It’s impossible that 100% of players are rigged. There is always the player on the other end that remain unrigged in any given game. The maximum that can ever be achieved is 50% rigging and at that point why would they even bother when you get the same results by not doing anything. Rigging a 2 player match gets Blizzard nothing because 1 player always escapes the rigging.
Idk man if I’m being honest that argument feels extremely semantic, to the point of being lame. I mean, if the maximum that can ever be achieved is 50% by some measurement, then achieving 50% by that measurement is 100% of what is possible. Essentially, I think there’s always an argument that the maximum that can be achieved is tautologically 100%.
(That’s why I measure a 55-45 matchup as 10% polarization btw. You could say that it’s 5% off of 50-50, and that’s cool, but that’d mean that a 100-0 matchup is only 50% polarization. Nah, that’s as polarized as possible, it deserves 100%.)
We’re on the side of truth, we shouldn’t need to use arguments of low quality. It’s nowhere near 50% rigged anyway.
‘Obviously’. 
There are plenty of adepts of the cult of so-called ‘Matchmaking’ and ‘MMR’, yet I haven’t seen anyone present something — at least a formula.
Btw, Mercs are a different mode, but there’s at least a ‘MMR’ number presented to players, no matter how horrible the PvP system there might be (and that’s an opinion by one of the most avid Mercs afficionados here) — and the way it works is a total mess, to put it very mildly, that bogus number being indicative of essentially nothing — apart from the amount of time/games spent there (by the way, the top of the ‘rating’ are bots farming it non-stop).
Oh, the ‘player’ factor plays a vanishigly small part here, noticeable only over a large number of games, perhaps. It’s mostly factors like decks (budget/starter vs optimised ‘meta’ etc) and so on.
Dunno what ‘101’ is supposed to mean, but go on, enlighten me about that algorithm. Formula!
Oh, and I know of things such as Elo’s rating and so on, which works very well where it’s applicable. What’s going on in this game is apparently some sloppy mess, hidden behind obscurity, and some mumbo-humbo fancy words about some supposed MMR, which probably measures objectively nothing.
Supposedly not:
Casual mode, Ranked at Legend rank, and non-cooperative Tavern Brawls determine pairings using each player’s matchmaking rating (MMR).[1] [2] Ranked play without a Star Bonus is determined by each player’s rank …
https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Matchmaking
So, in the beginning of a season, those ‘pros’ should be separated from beginners by that ‘MMR’ magic.
However, lemme tell you that in the recent years I’ve played from the very bottom all the way to Legend without a star bonus at least twice (in Classic and Standard respectively), having been inactive for so long that my supposedly oh-so-high ‘MMR’ would be erased or irrelevant for the reasons listed above. Gotta tell you: there’s practically no visible difference in terms of opponents’ skill, decks and so on, except for there being a bit more budget, beginner or ‘unconventional’ decks at the very, very bottom (below Gold or such).
The only noticeable difference in ‘skill’ is like that:
Yep, that’s indeed one of the moment where remaining silent is better than revealing one’s ignorance (well, at least I adhere to this opinion), including via giggling at what one can’t comprehend, because:
That’s just factually wrong, for it can be easily disproved by counterexamples, such as this one (yes, posted it already many times, but what of it — it’s one of my favourite ones):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tav_ttqyv9Q
It’s a rather crude bot, playing very sloppily, vs a skilled player.
Only in theory, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
Even if the actual matchmaking is not rigged, it’d better be 
, since otherwise it’s just a sloppy mess.
Hmm, speaking of ‘normal’ — what’de be approximately normal (literally so) is the distribution of players by win rate (if you’re not familiar with Gaussian, or normal, distribution, I’d suggest reading up if you’re interested). That is far from the ‘all are equal’ picture, i.e. a nearly-rectangular, or ‘supergaussian’, distribution. So, in order to achieve the latter, you’d need to actively meddle in order to flatten the ‘bell curve’, as it is colloquially referred to, of the normal distribution, which would be expected to occur ‘naturally’.
Because it’s more efficient, besides, because they might aready have — having demonstrated at least two bits of technology with potential applications for rigging, I’m inclined to assume they’d explore a third one as well — seems more in line with the course of action they’ve taken.
Only that person can specify what he or she meant, I can’t answer for them, but I can provide my reasoning or my answers to your question, since I’ve found it interesting.
Yes, probably so — as said, I’ve correlated it with their advances in technology (functions like ‘Zephrys’ or ‘Optimotron’) and AI (for example, at some point the one used for single-player bosse was improved substantially, see, for example: Heroic Karazhan --- Free Medivh! in August 2022). In any case, I’ve described the way I’d probably approach and implement (in practice, not just with general concepts) rigging the game if I were tasked with it.
Just because some theories about the game being rigged are amateurish or wrong, it doesn’t mean that so is the notion in general.
In brief, I’ve touched three different aspects here.
- Is it likely that the game is rigged?
My answer is yes for roughly the reasons that the topic-starter listed.
- Is there a motive, an incentive for them to do so?
My answer is yes — see the part about ‘mass appeal’.
- Have they got the means?
My answer: yes, with their advances in AI and some technology with such applications already having been implemented and demonstrated.
The actual contentious issue at hand, once we strip all the name calling and unproductive text (ie you’re a shill, or you’re a conspiracy nutcase) can actually be tenable from both sides.
Let me concisely put into words what I believe is the issue being argued:
Blizzard may be using information other than a players estimated skill (MMR) in matching players.
In the patent describing their match making algorithm they neither confirm nor deny the above is happening.
So whether you believe the onus of proof is on the side of the Blizzard shills or the conspiracy nut cases is completely dependent on what you believe to be true before you come to the argument rather than any objective fact.
You may think allegations that Blizzard uses information such as what deck you are playing to match you as ridiculous and therefore your stance will be that you require proof before you even consider the possiblity.
Or you may be convinced you keep getting matched against hard counters and therefore in your mind you require proof they are not purposefully matching you against your hard counter.
All that said, I will say there is a financial incentive for Blizzard to match unpaying players against their hard counters in order to spur them into buying the dust needed to play a stronger deck that may have less counters.
Open your mind folks, there’s valid arguments on both sides of this divisive issue.
Activision Blizzard patent. This is how Hearthstone’s algorithm works.
Forced winrate is also typical for this company.
Hearthstone is obviously a rigged game, everything is manipulated with fake “rng”, randomness is pure illusion.
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The actual point I was making there, behind the sarcasm, is that no definite formula or algorithm for the alleged so-called ‘MMR’ has been presented to the general public, as far as I’m aware.
Thus, as your words would also imply, in my view (please correct me if I misunderstood), ‘MMR believers’ (or ‘Blizzard shills’, as you put it) are no better (or worse) than ‘conspiracy nuts’ in this regard — these are both just theories.
It’s got nothing to do with establishing the ‘truth’ — we’re not in court, after all. What counts is arguments in favour of either theory.
That is more from the ‘motive’ part of the scheme I proposed above (the other two being the means and the suspicion of the ‘crime’ actually having happened). And yes, it’s a valid argument, although it might or might not be actually true.
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There is a set up “random” in a 50/50 win/loss game to make it close to the 50/50.
For example, I play DK done to dominate DH meta = 39 games out of which only 6 are DH, and almost all those games where at the beggining of this deck gameplay, then I start getting hard control decks.
I’m saying it’s for sure a preset game and thus there is no true competition in it and no cybersport, I think they pretend for at start, but very soon moved the game to the “casino” style to grab money, but it feedback with people leaving to other games and decline in general. Greed is a sin, it kills everything in the end, games too.
No, there is not. No one has ever bought packs because they were made to feel like there are worse player than they actually are.
What makes people buy packs is the feeling that they are a better player than they actually are. Blizzard has a strong financial incentive to mislead players into thinking that they are better than they actually are. When this illusion wears off, the standard cope on the part of the affected player is to believe the lie that they are good, and point to the truth that they aren’t winning and call that the manipulation.
I am not saying that Blizzard does not psychologically manipulate players. They absolutely do. But the means that they use to do so is absolutely not the process that you describe, because it has never worked, doesn’t work and will never work.
