Sorry, ill rephrase that. You think it's a better mechanism to become a better player than team play. I'm not getting back into this, i had enough of the random talk before random was implemented.

 This thread just shows how the majority of the Hardcore players are just snobs and jerks. How dare someone who plays for FUN ask the Elite to add a simple word in the title.

Didn't say that either.

It is *one way* that I think should not be ignored.  I wouldn't say things are "better," that's impossible to measure.

It assumes the "elite" aren't just people playing for fun who happen to be good. Hypocracy at it's best. How DARE people who suck come in and ruin MY fun when i'm trying to have a decent game?

Well this whole fracas is based about one's definition of a "decent game"

On a similar note, here's something for everyone to enjoy.

Wait, I thought that was your definition of fun. Now I am confused.

You're right, when are you going to play me then? I've been looking forward to it.

Here's a neat paper that this discussion reminded me of: http://www.masscomm.loyno.edu/~dmyers/F99%20classes/Myers_PlayPunishment_031508.doc

Not sure how old it is, but a friend sent it to me a few days ago.  It's a different scenario but it's about a professor who saw what happened when he broke the social rules of a video game while still adhering to the game rules, in his case it was being cheap in a PvP zone to win objectives no one cared about but which were still the whole purpose of the zone.

I think it's a good read for the SD guys who should realize we have a set of social rules developing here (no premades, premade notification, justifying ruining premade games) which don't jibe with the game rules, and the game rules need to change and change quickly to keep rifts from forming in the community.

Since when are you concerned with me having fun in a game? 

Until you unfortunate people realize that Stardock only caters to the Average and Below Average players, while GPG caters to the Average and Above Average players, you'll have this Tug-of-War theme going for quite some time. You're never going to see a good balance with developers not seeing Eye-to-Eye. You have one company who thrives on weakness, whilst the other company aims to make things challenging and more competitive.

I'm so sorry to see people wasting their time with this abomination.

Love you Shadow and Rapier!

As FB mentioned, a random teams option is very likey, very soon, so this link is a bit moot.  Just a quick "click" on the Random button, and you won't have to worry about premades (if you don't prefer them).  If you see a custom game in the future, where the 3-4 people on the top refuse to use the "random teams" option, yet they profess they are not a premade, that will give you a HUGE clue. . .

Uh, that won't fix it for everyone man. We already tell people if they ask (seriously how can you not know at this point?). Team automatch ftw.

I play custom reguardless if it's a premade or not, so it's not a big deal to me.  Team automatch sounds just a great to me as random teams.

want better random hit something that isnt custom games. If i dont want to play a pre-made i have two other options; though some people seem to try to pre-made in path.