Concise description:
A better "join a game" system for team games
Specifics:
The problem of coordination of joining public team games has always been a problem. It has already been suggested (and has been on the to-do list since the Cretaceous Era) to allow the creator of a team game to make the game initially private until one or more teammates joins, whereupon the game becomes public.
However, I believe that this doesn't go far enough.
Allow me to elucidate. This evening, I fancied a speed doubles game against some skilled opponents, partnered with a friend of mine. However, somewhere in the half-second between which I and he clicked "join game", some stroke joined the game. So I ended up partnered with an uncommunicative private with what I would speculate to be a severe learning disorder and perhaps some mild mental retardation. Or perhaps it was his pet iguana actually playing the game. Tho that would have to be a somewhat-brighter-than-usual iguana.
That notwithstanding, t'would be nice for a player to be able to configure his profile so that when he or she is the first to join an existing team game as a member of the opposing team(s), a teammate cannot join the game without a password or membership on the first player's friend list or some sort of verification to prevent this sort of massively annoying spectacle from occurring.
This will improve the following aspects of the site:
It will be easier for people to join already started team games with the expectation that they can play with friends without elaborately coordinating schedules
It will prevent the sort of inadvertent partnership described above, a partnership that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
To be perfectly honest, the fact that the existing public team game system has continued as long as it has is an embarrassment. I guarantee that every team player on this site has a story about some wanker wandering into their games by accident.
And to the first person that says "just create and join private games", I say that YOU are the problem, public games need to be encouraged, and sometimes I want to play new competition without fear of being partnered with Corky from "Life Goes On."
