Forum Discussion

5 years ago

SBMM and My Mental Health

This is an opinion piece, and I know that some people will not care. However, this is my story.

Okay,

So an issue that has been hitting me since my return to apex (around the end of season 5) is Skill-Based Match Making (SBMM). Somehow, I managed to rehooked to the game, and we fast forward to now, I play pretty much every day. However, at this point, it feels more like an addiction that I cannot shake because when I do play, 95% of the time I do not have fun. I understand the need to want to protect the bottom percentage of players from the top percentage. However, I do not think that should be at the expense of the bulk of the players' mental health.

SBMM has taken the fun out of the game for a lot of players like me. I am by no means the greatest player in the game, but I do okay (KD around a 2.8 and around 4.3k kills in season 7). Every game that I play is filled with the top 1% of players. The casual aspect of the game has disappeared completely. I can not run any weapons other than meta purely for the sake that I have to be able to hold my own. Sometimes, I want to have fun and run a Sentinel or Wingman, but because I know that somewhere along the line there will be a sweaty 3 stack that will roll me and my team if I carry anything other than a combination of volt/ mastiff/Hemlock/ 301/99.

I can not play this game with my friends because they hold KDs are around the .8 range, and when they get put in these lobbies, they do not have fun, and of course, neither do I when I am trying to solo the high tier players in my lobbies. I remember the joy of playing this game in season 0 and season 1 with my friends that were simply just not good at the game. I have one friend that redownloaded apex to try and play with me and didn't last two hours before quitting. I know some of in-game friends that have made smurf accounts so they can actually play with their friends that are not very good at the game. Higher tier SBMM makes it where players like me cannot play with their irl friends, and I think that is an overlooked factor.

The Solo-Queue experience in this game has diminished markedly since the implementation of SBMM. I can play for 2 hours and not get a teammate past level 200, but somehow every champion squad is a 3-stack pred or masters? Additionally, there is no incentive for my teammates to stay in the match once they get downed, and then I am literally solo vs the lobby.

Now, with the update to Season 8, it is worse than ever. King's Canyon, although it holds a deep nostalgia factor for me, is not meant for the top tier of SBMM. The map is just too small to keep from third parties, even with the new POI. I will make a separate post on gunshot audio, and how reducing the gunshot audio will help reduce the number of third parties, but for now, I will just say that it is a problem.

Every game I play I see someone with 20k + kills on a legend, and if I am not leaning into my monitor, then I will get rolled by these kids. Sure, I'll win a few games, but, at the end of the day, I feel mentally drained after playing. The mood carries throughout the day or night, and I am just left feeling exhausted. I am very close to just deleting this game altogether, and I know that my mental health will benefit if I do. I know that I am just one person, but all of the people that I play with are fed up as well. Sure, SBMM might make the lobbies more "balanced," and the retention rate of new players (if there is such a thing 2 years into this game's life) might be higher, but the mental health of the content creators and most devoted players is at risk.

gameplay discussion

16 Replies

Axs5626Sxa5001
5 years ago
@PlaceYourWagers

You and I are alike in our perspective on SBMM. Unfortunately, the majority of the player base doesn’t know what it feels like to occupy the top 5%, only to ever play the 4% of players better than you.

Most people don’t understand that Apex fundamentally changes when the lobby consists of all top tier players. People think that you (a skilled player) have a good chance to compete against these other top skilled players, so it’s fair right? Right? Unfortunately no.

Apex is pure stress when the lobby is specifically designed with a majority of top tier players. This is a product of it being a BR (one life, RnG, etc). Obviously the game should play like this when people are competing in a tournament, but not in casual game modes.

But that’s the thing, the WHOLE gaming industry has learned that if you make the game extra stressful for the good players, you allow the casual players to play a version of the game that is far more forgiving and fun. They are literally betting on YOU to continue to play because you are skilled and don’t want to step away from the skill set you developed. But the casual? The casual is far more likely to quit if they experience lose (even if said loss comes fairly).

So the game publishers have all decided to utilize SBMM to achieve one goal: give casual players more wins and better experiences than the skilled players, because there are more of them. Maximize profits at all costs, even if it comes at the expense of certain players’ mental health.

