Gears 3 Adding Casual Multiplayer Mode

Interesting idea. If you already played the previous titles or participated in the beta, you should already know how to play, so it makes sense that absolutely new players should have an area where they can learn the game with a lower skill curve

Dunno how they'll handle the transition between the "newbie" servers and the "normal" servers but if it's an outright "ok, to normal with you" that could be a bad design choice.
Personally I'd set up a series of rooms/servers/etc where the "newbie" assists were gradually lessened until they were just a hair easier than "normal"

I for one wish more devs would include an advanced tutorial so people could figure out the game before they venture into the main populous
Look at MondayNightCombat, their tutorial only prepares you for playing the Blitz gametype using the Assault class, that won't help you much when you go into online Crossfire

Cue experienced players playing on accounts without GoW achievements in 3..2..1 - or people like me who've played about 3 hours of Gears and got a few achievements who can't play on casual despite hardly playing the game ever.

Gears 2 had bot support, so at least it shows you the ropes about the gametypes / maps. Aiming... that may be another story. And you can learn about the weapons there, too, or in SinglePlay. Just not master them (mostly).

I think including the mode is a good idea. Making it inaccessible to certain people??? Weird. That'll be tough on girlfriends or house guests that just sign on to an existing profile on the console. I guess you can't avoid experienced players going on a n00b5tomp without some restriction like that though. But wait, isn't that the purpose of match making?

The restrictions may be too tight for people to find games. Other than that, it's not a bad idea.

This is fucking stupid. Why not add some other crap to split up the player base even more? No serious gamer would want a team mate with auto aim.

It'd make more sense to just have a 'casual' gaming setting where you can't rack up achievements etc, and limit it to certain maps or gametypes. That'd assist newer players whilst keeping the experienced ones out more than just checking 'achievements'.