If you're starting from Rookie it's not going to be much different from pubs. Silver is where it gets good. Bronze = Pubs, really. When people start losing -20 pts for dumb play they start taking it more seriously.
Player from the season Revenant, was introduced here (EdwardDLuffy on XBox). I prefer ranked, but for only for two reasons.
The first is your TMs are much less likely to quit once downed. Yesterday I had a game where I as DM completely f'ed up the landing and only one of us survived. Another game only one survived a hot drop. We ended up winning both games (as randoms) with full squads.
The second is that you're actually making progress. It's fairly easy to get to Gold, but then it's a bit more of a grind to get to Plat or Diamond, the latter being the highest rank I've ever achieved.
Pubs as a random you just get sweaty Wraiths or Octanes who land solo and quit once downed.
If comms are a problem, you can set all comms to 'friends only' by default (which includes text), which I did last year and something I wish I had done in 2021!
I prefer comms to be honest but many people either don't say anything or chunter constantly/have music/screaming kids/other background noise that just deafens you.
Once in awhile you'll get that random who is communicative and a decent team-mate though. Those games are great.
With ranked I was expecting tighter game play and team work. And it's not (maybe it's because I'm low rank starting out again). Stupid hot drops, landing on their own, people giving you abuse on mike because you don't feel the need to constantly 1v3 to save them, etc. Experience was awful. With pubs and crap randoms at least you can quit and go do something else; ranked you are penalised for getting these guys. I'm not a fantastic player but I have some common sense. I will never understand the appeal of places like Fragment over and over.
If you're starting from Rookie it's not going to be much different from pubs. Silver is where it gets good. Bronze = Pubs, really. When people start losing -20 pts for dumb play they start taking it more seriously.
Most sensible response here. It's exactly like pubs, you're right. If there is no RP at risk then they just play the pub way. Good call.
Community Manager