Poll: The booting of lower levelled players in Mass Effect 3 multi-player demo

[Puddleknock]

In all fairness I've never seen anyone kicked in bronze due to levels (taking forever to ready is a different issue). And kicking an underleveled player in gold is a perfectly acceptable.

Silver is an interesting one as its definitely possible to carry low leveled players. I've completed silver a number of time with low level players, a full team is still preferable even if some are low level. Once a guy brand new to the demo ended up adding to our quite handy 3 man team on silver. In a short time he was powered through to level 9 even though he died a fair few times. So I don't tend to kick people on silver, though if I enter a silver lobby and the other three are under level 5 I will just leave the lobby (unless I'm leader and I can knock it down to bronze).

 

[Jadak]

I voted "Yes", but it depends on the settings.

When playing Bronze, no problem. It's easiest, and where low levels are supposed to be. It's all good.

When playing Silver, and sure as hell when playing Gold every bit of power you can get counts so yeah, I'll kick the lower levels to make way for someone stronger.

 

[Comic Sans]

I will vote kick not only for levels, but for gear. If I see people coming into the match with only the basic pistol or something, I'll call a vote because there's no way they will be useful. On Bronze I don't care, but I've been burned too many times by bad/underleveled teams in Silver and Gold to let it slide.

 

[Valanthe]

While I proudly identify as a carebear, and I'm normally willing to give anyone a chance, the difficulty curve in Mass Effect 3 has forced me to take a harder line. I am sorry, but on Silver and Gold, if you are a significantly lower level than the rest of the group, you will be a liability, because you do not have the damage or survivability to make a meaningful contribution, so you will get kicked.

HOwever there is no excuse for kicking anyone on Bronze, Hell I bring my 19 soldier on Bronze all the time and he can practically solo entire waves, so there's no reason to give a brand new player the boot.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Like everyone else has said, its entirely justified kicking a low level out of a Silver/Gold game, that being said, if there are lower levelled players on your team, less enemies spawn. Still doesnt really make up for it though.

My general rule is to play Bronze exclusively until level 10 or 12, and then only ever attempt Gold with a level 18+ character.
Provided I have a half decent team I can breeze through Silver rather easily, still cant beat Gold though, its just too dang hard

Funny story, the one time I was kicked from a game was because I was too high of a level

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I will vote kick not only for levels, but for gear. If I see people coming into the match with only the basic pistol or something, I'll call a vote because there's no way they will be useful. On Bronze I don't care, but I've been burned too many times by bad/underleveled teams in Silver and Gold to let it slide.

Actually the people who only use a pistol can be the most effective, especially If they know how to use their powers right, e.g a Vanguard with just a Predator can have a +200% power recharge speed, that means that they can Charge and Nova constantly with little chance of dying (Nova uses up your shield to damage enemies, Charge regens your shields), and Engineer can constantly throw out Incinerates and Overloads (Overload takes down shields and barriers, also does decent damage to health, and can stun unshielded enemies if neural shock has been chosen).

Dont underestimate someone using just a pistol, because chances are, they know what they are doing

 

[GhostImage6]

Because 'ranks' in games have nothing to do with actual skill i think kicking them from the game is stupid. Grinding out ranks in games doesn't make you good, low level players can often be good, sometimes they just need to get themselves familiar with the game

 

[The Almighty Grigard]

I'm wondering if the people who are saying that it is wrong have actually played the multiplayer aspect of the demo. Even if you're an amazing player you can't do much on silver or gold difficulty in ME3 if your character is a low level. You can't carry people through a match, they end up getting jack experience from not getting kills and if they die and someone gets killed while trying to revive them it just hurts the team and if the team lets the guy die then he is just sitting there doing nothing and getting no exp.

That is not entirely correct. They don't get a lot of score for not getting kills, but the experience each player gains is the total amount of score the whole squad has collected during the game. Ask your squadmates and you will see that everyone gets the same amount of XP.

OT: I have to say that if your N7 rank is low or if your character is below level 6 something, you just don't belong in a multiplayer game of Silver or Gold difficulty. Even if you are a really skilled player it won't change the fact that your character is too weak to contribute. Bronze is there for a reason, just don't get used to charging 3 enemies and surviving.

 

[surg3n]

The problem I see is that lower level players will never learn properly if they have higher level players boosting them. They'd level up too quickly, in fact that's probably why a lot of them try to get into higher level games.

It annoys me with FPS games though, when people discount you just because your a lower level. Level in FPS games equates to one thing - accumulated play time. Someone playing an extra 5 hours is not an indication that they'll be better than me. For instance in BF3 my brother is about 7 levels above me, just because he's played longer. On the surface he appears to be the better player, but really I finish in front on almost every round. I like nothing better than being the lowest rank and still being in the top 3 players. Another thing that annoys me is being kicked for not wanting to talk through the whole game, only really got that with MAG... but I remember a 5 minute rant from some obnoxious prick, who then nominated me for kicking when he noticed I hadn't said anything yet... it's like insulting someones mother is the new 'ready' button.

