Recently on the official Gears of War forums, it came to light that gamers would not be permitted to form parties with members of their friends lists prior to joining into ranked competition. Furthermore, players will not be able to form a party once in game, meaning two or more players that enjoy each others company and play well with each other will not be able to continue to the next session as a team.
According to the posts from the Epic representative, these regluations were passed down from Microsoft as a means of preventing coordinated cheating amoung friends, wherein players would allow each other to win or lose to rank up or gain achievements. As of this point, the details of the Gears of War ranking system – like whether or not the rank is public knowledge a la Halo 2, private to the player, or hidden altogether – have yet to be released.
“Yes, [preventing the formation of parties in ranked play] is a cert[ification] requirement. You may not choose who you get to play with in a ranked match and you may not keep the session together. The theory is this prevents collaborative cheating (I kill you ten times, now you me, etc.)
The players you’ll meet aren’t random. They are the best fit for your skill level.”
It should be noted that players are able to form and play with parties in ranked Halo 2 matches – Bungie simply prevents members of a single party from playing on both teams in a match. It was not explained why such a system would not be implemented in Gears of War.
Players will be allowed to create parties for prior to joining unranked matches.
Considering the Xbox Live userbase is quite diverse in terms of skill, competitiveness, and personality, the idea that a game so heavily founded in coordinated teamplay would prevent users from playing with specific players seems slightly counterintuitve.
AMN Xbox 360 is currently attempting to contact Epic Games and Microsoft for official confirmation of the information, and an explanation.
