The Devs FINALLY Addressed SBMM but Why Now?
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- One of the biggest community complaints since the launch of MW2019 has been the matchmaking system that they use (SBMM/EOMM/PBMM). Despite these complaints, the Devs have remained dead silent on the issue for years until a couple of days ago. Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on the official statement that was made while also providing a re-cap of the primary issues with the current system for those that may be unfamiliar. What are your thoughts on why they've finally decided to address the matchmaking in CoD?
Twitch: / thexclusiveace
Twitter: / thexclusiveace
0:00 Intro
0:23 Call of Duty's Official Statement
1:44 My Initial Thoughts
3:31 What's Wrong with CoD's Matchmaking? (re-cap)
8:53 Why are they Finally Addressing This? (My Speculation)
12:10 Will We See Change?
13:55 Wrap Up 
Игры
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Preventing good lobies by forcing them to disband is a requirement for SBMM. Allowing good lobies to continue would be the first crack in the SBMM system.
they won't do that. It's pretty easy to die purposefully a lot of times to get into easy lobbies. If they don't disband RUclipsrs and fake wannabe TTV streamers will abuse the system to post it online
@@shaggytophThey already do, and who cares, the system is anti consumer anyway
@@JuggEnergy i don't care, I'll be glad if they don't disband lobbies, im jist being realistic saying it they wont probably do it cause it affects them
They said they’re going to start testing non-disbanding lobbies on Reddit.
Yes and no. Most people who get stomped do leave after the game.
However there is still much benefit to keeping the lobbies together as it allows for friendships and grudge matches to form.
That community aspect would go a very long way to improving the experience.
id be less annoyed with the swings if they were symmetric. but mw3 is 5 impossible games, 4 very hard games and 1 game that makes u wonder why you dont get more games like this.
equally distributed yeah
Nah fuck the swings we need to bring back random and unique lobbies, It’s the variety of lobbies that made previous cods fun you could be demolishing in one lobbby and get demolished in the other. People adapted and grew naturally and good players who reach the skill ceiling weren’t punished and discouraged to play game
I’m definitely in higher tier lobbies I only play search. I don’t find the match making as bad as people say. That’s just a personal opinion though
@@COALEDasICEmy issue is that they give me brain dead teammates especially in objective games. I literally have to do everything myself it’s just not fun.
facts
I would love to have the lobbies stay together. Playing game after game with the same group of people, you get to know each other and teamwork starts to become better. Also that's how you make friends online. It's hard to judge if I enjoy playing with someone after only 1 match, then I'm thrown into a group of different people the next game. It just really takes the social aspect out of the game and I find myself not wanting to chat or be as cooperative with my team because I know after the match is done, I'll probably never play with that person again.
I've been playing with everyone muted since the disbanding of lobbies. Got to a point where it seems like only 1/10 lobbies had someone worth chatting it up with and after a GG you don't ever run into them again.
@@ironmonkey4o8 I totally agree. Nowadays it seems like the only people talking are just someone holding a conversation with another person but they left the mic on or worse they are listening to music and of course the random kid rambling on about nothing.
Underrated comment
Nah, you just wanna sit in a lobby of people worse than you so you can shit on them, Don't lie 😂
Also getting balls deep into an argument with a guy you probably wont play with again and then just cutting off cuz the lobby disbanded is annoying.
Everything you said about burnout resonated with me. Been playing COD since 2007 and this is the first time I've seriously thought about throwing the towel in. The matchmaking is so crushing, it's sucked all the fun out the game. When your addiction isn't pleasurable anymore, not even in the slightest, and just causes you pain and frustration, that's when you know it's time to move on.
Been playing since cod 4 as well. And yes, the feeling is real. I didn’t play vanguard and am not playing this years game, and I don’t regret it one bit
If you’ve been playing for 16 years, you probably should try and do something else.
I've been playing since 2007. Threw the towel in after MW2019. What a terrible experience.
@@Sfishh MW2019 was a particularly bad COD for a lot of reasons, not just matchmaking
surprised you lasted this long. I dropped cod YEARS ago. Trust me there are WAY more games actually worth your time. Games that actually value you as a player and are actually made for you to enjoy
Also the fact that you can UNLOCK EQUIPMENT FASTER BY WINNING GAMES, just compounds this "SBMM feeling" that everyone is experiencing IMO.
no it doesn't "compound" shit i get matched against top 250 and iridescent players all day long. its cranked up way too fucking high i've never even played ranked before in cod.
@@AMRsti93 you didnt understand his comment, that's ok
@@AMRsti93most literate COD player
@@raidengoodman8754🤣🤣🤣
@@AMRsti93git gud
It would be nice to at least get an experimental playlist with pre-2019 style matchmaking, just to see how things play out and what kind of retention numbers they get from it. That doesn’t sound like it'd be a crazy ask.
I think thats either live or in the works. keeping lobbies together is happening, which is the first big step since theres no bouncing up/down in skill levels because its the same group. ( obviously only works if the first lobby is put together well)
Gotta play 10v10. I swear it feels like the good old days at times. I’ve seen some wild stuff go down that I would never see in 6v6 unless I lobby joined.
If there was a no SBMM playlist that’s all I would play
@@cartreezy1631That’s literally everyone’s thoughts lmao
@@cartreezy1631 Me and my friends mostly played 2v2 private gunfight for the last few years, but I might actually turn on my PS for a no SBMM playlist.
Very well stated, I've been buying the new COD every year but this time I just couldn't take it anymore and decided to not buy the MWIII, too stressful because of SBMM.
Lmao best cod in years
@@zozzy3846and yet it stil sucks😂😂😂😂
@@leekebouwit’s still fun 🤷
@@zozzy3846why is that?
💥LAST YEAR would've been a good year NOT to buy cod.
>> I WISH I "DIDNT" buy it "LAST" year.
