One thing I think people have missed on this forum is that Blizzard has probably delved into behaviour based outcomes with its MMR system given that it’s a corporation its focus is on increasing a player’s play time, rather than providing games that are fair.
For example, I’m sure it has looked at the psychology of gamblers and tested it on players over time.
Given that the match making methodology is used across multiple games, it’s essentially IP that it can use across many of its titles.
At the very least, I think Blizzard should go on the record and provide clear and unambiguous answers in regards to its MMR system given that it has an enormous outcome on matches that millions of people play.
Why does publishing the MMR formula make a difference? The only thing that happens if it’s published is more criticism on the forums because players still won’t climb past their skill level, and players will try to take advantage of the system.
Every Blizzard statement on Competitive mode and its matchmaking has been compiled in this topic (check the references section):
They’re not going to repeat everything nor are they going to reply to topics in these forums anymore, because as you can see in the very first reply of Kaawumba’s current topic, the stigma of video games only being for immature people exists and will exist forever no matter the game.
Part of the very problem though is that Blizzaed is constantly making tweaks to the MMR system as alluded to in the above post (by Jeff back in June 2016…).
I imagine that a number of changes have been made since then. So Blizzard should go on record and provide another update.
I honestly can’t understand why there are so many people being so adversarial on these forums, even when there is strong reasoning.
I just have to keep repeating the message until it sinks in.
The post linked above is just a long-winded way of trying to convince people that the matchmaker is good and getting better, it doesn’t really explain what people want to know (and what I know). Look at this part:
The system is extremely complicated and there is a lot more going on here than I am going to spell out. So please don’t take this as the comprehensive guide to how MMR is calculated in Overwatch. There is definitely a lot more going on under the hood.
Anyone who has played on multiple accounts has blatantly seen how bad the matchmaker is when you can get on a GM account and win 4-5 games in a row and then get on a plat account and lose games. Blizzard literally does not understand what competitive matchmaking is and should be.