Community: Message List - How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 04:51:51 GMT

The mere fact that they are releasing press statements to distances themselves from the problem is proof enough that something is going on with the increasingly bad syncing problems or the "lag comp" problems. Unless you've lived under a rock for the past 250 years its basic politics to run interference and try to distance yourself from the problem. "Oh, look its not us thats causing your game to be wildly out of sync with the other people on your screen and in your lobby. Its you, or your kids streaming netflix, or your ISP throttling your connection. Nevermind that many of you have been playing on the same internet connection or have upgraded it since CoD 4. Trust us we released a nifty statement." Its funny I always knew the only game that could take down CoD was a CoD that would totally alienate its player base. But, after MW2 and MW3 I was convinced it would be a game by Infinity Ward. And after playing BO2 I think this game may be the game that finally causes CoD to cannibalize itself.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 03:11:49 GMT

Well, this just confirmed who the party leader should be from now on.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:44:40 GMT

That would be nice to know thou. My reason for asking is because a few nights ago I joined a lobby where there was a a level 14, that dominated and obliterated the opposing team for 3 rounds in a row. I was in the opposite team the first lobby and ended up with him in the following 2 lobbies, we talked and he was telling me he had just reset his stats for the same reasons I described in my original post. I just wondered if that was a factor in the matchmaking process.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:37:51 GMT

LimonAgrio wrote:

maccabi wrote:

nicedrewishfela wrote:

I don't think that system could ever be perfect.

It uses numbers to try to create a baseline. What it can not measure is the intelligence or intent of the players involved. What if the high K/D guy is just someone who ignores the objective and camps? What if the high SPM guy is just goofing around this match? Humans are human... you can't know how they are going to act.

It is basically impossible to truly matchmake by actual skill, and we all know the numbers can be misleading.
totally agree there is no fool proof "skill" measurement in CoD each attribute can be manipulated either on purpose or just because you got a lucky scorestreak in a care package.. Thats why its more of a ballpark round your level (ish) sort of parameter.

heck we just had a game of demo on nuketown and some lvl8 greenie went 70 something for -8 against us, he got lodestar and i dont know if you've experienced a lodestar on nuketown its not pretty if you're on the recieivng end.

also it's probably best if we just point blankly ignore my one man fan club, if someone needs to constantly make new accounts just solely to berate me well reflects more on them , especially as they obviously dont have the betsim enough to use their own proper account.
I still have some confusion as to how exactly the skill based matchmaking works per se. My question is for example how does it works when an outstanding or excellent player reset their stats on the game? Will matchmaking be based on the new flatlined stats of that player or is the matchmaking data based on the overall stats acomplished by that player regardless of the reset? Could you elaborate on that?

I hope my questions is not confusing, I am trying to picture it as best as I can.

Honestly not a clue on that one, i would guess that it would reset along with the stats, you could i suppose have a rank that "sticks" to the gt but resetting yourself would throw that off as you arent likely to do as well when you start,so its liable to cause issues

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:28:38 GMT

maccabi wrote:

nicedrewishfela wrote:

I don't think that system could ever be perfect.

It uses numbers to try to create a baseline. What it can not measure is the intelligence or intent of the players involved. What if the high K/D guy is just someone who ignores the objective and camps? What if the high SPM guy is just goofing around this match? Humans are human... you can't know how they are going to act.

It is basically impossible to truly matchmake by actual skill, and we all know the numbers can be misleading.
totally agree there is no fool proof "skill" measurement in CoD each attribute can be manipulated either on purpose or just because you got a lucky scorestreak in a care package.. Thats why its more of a ballpark round your level (ish) sort of parameter.

heck we just had a game of demo on nuketown and some lvl8 greenie went 70 something for -8 against us, he got lodestar and i dont know if you've experienced a lodestar on nuketown its not pretty if you're on the recieivng end.

also it's probably best if we just point blankly ignore my one man fan club, if someone needs to constantly make new accounts just solely to berate me well reflects more on them , especially as they obviously dont have the betsim enough to use their own proper account.

I still have some confusion as to how exactly the skill based matchmaking works per se. My question is for example how does it works when an outstanding or excellent player reset their stats on the game? Will matchmaking be based on the new flatlined stats of that player or is the matchmaking data based on the overall stats acomplished by that player regardless of the reset? Could you elaborate on that?

I hope my questions is not confusing, I am trying to picture it as best as I can.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 02:07:25 GMT

nicedrewishfela wrote:

I don't think that system could ever be perfect.

