Lets Talk About 'Skill-Based Matchmaking'?
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@TheJumpingJawa wrote:
@DarthVaapar wrote:Actually, most everyone was already content with your statistics, and even worse, since before SBMM, the game was basically allowing professional level players to run amok against college and high school level players. Most players, the overwhelming vast majority of them, are in the high school and college arena.
If you find it unrewarding to play against similarly skilled opponents, and prefer rather to play against lower levels, then yes, maybe you should seek such “rewarding” entertainment elsewhere. There are other games that promote such disparate match making. Thankfully, this game is no longer one of them.
Simple question:
With the current casual SBMM system, by what metric can you gauge whether you're improving?
Prior to SBMM, I knew I was getting better, because my average damage increased, so too did my K/D and win rate.
Now?
Stats mean nothing; regardless of skill level, we're all tending towards the same averages.
We're nothing but mice running in a wheel.
Ranked is (as the name implies) where match making should be taking place.
Casual is (as the name implies) where players should be able to kick back and mess around, not be subjected to the exact same hyper-competitive gameplay present in ranked.
If newbies (or anyone else for that matter) want to be matched against similarly skilled opponents, then they should be playing Ranked. It's that simple.
The two game modes offered different gameplay experiences for a good reason. Now they don't, and the game is significantly worse for it.
Come on... A quality, long term player of FPS knows when they are getting better, whether or not there are displayed metrics.
I started getting better in Season 2. I started getting significantly better about two weeks ago. My Season 3 stats are 50% better than my overall game stats. I’m doing more damage and getting more kills on average now. I almost always try to get better, but I do slack sometime and just play around. I work shift work and often enough I’m fatigued and my gameplay is lesser. Nevertheless I am getting better. I have more wins in Season 3 than all other wins since launch.
What’s being described and presented as casual isn’t really casual at all for most players. Without SBMM, top tier players dominate. That is not healthy for this type of game, nor would it be healthy for solos for that matter. It would be different if this were a game like Battlefield where skill levels would be distributed between two large teams. This is a BR. A 3-man last squad standing environment. It’s F2P with monetization built around cosmetics. Without SBMM, a game like this will have no longevity when the main population has little to no chance of ever winning.
Also, most players don’t even play ranked at all, regardless of skill level. There are longer wait times, and if you’re chasing challenges you are very often a liability for your squad. You can’t just tell players what mode they should be playing. What you can do is make all the modes as fair and enjoyable as possible for everyone. That’s what they’ve done.
If that means that top tier players don’t have a safe space to retreat to in order to dominate, then so be it, and so what. No one else does either.
I agree that the top tier players should be listened to when it comes to balancing and tweaking concerns. There’s no question about that. But when they start calling for the removal of SBMM so that they can have an easier time of it, then no, absolutely not. That’s not about fairness or sportsmanship. There are many words I could use to describe such sentiment, but I’ll just go with ridiculous.
@DarthVaapar The thing is, if you're a low level player and want to avoid high level players you can just play ranked. That's literally what ranked is, playing with people on your own skill level. Casual should be just that, a mix of whatever is available indiscriminately. With SBMM I honestly see no reason to even have 2 modes.
- @HansBurgers Well man, if your top tier friends quit playing because they no longer have a safe space to pub stomp, then it’s probably best they move on to games that encourage such remedial gameplay anyway.
And streamers? Same goes for them, but doubly so. Surely you’re not trying to garner sympathy because streamers are having to actually.. you know... compete. Yeah, I’m probably misunderstanding you.
You use the word casual to describe standard play. So do some others. That’s really inaccurate. You suggest that average or low skilled players should be playing in ranked. That’s also false. An why, anyway? So they can proudly display an bronze or silver badge. Come on man...
All the major badges are achievable in standard play. Ranked is only for those who are trying to get the upper tier badges or dive trails. That’s all it’s for. That’s the opposite of what you’re saying, you understand. I’m sure that you do.
I do understand your frustrations about playing with randoms regarding ranked though. It’s why I’ve come to realize that I’m not willing to put in the time and effort to get past platinum.
It all boils down to this. Some top tier players.. Some. A vocal minority we’ll say, expect to have their ranked mode to be able to show off the bling they get there, but then want the main game to be a place where they can dominate with ease. Anyone, anyone at all, who knows anything about gaming, understands that this is a terrible idea and a game killer.- @DarthVaapar Mate I’ve been gaming for almost my whole life and there was never SBMM for the past 2 decades that I’ve been playing games. Games were hard and you either put in the effort to get good or you just quit, but most people actually kept on playing so they could improve. I don’t see how you can have fun only playing against people your own skill level without improving. You won’t learn good habits because the people playing at lower ranks don’t have them. When I first started playing apex I wasn’t even close to being predator level and was playing the game like a bronze/silver played. After getting owned a couple of times I started putting in the effort to improve and at some point I was easily getting 5+ kills a match. That felt rewarding and good, but now no matter how much time and effort I put in it doesn’t matter because I get punished for getting better at the game. Pub stomping has always been a part of games and imho it’s not a bad thing as long as there is another option (ranked) for people to go and play with someone on their own level. You make it seem as if everyone is out for badges or dive trails but honestly nobody really cares about them. And just because I have the skills to play against predators doesn’t mean that I want to that all the damn time, sometimes I just want to relax after a hard day and not sweat my * off once I get home. Right now, the only way to enjoy this game is to make a daily smurf. For me, it’s easy to carry teams all the way up to diamond, but from diamond onwards you need a good team to actually have a chance. If they left in solo or duo mode I wouldn’t be so averse of SBMM but right now it’s terrible. There’s no way you’re going to win a fight if you’re getting focused by 3 people with impeccable aim. In 1vs1 and even 1vs2 against predators I can usually hold my own, but 1vs3 is just too much.
- @BennSauna Prepare yourself then. SBMM is here now and will be the norm going forward. Frankly, it’s been around a while and is represented in games that have lasted, with healthy player bases, for more than 2-3 yards. What you describe is an acute experience that most gamers don’t have. You’re a minority, top tier player, in a much, much larger population. A pardon please, from the rest of us, who don’t get to take relaxing days off to simply crush people who shouldn’t even be on the same field. Compete, or don’t, the choice is yours. Kiddie table free lunches are a thing if the pass. They were only for an entitled few to begin with.
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