"Engagement Optimized Matchmaking" same as MMR?

Competitive Discussion
#1

I just want to start my own thread to discuss the parallel that has been drawn between:

  • EA Games’ algorithmic handicapping system of “Engagement Optimized Matchmaking,”

  • Activision/Blizzard’s algorithmic handicapping system of “Match Making Rating,” and

  • Microsoft’s algorithmic handicapping system of “handicapping in a Bayesian skill-scoring framework.”

Is it commonly understood that all of these are anti-competitive handicapping systems designed specifically and explicitly to cause frustration and foment addiction? Do we acknowledge that the have been widely implemented in online games, even in the ranked competitive modes of those games?

We are moving into a dystopian world in many ways, and this is one of them. We have left private corporations to implement E-Sports without any kind of oversight or regulation, and ultimately they have made E-Sport a travesty.

What does everyone else think? For anyone who doesn’t know, I am referring to the video that was posted from Skooch:

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#2

Very interesting topic. I’m eager to see what people think about this as well!

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#3

No. lol. Is this the new “thing” you all are going to be peddling?

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#4

But don’t you see, this is not a new thing but the same thing, over and over again? Algorithmic handicapping has been reiterated dozens of times by private corporations and widely implemented in online games since the late 2000s. Yet it has seemingly never been considered by regulators like the FCC and FTC.

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#5

Well I mean as a business mindset you want people to have a seemless interaction with “play” / finding a server / progression. But… now these extra systems have even more incentives like psychological addictions.

So yea fun times and bottom lines.

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#6

What all of this reminds me of is when China started putting Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) into all of their foods because it caused a spike in neurochemistry/excitability which caused people to get addicted to their food, which raised profits.

Just because people are eating more of your food, or in this case playing more of your game, doesn’t mean people are enjoying it and it’s the right thing to do. They are taking advantage of people. However at least the MSG tasted good, in this case the matchmaker is not only taking advantage of people but also rotten.

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#7

Reported for spam
There are already like 4 threads that are exactly the same

This is getting embarrassing

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#8

Apex recently replaced terrible grind-based ranking with skill-based ranking and man, amount of complaints there ha

Players simply want to be high rankers, they think they deserve it

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#9

Amazing isn’t it?

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#10

The really embarrassing thing is the intellectual cowardice of people like you, who call for the censorship of factual information just because you don’t like it. My threads are not “exactly the same” for being about the same topic; other forum users are able to post about other topics more than once and are not mobbed with false reports. But I guess filthy lies are interchangeable with truth with the truth in your mind, and any means to silence your opponents is justified. I’ll say again, YOU ARE THE EMBARASSMENT.

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#11

There’s nothing factual about the lies you’re filling the forums with.

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#12

Wow, seems like I´ve hit a nerve

First of all:
YES IT IS SPAM
Just because not every thread has the exact same wording, doesn´t mean they are about the same topic.

If anything you talk about would even have a sliver of truth in it, you would only need one thread.
Repeating the same thing over and over again only shows how desperate for attention you are

And now I can tell you what the actual embarassment is:
Calling something

without any substantial evidence.
Everything you have brought up until now is not evidence and you claiming it is, doesn´t make it true either.

And while ZEST apparently doesn´t even want to answer my simple question, you can give it a shot if you would like to:

Why haven´t I (Or alot of other people here) experienced this “rigging”?
Does it only apply to certain people?
Or is it just luck?
I would really like to know

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#13

Wanna take another crack at that sentence? I think you intended a different meaning from what you actually said, because this is totally incoherent.

The words of Overwatch’s Principal Designer Scott Mercer are evidence of nothing? You are truly beyond reach, in La-La Land. You can speak for yourself, but you don’t speak for the majority of Overwatch players who want fair, non-discriminatory matchmaking.

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#14

No, it´s alright as it is
I say making multiple threads about the same topic is spam.
You say they are not spam because they are not

They are about the same thing. One thread would have been enough. Making more is just spam.

Show me the quote where Scott Mercer says:
“We are rigging the matchmaking. We force losses on certain people”

Go ahead

It IS fair (enough)
I think so
99% of all other people here think so

You and the same 4-5 people just repeat the same thing over and over again, sitting in your echochamber

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#15

What you said is illiterate and meaningless. There is an ‘Edit’ button you know.

I have already quoted Mercer saying at length saying this and other things about Match Making Rating. You whine for “evidence” while at the same time ignoring primary source information.

A stunning figure, from the Census Bureau of Imaginary Statistics.

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#16

I don’t find online shooters any different now to when I was playing Quake3 and Unreal Tournament back in 1999

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#17

Reasons the matchmaker/ranks are not rigged:

  • youtubers can consistently do a bronze-gm challenge on fresh accounts

Reasons the matchmaker/ranks are rigged:

  • patents show that it is rigged
  • abnormal behavior testimonials: i.e. “im on plat on my fresh account but bronze on my alt and my alt is impossible to level” (many such cases)

Even if all the data showed that it wasn’t rigged, the only thing the non-riggers have to explain is the patents. You can’t explain the patents. They are the only thing that makes it sus and not a total conspiracy theory.

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#18

I didn´t ask what you said some time ago and I don´t want search through x of your threads for it
Just show me the quote now. Should be easy enough, right?

Maybe my statement was slightly exaggerated, but thats still not a reason to ignore my statement as a whole

But you have always been really good at ignoring stuff that doesn´t support your arguments :slightly_smiling_face:

Patents happen all the time
Their existence should not mean anything
What if I find a patent about a non rigged matchmaker?
Would that be proof that it´s not rigged?

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#19

I knew you hadn’t actually read the original post or watched my video. Your every post demonstrates that YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.

Is this your first time using a web forum? I would sooner help you go to the bathroom.

There is no exaggerating IMAGINARY NUMBERS because they’re **NOT REAL." I do not ignore your statement, I DERIDE YOUR STATEMENT.

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#20

Ad hominem

begging the question… hardcore

Yet you talk about others intellect? You can’t form any kind of argument without it being fallacious in nature.

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