with purpose, means ArcSys games in the future will benefit dramatically. Rollback is one step that helps dramatically. Expanded connection metrics and increasing player control in matchmaking are the next step. 18/18

If you managed to read all this, thank you for bearing witness to my caffeine-fueled expulsion into the ether. This has been building up for well over 10 years now. It was one of the main reasons I studied game dev.

Matchmaking is important. Play Guilty Gear.