*One crucial detail: Casuals don't even know what SBMM is.* *Edit: And for the people who say they are casuals, you are not. Casuals don’t go on UA-cam and look at in depth analyses. Casuals just play without a single care in the world.*
I agree, but just as the are more and more gamers who are “good” I think there are more and more casuals who take interest in subjects like SBMM and such.
Most of my friends are casuals. Getting on for the weekend or whatnot. Half of them know what sbmm is and don’t want it in cod. Not saying this is true of every friend group but saying casuals don’t know sbmm is false.
The reason Activision is so hush hush about sbmm is because they don't use true sbmm. They use a patented system called EOMM or Engagement Based Matchmaking and it basically decides for you whether you're gonna win or lose based on how many times you won or lost before. This is because they found that those that win twice and lose once afterwards or lose twice but then win once tend to stick in the game longer than just winning all the time or losing all the time (or leaving winning and losing up to chance). So while skill is considered, it's ONLY considered so the system can determine who to place you with so your next game is a guaranteed win or loss.
This makes a lot of sense based on my experience in the games. It also feels like the game will throw me into more guaranteed-loss games right after I pop an XP boost, like the devs are attempting to keep me "engaged" longer by making the weapon unlock grind harder. Let's say I popped an XP boost and had a "normal" match and did really well. I get the weapon unlocks I want in 1 or 2 matches and then quit. Instead, if they throw me into a couple guaranteed-loss games, my rate of weapon XP gain will be slower artificially, forcing me to play more matches. Makes you wonder if they are doing anything similar in Warzone if you solo queue.
No matter how much they listen to the community, accommodate our wants and needs, if BO6 has SBMM as strong as it’s been since MW19, the game will feel no better.
Yep thats the sad thing, it does not matter how good the game actually is, could literally be a 10/10, wouldnt matter since EOMM kills any enjoyment of the new content.
@@naruhearts1any strict sbmm kill long term games which is prob why we have cod cycle when people love it for early months until they got sick of rigged matches then say the game suck
@@gothmilkersah yes then get match with even more good players for me to go against damn you so clever. Sbmm stop you from seeing ur skills better as cod sbmm will keep track of ur skill and match with team that is similar to better than u
I remember over a decade ago when the conversations about SBMM were ongoing at that time and everyone's attempts to actively disprove SBMM existed only did the exact opposite and has led us to this interesting crossroads in the world of shooter games where it's completely fractured the FPS genre to a point no one knows what to do and everyone is playing jump rope in a minefield. SBMM as a topic has definitely created a subculture of nuanced brain rot that's now exclusive to the FPS shooter communities. What a time to be alive. S tier content as always man.
Drif0r, you get props not only for the SBMM breakdown, but for an actually good ad for that webcam. I don't _need_ a webcam, but that comparison between the two was quite nice. Also, pretty sure me and my bro could still beat you and your entire team at the original MW2. Thanks for the years and years of vids!
I'll legit never get tired of SBMM content. Growing up with amazing CODs only for COD to radically change its matchmaking and destroy much of its soul is still something I'll never come to grips with. I don't care about "player retention", "bottom line", or whatever reason EOMM was added, it's lame and gaming is worse off for it.
I felt the same way, then I tried XDefiant. What changed since back in the glory days is the number of high skilled players. There’s magnitudes more high skilled players in the game now, and even without SBMM, XDefiant lobbies are just as tough in my experience. Playing Xdefiant is actually what got me back into playing CoD
@@Mike-c9j Keep playing the welcome playlists, even make more accounts if it's that difficult. Play with friends, use the best guns/Phantom classes. Maybe even ranked 4v4 playlist is the move. As XD gains in popularity, the average lobbies should be a bit easier as well. Right now there's a disproportionate amount of above average COD players.
@@Mike-c9jI don't know if there's *more* high skilled players now per se, rather the average skill level has raised significantly in the last decade. If you plucked a high skill players from a lobby from the original MW3 in 2011 and dropped them in MW2023, I think they'd struggle hard. From movement to aim, the average player is just so much better than they used to be. The window has shifted so significantly, it's hard for players who haven't been able to keep up.
@@cinemapigeon4898the reasoning for SBMM is bs lol. It doesn’t “protect” new, bad, or disabled players whatsoever. I see new, bad , and disabled players all the time in mu lobbies. They are in my team while i go against a 6 stack and I’m the only one positive. In talking about people that appear to only have one hand and have to stop walking to turn….. no joke. It doesn’t “protect” any kind of “bad player” at all. Imagine people believing activisions lies like theres actually lobbies of only disabled players out there that they play in 100% of the time
Apparently we are the minority buddy, otherwise enough players/profit would be lost every year to cause them to remove or tone down SBMM to pre MW2019 levels and outright remove EOMM completely. Seems we still have a wait ahead of us before we reach the required number to change this system.
Yesterday, I played one game and ended up doing extremely well. In the two follow-up games, I had to sweat. Immediately afterward, I left for XDefiance and enjoyed myself.
