Syncing in Snowball Arenas

Rawr sync bad meeeeeooooow >^.^<

Leelooo baaaaad, *dumps dip on head* see you at tomrrows Sync

i sync cause the amount of baddies in ra/snow is unbelievable and id is as bad as ad[ad being the WORST ppl in the game]. and lots of people sync now so i dont find it suprising.

anyways they maybe looking to fix it[highly doubt], which i cud care less, so for all you qqers stop crying for the time being.

cant beat it, JOIN IT

problem solved..................................
________
Pov latina

Poor attempt to justify cheating.

That's just pathetic. If you are good, play ATs. Otherwise, you are just using the glitch in the teaming up system.

Anyone can kill. Anyone can grab old lady's purse and run away. Does this mean it's legal? NO.

Anyone can deal drugs. You take one bag, give it to someone, that someone gives you money. Is it legal? Hell no, and good it's not.

So the reason you kick someone in the balls is because they are weaker? Jesus Christ, just don't go to the police if someone breaks your legs. That would be hypocricy.

I love the comparison of syncing to stealing an old ladies purse an dealing drugs, i guess you caught us. I myself being a syncer suffer from habitual drug use and i do pay for it be stealing from the elderly, they are just so slow they are asking for it. Love those fake hips

P.S after a unanimous vote, we have agreed we also pour mountain dew on babies an eat puppies for breakfast.

Muah~<3 love you 12yr olds

Abedeus, your analogies are quite bad. You're comparing people killing, stealing, dealing drugs, and kicking people in the nuts to friends joining the same "random" team.

The way I see it is like this: Bunch of random people hanging around at a basketball court. They all decide to have 4 teams to play pick up games. 3 teams consist of 5 random people, and one team consists of NBA all stars.

It's not fair, but pick up games don't mean shit, just like RA/SA/FA/JQ. None of these areas should be taken as seriously as they are by some people.

And what are they doing there? I think if someone is truly good, he shouldn't play against obviously weaker players. Maybe I went too far with the kill/steal, but don't you find something disturbing in excellent (ehehe) players enjoying beating up less skilled players?

And I wasn't exactly comparing those things to joining "random" team. I was asking:

Is something POSSIBLE to do absolutely legal? Just because there isn't a big guy wearing leather behind you, whipping you with a whip, doesn't mean it's legal.

Narcissus or pedo, one of 'em.

If someone enjoys playing with friends, there is TA.

Lol @ Sync Buddy azilon.

Look, Abedeus, nobody ever said syncing wasn't legal. The system was almost designed for it, as it's so plainly simple to make at least pseudo-random. (Nothing in computers is ever truley random.) We don't often have enough players on at one time to do the automated tourneys. Even then, not many of us want to do them. Idk why.

And, if I wanted to, yes. I could kick someone in the balls because I'm stronger than them. Do I? No, because I at least have a moral conscience, and I don't enjoy inflicting bodily harm on people. When I beat you in Snowball Arenas? I've set you back 5 minutes, same as any other random team that might have beaten you. That's hardly close to the kind of stuff you're posting about.

And, most likely, if someone even wanted to break my legs, they'd never get the chance. I haven't taken 11 years of Karate lessons for nothing.

I agree with azilon's last comment. Grow up, please. This is a game. Enjoy it in whatever way you feel is best. Just don't break the EULA, because we're not.

If anyone finds that we ARE, in fact, breaking some line of the EULA, please come forward with the exact lines we're breaking. We are not, however, exploiting bugs. If it were a bug, ArenaNet would have fixed it LONG ago, it's so plainly simple to fix.

Playing against professional sports players can teach you many things. While they may kick the shit out of them in the game, if the other players are somewhat intelligent, they can learn to be better.

The same thing can be applied to GW, depending on the players/what they're doing.

Syncing is fun. Its plain and simple. You can't argue that its not.

