So I've noticed a lot of noise about player experience and intentions and what players want in terms of their game sessions and I had an idea about not only how to possibly create a system that eases that friction but also gives Rare value data about player behavior.
If Hourglass once you win a certain number of matches you're given the option to fight bigger ships as a prompt. What if we used a similar system to refine player experience in High Seas? After hitting certain markers in a session, sinking a certain number of times, sinking others, etc, you are offered a prompt to dive to either a lower or higher conflict server with more like-minded players.
I think this is valuable not only as a possible solution to burnout and session frustration but also as a back end test for Rare to filter through the noise and get real data on player choice and experience.
You could run it as a temporary, two phase test. First phase you offer increased rewards for moving to higher conflict servers and reduced rewards for moving to lower conflict servers. Phase two you offer no change to rewards at all. This tells Rare who chooses experience over reward, who is most likely to opt out of the option entirely, whether this option leads to longer play sessions, etc.
I feel this introduces a matchmaking lite without disrupting the core game experience as it happens organically during a session and every still starts in the classic SoT server experience.
