The current system with the whole hush-hush for Oceanic lobbies is a bandage solution at best.
Example: read the lobby chat log of #668756. The password was in plain text several times throughout the whole chat.
As one would expect, the more people know a secret, the less it becomes so. It does not matter how much anyone emphasises the need to distribute it via private means only, it is far from a foolproof system.
This is not sustainable. We cannot dismiss the occasional new player causing a mess of this system as a fringe case and continue to rely on the less than ideal system of adding Australian moderators or players. It is a huge and, more importantly, unnecessary barrier to entry.
This will not get better as time goes on. If anything, it will become worse. Newer and newer players interested in a slightly more ... refined experience than in-built matchmaking will start to explore third party sites, such as this one.
There is already an informal system where having an hours restriction on an Oceanic lobby marks it as Premier or near Premier exclusive with the lobby leader having slightly more leniency in kicking or banning more entry level players. That should continue to work fine.
Right now, it seems completely new players have more hoops to jump through than is truly necessary. Seeing all Oceanic lobbies locked with a password, having to contact other Oceanic players to find out how this system works, is akin to moving to a new suburb and the only nearby supermarket is being treated like a nightclub with a bouncer guarding a hidden door.
I heard from a source the developer team is well aware of the flaws of the Oceanic region lock. Hope that goes well.
New system proposal: Once the Oceanic region lock issue is rectified, how ever long it takes, Oceanic staff members need to distribute new information regarding Oceanic lobbies: No more password, use existing hours and lobbies played restriction for higher tier lobbies.
This should reduce any ... confusion that may result from people not making lobbies properly and the like.
Only remote issue I can think of: The more ... dedicated troublemakers using VPNs.
Edited by Nobel H, 24 March 2016 - 11:09 AM.