It’s been a long time since I wrote the original post of that, for Blizzard’s previous Overwatch forum:
I want to check in with you players, to see if I should keep beating this drum. How relevant is the topic today? What do you think of Blizzard’s current handling of competitive play and the current implementation of MMR?
Lawd Jesus here we go again. MMR is not some evil thing keeping you down. It’s literally just the number they use to match players together. To remove MMR would be to remove any semblance of matchmaking.
I think you’re right that MMR is the essence of “Matchmaking.” I guess my argument has always been that “matchmaking” is a bad thing, when it runs parallel to the ranking system.
Some players like you see no harm in duplicitous systems like this, but that’s because you’re casual gamers. Players who really care about fair competition, real competitive players, should care about hidden handicapping.
I want Blizzard to disclose the fact of MMR/handicapping in their game’s UI and terms of use.
Shall we compare ranks? The way I see it, you’re the casual here. Instead of sucking it up and gitting gud, you whine about the system being a big ol’ meanie that’s hard to work with.
They use to many variables to make a match. You can play qp or arcade and have games that are so close it’s actually fun. Then you have comp games that are so one sided it makes you tilt and blame your team for a loss.
That’s just because you like the taste of the mystery meat you’re eating. For now.
I’m not trying to start a ‘rank’ waving contest here; as if that was a way to actually sort this out. You’re not Blizzard, so you don’t have the answers I’m looking for. But it’s sad that you have no questions of your own.
It’s interesting that you see it that way! I wonder if MMR acts the same way in both modes.
If anything it’s filthy casuals that think MMR is handicapping and preventing them from climbing and so on.
I wouldn’t take joy in bashing on someone that’s noticable lower skilled than I am nor would I find it fun to be humiliated by someone that’s in another league compared to me.
The only thing MMR does is determining your skill relative to other players within the same skill bracket and then use this information to games where both teams have a chance of victory.
People stop discussing topics when they get older and are not at the top of the feed, that’s all. You’re right that nothing has changed with the matchmaker, and that’s exactly why I want to keep the discussion going.
Weird. Here I thought a patented handicapping system designed to give specific players wins for playing below their historical data was handicapping.
That depends on your definition. If you are playing against a person the system has deemed outside their historical stats, and engineered a match to help them get better stats, but doesn’t tell you, would you consider this handicapping?
How would it engineer this you say? By giving better teammates, worse opponents, or players more aligned to their play style.
“[0016] In another example, if a player has been performing poorly (e.g., getting killed at a rate higher than the player’s historical rate), the scoring engine may dynamically adjust one or more coefficients to match the player in a game that will improve the player’s performance. For example, the player may be matched with easier opponents, matched with better teammates, and/or placed in a game that is more tailored to the player’s preferences (e.g., players that play in games more closely aligned with their preferences tend to perform better).”
Yet that patent has nothing to do with OW and you’ll find hundreds if not thousands patents by Activison.
Anyways that patent is related to CoD which is a game for filthy casuals that using a completly different type of matchmaker system developed by a completly different team of coders.
Also, if it is a component of matchmaking so crucial to their IP to be patented, to think it is not incorporated in some way is the height of naivety. The game needs profits, this patent is designed to increase profits.
Don’t have the thread bookmarked but someone posted information about that patent in the original thread, think it was on here or the reddit response to that thread that was on here.
And no, just because you patent something doesn’t mean it’s of any importance, you’ll see companies do that all the time with essentially every new discovery, original invention, innovative idea and so on.
Anyways, even though Activison aquired Blizzard back in 2008 it’s not until like the last year or so they’ve started to be involved in how Blizzard been operating more and more.
The patent was filed back in 2014 almost 2 years before OW was released and during this time, the development phase, blizzard isnt’ even listed to the patent so clearly it wasn’t a huge influencer in the making of the matchmaker originally implented in OW as they only assigng Blizzard entertainment along with other subsidiaries to the patent in late 2016 by the time OW had been out for half a year.
And yes, you are right that some of the parts in this patent may be things also implented in OW (or hearthstone or any other game under the activision domain really) because it seems to be trying to cover every aspect of anything related to matching people against each other players.
Also getting skins in OW isn’t really performance based to begin with. Has more to do with time consumed.
I finished season five in mid gold. I am now (albeit barely) masters. If mmr is keeping people down how did I climb.
It took me until season fourteen to reach masters the first time so it’s not like I suddenly popped into it. I spent time getting good and eventually I made it there. Getting good works
Citation needed. Opposite has been said by Jeff himself, in that he had to fight for the new “sales format” of Overwatch.
Which makes sense for a development game not to be listed.
Group update, for protection to establish historical use. This does not equate to “Blizzard did not have access” which seems to be conflated here. Was there a specific game you could attach it to for why Blizzard was added, that was still in production in 2016, that had teammates? If yes, love to learn the name. If no, then your point is established to be based on an incorrect assumption.
Lootboxes. Skin envy is real, and drives lootbox sales. Patent aids this purpose. Also no one continues to play a game they can’t win, or that they never lose. Patent aids this hamster wheel purpose too. Keeping a large player base is needed for financial success of games like this.
The info is just like you are repeating here - not from a reliable primary source. It reeks more of damage control, trying to hide this aspect of the matchmaker.
I’ll keep posting this patent and let people decide for themselves if it 100% represents their weird matchmaking streaks.