Max Hobberman on the failure of Modern SBMM (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Saturday, November 25, 2023, 16:26 (155 days ago) @ Cody Miller

https://nitter.net/MaxHoberman/status/1726560291641786707

tl;dr:

-Halo had different algorithms for ranked and unranked.
-Ranked did not always try to make teams even every time. That makes every game stressful. It was a mix of even, letting you stomp, and letting you be stomped.
-Modern SBMM prioritizes even matching too much, so players are constantly exhausted and sweaty.
-Unranked never factored in skill when matching, since it didn't matter and you'd just get a wide mix of skills for inconsequential fun.
-Overall, segregating players rigidly by skill is bad and hurts those on both sides of the bell curve, and makes matching take longer than it should.

Every bit of that sounds reasonable to me.