What I don't understand is why it has to be one way or another. Have ranked which is self induced SBMM and then have a "casual" or quick play playlist that has no SBMM. That way people who want it can have it and those who don't, don't.
If it were just SBMM in ranked play, that would be fine, but it's not. It's EOMM. Why else would you be matched by a hidden rating and not solely your rank? Ever played in a ranked lobby with a bunch of players with the same rank but obviously wildly different skill levels? Yeah. That's fucked with too.
That's what XDefiant does. Ranked play has SBMM, and I believe the "welcome playlist" that you can only access until you reach level 25 has some SBMM too. But the normal casual matchmaking has zero SBMM whatsoever.
@@reg1990 Now if only XDefiant never committed to disbanding lobbies at the end of every match. "Some people enjoy learning how to adapt to the tactics of the top player(s) over the course of a few matches."
At 3 minutes in, I would argue a matchmaking system massively impacts the gameplay, mechanics, and overall player experience a ton. It's why higher tier lobbies in say MW2019 were nightmares with everyone rocking the meta loadouts, which was like the M4, that shotgun, and claymores behind doors. That is an example of the matchmaking changing how the game is played.
I dislike how I can tell I'm being thrown a bone, I can clearly feel when I'm going against players who don't use their mini map, aim, or move. It doesn't feel good to blatantly own noobs or be the noob that's being blatantly owned by FaZeDosentTouchGrass420
Same.. well put. I can't stand it when the game threw me easy lobbies. I've literally left games before where I went 27 - 2 because I swear to God people were dying in 1-2 bullets & spawning right in front of me (right after being eliminated)..I know I don't deserve that sh*t. And I don't deserve to be artificially fed to people. That's not gaming. That's mass manipulation. Like they're ratio farming our pleasure or something? Ew. Weird. That's why im Xdefiant all day.
Yep. Everyone hates being manipulated, especially when they know it’s happening. I think that’s the core issue here. SBMM isn’t an issue, especially when it’s paired with a fair ranking system. The problem is EOMM.
Doesn't helping winners que goes to shadowban land and it's just cheaters waiting for activision to check in and ban them. It's the worst que in the game. I literally don't want to pick up the controller when the guys conrus is set to 11 and the next is duo ds4/rewasd pc combo with the unlocker then I get the normal high end sweats in there with me and I have a decent game then it's walls or shitty ai scripts and it's like bruh do something about your game please for the love of all that is good ban them
This totally reminds me of the Cola Wars. When Coca-Cola changed its flavor to “New Coke” everybody gravitated towards Pepsi because Pepsi not because it was perceived to be better than the original Coke, but because Pepsi hadn’t changed. It was only when “New Coke” was killed and “Coca-Cola Classic” was put in that all of the realized gains Pepsi made on Coca-Cola were lost. It was no contest once Coca-Cola admitted it failed. The same can definitely be true for CoD and Xdefiant. Those SBMM refugees on Xdefiant will flock back to CoD 6 if Activision says enough is enough and lets ping be king again.
Maybe, but I don't want to pay $70 for CoD itself when I have no promises on content. Now if they went back to concrete $15 map packs (with zomz) you might get me. But xdefiant fills the Cod void for me, and I'm just glad something offers the similar slot that CoD has had basically no competition for since Medal of Honor was relevant.
@@MrSeagull16No, dlc map packs were terrible and only aplit up the player base and messes with the matchmaking. I remember having to delete dlc multiple times just so i couls find matches. Its way better to pay only 70 and get free contnent the entire year, rather than having to pay 15 a map pack (an extra 60) fpr aome new content
@zeniyibaby1854 I get that. But at least it was consistent and you knew what you were getting, felt more valuable that the grab bag we get (or don't get) now. I get the matchmaking thing, but I always moved on to the newest CoD so I never had lacking options for matches
Regrettably this may be one of your all time most uninformed videos you've put out. Much of your perception about xDefiant is straight up untrue or based on word of mouth that isn't backed up by the any statistical metric. Correct to say xDefiant isn't falling off, but it's player base pales in comparison to multiple other F2P games on most other store fronts, and it lost out to multiple paid single player and multiple games as well. This would very strongly suggest it has carved a niche and not set a standard. There's also out of pocket comments such as "the casual nature of xDefiant" which goes against the games selling point, which is to be more competitive than Call of Duty, the most casual game in the market for the overwhelming majority of people due in large part of its SBMM scheme. I'm actually really surprised you'd put out a video with so many blanket statements like this. xDefiant may be doing it's own business and carving it's own legacy, co-existing with other games on the market, but that's about all it's doing. Fortnite and Call of Duty are making billions of their match making scheme, it would be self destructive to their entire ecosystem if they did anything suggested here.
They’re losing players and didn’t season 1 just start, I mean having issues that are unacceptable for a pvp fps like hit registration for as long as the game’s been out is kinda pathetic
@@Doyenn Cod is the standard of multiplayer fps in its genre. No other game is gonna top it. Its too late. Battlefield maybe but that's it. Xdefiant is not good for a long period of time, it's boring, but cod is also to me. These are just facts though about the gaming scene besides my opinion.
I’m gonna be honest most people who complain about SBMM are usually like a 1KD players who act like they’re 6KD players. Once they realize they’re not that good they’ll probably have more fun. I’m currently a 5KD and I get “causal” lobbies pretty often.
I've been playing Cold War recently and what i found out is if you play on the lesser played game modes like demolition there is virtually no SBMM. I'm guessing because the player pool is so small it doesn't lock you out of "lower-skill" lobbies because there is only so many people playing and becomes rng. After swearing off cod for SBMM this was very refreshing and fun.
Even if BO6 doesn’t have no EOMM or SBMM, we should expect half of the player base who got carried by it since MW2019 begging for it back. XDefiant for example might be extremely sweaty, but that actually could encourage them to get better. I remember playing MW3 (2011) for the first time, and I sucked so such, but it encouraged me to get better. My point is that EOMM and SBMM ruin FPS games, and we want just a match making system that doesn’t involve skill, just connection or region that allow a smooth and fresh gameplay.
Yeah like going 1 and 26 at the start was actually fun because it’s a new game and you didn’t know what was happening. It’s like these kids can’t handle not being as good in their first match when we didn’t mind back in the day. And you got to see the growth process as you practiced and got better. Now you get punished for investing time in the game
While matchmaking in XDefiant is the main reason I love it, enemy visibility is a very close, and in my opinion, not enough talked about second. Finally, a shooter where I can focus on actual shooting, instead of spending half that time trying to figure out if that tiny grey smudge on my screen is an enemy or just a trash bin, and the other half trying to track them while my gun gets diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and my screen lights up like a Christmas tree due to supernova levels of muzzle flash. Enemy visibility has taken such a backseat in recent years, so it's extremely refreshing to see a developer recognize and effectively counteract that.
I know you joke about SBMM being free content to farm, but it truly does enrage me because it's permanently ruined a once beloved franchise and I can't help myself 😂
It is free, it's a word 99% of the people just know they're supposed to hate it and have no actual comprehension of. They hear or remember stories of dominating lobbies and think that is SBMM not people getting better and/or you getting worse.
It’s crazy that over 10 years ago, I played with terrible ping (because there were no servers at the time) and I was terrible at the game AND still had more fun than I do now with SBMM.
I’d like to provide a counter-point to this argument, which is that I heard about all the benefits of not having skill-based matchmaking, in XDefiant, and looked forward to it with great anticipation. Because it was supposed to be so ‘casual’. When it finally got here, I played it for the better part of a weekend and came away feeling that the game was not for me (and haven’t really played it since). I struggled to get, really, like *any* meaningful kills, or make any meaningful progress in leveling up the small set of launch weapons. It reminded me of the COD multiplayer era of 2009-2013, when gamer-culture toxicity was at its peak. After the school shooting in Newton, CT, I put quasi-realistic FPS shooters aside. When I came back to COD, during the pandemic, I found it not ‘easy’ but at least doable. ‘Fun’, even. I re-learned the core mechanics and was able to enjoy myself for 1-3 hour sessions. I could casually pick it up - and put it down - without feeling like I was being manipulated or herded into cattle lanes. I guess, if there’s a ‘fat’ (both in numbers as well as average mass ;) part of the market that actually *likes* SBMM, whether they’re in touch with it or not, then why not offer it as an option? Is there any good reason why they couldn’t? Speaking as a software person I’ll answer my own question and say ‘no’ (there really isn’t). Like, why can’t we have *both* a (what feels to me like a) truly casual mode *and* a solely ping-based mode? I’d be more inclined to explore the latter if I knew I could fall back on the former. The basic proposition of: that *not* having SBMM equates to “I suck,” (which I didn’t think I did) is demoralizing. And, now that the curtain has been ripped away, it just puts me off of competitive multiplayer altogether. I’m 53 and *don’t* live in my parents’ basement- I maintain two households (that my kids split time between) as well as an entire department at work. I suppose there’s some ostensibly ‘facial’ hair, on my neck, but I wouldn’t call it a beard? It's pretty scraggly, to be honest. Mostly, I just don’t have a lot of free time. I guess I *like* SBMM? I’m still not really sure. The argument of “if you don’t like *not* having SBMM” == “you suck” is corrosive. I like to play the game, I like to have fun. I like being #2 on the winning team (on average, sometimes #1) or #1 on the losing team (often). If these stats, along with a (very marginally) >1.0 K/D, pencils out to “I suck,” then why bother? It makes me want to put down the controller and, I don’t know, go do something else. Like figure out why my landscaper is charging me so much. Does this pov make sense? What am I missing?
