The senior producer of Gears of War 2, Rod Fergusson, has written a lengthy note posted on Team Xbox with some suggestions for folks having trouble getting into multiplayer games. Apparently, there are problems with the skill-based matchmaking system that can cause long waits. Fergusson offers a couple of the usual platitudes, such as "maybe it's your router's fault" or "maybe no one's playing the type of game you're looking for", but his primary suggestion seems to be that the problem is caused by loners. Better to group up with a couple of friends first, he recommends. In which case I wouldn't bother trying to find matches with strangers, but that's just me.

Fergusson's note -- which I really shouldn't goof on, since I welcome that kind of communication from a developer when things are going wonky -- is basically a plea to be patient while they figure out what's going on to cause the long waits for some players. He also offers a few interesting statistics:

* The most popular multiplayer mode is Horde.

Yay for co-operative multiplayer! Presumably, we'll see more games doing this sort of thing in the future.

* The most popular multiplayer map across all modes is River

My theory here is that it's the most descriptively named map that doesn't have a boring name like "ruins" (been there) or "subway" (done that).

* The most lethal weapon is the Gnasher shotgun with almost 29% of all kills.

So, cheap shotgun whoring is alive and well. The more things change, the more they stay the same.