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SirChapwick's avatar
SirChapwick
5 years ago

Matchmaking destroying the ability of new players joining

Hello Apex Legends community,

I love this game. It is leagues above the competition in both character and technical aspects, but there is a giant problem here and that is matchmaking. 

From all of my friends that i tried playing this game with, only 1 has stuck and hes on the verge of quitting (tried over 10). I have already quit this game 3 times and doing it again. The reason being - matchmaking is badly designed. Now I am not a good player, kinda casual, but I try my best. So were my friends. I managed to get to level 80sth and I'm being matched with people about level 500. I am most definitely not that good. I have not seen a predator, so that's good, but there is a giant skill difference between me and someone who has 5k+ kills. At first it felt like they are cheating, and if it feels like your enemies are cheating, it is my belief you have failed as a game designer.

Every time I got people into it they say the same thing - "game is great, I love how it feels, I just cant do anything, I get blasted in the face over and over" and then they quit. And I don't really care about "git gud kid" mentality, not everyone is a wannabe streamer, some people want to play a game without doing practice routines and homework, watching the latest videos or streamers, some people just want to play after work. You as a "mega pro" don't have to deal with people like that if matchmaking works and the game is enjoyable to everyone. Playing Ranked made no difference, even a bad player can grind to gold just by hiding. The ranking system is not based on skill apart from the higher levels of players.

The problem this poses for your game in the long term
A healthy game consists of a pyramid - Casuals at the bottom, people who take the game somewhat seriously in the middle and players who live and breath the game at the top, If you cut out the bottom you will have no new people joining the game, which starts to decay it. The casual players provide the base from which better players are born. This same thing happened to many games I've played, but in your case, the solution is somewhat simple. Skill based matchmaking with many tiers of play. Longer queue times is preferable to people quitting. 

Thanks for reading, best of luck 🙂

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  • OnyxGuardsman's avatar
    OnyxGuardsman
    5 years ago

    note......didn't mean to come off like a * but if you have ever been to another forum with skill based matchmaking they all will have this complaint because people don't understand the system. I have watched dev videos breaking this down an explaining it for years.

    people say they don't like it but can't even begin to suggest another logical way to do it. 

  • Balladalidila's avatar
    Balladalidila
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago

    "Skill based matchmaking is NOT....and I repeat NOT supposed to pair you perfectly with your skill level. "

    And even if it was, that would actually be so terrible. I remember the period of time between Christmas and new year. I dont know if Respawn tried out a "narrower" SBMM or something but that was terrible.  Every single public game was like +Diamond 2 ranked. I remember a public game that actually ended with a collapsing last circle and 5 remaining squads..... In a casual game!. The reason people had to play this way was because everyone in the lobby was so good, you would die instantly if you peaked your cover for a second.

    People just dont understand that skilled based matchmaking that pairs you with your skill level is whats called "RANKED", so if Respawn just get rid of all the Smurfs, people who wanna play that way could just stick to ranked....

    Honestly, I just think people have to rethink what a BR is. Its not a 1v1 or 5v5 with ONE winner and ONE loser. Its a big melting pot where you gradually climb the skill ladder. In the beginning, a win could maybe be just to win a 1v1. As you climb the ladder,  good games could be to go even in K/D. For me, with 2.4 K/D, I see a game with less than 1.5k dmg as a total fail and generally a boring game etc etc. But It would be so clueless of me to only see an actual win as a win in this type of game. A 3k dmg, 10+ kills game is a total win for me, even if I end up outside top 10.

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