It seems like you prefer the core experience of Call of Duty over XDefiant. From your comments, the matchmaking in XDefiant seems satisfactory, but it appears you are in a lower bracket and thus not experiencing the more competitive levels. I’ve heard from friends that leveling up weapons in XDefiant can be painfully slow. You mentioned that none of your kills felt meaningful, but I'm not sure what you mean by that. In any objective-based game mode, every kill contributes to your team's progress and the enemy's setback. Even in team deathmatch, each kill matters as it directly affects the match outcome. I agree that having an option to toggle skill-based matchmaking on or off would be beneficial. Just a simple button for "skill-based on" and "skill-based off" could provide players with their preferred experience. You suggested having a solely ping-based mode and a casual mode, but these are essentially the same. Any skill algorithm makes the experience more competitive. Ping-based matchmaking would offer a variety of gameplay experiences, ranging from dominant performances to more balanced matches. This randomness can be enjoyable and educational, even for less skilled players. Such a system could lead to blowout games where one team dominates, which can be fun and a learning experience for players striving to improve. Close games would still occur occasionally, making them more exciting and less forced. Everyone has their preferences in gameplay. A kill/death ratio (KD) of around 1.0 is average, but KD isn't always a true indicator of skill. A player with a high KD might use cheap tactics, while generally, a KD above 2 or 3 indicates a strong player who significantly influences the match. If criticism affects your enjoyment, then perhaps reconsider your approach. Many people tell me I suck, but I continue because I love the game and want to improve. I hope this makes sense. Happy gaming!
@@Digger-Nicksorry, I didn’t write it with perfect clarity in mind, I just wanted to respond to this gentleman here as quick as I could before I forgot everything I had to say. Hopefully my revised comment is a little easier to read.
Former semi-pro cod player here….. heres my take on sbmm the reasoning for SBMM is bs lol. It doesn’t “protect” new, bad, or disabled players whatsoever. I see new, bad , and disabled players all the time in mu lobbies. They are in my team while i go against a 6 stack and I’m the only one positive. In talking about people that appear to only have one hand and have to stop walking to turn….. no joke. It doesn’t “protect” any kind of “bad player” at all. Imagine people believing activisions lies like theres actually lobbies of only disabled players out there that they play in 100% of the time. Anyone who’s good at the game and plays solo and not always in a 6 stack knows the players Activision says sbmm “protects” are usually their teammates
@@UhKimboze Wait- then what does it mean if I’m usually #1 on the losing team and (often) #2 or (occasionally) #1 on the winning team? Is that ’SBMM’? With like a 1.2-1.3 K/D? Is it, does it make everybody get that same status? Is that what SBMM is? Makes everybody ‘the same’? Or? Still don’t really understand the outcomes of how it works. Vs. solely ping-based. Little help here? I've previously placed at like 87-88% in various ranked modes, in the past (old BO, MW 2019, COD Mobile). Is that just where SBMM 'settles' everyone out' at? It's 'ELO'-based, right? Like chess (I know how to code that). Still not getting it.
There’s nothing like winning a hard fought game when you know you earned it and that the game didn’t determine who was going to win prior to the match starting.
One of the things that keeps me engaged in a game is getting better and showing improvement over time. With SBMM, you can’t tell how much better you are becoming and it ruins the point in playing for a lot of people. For example, playing COD multiplayer is boring for me. I can’t tell how good I am at the game when I’m going against the top 1-5% of players every match (and yes I am, crim in warzone and multiplayer, could probably be ire if I had a better squad/better internet.) But it’s crazy how I’ve played COD for 15 years and my public match KD this year is like a 1.8. But on XD I have over a 3KD and a 2.5 WL. There is zero reason for me to play cod. My IRLs can’t compete in my lobbies but they love to hop on XD even if they are a 0.5-0.9 KD player. My drive for playing is being the best player I can be. I sucked at Apex when I first started, but grinded and was able to hit masters. I would hold an 85-90 win percentage in 2k every year (that game sucks now and no ranked system). Fact is, there is no reason to play cod. Hard to grind camos in sweat lobbies, harder than it should be for me to drop nukes and 100 bombs, and the ranked systems are awful compared to other games.
What's hilarious about this topic is that most PC games have community servers with zero SBMM, and have been running like that for literal decades. Console devs trying to imagine what that would be like, while just ignoring the mountains of existing data
I will say it’s neat seeing so many ppl that live close to me on xdefiant while in cod with a larger player base I run into people from way further away
I'm so looking forward to more SBMM. It'll keep the sweats away and be worth playing. You lot can keep Xdefiant for your sweaty bouncing sliding and toxic lobbies
There are way too many cod players that are convinced they are being kept down by it when it's actually helping them, if CoD goes with a no or limited SBMM system, there's going to be a lot of people humbled or in denial thinking the devs are lying that SBMM isn't in the game.
Im very excited for the release of b06. Not because im gonna buy it, but because most of the sweats will move onto b06 meaning the matchmaker for mw3 will be forced to make more casual matchups
I started playing fps games in 2020 with WZ. Not a MP fan but I like battle royales. Man, wz og was so good because it was linear for the casual player. The game went south with Vangarbage with the movement meta and op weapons(which I admit they had character) with 10 attachments. I am really happy that I found Bloodstrike on tablet(crossplay with pc).Linear, Movement, Characters and the game rewards you with your in game actions. If it goes console WZ is in trouble.
