Max Hobberman on the failure of Modern SBMM (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, November 26, 2023, 16:28 (154 days ago) @ Schooly D

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.

Have any games with SBMM tried offering "odds" visible to both teams before the start of the match? If the matching engine decides it will let you get stomped next game, it'd be nice and reduce frustration if beforehand it told you "look these guys are killers and you don't stand a chance, just have fun out there."

Don't you find that out about 30 seconds into the match?

Usually, but not always. Sometimes it can take longer just due to the vagaries of spawn locations, key kills that allow a team to control power weapons or locations, etc. But even if the skill mismatch becomes obvious quickly, I think some kind of admission of intent on the part of the game would alleviate much of the frustration on the part of the stomp-ee.

I'm going to lean on the side of this making things worse. If you advertise that it purposely put you against a better group, you'll be upset. But if you think it's fair and the team just played well, then you won't be.

The more info about rank and skill that is hidden from the player the better. Let them focus on playing the game. The point is nobody would complain if you have fun in most matches, and a mix of outcomes achieves that best.