...tend to use a matchmaking system of some description to just place you into a random match.
Though you can normally group up with some friends and then tell the matchmaking system that you want to play together, that's about the limit of it.
...
That, and a friend of mine was playing, and having issues, told him to give me the pad and afer 30 seconds to learn the controls -I- was owning the server. So that's a bit about the standard of alot of the players too
The "consoles" use matchmaking services to simplify the game finding and joining. Microsoft (and I'm guessing Sony, though I haven't done any work with them yet) want to move away from the idea of "servers" and "clients" in the multiplayer games. Even though (in Halo 3, for example) one person is (sometimes) physically "hosting" the game, to the user, it is treated as a "lobby", where people get together and start a game. You can invite, leave and kick people from the lobby. You're not kicking "clients" from the "server".
They do this in order to make multiplayer matches seem to start faster. It's easier than having a long list of servers that you scroll through to find one that you like the look of (a la BF2 and all the settings - no vehicles, spawn time, etc.). And I can tell you that the match making services don't randomly dump you into any old game. They are doing what it says on the tin; match making. The game tries to match you up with people similar to your ability, as is shown by thatbloke joining a server, and owning it 30 seconds later.
Now, it is obviously up to the game how to tell the match making service how to rate people (and therefore, who should play who), which is very hard, and sometimes breaks. Which is what I'm guessing is happening with you, HotStuff.
Still, just some random thoughts.