@@bray2079Crossplay adds more variety, and a bigger playerbase. Crossplay has nothing to do with sbmm. Sbmm has gotten worse because of eomm, and the devs cranking the sbmm up. It also doesn't help that every name now has a TTV in their tag trying to be a popular pub stomper.
I sincerely hope they have a somewhat loose SBMM and not “SBMM”, whether that’s their badly tuned PBMM or EOMM whatever other system they’ve used recently
As someone that has stopped apex bc of unfair sbmm, I can tell you that MM is everything. I am a casual, 4k kills on pathfinder over 3 yrs of apex but onky 0.7 avg k/d. However I only ever get lobbies with 20 bombs and masters, which I dont wanna fonafter a 10 hrs workday
I played a LOT of Battlefront 2 2017 Heros vs Villains, especially during Covid. That is one mode in one game I can think of that benefits MASSIVELY from SBMM. I mean, it wasn’t even fun when you stomped people, and definitely wasn’t fun to get stomped.
One thing I never could understand about cod’s current matchmaking is why they implemented it to begin with? The game had very loose matchmaking ‘back in the good old days’ and became a juggernaut. Then they just decided to flip the switch, and for what?
I was playing a mobile battle royale game called BLOODSTRIKE (has a decently populated PC version). In December, developers added SBMM to protect lower skill players and bots to compensate. Im 1,89 K/D player and I absolutely despise it's existence. Not only that it ruined the lobby pacing, but there was always full lobby of real players at the time. I even learnt it and was only dying by snipers and shotguns. Now I don't even play it because of bugs and game being hella boring.
There’s absolutely no way this is making them money in multiplayer. I think Warzone blinds them from how flat out dead MP is today. The ranked play scene is bigger than casual now, that would seem impossible 5 years ago.
While it’s true there isn’t sbmm in XDefiant like there is in COD, COD has retained players far better than XDefiant. Like it or not, Activision’s engagement based matchmaking works as they intended
I don’t really have a problem with SBMM itself as long as it’s paired with a fair ranking system with no hidden MMR. What I have a problem with is EOMM, which is what COD uses. Matches are made based on what their algorithms determine would keep players playing the longest. For example, if the algorithm determines that you need the next match to be a win in order for you to keep playing then it’ll find some players at a significantly lower skill level and match you up with them. The worst part is they employ EOMM in Ranked Mode which makes the mode utterly pointless. The ranks aren’t fair and don’t accurately indicate skill level.
I played MW2 yesterday (least favorite COD ever) and now that my lobbies are normal it’s more fun than I ever had in MW3. It is literally 60% of the experience.
Imo it's more important to separate crossplay. Pc back to pc lobbies and Xbox and Playstation together. Most casuals quit the moment they die to a pc player. They don't rage quit they just lose motivation. I think it's a bigger issue in current day gaming than people realize.
For a game that is thriving matchmaking is taking way longer than it ever took. It use to be instant but now it’s taking me a few minutes. What is funny that most people had fun in the part of the game that had sbmm(the welcome playlist)
There’s just one problem… they could turn it back on at any point. Like how they leave Muslim after 2 weeks of launch and doing what they said they wouldn’t. But as far as SBMM/EOMM… I like not having it. Being able to feel like my win or loss wasn’t predetermined actually makes me want to play. Otherwise SBMM will do its thing and performance punishment like at work…
I love SBMM. It's better than any MM system before it. Reason being: I can reverse boost by way of session joining and absolutely destroy pub lobbies like never before. Recognize the system and beat it :)
For me the matchmaking is the difference between COD being a game I spend hundreds of hours on every year and barely playing at all.. This horrific variant of 'SBMM' has ruined every COD for me it's been in.
Im sure you aren't at 100 percent or anything, but you look a lot better and have more energy than you have in a while. Good to see after being around on your channel for 12 years at this point. Be well
3:50 in regards to this, it really depends on the game. Sbmm isnt bad universally, it works in apex and overwatch because those games are inherently competitive. Apex doesnt have easy respawns so sbmm is necessary to prevent bad players from spending all their time in the menu screen, and overwatch is a hero shooter with a heavy requirement for teamwork so sbmm is necessary to make the game enjoyable. Cod is a casual game at its core, so sbmm is inherently antagonistic. It heavily limits the social aspect, especially with the lobbies disbanding, and destroys any semblance of relaxation. The game doesnt shine when you are sweating, it shines when you are just chilling out. Actually its even worse in cod because its eomm and not sbmm, so it will give you extremely strict matches a majority of the time then give you a few extremely easy lobbies to keep you from leaving, ruining your average lobby and ruining the lobby for everyone else when it gives you an easy one.
I don't think they'll do anything differently. They don't actually know how big of a marketshare the anti-SBMM crowd represents, only that XDefiant is taking a bite out of that portion. If XDefiant's playerbase has stabilized, Activision may assume everyone who cares enough to leave already has, and they'll keep doing what they know instead of risking something new.
