Ulm's Nice and Accurate Guide to Gamefinder

Gamefinder. It's a strange and confusing place, filled with people of dubious morals, common sense and general grasp of the English language. But! With a few simple guidelines, your challenging and being-challenged experience can be so much more enjoyable for everyone.

So without further ado, let me propose some simple ground rules for gamefinder:

1: Always specify which teams you intend to play with.
"Hi! Game?" or just "Hi" will leave your opponent unsure. As a bare minimum, "Hello. How about your <race> vs. my <race>?" will tell your opponent everything he needs to know in one line.

2: Include a link to your team.
Building on rule #1, copy-pasting a link to your teams page means your opponent won't have to find it on a cluttered GF list. This is doubly important if either you or he has more than one team of the race you asked for a game with/against.

3: Have the team you challenge with on gamefinder, and only challenge the teams your opponent has on gamefinder.
Some people call it stealth-picking, others don't mind it. Either way, expect to have a lot of challenges turned down if your team isn't on GF. This goes doubly if you for some reason don't follow rule #2, since most people will be put off with having to dig up your roster

4: No means no. Accept it.
Talking smack or insisting after someone you've challenged says no just makes you look like an idiot, and it won't change their mind.

5: Be responsive.
When someone challenges you - no matter how unfair their proposition - you should give some sort of response to let them know that you're either not interested or that you're looking their team up. Nothing's more demoralzing for someone than asking for a match for half an hour, and everyone giving them the silent treatment.

6: "Sorry. Got game" doesn't work if you wait until 10 minutes after you got challenged.
Saying "no thanks" won't annoy people nearly as much as having to wait for you to find another match just to have an excuse. In fact, if 10 minutes have passed, chances are they've already given up on you as being one of the silent people mentioned in #5.

7: Don't be afraid to say no.
More often than not, coaches will offer you games they wouldn't accept themselves if the teams were reversed. There's nothing wrong in simply saying "no thanks" when a killer Khemri, the 12470th Orc team or something 20-30 TS above you asks for a game. Close the discussion and let people get back to looking for a game.

8: Don't run and cry foul on the forums.
There's already at least 15 topics on it, no matter what your peeve is.

9: Do not offer matches, you think are skewed.
Very few people enjoy playing against team that is far stronger than their own. Compare your teams roster with that of the player you're about to challenge. Would you say yes to the match if you had swapped rosters? If not, chances are your opponent will decline, and possibly become annoyed with you if you're offering a very unfair match-up.


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(Originally posted by Ulm on his blog on 29/7/08.)