News - Activision Talks Sbmm - Warzone 2 Sbmm Details
Frost here I hope you guys are doing well. There is some massive news pertaining to Call of Duty and its skill-based matchmaking system. We finally have communication from Activision in regards to some of the biggest questions revolving around skill-based matchmaking. First and foremost, I think there is a lot of information here, and you guys should do some research on your own.
I'm going to try to do my best to condense it in a proper format for this article so that we can get the gist of everything Activision is saying without it being bogged down by all of the wording that they've used as well. So let's start off with how matchmaking works. There are eight pillars to how multiplayer matchmaking works, and here are the eight pillars: connection time to match skill performance, platform voice chat input device, recent maps, modes, and playlists.
There's a lot there; it's not simply just connection; there's more to it than that, and that kind of makes sense, but when I look at everything that's involved here and I see just how complex the matchmaking system is. I would have loved for them to go into further detail to see how much each section weighs.
Why does playlist diversity matter? Why do recent maps and modes matter? Why does voice chat matter? Why are these things taken into account in the overall matchmaking process? Tell me why, and of course, skill doesn't just mean your kills and deaths; it also means your wins and losses. Go into more detail about how that's weighed; that's what I care about, so I feel as if they went a little to the surface with this from the beginning.
Now there's a few commonly asked questions that they also addressed, starting off with: does the Call of Duty matchmaking process impact any in-game elements such as hit registration player visibility, aim assist damage, or flat out? No, it doesn't. Nothing about the matchmaking process impacts gameplay.
Elements, okay, what about spending money? Does that affect how players are matched again? Activision says no money spent does not in any way shape or form factor into matchmaking. Okay, lastly, the biggest conspiracy that we've talked about this year is bots in multiplayer. Call of Duty multiplayer does not use bots as a part of the general matchmaking process.
If this changes in the future, we will inform the community of what they mean by the general matchmaking process. When you hop into a general match, there are bots in multiplayer. If you want to play against bots, I mean there's private matches for that. Go ahead and do it; there's bots there, but that's neither here nor there.
The next two questions are a little bit more interesting, and I want to dive a little bit deeper into them. Have you ever tested removing skill-based matchmaking? We have run tests over the years to determine if removing skill as a consideration for matchmaking makes sense, and we will continue to launch these tests periodically to date.
The data remains consistent with what we have detailed above: players tend to quit matches or stop playing if they are getting blown out, resulting in a negative overall experience for all players in the lobby and the general player population. We purposefully do not disclose when these tests occur because it may impact feedback or the data we see during these tests.
So first, I like that they're running these tests now. Is there proof? No, but I'll take them at their word. I like the fact that they're trying this to see if it matters now. I know that skill-based matchmaking is a hot button issue, and I would prefer if it were removed completely. Or if there was some incentive given or something right, but with that being said, remove it completely.
Out of the blue, to me, makes no sense. It's like if you play any type of sport and you're in a league and all of a sudden somebody from three leagues above you gets plopped down into your league, they're going to dominate because you've played to a certain standard and this person raises that standard; you're not used to it.
It's out of the blue; it makes no sense. You can't prepare for it, so of course you're going to be frustrated by it. Of course, this is going to deter you from playing the game, but if this is your regular matchmaking experience, you're going to get more used to it, you're going to know how to overcome it, and you're going to learn, adapt, and grow.
That's the thing that I don't like about skill-based matchmaking: it hinders the actual. Drive to get better at the game because you fit so neatly in this skill bracket that you learn elements of that skill bracket and you develop bad habits or good habits or whatever have you, but you're nowhere near incentivized to actually get better at the game because you're not constantly going 5 and 20 and 6 and 30 like I remember those days for me, the thing I wanted to do was get to even and then get to 1.5 and then get to 2.0.
Those things used to matter because they showed progression in a game; there's no use trying to progress anymore. And that's part of the problem, so yes, I understand that these tests feed your confirmation bias, but it's because the players aren't used to that; you're just setting them up. Is there a way we could tie skill into matchmaking without it being so oppressive for so many players?
1, 00% i'd rather see them explore that as an option. Don't make the parameters so strict if you have to have them in the game. Make it a little looser. Make it so there's some incentive. Make it so that it feels rewarding when you get better. Anyway, to continue, have you considered removing skills from matchmaking in specific general multiplayer modes?
We have considered this in the past, and we will continue to examine if this idea makes sense as a part of an experimental playlist or in specific modes. We have nothing to announce on that front today. Remember the experimental playlist they had at the start of MW3? Where did that go? Did that just disappear out of thin air, and they just forgot about it?
I'm very confused about that kind of disappointment, really, and that's where my frustration kind of lies with them at the moment, but anyway, I digress. So do content creators and partners get special consideration in general matchmaking? This has been a tinfoil conspiracy theory for many in the Call of Duty community.
I don't know if I believe it or not, but they come out and flatly say no, we do not change the macm. Whoa, that's not how that word goes. No, we do not change the matchmaking process based on who owns the account. In specific cases, such as events for Call of Duty, like Call of Duty Next, we may be required to customize how lobbies are formed.