Activision has to understand that 99.9% of players who play COD are playing to have fun and have a good time and not after an 8 or 9 hour day of work and sweating to win 2 or 3 maps and achieve good results. Is it difficult to understand? Occasionally entering a lobby with people at your level or better is totally acceptable, now this constantly happening causes many people to stop playing the game.
It's only a few good players that want to feel like a god to bad players. SBMM is better for everyone else and keeps player retention, hence why it is there and will be there. About xdefiant, i am a casual, i did not even know it existed, it's not even on the radar, prolly cause it's not on Steam as well. I'm sure like 500 sweats enjoy it, but theres no way to measure how many people play it. On Steam there is.
SBMM convo is very simple: very strong SBMM in ranked...pretty weak SBMM in non-ranked. The problem COD created for itself is that 1) not all the titles have actual ranked queues and 2) they turned normal matches into ranked matches but you get no reward
So, we all come at mp fps from our own experience and pov, obviously. As a 15 year casual player of COD MP, all I can say for sure is right now I'm enjoying MW3. And, get this, in the last month I've enjoyed the matches, even more? Yes, MW3 matchmaking feels way smoother. Basically, more consistent lobbies. Less swings from dominant to destroyed. So, what changed? What if a big chunk if the great players went to XD. Or, a big chunk of sweaties went to XD. Or maybe MW3 adjusted SBMM in June. Clearly few if any know for sure why, but I'm looking forward to playing MW3 tonight. More so now then in May. Remember, if a bunch of players left COD for XD that could have an effect on MW3 MM. At this moment for me, I'm loving MW3 more then 2 months ago. I'm glad XD players are happy. Me too.
Activision keeps taking things and data from warzone and stuffing it into cod multiplayer. I don’t think the matchmaking system has made sense in multiplayer for a while, but since multiplayer is an afterthought now, activision doesn’t care. All they care about is warzone.
Also no kill streaks is a big W for gameplay. Most people actual play the objective and go for the win instead of in cod where half the lobby is playing for killstreaks in dom and hardpoint, farming easy kills. If you’re the type of player with a higher Kd in dom/hp then TDM you now what’s up
@oxonomy2372 which is, in and of itself, SBMM. If you take SBMM out entirely, balancing is random and the game quickly devolves into a community of sweats and people just trying out the game for the first time. Bungie removed SBMM entirely from certain PvP modes for a while, and the result was that the player count gradually collapsed as no one was having fun anymore.
Like you’ve already said. The game has been in development for a couple of years and to change the matchmaking. One could be an absolute nightmare. A little bit like just before Infinite warfare was showcased the community went “I can’t wait for the reveal of the next COD, I hope it isn’t another spacey jet pack one because we are done with that now” Then infinity ward had to release it with soooo much backlash from the community. I think BO6 will tank, I don’t think it will be very popular because of the matchmaking. But I also can’t see the matchmaking change now
Problem for me is that sbmm makes every round the same. Their usually just very sweaty, same few weapons being used, same gameplay styles etc. It gets boring and predictable once the meta has been set.
I loved every Treyarch game, but the sweaty EOMM gameplay is just life sucking. I'm casual, I don't want every match to be so try hard crazy, that's what ranked is for. But they won't listen to this really common complaint... So, for the first time, I won't buy a Treyarch game. Just isn't worth the headache, or thumb ache!
He also says that the number of players has not gone down, when it is an absolute lie, it has gone down and a lot, and it continues to go down every day. Now with mw3 and bo6 in launch game pass xdefiant is just waiting for his death
I’m not a big fan of SBMM, but I do think the pocket of people vocally against it is relatively small, in comparison to the average player who might not pay any mind to matchmaking. FWIW, I think XDF is a very good game, and can be great if it becomes a little smoother w/ hit-detection.
It really boils down to this; I’d rather play flip flop games where I have a streak of really good games and a streak of bad games. My issue with SBMM nowadays is that most games I am hovering around 1.00 KD per game. Which on paper sounds good, but some games I just wanna pop tf off and get high tier Killstreaks. Call it a skill issue or whatever, but I’ve found it so difficult to get killstreaks on newer cods vs. back in the day.
As much as I enjoy XDefiant, its netcode is weak and there a LOT of bugs, I don't think it's going to stand up very well against the likes of Black Ops 6 unless they can turn it around quickly enough
1:08 I would say as long as Activision refuses to get rid of SBMM/EOMM in core game modes, the horse is very much alive. Let's give Peta a reason to be mad
*One crucial detail: Casuals don't even know what SBMM is.*
*Edit: And for the people who say they are casuals, you are not. Casuals don’t go on UA-cam and look at in depth analyses. Casuals just play without a single care in the world.*
I've become a casual as of recent years haha
It’s true casual don’t care about SBMM
I agree, but just as the are more and more gamers who are “good” I think there are more and more casuals who take interest in subjects like SBMM and such.
@@partypoison80not caring and not knowing are different
Most of my friends are casuals. Getting on for the weekend or whatnot. Half of them know what sbmm is and don’t want it in cod. Not saying this is true of every friend group but saying casuals don’t know sbmm is false.