Arguing that syncing ruins other peoples fun...ehhh maybe. Sure i've been in RA and been on half decent teams and lost to a sync'd team. I may have gotten irked for a minute, but i rejoined and got better.

Snowball arena.....if you don't sync this arena, you're doing it wrong. The population of people that play SA are actually worse than the population that plays RA. This is because EVERYONE comes to try their hand at SA.

And you may be the best gamer in SA, but you get 3 complete nubs on your team and you won't win, especially if you aren't dwayna.

With wintersday bringing out every kid, mom, dad, aunt, and uncle with a GW account to play for a few days, the number of bad players in SA are so astounding, you can't just join again and hope you get better people like you do in RA. You'll just be in a never ending cycle of terrible players unless you play at like 3-6AM in US in the international districts the you might stand the chance of joining a truly random decent team.

But if you can't play at those ungodly hours, the answer to this problem is SYNC.

You'll have more fun. = FUN
You'll get more gamer points = Gamer Title Farm go go go
If you're not half bad, you'll win = Winning is fun isn't it?
You'll get more balth faction and CCS = Money and we all like money.

Its been like 3 years, they said won't fix it. So if you believe "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it". Then you have to go with "if you can't beat em, join em" as well.

And if that doesn't work for you, adopt my personal family slogan, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always ALWAYS cheat."

Wait till you are 18+ and try to cheat your way into life.

Life will cheat you.

Actually, I liked more the argument "not illegal = legal". The argument "I'm having fun = the most important thing in the universe" makes me sick.

Whatever, I'm back to kicking people in their groins. I'll win, they'll feel bad, but whatever, I kicked someone and it hurts them like hell.

Omg i love you

You're right, Life does cheat. Its only fair to even the odds no?

Any believe it or not, my dad actually did tell me that slogan. And I'm older than 18.

An edge is an edge plain and simple. And in SA, you need all the help you can get sometimes. We all wish they would have just made a Team Arenas version from the start. It would have eliminated syncing from holiday events single handedly. Instead all of us are either left with playing with three people with no concept of the game's mechanics and pretty much guaranteed to lose 75% of the time or we try and sync with a friend or two, have fun/win/get points/money.

You just simply CAN NOT say that playing SA is fun and winnable in its current state by playing at peak or sub-peak or even right before nub hour starts.

You just can't. I've literally played for an hour straight, and lost EVERY match during peak hours. EVERY MATCH. Thats truly how bad the players in SA are. Does that mean I'm a bad player? Hell no. Is that fun? Like hell its not.

I've had players afk, leave, dc, ask how to turn in the present, take the present to wrong avatar, do nothing but spam yellow snow, not use avalanche, play a character other monk, ele, rt, or warrior AND suck at the game, and those that wont/cant/don't follow directions. If you could find the average IQ of the SA player base, it wouldn't be the slightest suprised if it was below 80 (RETARDED).

But whatever. We're debating morals. We'll get nowhere. I'll continue to improve my odds of having fun and winning by syncing, and yall can continue to play with every nub who fails at SA.

Yet completely imbalances the randomness of the previous named areas. And again: you get an unfair advantage over those who do play fair and square.

Is sure is! But unlike some, I like to keep it fair, thus I don't sync. After all the parties are suppose to be random, right? However, not syncing gives me a regular disadvantage in certain areas, which I find crappy.

Do I really have to lay it out for you? You can't call it not a bug just because ArenaNet is ignorant. We all know that it is in fact a bug. Why else would they call it RANDOM Arenas..? (You do know the meaning of random, right? Such a shame the definition of snowball isn't random, cause now my argument fails. But it's the same principle.) It seems... No wait, IT IS illogical that the intention of the developers was to get organized parties. Thus it is considered to be a bug. And abusing bugs leads to exploiting. And exploiting is against the Rules of Conduct.

And please, JUST PLEASE stop using the argument you want to play with friends. Cause if you really do, go play TA or ATs. But I'm guessing you lot suck to hard for that.

