[2021] Thoughts on Auto-Joining squads?

Personally I think this feature (while well intentioned) is harming the game. Im wondering if anyone has counter points to this view.

Specifically, I believe that auto joining people into squads is a guaranteed way to put new players into extremely low quality squads and give them a negative squad experience right off the bat.

Also, this turns joining a squad into a passive action for many people which means that in general, squad leaders (who are trying to lead) will experience lack of effort/obediance more often simply because they are getting players who never would have previously joined a squad, entered into their squad.

People may say as a counterpoint that you can turn off the ability for people to auto join your squad, but I say this a Red Herring. Previously if your squad was not full, and you wanted it to be, you could send out squad invites to people and they would get a prompt to join or not. Currently, there are barely any people who are not in a squad thanks to autojoining squads. So not only are newer players being shuffled into squads destitute of any communication or goals, they are essentially being locked away from receiving an invite from a squad that will actually help them under stand the game with waypoints, communication and transport.

I can continue to give reasons why this auto join feature is not good for the game, but I feel the points listed are enough to warrant serious concern over this mechanic.

TLDR Auto Join squad bad because new players get filed into 0 brain squads and the squads that will help them learn the game cannot invite them due to them being automatically filed into a sh*t squad.

Feel free to counter point me :D

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I can continue to give reasons why this auto join feature is not good for the game, but I feel the points listed are enough to warrant serious concern over this mechanic.

When it was first introduced, we saw an uptick in retention for new players and less churn in the first few days (a small, but important bump.) Even now, this feature hasn't been shown to hurt us according to the numbers. This is possibly due to new players falling into helpful squads more often than not, or for other reasons. But I think we all know that landing in a dead squad feels bad.

While feelings alone aren't a great basis for decision making at this sort of level, I agree that it should be disabled (made an opt-in instead of the default,) because the landscape overall has changed a lot since its introduction:

Mentor squads are less common
Cohesive squads in general are less common
New player/mentor chat has been introduced
100 certs for ALL battle ranks
The introduction of missions
The introduction of Sanctuary

So it's hard to say whether the value from the initial release is still there, or if it's actually being detrimental and is covered up by how the game has evolved. At any rate, we'll look to disabling it in coming updates. For those who have an interest, I talk a bit about our upcoming release plans in the Containment Site patch notes toward the bottom: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/apr-28-2021-containment-sites.256544/

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