Activision has been secretly experimenting on players by reducing sbmm for 50% of populace in mw3
Results
The experiment ran in Modern Warfare 3 in early 2024. Discreetly, Activision toned down the “skill” in skill-based matchmaking for 50% of the North American MW3 population.
The results? Over 90% of players with toned down SBMM played less Call of Duty after the change, with the top 10% of skilled players not as affected. The paper goes on to confirm what has, to me, always been the most obvious reason to have SBMM: random matchmaking primarily benefits really good players, and disproportionately sucks for average-skilled players.
Full 25 page document
https://www.activision.com/cdn/research/CallofDuty_Matchmaking_Series_2.pdf
Tldr ; from the study skill in games matter more for longevity and repeated playing esp for casual audience.
Though how they calculate skill is based on too many factors than just kill streaks and.performance.
Hope ow stops reducing skill and reverts s9+
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i mean i wouldnt be surprised if there is shennanigans behind the matchmaking and such. video games arent really regulated and its pretty much your fault for playing and paying for them hehe
i mean i cant complain about stomps and still love the game but i do. i get potgs like this
https://youtu.be/xUGKdPhQQRc?si=iqwd8De1mwi1IWfp’
but the next game get stomped to a pulp and probably some games after. its a feel good simulation heh but thats online competitive games for you. i always thought halo 2 from a long time ago had a good matchmaking system or elo system.
still most games never had it… you queue up and hey whoever you get you get even if its the best player in the world. maybe it should be that way.
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I wouldnt be surprised if ow2 did this.woukd explain how i reached master when im just a slightly less clueless plat
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Ya but the main takeaway is using that sort of matchmaking reduces player playtime and engagement.
Dont know if ow also experimented such stuff, but key thing is people like having skill and depth in games especially casuals.
I appreciate the presentation and topic layout OP. Interesting stuff 
I’m kinda nonplussed by this tho, as with most MM threads. Casual players complain about the MM, but play unranked, where the mm is deliberately wide af, and dont play comp, where the MM actually tries to do its job.
Folks are constantly mistaken about what they think the mmr is doing and what it is capable of in this game. Like, all the effing time.
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Yeah the reality is that SBMM was made for Casual players so that they don’t have to worry about getting stomped by a good player, especially when you consider that gamers as a whole got much better over time, meaning anyone new to the space or aging out will have a larger hill to climb. SBMM is actually immensely helpful for the casual playerbase.
SBMM is a grest idea when it works, the problem is though is that it just doesn’t.
The SBMM now and days would be like if everytime you took a test in class, they moved you to intensive or advance classes based on a single test result. Oh you got 100% on a ten question test, well go to the advance classes or just skip a grade. oh you got 30% in an advance class exam that you just got thrown into. down to Intensive class you go.
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That is quite obvious, isn’t it?
Which is why OW gets away with rigged matchmaking.
It was clearly made to make everyone equally “happy” about their purchase.
Why it was not changed in OW2 is anyone’s guess but I guess it worked good enough so they didn’t bother changing it.
Anyone who thinks OW is a competitive game is up for a rude awakening.
Primary issue OW have is bad ranked system and bad balance. These are main problems. This is why people look for other solutions like 6v6 or open que.
All the scrubs who are used to being coddled by sbmm left, it’s a short term hiccough in what would otherwise be a good change. There’s a reason why everyone played CoD before it had SBMM and I don’t even know a single person who plays it now. People liked when games actually rewarded you for getting better at them.
In overwatch SBMM is probably a necessary evil because it’d be pure pain for veteran players to have to deal with teammates who feed and stagger every fight and don’t play the objective, but in a game like CoD it is just ego protection