The OCE Community for The Finals is one of the most committed to seeing it prosper, with a number of servers springing out with the sole intention of bringing together the OCE Playerbase to coordinate queue rushes for modes that are otherwise totally dead in our region.

The current longest standing, largest, and most active OCE community server, The Finals OCE United, has been hosting queue initiatives for World Tour every night since season 4, but there is only so much that we can do without a helping hand from Embark.

We believe that a few very simple quality of life changes could help coordinate the community more and kindle activity in currently struggling/inactive modes.

Our Suggestion: 

Replace the 'Estimated Wait Time' statistic with:

•  A live counter for how many players are currently in-game for that mode.
• A live counter for how many players are currently queueing for that mode.
• A live counter for how many players you have matched with in the queue to fill a lobby (e.g. 17/24).
• And (ideally) a timer that displays how much time is left until the active match with the least time remaining ends.

Rationale:

One of the largest hurdles for getting people to queue a mode is the self-fulfilling prophecy of people not wanting to waste their time queueing for a mode which they think to be inactive, which leads to reduced chances of finding a game, which reinforces the idea that queueing the mode is a waste of time.

Over the course of hundreds of daily queue initiatives, the OCE community has consistently observed that the estimated queue time calculated by the game is almost never accurate or even helpful in determining how likely or how long it will actually take to find a match.

• For example, at times the queue estimate will be 3 minutes, however queuers had to wait for two knockout rounds (~20 min) in the active match to conclude so that the players who got knocked out could requeue and fill a lobby.

We believe that a live counter for the number of players in-game, players queuing, and players matched with to fill a lobby, will give a much more accurate, consistent, and predictable way for people to gauge the likelihood of finding a game and how long that may take.

• For example, when players see that there are ~20 players waiting in the queue for World Tour, and there are currently 12 players in game, and that the next game will end in ~7 minutes, it will encourage them to join the queue as they can see that only a few more players are needed to fill a new lobby, and if the lobby is not filled shortly, than the players who are currently in game are likely to requeue once their match ends in ~7 minutes time.

Potential concerns with this change:

Some people have expressed their concern that a live queue counter could demotivate people from queuing a mode if they see a low population.
While this concern is valid, the current system also has this drawback, as slow or inactive modes often will not display an estimate, and even when there is an estimate, the community has come to understand that it is a total gamble whether they will find a game within the displayed estimate or they will just be scratching their heads for 20 minutes.

Furthermore, OCE United and its partners intend to continue our regular queue initiatives, which we believe would have a much higher success rate if we are able to leverage a live queue counter to promote others to join the queue, hopefully starting a snowball effect that is seen not only by those who are active in our communities, but by the wider playerbase.

Why Embark Should Care:

Bluntly put, we believe that Embark has created an absolute gem of a game that has very quickly cemented itself as an instant classic - one of the greats - and the OCE community's dedication to keeping the game active and thriving despite all our challenges is evidence of how deeply we care for this game. However, the community's passion and morale will slowly dwindle if we do not feel heard or are not shown the love that we show you; we need your support. So please Embark, help us continue to love your game.

Some Testimonies From Outside of This Petition: