Let's Face It, We're Clueless About Skill-Based Matchmaking

Modern Warfare III: The Ongoing Debate Over Multiplayer Matchmaking

Confusion reigns supreme as gamers scratch their heads in front of a Modern Warfare III scoreboard. As with every new blockbuster first-person shooter, gamers gear up for the inevitable debate over multiplayer matchmaking systems and the algorithms that decide who plays against whom and when. The recent release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III has not been spared this controversy.

Shortly after its multiplayer servers went live on November 10, players took to various online platforms to voice their concerns about the quality, or perceived lack thereof, of Activision’s matchmaking. However, like many issues in the gaming industry, there's a significant lack of nuance and understanding at play here.

Understanding Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM)

The most glaring misunderstanding revolves around a popular term that's frequently used every time a new game is released: skill-based matchmaking (SBMM). For those not deeply involved in the FPS genre, SBMM is a system used by games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Apex Legends to determine how matchmaking lobbies are filled.

While the specifics vary from developer to developer (and developers typically keep those specifics under wraps), SBMM typically takes into account factors like a player’s kill/death ratio, time played, score per minute, and total wins when sorting them into lobbies. On November 20, players swarmed Activision’s Reddit AMA demanding the removal of SBMM, which they consider too rigid.

The Complexity of SBMM

It’s easy to become hung up on SBMM, given that its details are often confusing and obscured by developers. However, it’s frequently a contentious point of discussion, making it crucial that we do our best to understand it.

Recently, the concept of SBMM has been oversimplified and misinterpreted to the point where people mistakenly believe its critics simply want to play games where they can easily dominate their opponents. This, however, is a far more complex issue.

The Skill-Based Matchmaking Dilemma

Twenty years ago, skill-based matchmaking unfolded very differently, as detailed by Max Hoberman, the former head of multiplayer and online at Bungie during the Halo 2 and Halo 3 eras. He recently responded to a relatively innocuous GamesRadar post that originally appeared in PLAY magazine over a year ago with a scathing tweet thread.

Hoberman explained that the way skill-based matchmaking should work was a major point of disagreement amongst the developers who worked on Halo 2 and 3, games which many gamers still believe offered the best multiplayer experiences of all time.

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