3soe: waiting for ranked matches

this is a compilation of a few 3soe sessions where i try to play ranked matches on PSN.

the point is to show how long it takes to get matched up with a (supposedly) good connection.

there is no audio.

it's hard to see the names, but you can see the colors.
- if it's yellow (looks green), it's a good connection (at least, it's supposed to be), and i accept it.
- if it's brown or red, i immediately reject it.
- if i recognize the name as one that i already rejected for having a brown or red connection, i immediately reject it. note that i will oftentimes get matched up with the same bad connection over and over again, 3+ times in a row.

it's captured only once or twice in this video, but if i keep getting matched up with a bad connection, i will relent, and accept the matchup anyway.

this video is about 70 minutes long, but i don't show any of the matches. to get a better sense of the time, just assume each match is 1 minute. you can then say that in 100 minutes, i got to play 30 games. or you could say that i played for 30 minutes and waited for 70 minutes.

no matter how you spin it, it's way too much waiting. even if you assume the matches were 2 minutes long, that's still more waiting than it is playing.

ideas for solving this problem:
- regional matchmaking: this would limit the scope of potential matchups, which i think would significantly reduce the amount of searching/waiting. it would also prevent me from having to reject the same people over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
- show a list of people with their pings, then let me pick someone to play with. maybe this would not be for ranked matches, but it would be an option so that i don't have to play ranked matches.


Q: why don't you play in the lobbies?
A: the pings in the lobbies don't mean anything because they reflect the connection between the host and the server. furthermore, lobbies are simply not stable, for some reason. the session will end for an unknown reason, or the host will migrate, or something else. also, the pings shown for people in the lobby always fluctuate, so what may at first appear to be a lobby full of yellow connections (which is rare to begin with) actually becomes a room full of brown and red connections. also, it is easier to be presented with a connection and to reject it than it is to go through each lobby and vet out what each person's connection really is, only to have the session end or something else.


other notes:
- i play using a wired connection, via a linksys WRT54GL router with wireless disabled, and all other computers off
- these videos were shot in the evening or late at night
- my connection is 6Mb/768kb (dslextreme)
- every time the "match summary" appears, i think the game is going to crash

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• sf3
• 3rd
• strike
• online
• edition
• 3soe
• ranked
• match
• iron
• galaxy
• capcom
• derek
• neal

[wuziq]

@FafnirBreak i've had it crash once or twice before at the match summary screen, although that was before the first patch. it hasn't crashed again, but the pause before it shows the stats makes it seem like it will.