Watch me closely: SA is fun and winnable in it's current state by playing at peak or sub-peak or even right before nub hour starts. Ha! I just said it! And I know for a fact that it is true, cause it happens when I'm lucky with my party. Maybe you're just a horrible player! Horrible enough not to be able to win with random parties!

Yes, people get an unfair advantage in a shitty form of low end PvP, which is why ANet don't care about syncing.

Thank you for admitting it, Arkantos! Glad you'll avoid syncing from now on! <3 Hugs and kisses! ^^

Exactly. Forget about winning in those circumstances.

Oh, Mesmer's a good profession too. I can win just about any 1v1 present struggle through blinding snow and snow fort to prevent knockdowns. The ones that still get me are the ones who cancel their hidden rocks to trick me into wasting my interrupt. 2 on 1, depends. Not two good opponents.

The main point is, in a world full of idiots, the intelligent people tend to band together. We're intelligent people banding together. If anyone feels like improving themselves to our intelligence level, we'll accept them with open arms. Until then, you're out of the club.

Also, I notice that our friend Abedeus has no response to the fact that ArenaNet devs sync too. If anyone's gonna be a wipe-everyone-out sync, it'd be them. They probably like live, breathe, and eat the game. Haven't seen them much at Snowball, but I walked in on about 12 of them on Halloween.

Oh, yes, I'm 18 as well, and yep, I cheat life any way I can without breaking actual laws.

I never said I wouldn't sync, but thanks for the hugs and kisses!

Yes, it's an unfair advantage, but in the end, what are the others losing? Some balthazar faction and 10 gamer points/1 or 2 gladiator points? They're really losing nothing. On the other side, you really aren't gaining much. Faction is easy to get and titles mean nothing.

Now if the rewards for these areas meant something, there would be a difference. But they don't.

Are you implying I'm an idiot for playing the game as intended?

That's because you hurt his feelings... No really, if I could, I'd ban them.

Wanne move on to the next step then?

That's like saying a guy named Bob doesn't do shit for society, thus he can be shot in the back without any consequences.
In honour of Abedeus.

you enjoy being competitive but you cannot take it when you loose? lol

Oh, and thanks for confirming that it is very easy to sync. i'll direct your post to Linsey's talk page. and send it to support as well.

I'm assuming you were joking.

Wasn't it obvious?

My body is filled with sarcasm. Please suck it out of me.

I don't mind losing! Not at all!

What I mind is losing every single stinking game for hours at a time. I mind people who don't even try to win / don't even know how to win. For goodness' gollywhomper's freaking sake, read the rules of the game!!! It's worse when my enemies are that bad as well, and I lose because my team has even less skill.

Tell you what. Here. Take this to the ArenaNet Devs, and stop syncing once and for all.

If, for some reason, all our syncs fail next event, I will know I have just shot myself in the foot. I am fairly confident, though, that I will still have a nice queue to sync with next time. I've taken one quarter of formal software engineering classes in college. That's 3 months of study, out of the 4 years to get a college degree. Almost all, if not all, of the devs at ArenaNet have said degrees as well as experience in the field. They just don't want to prevent syncing. Who knows why. Probably because they like doing it too, and because they get a good laugh out of people who complain about it on this kind of forum.

That's Java code btw, still trying to teach myself C# syntax. Java sucks, but it's all that the dorks in the academic world will teach. Bleh.

I also do not expect many of you to actually read that code. The point is not that you read it, the point is that it's there. I wrote it in 30 minutes. (okay, so my original estimate of 5 mins was exaggerated - sue me) I haven't checked it with a compiler, but it's at least worthy of pseudocode status. GW wouldn't be written in Java anyways. No self-respecting non-internet-browser-arcade-game would be.

If parties are formed per district, it's wise to add an if-statement.

Maybe I have life (O_O) and I went to the gym to work out a bit. Sorry I don't carry my laptop everywhere.

Don't believe/trust A.Net, that's rule nr. 1 of Guild Wars. They betrayed us, their words and the game so many times it's not funny anymore.

