Ye Old Trials

Imagine Trials exactly as it is, but with team based SBMM instead of CBMM.

Everyone that played would theoretically have a challenging experience from the least skilled teams to the highest skilled teams. Going Flawless would become achievable and meaningful to each team relative to their skill tier. It would lead to lower skill players enjoying the mode, and high skill players playing each other every single week! How exciting would that be?

I am convinced by the sentiment now though that the high skill players are no different than casuals like me.

They don’t find a challenging experience fun. They argue for CBMM because they want as casual experience themselves. They want an easy ride to the lighthouse, they don’t want to sweat it out.

This dichotomy had taken a long time to play itself out, but I hope the community actually realizes it this time. Trials was never a mode designed to prove who the best teams are. It was a mode designed to give wedgies to nerds. But once all the nerds are gone what happens?

CBMM is totally fine with me in big team games including IB. But for an elimination tourney it never made any sense.

“How dare they lobby balance this CBMM playlist! It’s getting in the way of my 50 bombs!”

Just pointing out that all these great players are complaining that the game is too hard for them right now. It’s totally lame and out out of touch.

Boo hoo, you had a challenging match.

So when is the realization made that Trials is shit, has to go, and be replaced with something people actually want to PLAY rather than cheat their way through?

For the type of game Destiny is (a casual looter shooter) there is simply no place for a CBMM win based reward system mode.

If Trials loot is supposed to be prestigious, but the vast majority of people getting it are either cheating or getting it via recoveries, what does it really mean at the end of the day? Is it actually prestigious? For me, no amount of good loot is going to incentivize me to go into a mode that is not designed to be fun for me.

It pissed me off when top tier players say that we need to incentivize players to play trials with better loot for playing. That’s the wrong attitude.

• I don’t care about the loot
• I want to have fun
• If the mode is always shite for me, I’m not going to play it

The goal should not be:

• Let’s get more casuals in this playlist so we can stomp.our way to an easy flawless

It is more like: Fuck your playlist, and fuck your flawless. I want something that challenges me, you and everyone else. Something fun

Here’s a thought. Imagine there was ONLY a Trials freelance playlist. 3v3, but no pre-made teams.

Trials has really become an embarrassment to the game. I don’t think there’s going to be any real way to make it work as long as the game is Peer to Peer.

I don’t think Trials of the Nine was a mistake. I actually think it was a lot better. The mistake was double primary at the time. People didn’t like the laney nature of combat back then.

I bet of Trials of the Nine came back in the current meta, people would like it a lot better.

Liking Survival over Elimination is a matter of opinion, but the Spire and reward system from Trials of the Nine was a lot better for the casual player. It gave you a sense of accomplishment and reward even if you couldn’t go flawless. Cheating and recoveries aside, Trials of Osiris still suffers from this “Flawless or Nothing” design. It is true that you can now get rewards now from just playing, but it has a “here’s your gun scrub” vibe to it.

I guess the overall point is that if you create a game mode centered around rewarding only the elite players, it’s inevitable that it will descend into what it has especially being a P2P game.