Drift0r casually dropping a conservation of energy meme
Glad you picked up on it :)
right i definitely just had to go into the comments on that one
I cried laughing when he did it
The reason Activision is so hush hush about sbmm is because they don't use true sbmm. They use a patented system called EOMM or Engagement Based Matchmaking and it basically decides for you whether you're gonna win or lose based on how many times you won or lost before. This is because they found that those that win twice and lose once afterwards or lose twice but then win once tend to stick in the game longer than just winning all the time or losing all the time (or leaving winning and losing up to chance). So while skill is considered, it's ONLY considered so the system can determine who to place you with so your next game is a guaranteed win or loss.
This makes a lot of sense based on my experience in the games. It also feels like the game will throw me into more guaranteed-loss games right after I pop an XP boost, like the devs are attempting to keep me "engaged" longer by making the weapon unlock grind harder. Let's say I popped an XP boost and had a "normal" match and did really well. I get the weapon unlocks I want in 1 or 2 matches and then quit. Instead, if they throw me into a couple guaranteed-loss games, my rate of weapon XP gain will be slower artificially, forcing me to play more matches.
Makes you wonder if they are doing anything similar in Warzone if you solo queue.
this is the sad truth
how can mfs play a game tht has this going on
modern cods rigging your gun fights is insane , they don’t believe in pub stomping anymore . cods dead
@@wrongdoings2934 The gun fights aren't rigged, most of the community of cod is just horrible at the game.
No matter how much they listen to the community, accommodate our wants and needs, if BO6 has SBMM as strong as it’s been since MW19, the game will feel no better.
Yep thats the sad thing, it does not matter how good the game actually is, could literally be a 10/10, wouldnt matter since EOMM kills any enjoyment of the new content.
which is so unfortunate because it has the capability of being amazing from a gameplay side but the matchmaking alone kills it
@@naruhearts1any strict sbmm kill long term games which is prob why we have cod cycle when people love it for early months until they got sick of rigged matches then say the game suck
should try getting good then ?
@@gothmilkersah yes then get match with even more good players for me to go against damn you so clever.
Sbmm stop you from seeing ur skills better as cod sbmm will keep track of ur skill and match with team that is similar to better than u
I remember over a decade ago when the conversations about SBMM were ongoing at that time and everyone's attempts to actively disprove SBMM existed only did the exact opposite and has led us to this interesting crossroads in the world of shooter games where it's completely fractured the FPS genre to a point no one knows what to do and everyone is playing jump rope in a minefield. SBMM as a topic has definitely created a subculture of nuanced brain rot that's now exclusive to the FPS shooter communities. What a time to be alive.
S tier content as always man.
As someone who played league of legends elo and sbbm brainrot has been strong for a long time
BO6 needs to end lobby disbanding too
ANY COD WITH LOBBY DISBANDING IS DEAD
DEAD ON RELEASE
NOT EVEN GAME ITS JUS A RIGGED SKIN BUYING SIMULATOR FOR MORONS TO PLAY
@@wrongdoings2934cod 4 to blacko ops 4: Are you sure about that?
That's how you know rigged matchmaking exists, there is no reason to disband lobbies otherwise
That horse joke was wild 😂
Drif0r, you get props not only for the SBMM breakdown, but for an actually good ad for that webcam. I don't _need_ a webcam, but that comparison between the two was quite nice. Also, pretty sure me and my bro could still beat you and your entire team at the original MW2. Thanks for the years and years of vids!
I'll legit never get tired of SBMM content. Growing up with amazing CODs only for COD to radically change its matchmaking and destroy much of its soul is still something I'll never come to grips with. I don't care about "player retention", "bottom line", or whatever reason EOMM was added, it's lame and gaming is worse off for it.
I felt the same way, then I tried XDefiant. What changed since back in the glory days is the number of high skilled players. There’s magnitudes more high skilled players in the game now, and even without SBMM, XDefiant lobbies are just as tough in my experience. Playing Xdefiant is actually what got me back into playing CoD
@@Mike-c9j Keep playing the welcome playlists, even make more accounts if it's that difficult. Play with friends, use the best guns/Phantom classes. Maybe even ranked 4v4 playlist is the move. As XD gains in popularity, the average lobbies should be a bit easier as well. Right now there's a disproportionate amount of above average COD players.
@@Mike-c9jI don't know if there's *more* high skilled players now per se, rather the average skill level has raised significantly in the last decade. If you plucked a high skill players from a lobby from the original MW3 in 2011 and dropped them in MW2023, I think they'd struggle hard. From movement to aim, the average player is just so much better than they used to be. The window has shifted so significantly, it's hard for players who haven't been able to keep up.
