I wish Server Browsers on consoles became more popular

[Silky]

Spoiler

or, i wish matchmaking playlists didn't blow up

Been messing around with Battlefield 4 on my console of choice and the server browser is a pleasant surprise. Considering the game still has a pretty stable community it's pretty easy to lurk about and find Rush only servers / small scale Conquest matches. Delving in, I was even more surprised to see small patches of the BF4 community just shoot the shit with one another while the game played on. Nothing serious, just casual pickup matches and I could dip in and out at my leisure.

Halo 5 has a server browser too, which is GREAT. I can actually play classic-config gametypes like H2 Slayer on some really good maps with /people/. Just set up my own room and wait for the players to trickle in -- which doesn't take long. It's excellent as a feature to have server browsers in H5, that I kind of wish that option was more available for other games and had more features than the barebones shit that games like Overwatch has.

Overwatch's lack of proper browsers is what's alienating me from playing it more casual (QP sucks). None of the maps offer the streamlined comfort of something like 'ctf_turbine' (a bad map) in tf2. Maybe Chateau Guillard and the other elimination maps, but it's rare to actually get a game like that going w/ the console community there. Mostly lame gimmick matches or shoddy customs.

I like server browsers and, I hope that future shooters that I'm interested in will have them for consoles. Probably not, sadly.

 

[Deleted member 135]

It annoys the fuck out of me that Battlefront doesn't have a server browser and it's made by one of the only devs who regularly include server browsers on consoles.

 

[Falchion]

Server browsers are one of the best quality of life features for online games. Every title needs one.

 

[DaciaJC]

I remember years ago as a kid playing on PS2 how I took server/lobby browsers for granted. Battlefield and Call of Duty had them, co-op games like Conflict: Global Terror had them. They were an excellent feature, allowing me to quickly, painlessly find a match with a good connection, a decent number of players, and a good map. Heck, in some games I could even create my own "server" with certain rulesets and use the browser to advertise it to other players.

Then I finally jumped on board the new generation with a PS3, bought a copy of Battlefield: Bad Company, booted up the multiplayer ... and could not for the life of me find a browser. I searched and searched for ten solid minutes, then went Googling and found out there wasn't one. I just couldn't understand why the developers hadn't included one and why we had to deal with shitty matchmaking when their previous console title was perfect in that respect. Later on, I bought CoD4, thinking that a game this popular and with such a high budget and production values surely must have a lobby browser, you know, like the PS2-era titles! I mean, it just didn't make sense for the "next generation" experience to be a regression, right?

*sigh*

DICE (through their then-Executive Producer) actually provided an explanation why they still didn't implement a server browser for the console version of Bad Company 2 (but gave one to the PC players).

The PC crowd is definitely more tech-savvy and have more clear ideas on how they want multiplayer to work -- server browser being one of them, they don't want to just be matchmaked in the background.

Click to shrink...

I sincerely hope there aren't any developers who still believe that bullshit or use it as a justification for not implementing browsers in console games, and I say that as someone who has primarily played on PC for the past five years.

 

[StallionDan]

The use and implementation of server browsers on consoles has defeated their purpose.

Battlefield having them or not makes no difference.

 

[Darth Finky Spunky]

SOCOM Confrontation had both and nobody used Quick Match. Also a great way to filter out the shit maps.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Hopefully Halo 6 has a server browser at launch. That should be great for sustaining players.

 

[Drain You]

Didn't even know those games had a server browser and I own Halo. More games should definitely have it, going from PC to consoles is rough once I'm used to playing games that let me pick in choose in that way.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

Forced matchmaking was a mistake. At least give people the option, I really don't believe that a server browser is beyond the average user's comprehension. There's a server name, a map, number of players, gamemode type and latency (even if they don't understand latency, they'll figure out lower number = good, higher number = bad).