It uses numbers to try to create a baseline. What it can not measure is the intelligence or intent of the players involved. What if the high K/D guy is just someone who ignores the objective and camps? What if the high SPM guy is just goofing around this match? Humans are human... you can't know how they are going to act.

It is basically impossible to truly matchmake by actual skill, and we all know the numbers can be misleading.

totally agree there is no fool proof "skill" measurement in CoD each attribute can be manipulated either on purpose or just because you got a lucky scorestreak in a care package.. Thats why its more of a ballpark round your level (ish) sort of parameter.

heck we just had a game of demo on nuketown and some lvl8 greenie went 70 something for -8 against us, he got lodestar and i dont know if you've experienced a lodestar on nuketown its not pretty if you're on the recieivng end.

also it's probably best if we just point blankly ignore my one man fan club, if someone needs to constantly make new accounts just solely to berate me well reflects more on them , especially as they obviously dont have the betsim enough to use their own proper account.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 00:59:59 GMT

What challenge is it exactly? If you want to help the game by raising an issue then start a thread and get it in the open forum for people to discuss it. Me and maccabi don't agree on everything either but it's not maccabi that's my focus it's the game. Maccabi actually tries to help in his own way and since I and others do know a bit about some computer stuff we also notice the "assume people don't know the basics" type manner that nerdy folk don't use intentionally as it's just a best practice type manner that can come across wrong. That isn't nearly as bad as your blatant attack on the guy.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:16:38 GMT

I am as well. I am sure we don't know all the details, but it is good to get some transparency like this from the Devs about how things work.

Facts > Speculation and Griping.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:15:19 GMT

I don't think that system could ever be perfect.

It uses numbers to try to create a baseline. What it can not measure is the intelligence or intent of the players involved. What if the high K/D guy is just someone who ignores the objective and camps? What if the high SPM guy is just goofing around this match? Humans are human... you can't know how they are going to act.

It is basically impossible to truly matchmake by actual skill, and we all know the numbers can be misleading.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:31:30 GMT

Just really happy to see Them opening up on this topic and dispelling all the myths. Keep it up guys, I love knowing how things really work (curious mind) behind the scenes.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:45:49 GMT

Define Skill - Skill is in the eye of the beholder.

The leaderboards appear to define skill as SPM with which I disagree - what is the algo for determining skill? On objective based games someone who sits back and does nothing to help a team pursue/maintain objectives is worthless, a team full of high KD and no tag pickups in KC are worthless.

The thought often runs through my head - "How'd all that flanking work out for you in Dom when B was never controlled and all those Scorestreaks rolling in as a result where awesome(none!)."

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:48:01 GMT

couple of points to add.. said this before but the skill based part of the match making isn't something new it's been a factor in every cod.People really pay way too much attention to it ..thank you youtubers for that one

Secondly don't over read too much into that article just because something is listed in an order doesnt mean that the game matchmakes in that order as end of the day the final most important part is the game will match you in the best available session

Matchmaking takes basically a second odd each attribute is given a wieght (apart from the ping which is a given number between x and y), the way One of swords has had the article written for him/ explained to him is the same order that the matchmaking is listed in the game thats all.

it really doesnt matter what order they are written in the results returned will all have to fit into whatever wieght parameters requested anyways,

in public play theres three tiers of matchmatchmaking without giving exact numbers NOT the different search functions , but the steps matchmaking goes through when it does the searching for games.... testing games... restarts search thing

1st closest in skill range, closest in location closest in ping session would be 4-3 bars unless you live in a highly populated area with a high concentration of people playing when you are chances are it wont find a match as quickly or often outside peak times.

2nd not so close in skill (less wieghted by 25%) location is widened , ping range is increased session would be 3-4 bars the setting most people would be matched on and the reason you end up in a lot of what people consider "foreign" lobbies ie uk players with mainland europeans (discounting the whole geolocation issues)

3rd not so close in skill (less wieghted by 25% ) location is widened , ping range is the largest range session would be 4-1/2 bar, basically this is the catch all setting

if you want to ensure you get the best possible session if the game doesnt find you a session on the first set of returns , back out and start again. But remember it doesnt matter how good or exact a matchmaking system is it can only match you with whats available

also bear in mind when it comes to geography that is a physical thing we as humans relate to, i ping about the same to mainland europe as i do say the north of england, both places would fit in the ping range off one of the settings, the reason there is a geolocationwieght too is obviously people would usually prefer to play with the same country ( it really doesnt bother me but.. ). Geographical location in the real world doesnt always translate exactly to closest to you on the internet if you go by ping.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 18:07:56 GMT

smokesdope wrote:

