I know there has been plenty of controversy regarding sbmm over the last few days over the subreddit…
The opinions are largely divided into two groups:- 1. People wanting a relaxing experience in public matches and not wanting to sweat like in ranked
2. People wanting to have a chance at the game without getting steamrolled by people several tiers above them.
Now there is substance to both the arguments, but I would like to point out some points that I have rarely seen mentioned in the discussion.
The futility of queuing up with less skilled friends:- if you are queuing up with a less skilled friend(s), the game is outright unplayable with sbmm similar to ranked. That is, if it puts you in a lobby with people of similar skill to your highest skilled player then there is no way you are going to win. This makes sense in ranked as it avoids exploits but not in pubs.
The massive jump in value of badges and achievements. Remember seeing a 20 bomb badge near launch time which was terrifying, since it means that guy has had significant experience in fps to be able to achieve that so quickly. Then the value might have dipped slightly as the game matured as people became for familiar with the game and chances of getting a wake badge increased. Then the value of the badge kept increasing as the averageskill level of the playerbase was also increasing over time. Until it took a nosedive during shadowfall, 20 bomb/4k damage badge etc. Were tough to get but still achievable. Now imagine having to get a 20bomb in sbmm enabled pubs. Not only is it incredibly difficult to achieve, it becomes tougher and tougher for you as you get closer and closer to it. Like an knot that keep getting tighter and tighter. You have been getting 10-15kills back to back, great , now you will be put in a tougher lobby which should put you right back where you belong. This goes for all badges as well.
Now, I know respawn have been adjusting the mm for a while now. It seems they are testing and gathering data based on the mm algorithms they are using which is pretty good. I really don't have any of those data to suggest a perfect solution. But I do have one. There can be a tier system for early player up until a certain level(or set of parameters) after which everyone that has passed the limit will be put in the same lobby. If respawn wants player retention, then respawn could have this high enough so that a person that barely ever improves can still have some fun in the lower tiers at the same time the ones among us who enjoy a challenge would still be able to become better at the game. IMO since the entire concept of BR is based around RNG, I wouldn't mind having completely random lobbies. Getting steamrolled by ttvs are the reason I got better at the game. But not everyone will have that patience so I understand respawns decision behind it.
I just wanted to write this post to say that the in-game experience that most people are mentioning in the sub is not the only long lasting impact that sbmm will have on the game. For a person like me these points tick me off way more than having to be sweaty.
TLDR:- Pure SBMM makes queuing with lower skilled friends incredibly difficult and also makes getting the high tier badges outright impossible. It would be best for respawn to collect data and decide on a solution.IMO it should be implemented such that it helps people with no improvement to stay in their own tier cutoff while the people who passed a certain threshold can experience the pubs with pure randomness.
