If you happened to be playing a few matches of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and found your matches to be a little bit off-balance recently, that apparently wasn’t just you; that was Activision performing a secret little experiment on matchmaking for the purpose of seeing the effects of skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) on player behavior.
According to the studio and a self-described whitepaper, about 50% of players in North America were put into games with “loosened skill consideration in matchmaking,” which found that (unsurprisingly) players who experienced a wider skill gap left matches more frequently – by as much as 80% – while 90% of players didn’t bother to come back as a result.
The devs also attempted to turn the dials the opposite way, tightening SBMM, which resulted in the inverse happening: Quit rate was down for 90% of players and KPM improved for lower-skill players, but the change had negative impacts on players in the upper echelons.
“The marginal performance increase for high-skill players with loosened skill consideration represents a short-term gain,” the study concludes. “We will always strive to improve our approach to matchmaking to ensure that players of all skill levels are having the best possible experience. A healthy player population is good for everyone in the community.”
Player reaction to these data can generally be described as a shrug of the shoulders, though there are a few players who appear to relish in the fact that SBMM having such an impact negates player arguments to the contrary. As one poster put it, “Maybe if we cut back on the egotistical gut reactions and used the squishy thing between our ears, maybe could realize that player retention is a good thing.”
