MeinMMO editor Dariusz is convinced: Modern shooters have a problem that disadvantages weaker players and is therefore bad for your gaming friendships.
Skill-based matchmaking (SBMM for short) is a much-discussed topic. Especially in shooters like Call of Duty, there are many players who sharply criticize the system. The general criticism is that every match played is tiring because everyone is playing at roughly the same level and there are no longer any relaxed, fun rounds.
However, I have a completely different problem with the SBMM in various games, because it divides the community into good and bad players.
SBMM divides your friend groups
In many shooters, the SBMM calculates a kind of skill average of the teams competing against each other and tries to find a balanced gaming experience. The problem is that the worse players are always disadvantaged.
For example, if the game divides players into skill ranges from 1-10 and we take a team consisting of three players from skill range 8 and two from skill range 5, then the average is 6.8 (rounded up to 7). .
This results in the “better” players (level 8) having a comparatively easy match with opponents below their level, while the weaker players (level 5) have a difficult match with opponents about 2 “levels” above their own level.
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Such a match is usually not much fun for the players involved. I personally experienced someone in my circle of friends who stopped playing a competitive shooter with us because the matches felt too difficult for them and they got frustrated. You hear and read similar situations again and again in the various shooter communities.
The former group of friends then plays together less and less because the different skill levels prevent them from having fun together in a competitive shooter. In extreme cases, the individual players may never play with each other again and contact breaks off because they simply cannot play their favorite shooters together.
It’s also more difficult to find new friends in shooters because the community is already divided by the matchmaking system. You will never accidentally meet significantly better or worse players and therefore you will not be able to get to know them.
And luring your friends into a shooter that makes them look old might also be difficult.
But isn’t that exactly what SBMM is supposed to prevent?
Yes, but that doesn’t work in friend groups. Because it’s all about playing together. But if that’s just frustrating for the weaker players, that’s a shame for everyone.
In shooters without strict SBMM, matchmaking is a little more “arbitrary” and the teams are more mixed. Although there can be better players in the same lobby, this also applies to worse players – and there is always someone who is even better or worse.
Without skill-based matchmaking, groups of friends could play with each other without anyone being disadvantaged by the system. In each round the opponents have a different skill level and so there can be matches in which even worse players are successful.
MeinMMO editor Dariusz is not a big fan of skill-based matchmaking and considers it a bad habit of modern games. He also thinks the same about two types of shooters that have flooded the market in recent years: There are only two types of new, successful PvP shooters left and both are crap