💥 "This year" is greatly improved
& honestly the BEST COD in YEARS !!!
#WILL_NEVER_BUY_ANOTHER_INFINITY_WARD_COD !!
very curious to hear more from shg. i miss the mixed lobbies. it was actually inspiring to see and play with higher skill levels, and even if the other team had a stomper, there were still kills to be had.
And for the next game, the god-tier guy could be on you side, since the lobbies did not dispand
That was the best thing in the previous cods up to BO4. It’s crazy how a lot of people would say “get good” but don’t understand that a lot of us got stomped on our first cod, and kept improving. Years ago cod was fun even though i was getting stomped when i first played, but i kept studying the game and getting better. That gave that sense of accomplishment
@@XxDeLegendxX Yes, first you were always at the bottom of the leaderboard but match after match you learned the maps and the guns and got better and eventually there was always someone else worse than you. But every game was fun nontheless since there the lobbies were so inhomogenous. My last cod was MW2019 because I hated the maps and in every match everyone was similarly skilled as me or even better. I had to sweat my ass off every game and even UAV was an achievement...
@@XxDeLegendxXabsolutely. I am an average player at best but I would rather take my lumps in the same lobby but be able to learn from a good player. I could then learn their tendencies and and incorporate it into my playing. That's how we improved in the past. The other part of this is the toxicity. There has always been trash talking but now that lobbies disband, people just start blurting out obscenities to get them in before the lobby disbands. There's no way to shut those idiots up with a rematch.
Sounds like they just want to get their version of the story out there about SBMM and are trying to spin their own PR about it, instead of actually doing anything to change it. I’m guessing this is probably due to the amount of backlash they’ve seen in the last couple of weeks
And because the game is selling very bad!
@@lv9084the game is actually doing great on sales and playtime. Casuals don’t care about sbmm bc it helps them.
@@YashSingh-so7lpthat’s not true. I’m a casual COD player and I can’t stand the current SBMM system.
He’s talking about mega casuals. They don’t interact online
@@lv9084The new CoD has already made more than the original MW3's entire lifetime cycle. The majority of those who play CoD are like those who play FIFA. They do not care AT ALL about the same values as us, and are oblivious to all the drama. They just hit play and play and then stop when they have to work or sleep. They also see Alucard or Messi and go OH WOW IT'S ALUCARD *-FUNNY TEAM FOUR STAR REFERENCE HERE FROM 2014-* HELL YEAH! THIRTY DOLLARS! HERE YOU GO!
I work at a casino, I've seen people spend more on way less.
Have a feeling that the reception on the reddit AMA became the sort of final straw and they realised they simply could not ignore all those questions and had to address SBMM in some way or another
Yea, I think it's a culmination of factors with that being the final straw as you said. They probably aptly assessed that it would be a bad idea to continue to ignore questions around sbmm when they literally asked for questions and sbmm was one of the most asked questions.
And the dwindling playerbase lol
@@rundown132Yup, my friends and I have different skill levels and it’s impossible to play and have fun.
Yea that’s wut I was thinking cuz holy shit it was 90% of the questions
Yeah but they’re just gonna double down on it. It’s very clear that they’re going to do nothing about it because they listed all the people who worked on it and why. They don’t want to take the L on there pointless investment
This is such a good video because you have voice loud enough that people from COD have got to be seeing this and anyone fairly familiar with call of duty can feel this as being a big issue. This year, this topic is like 1/3 of the reddit posts in the mw3 subreddit.
Very interesting video. TBH, I've been playing CoD since the beginning & I'm now on the brink of giving up entirely. As you say, it's just not an enjoyable experience anymore. I might hold out until XDefiant comes out, but as always, if Activision did decide to make a serious change to the SBMM system, or drop it all together, I really wouldn't want to be left behind - it's a tricky one!
I’m not playing another cod game again until they remove SBMM or at the very least toned it down hard.
yep 100 percent@@christianwilliams6535
@@WizeguyGamingin my friend group, we have very different levels of skill and no one likes sbmm, because it punishes everyone. the good players get exclusively sweatfest lobbies and the worse players get destroyed every single game.
sure, sbmm protects the worse players, but it does that at the cost of atomising the community. the system doesn’t have to be axed entirely, but there need to be adjustments so that players of all skill levels have their time and effort respected and rewarded.
@@WizeguyGaming But that's just not true - check the feeling on the community.
@@WizeguyGaming Simply not true.
It’s just a guess, but maybe they’re finally addressing SBMM because MWIII has a positive initial reception from the hardcore, more engaged portion of the COD community that has been frustrated for a while now. Makes more sense to talk about matchmaking when the community is happy with the current COD game VS the community having no hope left in MWII last year
Hey, M3rkmus1c! Love your channel!
Might change sbmm but they did just patent their new bot technology that mimics players. May find a way to shoehorn them into matchmaking to balance when people leave from ragequitting to keep games even and engaging. Maybe they get on the mic and jusy say "f off no lol". Pretty bad for them but funny none the less.
@@basicallybacon2593stop blindly following hate youtube channels. there are no bots in mw3
That's actually smart
You'd think it'd be other way around, respond when people are mad and stay quiet when people are happy, but activi$ion works in mysterious ways
I wonder if Microsoft has some say in this. Regardless, the bad pr around sbmm must've reached some kind of breaking point, cause they had no reason to announce this unless something was happening behind the scenes
Microsoft has already stated that they won’t have anything to do with cod till after the 2024 game.
Well Phil Spencer said he played cod and was a huge cod fan so maybe he was getting sick of getting rolled by sbmm too lol
Sales. It can only mean sales are bad.
@@cordialexactly!!!💯
They are trying to cover Al Bots in MP
Please continue to shine a light on this. If pressure is applied things will change. There is some serious stuff in the background tampering with our gameplay. This needs to be exposed
I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for info on this, I haven't played since after Cold War so it would be nice if change happens and gives a more fair system.
I think that the public pressure finally reached a point where it was no longer ignorable, and I'd be willing to venture a guess that in some small way Microsoft had at least some degree of saying, 'hey, this complaint is all over the place, you should consider some transparency.' Publicly acknowledging the matchmaking system is a massive step forward, and may institute some change. However, I think that the amount of change we all want won't occur unless we keep talking about it. Such is the case with anything these days. I definitely give credit to you, Ace, and many of the bigger voices in the community for continuing the conversation, even when it seemed like for years, all hope was lost. So thank you for keeping up the fight for the players that have stuck with COD for many years. Hopefully this public statement doesn't relax the community more than it should because statements aren't actions. Until they follow through on their statements with actions, I'll still be wary of anything ever changing. I wish the community weren't so jaded on the subject too, but for Activision that's the consequence of remaining completely silent for years with the people that fund their livelihoods.
Well said
So true. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. We have to keep talking about it.
Cant leave Jgod out of this, he repeatedly called cod out on this as well as Aim assist, etc.
Your summary of the primary issues with the current matchmaking is spot on! Playing in player groups with varied skills is very overlooked. A big component of me wanting to play every day is that i can play with guys i was playing with back in 2010. I'm not great but I am better than most of my friends. Because of that most actually don't want me in there lobbies because of the competitiveness. Sometimes I'll interally tank 10 or so matches in a row before joining them to help eliminate the issues, but it's an extremely draining experience doing that and does highly effect the appeal of this game to me.
My thought was partially its due to SHG being more receptive to the community alongside the Reddit AMA they did. There was an overwhelming amount of people who were asking about/complaining about SBMM in their AMA they did and they very well may have realized they need to at least address it to some extent or they will start losing even more of the dedicated fanbase. I didn't have much of a problem with SBMM at first back when I came back to the series with last years release (I hadnt played since BO4 before they had implemented SBMM) but as last year went on and now with MW3 Ive noticed it more and more and dislike how it works as well.
Im not getting my hopes up too high but I have good faith in SHG currently with how theyve been handling things with both the game and with being open with the community so hopefully we will see some sort of positive changes coming in the near future.
Thank you Ace. You do great work and this was a very interesting video. I personally am more optimistic than not. As for how quickly changes may happen…. I’m not sure at all
You kind of addressed it, but matches feel predetermined now on who will win. It feels more aggressive than ever where if you win one match or do well, you're next match is often you and maybe one other person are placed with low skill teammates, and you're then playing against whole team of good players. It leads to constant lopsided matches and people quitting. In basically every other game I have played and what I grew up on, the game would keep the same lobby if it was lopsided, but it would then evenly distribute the talent of the teams for the following match. The disbanding lobbies only lead to more frustration.
Always had the feeling with sbmm that my team is full of potatoes but apparently they match me against the cod league wannabe pro sweats
On the enemy team
One of the reasons the lobbies disband is because if there is a super dominant team of players playing it wants to spread out the misery they dish out. People can get over one miserable game, but if the lobbies didn’t disband then that dominant team could make people rage quit permanently
I've been seeing this same rhetoric going around about predetermined lobbies, but as frustrating as it may feel, I don't honestly believe this is true. From my perspective, every game seems to come down to the wore for the win. Both teams are close in score and usually only the bottom 1 or 2 players on each team go negative while the rest average around a 1 and the top 2 players averaging around a 2. A blowout is a rare occurrence. Back on the older Cods-say mw to black ops 4, you could see things like combat records, lobby leader boards, which players were in a party/clan, or if somebody was a prestige or 2 ahead of the entire lobby. Those games You DID know exactly how it was going to play out. We had shut out games in headquarters where the other team didn't score a single point, domination games that were 200 to 0. 6 stacks all running 100 plus kills in the same game of demolition on nuketown, rage quitting due to nukes, people posting game plays getting 2 or 3 moabs in a single game before using one. Winning teams players with 50+kds. The only predictable things now from my personal experience is that every game will be close, and feel like a tournament since COD no longer wants the game to have a social experience because they probably think the majority of the player base don't have lives or friends anyway. Halo did it right. Idk why companies are so hellbent on not following suit with what works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
@@sabresandiegobut people have the choice to leave that lobby after each game. That's such a stupid point really.. call of duty was always hard when you come up against elite players but that was fine when you knew you'd get better and then be the dominant one in a lobby. You can't do that when SBMM keeps punishing you for doing well l.
Another thing also is that disbanding lobbies means you can't learn how a team operate and then change your approach in the next game to try and beat them and improve your own gameplay.. it literally ruins the competition.
@@markyh88 I don’t like disbanding lobbies either but I see why they did it. Personally I like to make friends and get rematches.
I think they acknowledged it to prepare us for the "We aim to provide the best experience for the most players, everyone should have equally enjoyable experience regardless of their skill level and sbmm makes that possible, so it's not going anywhere ever".
It's basically going to be "You tell me exactly what you want, and I will very carefully explain to you why it cannot be."
I think they're hoping to see a decrease in complaining about it since a lot of people will simply lose hope.
if they hit us with "its not going anywhere" in any way, shape or form, they'll just lose their top whales, the people who see a bundle and immediately reach for their credit card
No, I doubt it. Why would they say they want to make match making "part of an ongoing discussion with the community" if the conversation ended with what is essentially "deal with it".
Ongoing implies this will be a continuous effort. Not simply addressing it and going dark again.
@@blikthepro972 thing is they dont make alot of that money from the whales but from those that nickle and dime a bundle here and there because over time that equals up to alot more money spent since theres ALOT more players that are nickle and diming bundles compared to the small amounts of whales.
interesting, should they prioritize the enjoyment of the top 10% of players over the 90%? I believe the game should be enjoyable for the vast majority of the player base.. It's impossible to please everyone and to allow everyone to enjoy the game as people just differ way to much.. But as a business wouldn't it make more sense to allow the majority of the players to enjoy the experience, not the minority?
they will lie about it they will never tell the truth
I think you also see a large group of players who normally played multi player moving over to Zombies. Zombies is a fun competitive experience with no SBMM. I don’t ever feel punished in that mode and can track my improvement as well.
While I'm willing to be a little hopeful that they're starting to open the door, especially considering SH's current habit of actually communicating/responding to feedback, that still felt like a pretty PR response. Maybe I'm jaded, but I doubt it's going to change anything substantially, even if they're willing to give us more info on it.
It's all about money and active players. They're bottom line is starting to hurt. Fortnite has 4x more players in one game mode than COD has across its entire game.
Shit actually more than that, fornite had 1 million players in just build mode unranked BR the other day I got on. COD maybe has 200k tops across the entire game
I certainly hope that the real reason is because of players not playing anymore, because that was going to be the best way to make change happen, to show them what players really want instead of them being greedy. I don't expect a huge change, but even a slight tuning would be a win.
Also the fact they release the same game every year is definitely another factor to it.. I know alot of people are over the same game every game especially when they have been so bad. That's 1 reason I haven't brought mw3 and wont buy it nor do I touch mw2 anymore. mw 2019 was the last cod I actually enjoyed.
I never cared…,
@@Texarmageddoncongratulations! You’re part of the vast minority that doesn’t care about SBMM!
@@Scaccia8 I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re part of the vocal minority that does care.
Go post on a call of duty page about your awesome KD and let everyone find out you’ve reverse boosted. Tell me your overwhelming good replies you’ll get
@@Texarmageddon not sure what world you’re living in but it sounds like a good time. Enjoy the game have a great rest of the year
For the alg.
After seeing BlameTruth's vid with the 3 synchronized "players" on Rust, you can't convince me there are not bots/shady bits.
Really hope something is done so I can play with my friends again. It sucks to know that a couple of our friends don’t want to play the game because they know when they play with us it gets too sweaty and they can’t compete. And the other part is how great it used to be when you could stay with the same lobby for 4-5 games and it was fun because the games were good and there would be some back and forth.
I just subbed brother love the content ✊🏾⛽️🔥
This could very well potentially be the first step to changing the matchmaking system to not be as strict and rough. Its of course not guaranteed, but the fact that there is a chance is huge enough in itself. We must keep pushing!
If you want real change don’t buy the new CoD. Dollars are the only language they understand
My biggest issue with eomm is I can't play with my friends because of our skill difference
what eomm
@@conor-_Cengagement optimized matchmaking
same dude. my friends all get pissed when we play cuz i’m a sweat. they all play like once a week on their 60 inch TV’s. before i join the session they’re having fun. then i join and everyone is slide cancelling, jumping corners, and using mcw’s. makes me feel bad but it’s the games fault not mine
Yes you can play with them. They are just gonna have to learn to enjoy going 0.2kd
@lss7850 I'm not even that good, and my friends still complain about how difficult my lobbies are cause I use all the sweat moves.
good summarization of the problem 👍🏼
I think you're right that some kind of change is coming otherwise they would have continued in silence. I completely agree with the whole burnout suggestion.
9:43 You're right, but we've heard straight from them that they recognize SBMM is an issue and responsible for the terrible player retention. It doesn't even do what it's supposed to because it's such a terrible system that even the low skill players can tell something is up.
Yup i am below average at best average but i got punished too every bleeding game. HORRIBLE!
@@lv9084 hundred percent agree. I've never been that great of a Call of Duty player and yet I get these hard skill swings the same as everyone else.
It also inspires me to ruin matches for people. When I know I’m playing against sweats I pull out the rpg and shot the ground until the game ends. My team is down a player so good luck, and the other team never gets to shoot me. Screw SBMM
great video!! a very important issue.
also i loved the gameplay. close matches are more entertaining than dominating the whole game. had me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
Keep talking about it!! They’re feeling the pressure‼️‼️
Great points. The point that stood out is the not being able to play with friends because of skill gaps. This needs addressing
I’m also an addicted to cod og, and I’m getting burnt out too. This sbmm has to be addressed
Ace, I know that I don't speak for everyone, but I agree with your outlook on SBMM. I hope that you will stay active in the discussion with the Devs. Logic in the conversation, will be needed on our side!
The part about your experience when lobbying up with friends, is def true. I played MW ‘19 and MW2 a lot. One of the gang would consistently lament how much he didn’t like lobbying up with me, giving the exact reason Ace said. It’d be dope if they toned it down a bit. I haven’t gotten MW3 yet…still don’t know if I will.
This is the exact reason like 9 of my friends stopped playing
This killed it for me. I picked up Cold War and MW2 after years of setting gaming aside. Turns out, the BO2 friend teams aren't a thing anymore. I need to really like a friend's personality to let them play with me, cause lord knows I have no gun game left in me.
This video summaries everything perfectly...
So eloquently spoken as always Ace!
The funny thing is some streamers drop nuke after nuke like this sbmm doesn't affect them, and when asked why they dont show matchmaking, they say to avoid stream snipers. All bs.
They are 2 boxing, they have a second console that has terrible stats and then they join that account after the second account found a lobby
@carter9543 yeah offcourse no doubt. But the fact they try to hide it is blatant obnoxious. Pro players complain about matchmaking, yet some streamers are "so good" it doesnt ever affect them. Those streamers don't deserve our views
Streamers reverse boost for nukes.
Which youtubers are dropping a ton of nukes?
