Algorithmic Handicapping (MMR) is Wrong for Overwatch

I persist in my argument because it’s important, and because Blizzard has failed to refute it. But I don’t consider the argument to be won, in the absence of their comment. It never will be won, unless it reaches a court of law. Consumers need protection from predatory corporations like Blizzard and the addictive products they design.

This thread is actually over 1 year old. It stands as warning about Match Making Rating (handicapping), which Blizzard has failed to inform players about, either through Overwatch’s user interface or terms of use. I stopped playing Overwatch myself when I realized what the handicapping system was doing to me; how it was wasting my time and energy.

This thread serves as an off ramp for other players to escape Blizzard’s abuse. If you listen to what Blizzard’s own executives are telling us – if you a literate, intelligent person – you will see there is no choice but to stop playing.

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I believe one day, Blizzard will divulge the MMR formula.

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Perhaps on the order of a judge :stuck_out_tongue:

You might have a case in Europe if loot boxes were tied to wins. Which they kinda are cuz of medals, but anyway, I digress.

So before divulging the MMR formula, the first ‘baby step’ would to be; have SR/MMR the only thing gained and lost in a comp match.

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I don’t think there are any baby steps here. Blizzard’s whole Competitive Play model is based on the wrong paradigm. They need to start from scratch, and make matchmaking based on rank exclusively. No other measures of “performance,” no handicapping.

obviously a better ranking team will stand to gain less MMR for a win when facing a worse ranking team, correct?

This is handicapping, but it’s also how a ladder system works.

but yes, no pbsr, no bonus points for delivering a payload that is tough to etc…

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Regardless of all theories and speculations about how mm works, I can definitely “sense” that if I play bad 1-2 match in a row it’s going to punish me by pushing me in worse games, with worse players and viceversa. Doesn’t mean im gonna necessarily lose those games but i can feel it at all. This game is hardly stat based no matter what people say about teamplay, I’m quite conviced that mmr is someway a stat that can go up or down regardless of winning or losing.
This is what players perceive as win/loss streak and bring that frustration actually ruining the quality of at least 80% of the matches.

MMR doesn’t correspond to wins/losses the way SR does (and even SR is only loosely related to win/loss, because of performance adjustment). Hypothetically speaking, you should be able to gain/lose MMR whether you win or lose, depending on how you played. But we don’t even know if MMR is a single number like SR is.

Unless it was changed somewhere down the line, Blues have expressly stated that MMR gains and losses are contingent upon winning or losing. How much it moves would be the part of the equation that is missing, but if you lose or win, you could reasonably expect it to drop or rise accordingly.

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Did you know the only way to climb is to get better and if you don’t get better you will wont climb you will stay were you are.

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It’s probably worth mentioning that you can get better but drop rank if you don’t improve at a higher relative rate than the rest of the player base. I think it throws some people off that playing longer doesn’t automatically equate to a better rank.

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Incorrect. We know PBSR contributes very little to over all MMR/SR. So if you lost a game but performed outstandingly, you would lose 20 MMR for the loss and gain 5 MMR for your performance. For a net loss of 15.

MMR is probably 2 numbers. Your rank, and how sure the system is about that rank. Look up Glicko rating system.

We need to fight for Blizz to divulge the MMR formula. Participants participating in participations, need to be made aware of the rules. Anything less is sacrilege imho

Glicko is designed for 1v1 games. Overwatch uses something more like Microsoft’s TrueSkill, which is designed for multiplayer competitive games.

Are you declaring a holy war? O.O

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I agree. The catch is that Blizzard will never disclose that information. It is a trade secret for them. And on closer examination, players would see it for what it is: a blatant exploitation of our competitive spirit. Nothing more than a concealed handicapping system to keep us addicted to/engaged with their product.

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I have a different outlook. I think that in less than three years, blizz will have a public ladder and public MMR formula.

Addiction does not exist. If you have demons in your head from not playing overwatch, this is addiction. If you can’t stop yourself from playing overwatch, that is not addiction. You need to take responsibility for yourself. It’s very rewarding.

I’m trying to get hired as an Overwatch Dev through forum posts alone.

That’s an interesting challenge to set for yourself, but from my experience companies generally look for programmers with programming experience.

I believe my ideas are that good.

Hmm, I’ve seen some demands from you and many insults but I can’t recall any ideas you’ve had. Nevertheless, you’re more likely to get a job with Blizzard by applying than by posting on the forums - I still think they’d want you to have some professional development experience before they’d hire you to the dev team, but I do believe they’re currently hiring if you wanted to apply. Alternatively, you could start a game company and enforce all your good ideas.

If you’re really interested in helping me, I think you would go to Blizz and speak on my behalf.

I’m only interested in helping people who want help, and regardless you couldn’t pay me enough to go back to California. They require their developers to live there. (Also, while I have the skills to work for Blizzard, I would absolutely not work for Activision, Blizzard’s current parent company.)

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