1. ANet said Polar Bears don't exist.
2. ANet said in 2005 that GW is PvP-focused game.
3. ANet said there will be an expansion every 6 months.
4. ANet said that Ursan Blessing is good for new players. Yeah, good, because everyone knows that every game needs an "IWIN" button.
5. ANet said that it cares about economy.

Imo the best way to solve syncing is TF2 system modified for GW.

Shuffle the first time you get into the game. Don't shuffle afterwards, because this could ruin someone's 10-win game for no reason.

Problem solved.

They're not anymore. That was only for Costume Brawl.

Even if they were, this method sits between whatever player-collection system is already in place, and the battle-creation system already in place. So, regardless if it's handed a world full of players, or a district full of players, it still works.

Also, it's best to have little methods that only do one thing, rather than a super-method that does everything. If I wanted a district-split method, that would be separate.

That's what I just did... When battles are formed, they're randomized. Pre-existing teams aren't touched. They're a separate system.

And, you can't trust ArenaNet? Did you even read that post before posting it? Wow. Better uninstall GuildWars, quick! It might have viruses, or trojans... And God forbid you actually give them your credit card number, because you can't trust them with it!

Well, since the GoA incident in Warhammer Online, I am NOT giving credit card numbers to anyone. Haven't heard? No wonder. Hundreds of people that cancelled subscription found out their subscriptions renewed and they were charged for $15. Not much, but if they have left it for 2-3 months, it would be a theft, $60 times every cancelled subscriber.

Also, with the "don't trust A.Net", I was talking about devs and Community Managers. Please, don't troll, you didn't do that, why do you have to start now.

Xaniera, so you never win at all when you don't sync? did you even try to play without syncing?

that's just sad, I get streak wins without syncing, althought not long streak.

more question, if you like playing with your friends why not play in the organised snowball fight? that way you play with players of your choice and you don't annoyed other players.

I don't code,

i only know this (<b> </b>)

I read your code. I read this. I loled.

Considered trolling you, but then remebered classmates with your attitude and jobs they ended with and decided to feel pitty for you.

directed at all who sync. While they point the finger at everyone else (a common occurence) they use the I wanna play with my friends excuse way too much. I'm of the opinon that people who sync (break the rules) also, lie, cheat and would steal given the opportunity in everyday life.

- This is true and it's also the reason why snowball battles and costume brawls are inherently better than Random Arenas, because professions are balanced and only skill determines winner.

Sad people is sad.

Emphasis is yours.
If you lose so much that is the reason why you need to sync just to win a game.
You admitted, without syncing you lose every stinking game.

No, check in your mirror the reason why you need to sync.
You admitted: you couldn't get a win otherwise.
Then, it is not the other players that suck and you are some kind of self appointed elite...
Poor soul.

In 4 days I got more than 1500 gamer points, just playing with random teams... that means more than 150 games won. An average of 40 games each day, playing less than 3 hours each day (at large)...

Yes, I think syncing is an unfair advantage, but I understand you poor souls, and I don't make it a big fuss. If some poor losers have only this way to try to win some kind of low level PvP in a videogame, I don't care.
Enjoy it.

This.

I wonder which would be easier: To change the groupforming code or to *remove all districts except international* for all random arenas.

Yeah, just try to play in ID1 and everytime you get to your 5th or 10th win you play one of these.



Oh, and the reason they sync is because they can be on vent, with an organized team build and beat most RA teams easily just for that reason. They don't have to be better players to achieve victory and some sync teams are quite horrible. So by exploiting the timer and syncing countdowns to enter a match it gives them the upper hand a higher percentage of the time, hence cheating.

If Anet actually thinks syncing isn't taking place, I picture them like an ostrich with its head in the sand. I have several screenshots of many high ranked guilds members syncing constantly in RA.

Nah. It's just putting fingers in your ears and shouting LALALAL I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALA.