@ACE112ACE112 not going to name and shame without any concrete evidence
It’s truly mind blowing to me that they can’t just have all their bells and whistles, special features of matchmaking for ranked play but leave the public matches with no matching at all and make it random like the old COD titles. It sucks having to try so hard in all the matches and knowing no matter how I perform it’s going to want me to play up to the competition. They’ve made this whole matching topic so much harder than it needs to be. Just have separate game modes with and without any match making
I wouldn’t even care if it was toned down for pubs like do it where there’s 2-3 tiers of SBMM the first tier is for the people who don’t play much like they just buy it to play a little bit a week and have kids and stuff and then you get into the tier 2 which is kinda like the more average cod player where they play enough to know got to be good at it and it goes up to the dedicated fans or camp grinders level and then you have the highest tier which are like the actual good players where they can play with each other and still not be the most strict thing ever like we got rn. Either that or just have it where it chooses the best lobbies for your ping where you’ll always have the best connection over stupid skill
Honest question: why would ranked play, where you're playing only to compete, need sbmm but regular lobbies, with all the casuals, not? It seems so backwards to me. Rid of sbmm on ranked, keep it (much more modestly) on core MP.
I don't understand the reasoning behind ranked being subject to sbmm but regular not. I think I recall XDefiant planning on something like this.
If someone would explain the logic, I'd appreciate it.
W O R D 💯
@SunlightSee the video explains it pretty well..
@@TxAu- I’m agreeing with him and explaining what I think they should do.
Well said, I think that it is just cranked too high.. it is very hard to want to continue to play sometimes especially when most of the time I am doing camos or just chilling but I am put against cod pros
I remember people used to actually have fun in my old COD lobbies, some games I’ll play where everyone wants to snipe, other games ill play where people use knife only, the games had variety and not just for these reasons.
Now, all my games feel the same even with disbanding lobbies, everyone uses the same meta, everyone sweats bc thats the way the game pushes you to play.
Hope they seriously change things
I said this before, I don't mind actually similar skilled lobbies where both teams have the same skill, I mind having to deal with teams that I have to carry against godlike teams
Well my thoughts are as follows:
As for why they’re talking about it now? I agree I think it’s reached critical mass. I know for me if they don’t start getting these changes happening I won’t be sticking around. I’m already one foot out the door pending the release of Xdefiant so they’re already on super thin ice with me.
I don’t think Microsoft is “forcing” them to talk about it but I do think that they aren’t “stopping” them from talking about it now that Kotick isn’t the top of the chain and saying they can’t talk about it now, but that’s just my speculation.
I do think removing disbanding lobbies is definitely a start. The thing they loved to say in MW2019 was “JuSt AdApT bRo” as if there is any way to adapt to continuously changing criteria and match quality that are so inconsistent by design.
Simply put, there is nothing to adapt to because there is no bar set because the bar is either the connection quality or the skill of your opponents - both of which are a revolving door that constantly shifts match to match based on your most recent performance which also isn’t always consistent since you’re stuck in a constant loop of adapting to new circumstances.
To put it in layman’s terms: the goal post keeps moving so there’s no way to accurately measure where you are in relation to that bar to consider yourself “adapted” to.
Ideally, lobbies wouldn’t disband and the primary/only criteria you get matched by is connection quality.
I guess we’ll see what happens but I’m not holding my breath nor am I optimistic in the slightest about any of it.
They have a really long way to go before they earn back my trust.
I would have to agree with almost everything you mentioned. I personally would not have bought MW3 because of burnout and frustrations with the SBMM, but my daughters bought it for me as an early Christmas present. I have had some fun with it for nostalgic reasons and am really glad they decided to address SBMM. I am an ok player for an old guy and had fun when I could compete with people of my own skill level, but then be thrown into a lobby where I have a KD of .2 or something crazy after being destroyed by better players. I thank you for all your hard work bringing us your well thought out and testing stats it really helps to understand. Keep up the good work!
I feel like its probably a combo of the burnout like you said and also similarly a reaction to just how much goodwill COD lost over the course of MW22. I think they realize that they need to do everything they can to start rebuilding trust with the community
Great points Ace. I’ve been playing since the original Modern Warfare. My friends and I usually party up but with the varying skills in the party and the strength of the SBMM we rarely play together anymore. I play solo mostly, play three games then turn it off after having to deal with the punishment for having a decent game.
SBMM matchmaking is like gaslighting in an abusive relationship. It just knocks you down to build you back up and make you feel good but it's the thing that's causing the problem.
What you said about the wild swings in matchmaking is so true. That’s one of the main reasons Cold War was the last COD I bought
While I don’t expect any major changes, it would be nice if they tweaked a group’s matchmaking when playing with friends. Haven’t been playing multiplayer as much because of discrepancies in my friends’ skill levels. It made playing unenjoyable for those who are not as good, and that just sucks so when we are all on we’ve been having fun with Zombies. I miss the PvP but playing with my friends is why I game.
Outstanding!
Latency is definitely a means to “equalize.” It’s a business, and until the current player is more valuable than the next one, business decisions will be made to encourage the next.
I worked at Microsoft and other tech companies for 30 years. I safely assume that those making the decisions don’t play the game. And…they have a draconian, 15% to 20% growth quota for their annual review (and bonuses) each year. You can’t grow by supporting what you already have.
But you can shrink.
I was one of the people that returned for MW 2019 and the reason I did was because of the engine overhaul. The improvement to the visuals and the feel of the gunplay is what brought me back to the franchise. I didn't enjoy Coldwar as it reverted a lot of the changes that brought me back and never bought it. I didn't like the setting or the feel of the gunplay in Vanguard so despite buying it I didn't play much after the 1st 2 weeks. I bought and mostly enjoyed MWII but was annoyed the whole time by how much people didn't move around. Now with MWIII between the matchmaking feeling like I have to play at my best 24/7 to even come in the middle of the pack and the awful feeling mouse input I won't be playing till both of those systems are corrected. For reference I mostly play FFA on PC with MnK. Never before I have seen a FFA lobby with the difference in kills between the top and bottom player being 3 yet I have had that 3 times or more in the 30 or so hour I put in before uninstalling over a week ago now.
