Gears 5 - Ranking playlist changes

[GhostofDelta2]

Tomorrow’s release of Operation 3 heralds the arrival of some Ranked improvements we announced earlier this month.

As part of our continued work to improve the Ranked experience, we’re focusing our playlist offerings to make sure everything is a good experience in terms of time to match and our ability to provide balanced skill matches within the mode.

Beginning tomorrow, Execution and Guardian will no longer be available in Ranked. We are also postponing the arrival of FFA in Ranked at this time.

While Execution’s numbers boomed at release, it has since become one of our least played modes by population along with Guardian. As for FFA, we do not believe the current Ranking system can offer a compelling enjoyable experience in a non-team based game mode with the current design without significant work.

We believe Gridiron will be a compelling single-life based mode when it arrives in Ranked (a few weeks after the release of Operation 3). For Guardian fans, it will be available in quickplay and through special event appearances, a la Dodgeball. We’ll be evaluating the impact of these decisions as we think about the future – gone today doesn’t necessarily mean forever.

We are continuing to work on delivering an update to address 0 points being awarded on a Ranked Win as soon as possible (if you don’t already know, 0 on a win is a protective result where round(s) lost against an inferior opponent would have caused you to lose rank prior to this game prior to the protection being implemented).

Our goal is to deliver a change that means winning matches should result in a points gain almost all the time – though remember the amount of gains you make will depend on both your current rank, the number of rounds won / lost and your overall performance.

See you online tomorrow,

TC

[OrOcHi_PhOeNiX]

Long time Execution fan from the start of Gears 1 but understand since Gears 3 it hasn’t been as popular. I understand and can get over it’s removal from ranked. Guardian tho? Come on guys sure metrics say it’s the next least played but a lot of people aren’t going to like this.

[ArchangeLGreL]

Taking guardian out of ranked is complete manure. It’s already bad that you guys take dodgeball out of the playlist now we are subjected to play against ai which is a clean sweep. I’ve been defending you guys since day one when people talk trash. Now taking guardian out of ranked just made you guys lose yet another player.

[Krylon_Blue]

@GhostofDelta2

Beginning tomorrow, Execution and Guardian will no longer be available in Ranked. We are also postponing the arrival of FFA in Ranked at this time.

Ugh, good bye.

Team Deathmatch is terrible.
King of the Hill, while awesome in Gears 4, is just a mess in Gears 5. I can’t figure out why but the matches play out so poorly now.

Guardian was my go to. Matches lasted a decent amount of time but never too long.

Way to kill this game.

[xxDAMRONxx]

I mean they are just consolidating because the player base dropped off so bad. So they are removing the least played. I get it guardian is my favorite mode too, but they don’t want people not finding matches.

And you are probably still going to play and a post on the forums, and they know this*

[Mosidious]

If Gridiron doesn’t sweep me off my feet, then I might just go back to Gears of War 4. Guardian has been my go to for ten years and seeing it removed from Ranked is a dagger through the heart.

I understand why it had to be done, but this sucks

[xxDAMRONxx]

Too many people like guardian to just remove it. I understand you are trying to consolidate to reduce time to matchmake because the player base thinned out so fast.

A better approach would be to think about why the player base leaves so fast and address that instead of just going along with the already planned roadmap of stuff you have just waiting to push out (ie reduce xp to level at higher reups, give decent re up rewards, have a way to get scrap so we can actually level our cards without playing for hundreds of hours, give us the characters that we should already have (why is Cole coming out when his character model was in the campaign), why charge us for characters?, why charge so much for little things (300 iron for my country flag?, etc…) Reward the player for the work and people stick around.

[Krylon_Blue]

I can’t speak for others but removing Guardian doesn’t push me into other modes. It pushes me away from the game completely so the other playlists don’t gain. I have several friends who also feel the same way so I can only guess that others outside of my network of friends feel the same way.

Will this increase people into TDM? Unlikely, those who like objective modes don’t just switch to a kill based mode. Will it push them into KotH? Again, unlikely. Will it push them into Social hoping for Guardian to pop up? I’d say no.

I understand killing off Execution. But Guardian is extreme.

[xxDAMRONxx]

I agree with you that some will just stop playing. But they know that many will not. They aren’t dumb in that regard, but the BETTER approach would be to grow the player base by addressing why people leave. This is a great campaign, wonderful graphics, but the greed and lack of rewarding the player is the biggest problem

[HesitantPath667]

Is there a link for this post?

