Skill-based matchmaking, or SBMM, is a hot topic in the world of Call of Duty but isn't an issue for most other games, many of which seem to have figured out matchmaking. Accordingly, SBMM is a confusing problem when some of the biggest games in the world don't have and have never had matchmaking problems. So, in this article, we'll explain how Activision could fix Call of Duty's SBMM problem in ways that would still let them keep players engaged and maximize profits.
The Problem With SBMM in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone, Black Ops Cold War, and Vanguard Explained
Whether you just want to relax, you're a casual player looking for similarly-skilled opponents, or you're a high-skill player looking to compete, Call of Duty's SBMM system won't work for you just as it won't work for people who just want to rack up kills.
Unfortunately, the matchmaking system is just unreliable. If you're new to the game and terrible and play with a friend who's good and played a lot, you'll get lobbies full of cracked-out sweats. If you're good at the game, you'll mostly get lobbies of cracked-out sweats using the cheesiest weapons and tactics on the enemy team while your teammates won't have mastered aiming and shooting yet, until you suddenly get placed into bot lobbies where you can nuke almost on accident.
Related: Is Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies Good?
Regardless of skill-level, if you play too many good games or too many bad games, the matchmaking system will magically serve you up much chiller or more frustrating lobbies to compensate, too. And what your skill-level is, or what the skill-levels of the people in your games are, is impossible to know because Activision won't tell you.
All of this leads to a frustrating, confusing matchmaking experience where when you play good, you feel like the game just gave you a free one, and when you play bad, it's like the game set you up to fail. Plus, there's just no reason to it, no way to tell what the lobby you're loading into will be like, which is weird for a game with such a strict skill-based matchmaking system.
How Other Games Solve the SBMM Problem
The thing is that most other games with multiplayer components have some sort of skill-based matchmaking system, but this system, in other games, isn't a dirty word, it's just a way of life, a system that works and does what it's supposed to: stay out of the way and let people have fun.
Related: How to Fix Call of Duty: Vanguard Connection Issues, Crashing Problems, and Matchmaking Glitches
These systems vary game-to-game, but they generally work pretty similarly: Games tend to split up matchmaking into different modes, competitive play and casual play. Casual play has players load into games with whoever else is looking for a game, regardless of skill-level. Usually, something like ping is the biggest determining factor in who you match up with in casual play.
Competitive play assigns each user a skill-rating, starting everybody off at the same point. Then, when you play games in competitive play you'll be matched up with people of the same skill-rating as yourself. As you win or lose games or perform particularly well or especially badly, your skill-rating will go up or down.
This way gamers who want it can have a casual experience playing with people of a variety of skill-levels. And even if you end up having a bad time in casual play getting matched up against people better than you, you can just go play competitive play where you'll be sure to go up against people who play the game at your personal level.
Related: Call of Duty: Vanguard Changes From Alpha & Beta Explained
How Call of Duty Can Solve the SBMM Problem
First off, Call of Duty needs a full-featured, standard competitive mode. In this mode, you'll be assigned a specific skill-rating that will go up or down based on your gaming performance in each match you play. You'll be able to easily see your rating and the rating of the players in your games. Plus, in competitive play certain maps, modes, guns, attachments, etcetera, will be removed or rebalanced for a competitive gameplay experience.
In casual play, you'll also be assigned a skill-rating that you can easily see, except other players who aren't your friends won't be able to see your rating (how stats work now in-game) and the rating will be much broader than that of competitive play, i.e. you'll be placed in one of five categories: low skill, some skill, average skill, good skill, or great skill. These skill-ratings will be based off a variety of stats, i.e. K/D, W/L, accuracy, etcetera, all of which will be easily accessible in both casual and competitive play.
When matchmaking in casual play, you'll have three more toggles (in addition to Crossplay) to adjust to customize your matchmaking experience: Input Crossplay, Matchmaking Strength, and Lobby Fill.
Related: Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Integration Explained
Input Crossplay would work much like the Crossplay toggle: When enabled, you'll only matchmake with people using the same input method as you. Matchmaking strength would adjust the range of skill-ratings of players you can matchmake with: Standard Matchmaking will match you with players at your skill-rating or one skill-rating category above or below your rating, while Dynamic Matchmaking will match you with players at your skill-rating or up to two skill-ratings above or below your own.
This would mean in standard casual play you'll matchmake with people generally of the same skill, and in dynamic casual play you'll get to matchmake with a variety of skill-levels, but if you're a terrible player you won't ever get paired with amazing players and vice-versa.
Lobby Fill, the third and final toggle to be added, would function as a stop-gap for the other two toggles: If you enable lobby fill, if for whatever reason you can't find apropriate players to fill a lobby with, you can enable this setting to let the game matchmake with you anybody if at first it can't find people playing with your selected settings.
Related: Call of Duty's Anti-Cheat Ricochet in Warzone and Vanguard Explained
On top of these toggles, disbanding lobbies need to be stopped. This will mean that once you load into a game where you have a good time, you'll load back out to a lobby with the same players where everyone can choose to stay or go. This will give each individual player some more control over what exact kind of game they're looking to play.
Lastly, two special, permanent playlists need to be added to the game: a robust Party Games playlist and a Grind playlist. Party Games will have a variety of silly, low-stakes game modes like One in the Chamber or Prop Hunt or Sticks and Stones, while Grind will have small maps like Nuketown or Shipment where players can grind camos, level up guns, and the like.
The special feature of these playlists will be that games played within them won't count towards your stats, and both playlists won't have any skill-based, platform-based, or input-based matchmaking constraints. You'll simply load in and get paired with anybody playing the same playlist.
Related: Does Call of Duty: Vanguard Have SBMM, or Skill-Based Matchmaking?
This means that players who want to have a truly random experience can have that option but won't be able to exploit this to improve their stats, and it gives players the option to have casual, low-stakes experiences where they can play silly party games or grind guns without having to sweat or feel bad about lowering their skill-rating.
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!