Don't know why they didn't or haven't set it to local like MW3 did I know it caused problems for people in low populated areas but the matchmaking IMO was a lot better . Every game I was playing people from the next town over etc .
But with BO.2 from the very first game there's US players etc in the lobbies (I'm in the UK) so the matchmaking is trying to tell me there's no local games ?? Especially in the first couple of weeks after release when population is at its highest . Even when set to "Best" I'm still getting US,German,French,Spanish players ??? And why did they call it best and not LOCAL ?
Anyway matchmaking in this game SUCKS and hopefully they get it fixed !

what you have to remember with matchmaking is its a snapshot of a moment in time its quite possible at the moment you search ed there was no closer games or the other thing is you maybe placed into the correct session but people are placed into it as there was no sessions available for their matchmaking

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 17:15:30 GMT

Ss78_ wrote:

Yeah since I'm playing hc I figured since there's less people playing there's more chance of getting matched with liked players. So far it's sometimes worked but I still rely on them to be on for it to have any influence. I'm not sure if you like a player it also is in some way attached to their friendslist or liked players too though.

It's not ideal for me as I stay in NL but at least I can speak dutch but would prefer to speak english with uk players. However my german is basic, my french,spanish,polish,turkish,italian,scandinavian,japanese,portugese is non existent.

The EU would be a good testing ground for matchmaking tweaks and if it worked nubdub could get his usa matchmaking wishes imported from the EU.

nice emblem!!

you know wierdly i was gonna say i never get matched with polish people, then played earlier against a full team of poles.. go figure. first time thats ever happened to me.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:49:22 GMT

Yeah since I'm playing hc I figured since there's less people playing there's more chance of getting matched with liked players. So far it's sometimes worked but I still rely on them to be on for it to have any influence. I'm not sure if you like a player it also is in some way attached to their friendslist or liked players too though.

It's not ideal for me as I stay in NL but at least I can speak dutch but would prefer to speak english with uk players. However my german is basic, my french,spanish,polish,turkish,italian,scandinavian,japanese,portugese is non existent.

The EU would be a good testing ground for matchmaking tweaks and if it worked nubdub could get his usa matchmaking wishes imported from the EU.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:07:05 GMT

Ss78_ wrote:

That's why I've started liking instead and already the results are positive after only a few days.

Btw it's still freaky your new pic is too close to my playercard.

def worth a shot, i might try it on one of my other accounts and like all the welsh people see if it makes a difference..

i keep changing my pic as well this might sound stupid but i find it easier to find my posts by scrolling the pic, as soon as loads of people use same as me i change it

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:34:47 GMT

Don't know why they didn't or haven't set it to local like MW3 did I know it caused problems for people in low populated areas but the matchmaking IMO was a lot better . Every game I was playing people from the next town over etc .

But with BO.2 from the very first game there's US players etc in the lobbies (I'm in the UK) so the matchmaking is trying to tell me there's no local games ?? Especially in the first couple of weeks after release when population is at its highest . Even when set to "Best" I'm still getting US,German,French,Spanish players ??? And why did they call it best and not LOCAL ?

Anyway matchmaking in this game SUCKS and hopefully they get it fixed !

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:32:33 GMT

That's why I've started liking instead and already the results are positive after only a few days.

Btw it's still freaky your new pic is too close to my playercard.

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:12:21 GMT

Ss78_ wrote:

I just want to add something that I've been trying out of late. Since it's nigh on impossible for me to dislike every player that I get matched with from another continent or just too far away using the xbox rating system. Recently I've started liking people that are in my same country and especially those very close to me as in my own city or surrounding cities.

While the results aren't an absolute fix I've noticed that I do get put into several games now with the people I liked and it has improved my odds of getting better quality games.

protip the avoid player function on xbl..doesnt actually avoid it just lessens the chances of being matched with them

Re: How Matchmaking Works- From Activision

donotreply@activision.com — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 12:11:12 GMT

I just want to add something that I've been trying out of late. Since it's nigh on impossible for me to dislike every player that I get matched with from another continent or just too far away using the xbox rating system. Recently I've started liking people that are in my same country and especially those very close to me as in my own city or surrounding cities.

While the results aren't an absolute fix I've noticed that I do get put into several games now with the people I liked and it has improved my odds of getting better quality games.