It sucks.
NoCutePanda
5 years ago
Hi,
I hope this reply does not count as necroing, since you postetd this a month ago.
From what I understand, is that there is very little SBMM in the Pub lobbies right now. So you getting matched with these High skill players is because there is little to no SBMM in the Game right now, not because it is.
If there was any kind of SBMM in the Game Lobbies would be a lot more even in Skill.
As for your Expereince with the solo queue, i completely feel with you. A Friend and I are Average at best and we are constantly getting rolled over by 4k and 20 Bomb Squads.
Sadly this is the Experience the Apex Community has asked for, SBMM was painted as a System that was designed to worsen everybody's Game. When in truth it is the very thing that could make Pubs playable again as a normie.
The Sad thing again is, that before we will see any kind of Improvement to SBMM we are gonna have No Fill Queue for all those Mega sweats out there. So they can * themselves off, for beating a Noob lobby solo. It is a Sad thing indeed, that this * made it into the Game. Pub stomping is not Hard enough, let me solo Pub stomp. This is a very cringeworthy decision, in my Opinion.
Enough of my Rant and let's hope the bring back a better Version of SBMM
Axs5626Sxa5001
5 years ago
@NoCutePanda

Quick question:

Should skilled players win more overall, or should all players win and lose at similar ratios?
NoCutePanda
5 years ago
Do you mean win Lobbies?
I don't think that is an adequate Stat to look at, because after all we just wanna have fun playing the Game. Having fun in Apex does not necessarily mean win Lobbies. I could get carried by some random Pred to a win and could have zero fun, or I could be dead before the first Ring after a good fight and have a lot of fun. It all depends on who you play with and against, I guess.
But to kinda answer your Question: Skilled Players will always win more Games, whether you have SBMM or not and that is all fine. It is the way they obtain those wins. By stomping through low skill players or through players of a more similar Skill.
I personaly do not mind playing in a high skill Lobbie once in a while, to me it is the beeing * on constantly by high plats and above.
Sorry if this is a bit too broad
apostolateofDOO
5 years ago
@NoCutePanda Do you have a source for SBMM not being in pubs?
NoCutePanda
5 years ago
@apostolateofDOOM fixed what I said.
I know there is SBMM in Pubs right now. It is just almost non existent.
Triumphkutter
5 years ago
sbmm has to be in the game.
because what you feel is very fun, your 20bombs with 4k dmg...
guess what its not fun at all for the people you oneclip, or 1vs3.
so in a lobby with 60 players, there is 1 guy having fun.
this is not healthy for the game at all. this game only still exists cause of sbmm.
there is no way anyone picks up a game in which he gets driven over without standing a slightest chance every single game.
but thats what you rooting for.
in the end this will result in a crumbling playerbase and then there will only be a few guys left over playing this game,
which means you play the swaety top 5% game anyway.
apostolateofDOO
5 years ago
@NoCutePanda Oh it's there, just not what we would want or expect.
@Triumphkutter I don't think anyone wants SBMM completely removed from the game and he has some reasonable points. Sure we need protections in place for new players and i doubt anyone is denying that but this is a team game and if you're in higher brackets then want to have friends come play that are new or just bad then you can't join them unless you're on a smurf.
The current version of SBMM we have promotes smurfing and exploits which negates the whole point of protecting new players and their retention any way. People can't play with IRL friends or family who are new, don't play as often or just not as skilled. The solo experience for vets is punishing having 2 low level or bad players for ''match balance'' meaning you have to carry them and they get deleted if not under the mains wing making the game unenjoyable for them too and frustrating for everyone.
NoCutePanda
5 years ago
@apostolateofDOOMWhich is, what I was trying to say ^^'
@Triumphkutter I agree 100% there.
Triumphkutter
5 years ago
@apostolateofDOOM i guess it comes down to how you play with your friends.
MAYBE dont play your W-key playstyle they cant keep up with?
what you say sounds alot like that.
the thing is: you say sbmm stops me from playing with my friends that are way worse than me.
but you do not bring a single idea of how this could be balanced out to protect new players from
simply uninstalling the game before they reach level 10, because its totally stupid to get * on every Fing single game.
if you open up the sbmm, the game is LITERALLY UNPLAYABE for 80-90%% of the players.
i also tried a smurf account.
once i reached level 20ish, the system matched me with the game guys my main is on.
so.... it actually works fine to protect newer players.
some anecdote:
there a some hardcore PvP MMORPGS out there. the playerbase wanted the game to be pvp with no restrictions whatsoever.
when they accepted the players wish, the games died shortly after.
all of them.
all. of. them.
because what seems fun for some people, kills the playerbase.
and without the n00bs, the top player always laugh upon, the game dies.
every game needs the casual players to stay healthy.
this is not a joke, even if it is a different genre, the situation stays the same.
there are plenty of games that provide evidence.