I said it in gears 4 and and again gears 5. It’s not the mode that makes guardian a less played game mode, it’s the rules. Players spawning next to leader when leader is in a middle of a fight is frustrating, No spawn swaps to help eliminate stale matches. Horrible ranking system that allows leaders who survived and won the round to still go negative by hundreds.

You switch some of these things, the mode becomes much more fun, and thus more playable.

I hope TDM+KOTH also has guardian. Or have a guardian + dodgeball quick play option

On the other hand, we knew execution was gonna go. Gridiron is very similar to it. There is no need for modes that are super similar. Just like no reason to have warzone and execution in gears 4.

[Nineteenth_Hour]

@GhostofDelta2

We are also postponing the arrival of FFA in Ranked at this time.

[Krylon_Blue]

No doubt, but it’s crazy because my friends and I are all die hard players. All of us have Masters in several modes (only pointing this out to show we’re not one trick pony’s that rely on one mode). But that’s because we mix it up but Guardian is our primary. If I play for 20 hours a week on Gears that would likely be 18 hours of Guardian. I am not about to, nor are my friends, up my play time on other modes I find less enjoyable.

The games dying because of bad decisions that can’t go unnoticed. The launch was terrible, the lag is still awful, constant weapon changes forcing new game play weekly, etc. You can’t expect people to stick around when you do this and then removing their favorite mode is just adding to the smack to the face.

“For Guardian fans, it will be available in quickplay and through special event appearances, a la Dodgeball.”

I want Guardian without bots and I want to play Guardian without having other game modes pop up. This is why I don’t play Social modes – I want to play the mode I WANT to at that moment. The other modes in Quickplay don’t interest me in the slightest. And there is absolutely no competition in Quickplay. None.

[Mosidious]

This!!!

Guardian has ALWAYS been one of the most popular modes since its ntroduction in Gears of War 2! Remember, EPIC removed it from Gears of War 3 to force that community into Capture the Leader, their new prized, competitive mode. Guess what happened? It 100% backfired in their faces, Guardians fans were pissed, CTL bombed, and after six months into the games life cycle, it returned and was the second most played playlist behind TDM.

So what happened from then till now? IMO, it’s the points you made. That clutch factor no longer exists because you can’t rspawn even if you died before your leader. The bad spawn system and horrendous tier points as well play a huge factor into why Guardian is “less populated.”

Now, I’m not comparing CTL to Gridiron. I’m going to give it a chance and hope it succeeds, it looks like a ton of fun. Just wanted to point out the exact scenario that happened with EPIC.

[Krylon_Blue]

Escalation isn’t a very popular mode from my experience. Finding matches can be very difficult yet that mode is kept because of their dedication to eSports which the majority of the community could care less about. Especially since their vision of Escalation in Gears 5 is so much worse than in Gears 4.

[o_F_3_R_R_3_T_o]

Removing Guardian from ranked is a big oopsie, i can assure you TC. I feel bad for the guys who like Guardian, if TC ever took KOTH out of ranked I would be straight back on Gears 4 in a heartbeat.

Also delaying ranked FFA again, despite it supposed to be in ranked a couple of weeks after Operation 2 is quite pathetic honestly.

It’s concerning you guys are saying the same thing about Gridiron right now, wonder if that will take you over half a year to add to ranked also.

[GhostofDelta2]

@HesitantPath667

Is there a link for this post?

Future of Ranked

Updated today but for some reason doesn’t appear higher on the Gears 5 website.

[Krylon_Blue]

You’re the evil one who continues to bring awful news. First the achievements list and now this. Banish this Ghost I say, BANISH HIM!

[Goodacre]

anyone else having a hard time believing Escalation has a population count any higher than Guardian had?

[HesitantPath667]

Escalation 2.0 is just a little too much. Especially for any newer players. Escalation in gears 4 was fun. But first to 7 was way to damn long. I would like to see gears 4 escalation with first to 5 win with no weapon resets at halftime like in 5. That would be more interesting.

I don’t like the 5 life count. Just remove it. Again it’s not fun. I don’t like the weapon placement map that is super confusing. Make it simple and just place a weapon. If a weapon is there give ti more ammo or decrease time to spawn or disable. Shouldn’t be that hard.