spoken like a true stomper

Yeah exactly, I agree. All I ask for is a bit of diplomacy from both sides of this 'argument'.

Start a new char and see how long it takes before you encounter a proto squad. Now try to understand how a newbie feels when he or she are repeatedly being set against people who outclass them in almost every way. Obviously they are going to naively blame the proto squad. We need to keep vets with vets and nubs with nubs. I mean honestly us vets don't have fun doing the stomping either. If you truly enjoy stomping newbies, you have issues.

In summary, yes it's nobodies fault except the scotty the matchmaker. But how well can he do with such a small player base. It's sad because poor matchmaking makes people not want to play and then makes matchmaking even worse. It's called a positive feedback loop.

I agree with the risk vs. reward observation. The only thing that I would add is that matchmaking will most likely never include ISK in the calculations. I have a lot of proto gear but I simply can't run it constantly like some players in a lot of bigger corps because I don't have the funds to do it. If this is a risk vs. reward then think of it as a "percentage risk" vs. "percentage reward"GǪ

What I mean is that if I have 10m ISK and waste 1m pulling out protos in a pub match then I lose 10% of my total funds. If I'm fighting someone with 100m ISK then they're only risking 1% equivalently. While the ISK reward is scaled accordingly, the SP isn't. In other words, I might risk 10% of my total ISK for 5,000 SP and the victory while the other would be risking 1% of their total ISK. At this rate, the person with the larger wallet could "bet their protos" 10 games in a row before they would feel the same "risk" that I would. Basically we have a situation where 1m ISK is a ridiculously high price to pay to just be on the same playing field as the enemy for some players while it's chump change for others.

I'm not trying to say you're one of these people or that there's even anything wrong with spending ISK as one sees fit. I'm just adding this little observation because I don't think the risk some of the big corps take is the same as a solo merc or even someone like me who just plays with his friends in a small corp with less money.

I don't see how people do nothing but proto squad. I've run around with a squad full of protos, using my proto gear, and it's just boring. I mean, PC would be a different story since everyone's got it, but how you guys run proto 23/7 will never make sense to me, the game is way too easy as is

It's PROstomping when there's 2 full squads on one team, and the other team has a squad of 2 or 3.

You can't blame a blueberry for giving up. It's the temporary "I'll just sit in the redline sniping" or "hang out in the MCC" solutions that make finishing a match bearable for most new players. I would much rather them AFK then try for 15 minutes and die 20 times. At least AFKing gives you some SP and doesn't cost them valuable ISK. It also gives them a break from all of the things that pressure them to quit completely.

PS: Before anyone starts with the "well all us vets had to go through it when we first started", think about the differences in the experiences people have had. At this point in the game the passive SP most vets have just from existing seems like a pipe dream to someone just starting out. They would have to play for months just to get up to where existing got most of us, not to mention all of the time spent playing since we started. The ratio of people with proto available to proto not available is surely much higher because of this fact alone. Vets are specced into all of their core upgrades, weapon proficiency, first/second proto suit, etc. Anyone with 10-15m SP must start to get that feeling of "well I've got most everything to lvl 3-5 that I need, might as well finish off the core/proficiencies". These are the players that newbs are going up against in pub matches. It's a mismatch now even when they use BPO suits/weapons because of all of the core skills. Throwing proto gear on top of that just makes it hell for the new players.

I'm not trying to say it's wrong to use what you have, I'm just saying that it seems like many of the people who complain about the QQing of protostomping forget that the experience for new players only gets worse as the months go by.

TL;DR: Today's blueberries have it harder than any vets ever did when they were grinding their way to greatness. You can't rightfully judge them for giving up.

I understand it's the same amount of ISK, but you're missing my point. I'm saying there's a difference in risk that the player actually feels. This is what I don't believe will ever be considered in the matchmaking calculations.

Take this analogyGǪ The owner of Papa Johns decides to open a new pizzeria in a remote town in Wyoming. It costs him $X to open/maintain this new pizzeria for 5 years and he knows that there is a chance it might go out of business due to the location. Meanwhile, a young entrepreneur in the town could use his $X dollars in life savings to open a pizzeria in the same town.

Now while they both would "risk" the same $X investment, they don't feel the same financial strain. The owner of Papa Johns could lose his $X and just try again 20 more times in random places without ever feeling like he's lost as much as the entrepreneur from the town if he lost his investment.

Maybe even a better analogy would be going "all in" in a game of poker. A player with $1,000 going all in against a player with $10,000 would be taking the largest risk you could take in the game. It could be argued that the person with the larger stack would be stupid not to call regardless of his cards since he can take a $1,000 hit easy.

Back to Dust, someone with 100m ISK could shell out a few tanks no problem while it could wipe out a new player's total ISK in one game. Clearly one person is feeling more "risk" than the other and ignoring that would be ignorant.

PS: I know that everyone has free suits in dust so they can never truly go "all in" but in a proto stomping match that we're describing I'd say it's pretty close as far as the game "ending" when you resort to using free suits against protos.

Haha so if you had a Ferrari you'd want to race a Prius?

I'm pointing out the mismatch between a Ferrari and a Prius and then continuing to point out the humor in someone with a Ferrari being upset that they couldn't race it against a Prius. If I need to spell it out further, here it goesGǪ

There is no contest between a Ferrari and a Prius in a race. It would not be a testament of skill to win a race driving a Ferrari if your opponent was a Prius. To imply that not being able to carry out a demonstration of this complete mismatch is something to fret about is funny to me when I think about the obvious analogy to Dust.

No one is saying you can't use the Ferrari, at least not me. I've said this many times. I don't personally think that mowing down free/advanced suits using proto is very fun but if you're into that then good for you. You must enjoy the game a lot then.

I don't care that you run proto. I don't. Check what I've written. So the only thing left in your post was the goofy Ferrari quote which I responded to. What didn't I read that you hoped I would?

Haha I assure you I can read. What I can't seem to do is understand how this relates to Dust then.