But imo SOMETHING must to be done as soon as possible. We have seen, that Andrew even said sth about it, that he may ask his people, if that a big problem. Now, we have to show, that IT IS a big problem, because IT IS a big problem.

Nothing will be ever done about syncing because it would require the entire system to be reworked for the ENTIRE game.

That, and ANet never cared about syncing. It's been around since the start of the game (gogo smart koreans), so after almost 4 years there's no chance they'll do anything, if they were ever going to.

There is nothing more satisfying than getting a good RANDOM team and having a long win streak.

Do you have to endure some games of getting totally gang raped trying to stop the present carrier while the other players are off looking at scenery or trying to kill one guy who is doing circles, unfortunately you do. Try to stick with the new guys sometimes and rack up some faction by killing the guy they are after. Perhaps they pick up some tips from seeing others use different skills/tactics. You still see alot of people trying the game for the first time and just need some help getting a grasp of the game concept, not someone busting their balls if they mess up. Make the best of it

You really never have a stretch of bad teams that lasts too long without winning a few games, then hitting a good team and going on a streak. On a great team last night and racked up 5200 faction on one streak. Filled up the faction bar a little later with another team.

The two things that get me the most are:

(1) the guys that leave right after warping into a full team. Cannot help but think that these are failed sync attempts and then they leave since they did not hook up properly, leaving the remaining team at a massive disadvantage.

(2) the guy that flashes the "NOOBZ YOU SUCK" message at the end of the game. I think these are the same people that have taken up flashing the "(insert name here) has resigned/left the game" message but they are still playing. Really fun when you spank em later

Guilds may be missing a good chance to find and recruit good players. What better place to find new people with a good grasp of PVP/teamwork concepts than a random arena on a team that is having a great run. Surely there are other ways to find quality members but this is a nice spot to see people in action. Lots of guilds out there that have only a few people left in them.

On the other hand can definitely see the advantage to the sync team. Getting a team good team right off the bat equals more quality playing time and extra shards, faction and gamer points. I can completely understand not having the patience trying to get on a good team.

With the new 8v8 ATS-style Snowball Tournaments why are Guilds even bothering to sync the smaller random tournaments? Unless you are farming gamer title points i guess. The shard return is not that high. You get much more faction in 8v8, plus you get tourney points. 3 tournaments a day not enough? Guild not able to get players together for it or not big enough? Recruit now for wintersday in July if thats the case. Guild not good enough to beat other Guilds and can only beat random teams? Just out to grief random teams? Maybe some of the sync teams can enlighten us on that.

Entire game = RA/Snowball?

And it has been suggested to just make it randomize teams after assigning to teams or after the match has started + 8 players in-game.

Doesn't matter how you try to dress it up, synching in an arena where the teams are supposed to be random is just plain wrong.

So here is a thought.

My guess is that the syncers are on vent and establish a method for countdown that will allow them to all simultaneously get in "line" at the same time.

Well judging based on RA and also Fort Aspenwood syncers this line is linear so when:

1) Person A, B, C, D all enter battle in "line" at the same time they get put in order 1, 2, 3, 4 (basically 4 consecutive slots)
2) Person E, F, G, H all enter battle before or after and sometimes in the middle of syncers team. They get slots 5, 6, 7, 8

The trouble some syncers have is that the 4 syncers prob get something like slots 3, 4, 5, 6 and end up with 2 players on 2 different teams. It is funny when i get on a team with 2 syncers that are crying about getting split.

What if to fix the system, the party generator just took every other person to a different team. You know like dodgeball in school.

1)Person A -> slot 1 team A
2)Person B -> slot 1 team B
3)Person C -> slot 2 team A
4)Person D -> slot 2 team B

you get the point, so on and so forth. Programming would not be that complicated for such a change it just reorders the enter battle positioning. This would also making syncing a lot harder since they could all hit the button to enter battle at the exact same moment and still get put on 2 different teams.

Now, i wave my wand and abra ca dabra. Dang nothing happened.