Wish we could go back to the old days with dedicated servers that could be run by the players. You'd build communities by seeing regulars, banning hackers from the server yourself, and you'd be able to customize a lot of the experience to how you wanted it. The reason most of these modern gaming companies refuse to go back to that is because they'd lose a lot of money on cosmetics, battlepasses, and other bullshit and it would really spotlight the issues with the games they're putting out. You still see people playing these older CoDs /FPSs because they were genuinely good games that stood the test of time by actually being fun.
I'm just gonna wait and see I doubt anything will change
IMO the biggest issue is the disbanding of lobbies. Yes the matchmaking in general sucks but it gets exponentially worse when ur thrown into it after every single game. Good lobbies and matches do exist and when I find one, let me stay in it! And if the bad players are in a bad lobby, they’ll just leave!
They are able to control your matchmaking experience by disbanding the lobby. They are one in the same, my personal opinion
Because the game is bleeding players. The amount of times I've been in the same lobbies with people is insane. And these people are from completely different countries to me. The SBMM is literally killing there player base
Those people they brought in to “protect” got a little better each year and started to feel what we’ve felt for a very long time. And now the uproar is 10x fold. Its finally collapsing.
I've been a CoD player for many many years...started near the beginning. I've stopped playing altogether for about a year and a half now. It's just not fun anymore and I can't really play with friends. Moved on to other games instead. And I won't come back until this sbmm is completely overhauled or removed. I still watch videos like thus though. Keep up the good work.
The swings in gameplay experience is what gets me. Going from weapons feeling like absolute laser beams and dropping people fast and feeling great to feeling like guns are shooting marshmallows and can’t hit a target to save my life, while insta dying to “5” shots. It’s insufferable.
i think one of the main reasons people are talking about matchmaking so much in this game is because in the previous 3/4 cods most people generally just disliked the game but with this game people really like the game itself but sbmm just ruins the fun for them instead of the game itself why most people are so vocal about it now compared to other cods
You're absolutely right about more people finally saying they're done with it. As someone who has played fighting games competitively for 10+ years now I've always been a pretty big supporter of ranking systems/elo/MMR whatever it maybe. But you can't even call this system that, it's hard to argue that this is even a system designed around giving players a genuine competitive experience, it's just miserable to play the game for longer than a few matches, and playing with my friends? horrific. It's really unfortunate because I actually think they sort of nailed the gameplay this year, and I was looking forward to really grinding this game, but I'm already feeling the burn out.
If we can get less strict matchmaking and non-disbanding lobbies, I'll consider coming back. Love the vids ace, always support you.
They acknowledge it because they don't want to talk about the bots
I just think that flaws in past titles covered the SBMM issues that the community had (MW19 focus was on WZ/Movement, CW in the lack of content, VG and MWII in gameplay mechanics like bloom, no slide cancel, etc) but this year since we have good core gameplay, nice maps and SHG listening community feedback, the SBMM became the Main problem and Activision figured out that even If they gave the community the gameplay and maps they love the SBMM will still be ruining everything
And with a big 4-year-development Treyarch game coming up they know they can’t fumble the bag with SBMM and people being burnt ou
Pretty much. This is the first year where SBMM has been the #1 worst problem in the game because the multiplayer in MW3 is otherwise really good.
Lack of content?
Hard disagree. These multibillion-dollar companies can focus on more than one thing at a time. Corporations move in methodical ways. Every decision is one that makes money when the company in question is in the business of printing currency.
Give me a few billion dollars, and you'd get a game development team that can focus on multiple tasks at once. That or I'd flee the country and I wouldn't be heard from again. Most likely the latter.
Nothing has changed as of right now but opening the door to having a conversation is like what Ace said, a step in the right direction. Especially after IW have been so stubborn over the last few years.
I have my own idea for matchmaking I think they could make in the future COD games that would make everyone happy. First, have the stricter SBMM for nee players on new or returning accounts. What I mean is for the first 10-20 games, new accounts or people who haven't played in 6-12 months, will have stricter matchmaking that will help ease them into the experience (And make it public as well). Once you finish, you'll get a loose rank that will determine how skilled you were from the testing, and you can he put into lobbies with people 2-4 ranks above or below depending on how many ranks there are. The one exception is a protected bracket, they will only really play with each other and maybe 1-2 brackets above if the connection or matchmaking time is too bad. This would give us variety, visual improvement as we see the lobbies get slightly better (OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME) but if you're above average you will still notice your improvement. Add lobby staying, a visual way to see your bracket range, put matchmaking first, and give a setting to pick if you prefer competitive, causal (Might need saftey precautions to avoid people abusing this), or mixed matchmaking, and overall I think this would help to create that short term success, while keeping long term and dedicated players happy
Why now... Simple, they sold a DLC for 70, bucks, people is angry, let's address the SBMM as "damage control"
Answer: To distract from bots being discovered in MP.
The SBMM is the main reason I haven't played CoD since Cold War, it was extremely noticeable and formulaic how the matchmaking was structured in that game: you jump on and play 2 just normal games and if you do well in them there will be 2 impossible lobbies vs a full team of 6 players going for the objectives and you'd have at least 4 lower skill players on your team for the enemies to farm uavs, ghost was just mandatory for those lobbies and I could only manage about an hour of gameplay before I was just... bored. I would grind for HOURS on BO2/MW3 and never get bored.
I think it was caused by when Sledges tried to talk to the community, almost everyone mentioned the matchmaking in some way, which they weren't allowed to talk about.
Personally reading the annoucement was a waste of time - just plain words, nothing new. Just the fact that more information about this topic will arrive eventually. Preparing the community for this could lead to being let down even more. Hopefully it turns out well because honestly I'm one of those that missed out on this year's title, SBMM being ONE of the reasons...
