King Crash,
"I think the main problem is that there are too many rookie rooms. People always hop into the rookie rooms first which means those are the only ones that are full (except maybe on a Sunday night).
I think the number of rookie rooms should be reduced and more intermediate rooms should be opened. especially when a game has been around as long as AOE, there is a lot less need for so many rookie rooms."
I couldn't disagree with you more. The times that I've been to the zone, the rookie rooms are nearly full, while the int and exp rooms have just a few people. Reducing the number of rookie rooms will only force the rookies into the upper level rooms. I think not allowing access to the rookie rooms once you have played 20 games and win at least half of them would be a better solution. This is still imperfect at best, it would not prevent smurfing. A better solution would be for people to willingly go to the rooms that best reflect their rating.
"On a side note, Hemlock, you state you tooled in 11 and Bronzed in 18, despite tool rushing and scouting prolificly. I know of NO rookies that could do the same."
I meant those times to be rough approximations only. While +/- 2 minutes makes _all_ the difference in expert games, it makes almost no difference in rookie games. I apologize if I misled you. (Geez, I'm sounding like Microsoft. "No your honor, we only meant the videotape to be an illustration of our lab results.") Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but 3 bowmen at yellow and 2 scouts at green doesn't really qualify as a "rush" does it?
I suspect that there are many definitions of what a "Rookie" really is. I include myself in that category for several reasons:
1. I had absolute no defenses at my tc. No wall, no towers, not even a military building. Anyone who was not a rookie would have been all over me like Bill Clinton on an intern. (Good thing no one else did any scouting.)
2. Too much waste. ie. Not keeping the tc queued up, forgetting about villagers, not building the barracks while tooling, etc.
3. If the game gets into late bronze or especially iron, I'm as good as dead. I'm terrible at trying to control large armies while keeping my economy going. (DOS multitasks better than I do.)
4. I don't have a clear understanding of how to counter all the units. (Learning quickly by reading this forum, though.)
While I'm not necessarily a rookie at the game itself, I do consider myself a rookie at multiplayer games. (Maybe an "advanced rookie?") If I'm still winning after I've played a few more games, then I'll consider myself a "beginning intermediate" and change my games from "rookie only" to "no experts."
To all others:
I would never think of joining an "expert" or "good players" game, and judging by the comments made here, I don't think there are many experts who would join a "rookies" game. The game I referred to in my original post was not labeled as either, so I figure I got what I deserved. By the same token, if the other players were upset that a rookie had joined their unlabeled game in a rookie room, well, they got what they deserved too.