Mostly I play online games with people I know, it's difficult to care about avatars, especially arrogant, ignorant, and immature avatars like the ones making up 95% of online gamers. To me, it seems that there are only 2 groups of people playing online games... 13 year old kids, and people who act like 13 year old kids. In my experience at least. There is some sort of inverted snobbery in online gaming, if your not being obnoxious, then you just don't fit in.

 

[legendp]

Over the weekend I played the Mass Effect 3 multi-player demo quite a bit and I noticed that if I was teamed up with people of a similar level and there was one person who was a much lower level, say under 8, they other people would immediately bring up the "kick" icon for them. Being a man of principal I left them be as I think that people have to start somewhere and have a chance to prove themselve, but I could tell the other players weren't overly impressed.
As an experiment I tried using my level 4 Krogan Soldier and I was put in the lobby with other players ranked between 12-16 and immediately two "x of death" icons went up next to my name (despite having a N7 rank of 35). I switched to my level 18 human Sentinel and the boot marks went away and I had a match with those players.

I'd like to canvas opinions of the ME3 multi-players out there. Do you agree with kicking out players from your group that are under a certain level, or do you give them a chance?

Incidentally my level 18 Sentinel got booted by three level 20 players. If I ever catch the bastards...

I have not even played the mass effect 3 demo yet and was going to try tomorrow (played all the other games on both consoles) but if it's that bad I don't know if it will be worth the 2gb download, probably still download it anyway. (I am waiting for the game to release before playing campaign)

 

[Shock and Awe]

Nah, you gotta give new guys a chance. I know I put at least a few high level guys to shame when I was only about level 5. Gotta love the vanguard class.

 

[RagTagBand]

If you're on bronze you've got no reason to be kicking anybody. Period. If you're on silver you've no business being level 1. Period.

That being said, Level does not indicate skill, it only indicates how long you've been playing. In my first attempt at the multiplayer (So, I was obviously level 1) I was in a bronze match with people who were significantly higher level than me...with unlocked characters and big double-figure numbers next to their names.

I ranked second over all at the end of the day, revived people more often than I needed reviving, and wasn't falling behind with the objectives either. Any game where your level is the main contributing factor to you winning, and not your SKILL, is not a game worth playing.

 

[Arkley]

If you're trying to join a silver or gold level match with a low-level character it's entirely understandable that people would boot you. I'd boot a low level character from a silver game unless I knew them personally, or someone else on the team could vouch for their skill.

People who boot from bronze matches are just the worst sort of people. Bronze is the entry level, where everyone has to start. It's where even established players will have to start whenever they want to try out a new class. People who boot low-level players from Bronze games are the sort of entitled dipshits who will feel totally justified in their right to remove a newbie from their super-elite easiest-difficulty game, and yet, will be extremely offended when another dipshit of equal douchebaggery boots their lowbie character in the future.

So, yeah. If you try to join silver games with your level 7 Human Soldier, it's totally understandable that someone might not want you on the team, deal with it. If people are booting newbie characters from bronze games, they're dickheads.

 

[Dandark]

Im pretty sure this just happens because of bad multiplayer design. Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't levelling up give you huge advantages? As in everything you do is significantly better? So that if someone brand new to the game player a level 20 character then they would do better than someone who has played it for monthes and gotten good at it but is using a level 1 character?

It's this kind of thing that annoy's me but I am seeing more and more of it in big releases.
To give a better example one of my favorite games League of Legends, if your higher level you will have many bonuses to help customize your character but you can still do well if you learn how to play. When I started playing all of my friends were max rank and had all the bonuses, when we did PvP I was still able to keep up despite all the enemies also being max rank and having the bonuses.
I was at a disadvantage but could still play with my friends as opposed to this where I would have to try and level up my character just to play with them effectivly.

Edit: I didn't enjoy the ME3 multiplayer in the demo and deleted before I had levelled up much so I do not know for sure if this is true or not, it's based of assumptions, if level doesn't actully matter that much then please tell me how wrong I am.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I am shocked, shocked, to see that a Bioware game has a shitty online community.

 

[RJ 17]

I decided not to get the demo so I really don't know much about it, all I know is that I've always prefered games to at least have the option to kick people as it gives you a way-out if you're joined by some slap-dick who's just there for griefing purposes.

That said, my policy in games that let you give others the boot is to not give'em the boot unless they really deserve it. From the sound of things theirs various tiers of difficulty that you can select to join up for and it would be foolish to bring an underleveled character for the game's difficulty tier, but as long as the underleveled person doesn't fudge things up TOO bad, I don't mind dragging them along.

That said, if they really are causing a problem for the team, it's time to give'em the boot.

But I've got plenty enough friends that will be getting the game, so I'd imagine I'll be playing a lot with them so I won't have to worry about booting or having to give the boot.

 

[tendaji]

I am shocked, shocked, to see that a Bioware game has a shitty online community.

Wait there is such thing as a game that has a wonderful online community? I would be more shocked by that than anything else.

 

[Bloodtrozorx]

I won't kick a lower level player from a Bronze game, I really have to agree everyone starts somewhere. Now if we are starting a silver or gold game its going to come down to N7 rank and at least a minimum level.

 

[Rumpsteak]

Other.

I apply the same thinking I do with any of these games. If it is realistically feasible to complete the task with player X then it will be attempted. If it is not they will be kicked.