I live in Vienna and have consistently 120 ping games because it hunts for similar skilled players to play against. SBMM is far too brutal and needs to go
If they manage to fix or significantly tweak the SBMM, I'd love to buy this game. Getting to play the OG MW2 maps and seeing that the game has very solid overall gameplay has me interested. I just don't want to deal with the BS from last year's entry.
Man the gameplay was so tense 😅
I guess an example of SBMM in effect
I think this is also part of the issue
Games like this ALL the time are frustrating to play, but sometimes they are really fun to watch
I didn't know this was an issue, I game with a group of friends and everyone in the group would say I'm top ranked but they definitely hold their own and make me try harder, which has never come down to the opposing teams skill. Sometimes the other team will have an excellent player and sometimes they don't, but it's never been bad enough for us to want to quit COD
@TheXclusiveAce I thibk why they started to open up more about sbmm righ now is also the fact they want to cover up about ppl start talking about that bots fill up lobbies and alters the multiplayer experience.
Agree on all points! The worst one for me is that I hardly ever play with friends anymore because a couple of them always have terrible experiences. The second worst is the fact that I don’t want to have great matches anymore because I know what is coming in the following games, so I quit trying more or less. I get my kills for whatever camo I’m grinding and don’t worry about staying alive, because otherwise I will have a terrible time the next game. Having a good kd used to be a thing, but now I don’t even want a good one.
I remember playing so many different guns in Black Ops 2 with no change in my enjoyment. My KD remained mostly static from game to game regardless of wins/losses or the K/D of the previous game or what guns I was running.
I'm actually pretty sure they already tested a different matchmaking system in that experimental playlist 1-2 weeks ago. it felt so much more random and not as strict as the normal matchmaking. Kinda like the 10v10 moship playlist.
The experimental playlist felt different indeed. It started of fine but after a few games you could just feel the SBMM kicking in. I think the ""SBMM counter" was set to 0 again and was rebuilding based on your performance in the experimental playlist. I could be completely wrong but my mate felt the same way.
Probably because they noticed a decrease in sales. This is the first time I've not bought a new COD in 10 years and it is 100% because of SBMM. It sucks especially this year because all I've wanted for years was them to bring back the original maps. But I refuse to have my experience manipulated to this degree. One great first game of the day, then absolutely brutal games for the rest of the session. Gets old.
same here bro
Vanguard had even worse sales and they said nothing back then
@@epicgamerzfail4575yea but a world war 2 game was probably gunna be low sales.
A MW remastered type game should probably be doing a lot better I’m assuming
@@epicgamerzfail4575 vanguard had almost identical sales to MW2019 so it still sold pretty well
@@epicgamerzfail4575it was also only the 2nd year into their massive ramp up in sbmm. This huge change to matchmaking started in mw19. They aren't going to admit anything that early into spending years and a shit ton of money developing the most nefarious, manipulative matchmaking ever constructed.
This game so probably sold way less than any cod in the last 5 years...people have been sick of this crap since mw19...had to reach a breaking point eventually considering the playerbase has steadily dropped year after year since mw19
Ace can you talk about the ai bots in lobby’s to purposely make the games closer ?
He's addressed this before. Ace doesn't believe bots exist in multiplayer lobbies.
@@DarkNia64 they do, they're probably not activision bots though. There's plenty of bot lobby services you can purchase if you want to waste money and grind camos quickly. Activision does have a patent on AI bots in multiplayer lobbies that mimic real players though
Btw, if you guys haven't tried it, the mtz interceptor is a beast. 1 shot kill to the head, and two shot to the body. Absolutely crazy with very little recoil. Would recommend it 100%
The video hit every nail on the head, but to add my voice into the void…
I’ve been playing Call of Duty from when the fourth one first launched and I have primarily played with two very close friends.
The issue is that as our KDs ranged from 2.00-3.00 pre-SBMM, any game we enter nowadays as a trio is an ultimate sweat-fest; there is zero reward in being good or even wanting to kick back and game like we used to.
Whilst I understand why SBMM was implemented, I think ultimately the best thing is give players the choice.
Create two playlists: one that is ranked (which has a ranking system so you have something to grind for), and an unranked one. The former has SBMM enabled with disbanding parties and XP bonuses (so to incentivise people to use it), whereas the unranked game mode is old school COD - you’re thrown into a lobby with whoever and the lobby sticks together.
Having the choice to kickback and relax or to grind a SBMM-focused ranking system creates variety in your game. I understand it probably will never happen as they push people towards COD League, but, the ‘ranked’ mode can be a halfway house between that and your old school matchmaking (and as mentioned, an incentivised away to get challenges, XP, etc).
I’m typically a solo player. The worst thing about disbanding lobbies is, that’s usually how I would find teammates and parties of other good players to play with. We would play several matches together, give each other a tough battle then wind up linking up. With disbanding lobbies it’s nearly impossible to make new friends thru the game. The players I played with 4-5 years ago simply don’t play so it’s been a solo ride anymore.
Try the call of duty looking for players server, I’ve met tons of skilled players there and joined a smaller tighter knit community of good players and almost only play in 6 mans now.
*through
@@kunimitsune177 ?
Been watching this guy for years CRAZY to think he’ll be the one to save COD ❤️
I would love to see disbanding lobbies removed. I used to be able to play for hours and enjoy myself despite not having any IRL friends online - continuity in lobbies allowed me to make the “friendships and rivalries” you mention so often that kept me engaged with the community. Doing away with the disbanding lobbies would probably make the SBMM system bearable, I agree, as it would get rid of the wild fluctuations in game difficulty that you mention. And if someone feels they’re outclassed and getting curb-stomped…leave the lobby and rejoin another. Just like we used to do.
Every time I log on I always tell myself “time for a tournament” and I of course get into tournaments.😅
They still won’t recognize EOMM.
they will never .. not a single chance. Of course its there, sbmm probly was there before eomm, but we are likely experiencing eomm since 2019.. prior to that it was probly only sbmm.