Tl;dr Algorithm at work as intended
or mess with it, with the few things we can
I figured out the secret code to unrig the matchups. Every time you are in the queue you have to type in the secret code: MrDestructoid Kappa NotLikeThis BabyRage KEKW. You must type it in that order and it’s case sensitive. There is no indicator at all for doing it right other than the next game you que into won’t be rigged. If you don’t finish before the que finds a match it doesn’t work. Copy Paste doesn’t work. It must be typed and completed before the queue matches you. But if you do that you will be immune to rigging when its done right.
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I said this years ago in this forums that i never do a legend climb without my rabits foot and 4 leaf clover at hand.
I also howl at every full moon for extra mulligan luck , works 100% for the past decade.
And no, its not all in my head thats the way the game works.
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I can’t even.
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My cat knows the secret code to defeating the algorithm but he won’t tell me. I have to let him walk across my keyboard while I’m queuing into a match and he helps me so much. I trust my good kitty he tells me the way to win always
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Did you ever hear of the time COD admitted to fixing their matchmaking in favor of players who bought the newest DLC guns?
See what they would do is, after someone bought the new pack, they would match them with lower ranking players. This of course would give a big rush of dopamine because they were dominating the game they were in. These lower rated players chosen were also marked. See they DIDNT buy the DLC, and when they died to the newest DLC weapons would THINK making that purchase would help their odds. Repeat this process and you have a cycle of paying customers because you will always get 1 more.
Now, the point I’m making is the following question.
Who owns Hearthstone? And who owns COD?
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Kitteh is wise beyond his years
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I think this is a lie. At the very least it’s a bad description.
What they actually would do — and I believe still do — is TEMPORARILY after you buy shiny new gun, you are more likely to be queued into map that makes shiny new gun good. For example, buy sniper rifle, get the map with the sniper nests. They did want to give you a bit of a dopamine rush after a purchase, that’s true enough, but it wasn’t about pairing the purchaser against specific players, it was about pairing them with a map.
Now one might argue that this is a stealth nerf to players who don’t have said gun, because then if you randomly get that sniper nest map without owning the sniper rifle, and you’re hoping that no one else will have it … well, they probably will. Unless a bunch of people all buy sniper rifles at once, in which case map is full of new owners. But it would be an indirect effect at best.
Now, the thing that was a little cheesy was that players who didn’t own the sniper rifle would be marked. They wouldn’t be marked for bad matchmaking though. They’d be marked for a targeted marketing suggestion right after playing that map. “Hey there player, do you… wanna buy a sniper rifle?” I think that reality is plenty criticizable, no need to make stuff up.
Oh and I said it before but to emphasize, these were temporary adjustments. They wouldn’t just put you in the sniper rifle map endlessly after you buy a sniper rifle. Indeed, eventually it would swing the other way and have you avoid that map. Activision is smart, they know people who bought once are more likely to buy again relative to non-customers.
Anywho, it helps to actually read the patent and not just repeat nonsense you read on social media.
You dare doubt the power of the Almighty patent? It follows you around and riggety rig you with rigging riggness. There is no escaping the patent. It slices, it dices, it riggety rices whatever that means. Anything you can think of the patent does. There is no escaping the patent. Now that it has been invoked all you days everywhere will be filled with rigging.
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I have said these same things before.
You can watch it happen without even changing your entire deck.
Just switch some key cards…I know a couple metas ago I switched in the cleanser counter for Plagues because the majority of games I was in were against plague, as soon as you make the switch the rotation of Vs would shift dramatically and I would go hours against random decks I hadn’t seen either in weeks or even decks I had never seen and plague decks became a rarity. I had noticed this same phenomenon going back years (I’ve played since the game launched). But I definitely seem to notice it more dramatically in the last couple years, though I do I have larger “personally experience” set to draw from as I have played substantially more in the last couple year than I had previously.
Now for all I know thats not direct “rigging” and more of a blizz “we no longer know what decks to throw at you so here is a bunch of random BS till the algorithm figures it out to then be able to “evenly” match you”.
Whatever it is, I am fairly certain there matchmaking goes deeper than just player MMR and it DOES in fact include your deck.
This game is rigged as hell. Literally everything is manipulated. Machmaking, mulligan, card draw, discovery options… all manipulated. Randomness is pure illusion, there is only Blizzard’s fake “rng”. Hearthstone in its actual state is a frustrating trash game for psychopaths from psychopaths, a rigged money making machine. Cheers!
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