I'm with you, Grock. The few times I stepped into a rated BG my team got obliterated. "Shooting fish in a barrel" doesn't do it justice.

I mostly agree with C. Moore here, but I see what Grock is saying too. Because it is difficult to pull together a 10-man, PuG, RBG team on many servers, the majority of RBG teams seem to be guild based. I know that when I RBG I do so almost exclusively with my guild, which is PvP oriented. In turn, many teams we play are all from one guild too. Because of this, I imagine that it is very frustrating for a purely PuG'ed team to jump in (without the strong, strategic background and knowledge of teammate strengths/weaknesses that a guild team is likely to bring to bear). The few times we have played a team comprised of many different guild names, we've usually dominated them.

I'm not sure what the solution to this entry-level "tax" is. Blizzard has already removed the 15-man RBG bracket in hopes of making it easier to form teams but so far I still see mostly only guild groups. I'm not sure if there even is a solution. Consider raiding: how often do you pull a PuG'ed BoT run together and have it go well? For me, the answer is "rarely". My only real success in raids is when I am lucky enough to pick up a PuG spot on a raid that is, otherwise, a guild run. Again, this is due to the inherent increase in organization that generally goes along with guild sponsored activities.

One would think, however, that if more PuG RBG teams were making their way into the fights that there would be a larger pool of teams at lower Average Team Rating levels and, thusly, fewer mismatches with teams that have very high ratings. Perhaps Blizzard could institute some sort of a "welfare" program where a player who has a Personal Rating below, say, 1000, gets bonus honor points, even when they lose, as it currently stands in Random Battlegrounds. That way a player that isn't yet fully outfitted in the honor point PvP gear would still be interested in getting into RBG's because 1) you will certainly be more organized than a Random Battleground group would be, 2) even if you face a vastly superior team, you still win honor points that can you use for better gear (even if the honor is scant), and 3) you still have a chance to earn conquest points if you can scrabble together a win. I imagine that part of the turn off for low level teams that are getting smashed is that when you lose, you get NOTHING. Nothing other than a pride obliterating slap in the face, that is.

Same here, I've only seen two R-BG teams being created in trade since cataclysm rolled out, and I've played a total of 3 games. Not that many I know, but our team just got destroyed each time, and that made everyone quit.
Maybe R-BG teams are really popular on PvP realms, but on my PvE realm it's as quiet as a tomb.

Mr. Moore's server must be awesome, since on Dragonmaw, tradechat teams are a thing to fear, not because they're good, but because of the drama and general low performance. Some are good, no doubt, but for the most part, IF you find an RBG team, and IF they get a team, you're more than likely to see them back in trade after their first game.

Few people have the tolerance for RBGs, being spoiled by pre-mades vs. PUGs or assuming RBGs were be easy mode conquest. RBGs were one thing I was looking forward to, but most of what I hear across the servers is that there's not a strong community for it. I think Mr. Moore's articles tend to be the ones most excited about RBGs, while the GMs, officers, and random players I talk to are universally frustrated with the system (either wanting easier access or, more often, acknowledging that most serious RBGers don't group outside their guilds, and when their guild stops running them, opt for other games instead of working on alliances.

The title blew my mind. RBGs are the most disappointing part of Cata. They are everything that they should not be. I wanted them more than anything and now I can't even do them because I am not in a pvp guild. Lets be serious, you go into RBGs in a pug and you will get destroyed.

All they are is 10 v 10 arena that happen to take place in BGs. Arena players already have arena.