Have you heard of the "Demonjuice" conspiracy? There are a lot of people on Reddit and RUclips who claim AI bots are a thing now in MW3 multiplayer.
The footage some of them provided as evidence looks convincing enough.
I've started to watch the scoreboard more closely, and there are a lot of rounds where I can tell something fishy is going on.
Accounts with zero kills leaving the lobby just before the round finishes, accounts without Activision ID numbers, really weird usernames, actual bot behavior, etc. It might be an explanation for the fact the Final Kill recap is gone, too.
I have only played Hardcore Shipment and Rust today, so maybe it's mainly a thing that happens in obvious challenge farming maps.
I agree with a lot of your points . I consider my self a cod og at this point. My first cod was WAW and I have bought every year up till Cold War. That was my breaking point I played the vanguard beta and knew that it was over for me personally. I normally get 1-3 titles a year and have not gotten or felt the need to get the game in a few years. The SBMM was a big reason the disbanding lobbies another reason. How the store preforms perfectly if I chose to buy something but packet burst while playing longer wait time to get into a game. It’s just not worth the money
I have to agree with everything you said. MWII last year held me at a .96 KD from March all the way to the MW3 launch. I've been playing since COD4. I started feeling the burnout you describe during Vangard. It got way worse last year. I would go positive 10 one game then have 3+ games off getting stomped -10 to -20.
im right there with you my guy. even when i have a good game and go above a 2.0kd, i get no joy out of it. kid you not i check my camo progressions than my stats. my overall kd right now is 0.97 and not caring about it is my "middle finger" sbmm and it making me feel like i was never good at fps games.
I think you nailed it 100% with the Sledgehammer receptiveness to feedback combined with burnout. MWIII is solid from guns, maps, to gameplay - plus an abundance of carryover content. Right now the elephant in the room is SBMM.
I really hope it's because Microsoft already has an impact on Activision.
Don't get me wrong, it's probably not that, but a CoD player can dream...
Back in the day I believe they had a “rank-based” matchmaking where they put you in matches with players of a similar rank, not based on actually skill or K/D ratio. I feel like this was a much better balance.
Keep fighting the good fight sir
You really hit the nail on the head. The game is actually pretty good, but such strict SBMM in pubs makes it so that my friends just don't enjoy the experience when they play with me, and I feel bad about it. I usually end up just playing by myself and its pretty lonely in comparison. In contrast, when I play with them the lobbies are so easy it doesn't even feel like I'm earning it.
same. its been a lonely road for some years lol
The worst part about this system isn't just the wild swings, it's when the system knows that you need a win. So it throws you on a team that will carry you to a win while you are at the bottom of the lobby with a 0.5 KD
And sometimes its very inaccurate because you and all your teammates went negative in previous games so it puts all of you "bad players" on the same team against much worse players and then you stomp the other team so hard and it seems like its the exact situation the game is trying to avoid but it ironically created it for itself because of the matchmaking system.
This happens to me all the time. If I’m top of leaderboard I always lose, only win when at the bottom. Makes no sense
I agree with all you said but i have some extra annoying stuff:
- If you do good you will have the worst noobs ever on ur team.
Eomm:
- If you do good everything will noticable change, you will be heavely nerfed on:
* damage/enemy hp boost
* ads speed and sprint speed
* flinch, recoil and aiming sway
* aim assist
* packet loss
* spawn death
* utility will act drunk
* hitbox increase(gl using riot shield in elephant size hitbox xD)
This is somewhat local to that wepon as well. My favourit playstyle has always been 1 tap style. Espsesially if it involve speed and finesse.
So when i play my longbow it will feel epic, i always aim head/neck/upper chest. And that is where i land my quickscopes as well. But after a while of slaying the enemies i will Get theese nerfs. And then i Even Get headshot hitmarkers. If i did some stupid cammo challenge on the games before on a bad wepon i can go like 60-5, but then theese nerfs come in and the game can litterally end with me getting 65-47 kd instead. I will spawn stupid as well in instant death, be flashed/stunned naded upon every spawn too. I have experienced beeing flashed having white screen for 2 minutes straight in shipment. And if you Watch those killcams you will se they put you in the landing zone of any utulity/killstreak availeble.
So there is no room for improvement, i was just as a good sniper at day one as today. And then you have the global wepon specific nerf, i know that longbow will be more bugged out than any of my other wepons.
I have experienced this since vanguard inteegation in warzone. First i thought they nerfed the spr, then i thought i was rusty. I went to priv game and quickscoped until i had 100% headshot, while sliding, jumping, and 180 etc those bots. And that only made it Worse. But i found out in the end that the game was nerfing me. I basicly been recording and watching every wtf moment since then. In slow Motion and seen all the stuff eomm brings to the table.
People can call it delusional, conspiracy teories or whatever, but do you guys know what was in the patchnotes when vanguard dropped? A dead on proof that they have the means and will to manipulate live outcome of ingame battle. «Riccochet will make cheaters do 0 damage ingame» this would happen mid game for cheaters, funny enought i only see it happening when a famous streamer met a cheater.
Later there has been plenty of patchnotes where they say they alter live gameplay to mess with cheaters. So yes, they have the will, the technology, and the analyzing equipment to alter live outcome of gameplay.
This makes it so boring. You cannot trust ur setup, 1 game the longbow will feel like the psg1 in black ops 1, then suddenly it turns into dragonuv or Worse. You dont dare to play ur favourit wepon, cause you know the more you slay with it, the higher this tools of them will know you like to pop head on it. I have also noticed i have higher body damage than headshot damage on several wepons. And that is not a way i want to play…. Actually noticed that already in beta of mw2. I had to start shoting enemy tie with my sniper.
In pubs, you cannot get away of disbanding lobbies unless you remove the game mode filtering. Only way possible is, if it keeps them together and does not randomize your game mode in lieu of keeping the lobby together.
I never use that feature anyway.