Why Left 4 Dead's Matchmaking/Lobby System Fails

    Every other game made by Valve ( to my knowledge) has this nifty little thing called a server list.  With this list you can see how many players are in the server, your latency with that server, what map that server is playing and even descriptions of any special add-ons that server may be running.  Now because you can also filter this list in all the ways listed above, it is quite easy to find a server that you will enjoy playing on right from the get go.  Now to the real question... why does this not exist with Left 4 Dead?

   The main reason I can think of, is that Left 4 Dead is not a drop in, play for a bit, drop out kind of game.  It relies on 8 people starting the campaign together and then finishing said campaign (with the exception of the ever enjoyed rage quit).   It is quite easy to see how the current server list implemented in the other games would not work with Left 4 Dead.  But whoever said it had to be exactly the same?

    Why is it not possible for a person to locally host a lobby (Think DoTA) with a name that would include that lobby leaders intentions.  (as an example... a name could be "Blood Harvest, standard cfg, Noobs only")  People looking to find a lobby (and eventually a game), would then be able to filter the game list by using these keywords or by just browsing.  Upon everyone joining the lobby and looking to start the game, the lobby leader would have 2 options: a) Join a specific server (probably their own with their own specific configs/maps) or b) bring up a server list like we see in all the other games that would all obviously be empty. 

    As for the implementation of option a)... it is already in the game, but only through the use of inputting the search key through the console.   What valve should do in this case, is just make a GUI change that allows you to do this through the menus, (e.g. Text entry box pops up when you choose "Join own server" and then you can input said servers ip/password).   Not really a necessity but if it was to be used more, a feature like this would make it more known as well as more easy to use.

  For the implementation of option b), all that should be done, is adding said server list to the lobby leaders menu.  People who run servers would put key words in the info such as if it is running cevo.cfg or not, or what map or if it just vanilla L4D and then the lobby leader would sort until he found one deemed suitable.   Extra features not found that would be probably be helpful if implemented would be an option to show the highest ping of anyone in your lobby.  This would be to allow the lobby leader to see how acceptable of a server it is for the whole game, rather than just himself since the choice of server is entirely in his hands. 

    Now for the benefits of a system implemented in this way:

     1) Back to the intro.... You can see which servers are running custom maps and choose to try them out.  Upon entry anyone who does not have said map would download it just like any other valve game and then upon everyone finishing the DL, the game would start.   This would eliminate the need for 3rd party sites to host peoples custom maps and would help the custom map scene flourish since it would be no extra work.  Basically no one is going to play custom maps unless they actively go search for them on the internet, and they have no way to find other people willing to play them that are not already on their friends list.

   2)  You can choose what cfg's you want to play with.  Want to play with a server where hunters can pounce for 50 dmg?  Now you would ( or rather the lobby leader would) have a choice.  Want to do the exact opposite?  The choice is still yours.  Want to practice cevo.cfg without having to go on IRC and find a scrim?  Much much easier now.

  3) Last but not least, no more joining servers that are unplayable because they are located in Australia and everyone in your lobby has a 400+ ms. 


    All in all, I really do think Valve needs to implement something like this, or something that accomplishes the same goals.  Short of renting your own server, when trying to play a game, you have no choice in what configs the server that gets picked for you will be using, you cannot play custom maps just for fun with pubbies, and you cannot choose whether you wish to join a server where your latency will be respectable.  If all of these things were reversed, Left 4 Dead would (IMO) become much more enjoyable as any frustration in regards to these problems would be removed, and also much more replayable since the ease in finding usercreated content would be increased by a quite a lot.


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