Forum Discussion

Axs5626Sxa5001's avatar
Axs5626Sxa5001
5 years ago

Is equity in video games a good thing?

I continue to be interested in people’s opinion on this. 

Forced SBMM seeks to make players play people in their skill range. The more aggressive the SBMM algorithm, the better the game is at making you face your doppelgänger.

The result of this gaming practice is that players across all skill ranges tend to win and lose at the similar ratios. This practice has been statistically proven to make the gaming developers/publishers more money by maximizing the retention of lower skilled players and thus maximizing profits. Of course, this comes at the expense of more skilled players, who now must play in tournament level matches every time they play. This issue exists in most modern games that utilize SBMM, not just Apex; it’s especially problematic in CoD.

So I ask again— should matchmaking in non-ranked modes be like this, knowing that it produces equal outcomes? I’m sincerely trying to have a meaningful conversation on this. 

discussion

7 Replies

  • Zamaha400's avatar
    Zamaha400
    5 years ago

    In COD I was the kind of player to stop slaying and leave lobbies when my opponents are too weak. Pub stomping is dull to me so I'm in favor of equal match making.

  • Sand_spitter's avatar
    Sand_spitter
    5 years ago
    @Axs5626Sxa5001 Most of the time I'm matched against better players anyway so to me that's not sbmm. We aren't on the same level of skill, so why are we in each other's lobby to begin with? Whatever. The outcomes are anything but equal.

    But to answer your question, no it shouldn't be like that, outcomes shouldn't be manupulated by cherry picking your lobbies for you, it should be completely random. And even if removing sbmm doesn't work they have absolutely nothing to lose by at least testing it for a week just to see.
  • Axs5626Sxa5001's avatar
    Axs5626Sxa5001
    5 years ago

    @maximas1986

    I hear you, but it’s not like gold level players would be dropping into an entire lobby of preds— that’s just not statistically possible if lobbies were made randomly. Players would occasionally run into preds, but the entire lobby wouldn’t be comprised of them.

    As it stands now, about 80% of my pub lobby has master/pred trails. Do you have any idea how nuts that is? Personally, I have plateau’d in skill. As a Masters player I am statistically “more skilled” than about 95% of the player base, but with a 1.5% win rate, I’m losing more than literally all of my friends— and they are pretty average at the game.

    I feel like there is an undertone held by certain people that players of all skill should win and lose about the same, because that’s “fair”. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s an extension of “everyone gets a trophy”, but it certainly feels a bit like that sometimes.

    If we think about “wins” as a resource, skilled players are the ones who would acquire most of this resource because they are more competent at the activity. I feel like aggressive SBMM in video games seeks to redistribute resources (wins) to less competent players. 

    Overall (Pubs and Ranked), shouldn’t a player who is better than 95% of the player base actually be winning SUBSTANTIALLY more than average players? Again, not in just Apex but in any game/activity.

  • Daze623's avatar
    Daze623
    5 years ago
    @Axs5626Sxa5001 If SBMM gave me teammates that was in the same skill level as me then sure why not. The main issue I have with matchmaking isn't the fact I'm playing against people that are relatively close to my skill level it's that I'm playing with people that are obviously not in my skill level which makes the game more frustrating.
  • Axs5626Sxa5001's avatar
    Axs5626Sxa5001
    5 years ago
    @Daze623

    Yeah I know your pain. Respawn has assured us that EOMM isn’t being implemented in Apex but it certainly feels like the game wants skilled players to lose by literally always giving them weak teammates.