@@cinemapigeon4898the reasoning for SBMM is bs lol. It doesn’t “protect” new, bad, or disabled players whatsoever. I see new, bad , and disabled players all the time in mu lobbies. They are in my team while i go against a 6 stack and I’m the only one positive. In talking about people that appear to only have one hand and have to stop walking to turn….. no joke. It doesn’t “protect” any kind of “bad player” at all. Imagine people believing activisions lies like theres actually lobbies of only disabled players out there that they play in 100% of the time
Apparently we are the minority buddy, otherwise enough players/profit would be lost every year to cause them to remove or tone down SBMM to pre MW2019 levels and outright remove EOMM completely. Seems we still have a wait ahead of us before we reach the required number to change this system.
I've been a big fan for 10 years. Thanks for all the great videos man.
Thank you for watching :)
Looking much healthier dude, hope it’s all going well
This comment is almost as underated as the joke
Yesterday, I played one game and ended up doing extremely well. In the two follow-up games, I had to sweat. Immediately afterward, I left for XDefiance and enjoyed myself.
What I don't understand is why it has to be one way or another. Have ranked which is self induced SBMM and then have a "casual" or quick play playlist that has no SBMM. That way people who want it can have it and those who don't, don't.
If it were just SBMM in ranked play, that would be fine, but it's not. It's EOMM. Why else would you be matched by a hidden rating and not solely your rank? Ever played in a ranked lobby with a bunch of players with the same rank but obviously wildly different skill levels? Yeah. That's fucked with too.
That's what XDefiant does. Ranked play has SBMM, and I believe the "welcome playlist" that you can only access until you reach level 25 has some SBMM too. But the normal casual matchmaking has zero SBMM whatsoever.
@@reg1990 Now if only XDefiant never committed to disbanding lobbies at the end of every match.
"Some people enjoy learning how to adapt to the tactics of the top player(s) over the course of a few matches."
At 3 minutes in, I would argue a matchmaking system massively impacts the gameplay, mechanics, and overall player experience a ton. It's why higher tier lobbies in say MW2019 were nightmares with everyone rocking the meta loadouts, which was like the M4, that shotgun, and claymores behind doors. That is an example of the matchmaking changing how the game is played.
That shotgun is 726 Shorty, which is a weird name considering it's actually called Citori 725 Shorty.
I dislike how I can tell I'm being thrown a bone, I can clearly feel when I'm going against players who don't use their mini map, aim, or move. It doesn't feel good to blatantly own noobs or be the noob that's being blatantly owned by FaZeDosentTouchGrass420
Same.. well put. I can't stand it when the game threw me easy lobbies. I've literally left games before where I went 27 - 2 because I swear to God people were dying in 1-2 bullets & spawning right in front of me (right after being eliminated)..I know I don't deserve that sh*t. And I don't deserve to be artificially fed to people. That's not gaming. That's mass manipulation. Like they're ratio farming our pleasure or something? Ew. Weird. That's why im Xdefiant all day.
@@caffine_nightz COD's multiplayer wants you to be ~1 K/D 20 kills since that's something everyone can pull out.
Yep. Everyone hates being manipulated, especially when they know it’s happening. I think that’s the core issue here.
SBMM isn’t an issue, especially when it’s paired with a fair ranking system. The problem is EOMM.
Doesn't helping winners que goes to shadowban land and it's just cheaters waiting for activision to check in and ban them. It's the worst que in the game. I literally don't want to pick up the controller when the guys conrus is set to 11 and the next is duo ds4/rewasd pc combo with the unlocker then I get the normal high end sweats in there with me and I have a decent game then it's walls or shitty ai scripts and it's like bruh do something about your game please for the love of all that is good ban them
Not buying another COD until they officially announce that they are removing SBMM
This totally reminds me of the Cola Wars.
When Coca-Cola changed its flavor to “New Coke” everybody gravitated towards Pepsi because Pepsi not because it was perceived to be better than the original Coke, but because Pepsi hadn’t changed.
It was only when “New Coke” was killed and “Coca-Cola Classic” was put in that all of the realized gains Pepsi made on Coca-Cola were lost. It was no contest once Coca-Cola admitted it failed.
The same can definitely be true for CoD and Xdefiant. Those SBMM refugees on Xdefiant will flock back to CoD 6 if Activision says enough is enough and lets ping be king again.
Maybe, but I don't want to pay $70 for CoD itself when I have no promises on content. Now if they went back to concrete $15 map packs (with zomz) you might get me. But xdefiant fills the Cod void for me, and I'm just glad something offers the similar slot that CoD has had basically no competition for since Medal of Honor was relevant.
100% respect brother your money your choice. I am still playing Apex and BF1 lol
@@MrAzul99 feel that on BF1
@@MrSeagull16No, dlc map packs were terrible and only aplit up the player base and messes with the matchmaking. I remember having to delete dlc multiple times just so i couls find matches. Its way better to pay only 70 and get free contnent the entire year, rather than having to pay 15 a map pack (an extra 60) fpr aome new content
@zeniyibaby1854 I get that. But at least it was consistent and you knew what you were getting, felt more valuable that the grab bag we get (or don't get) now. I get the matchmaking thing, but I always moved on to the newest CoD so I never had lacking options for matches
Regrettably this may be one of your all time most uninformed videos you've put out. Much of your perception about xDefiant is straight up untrue or based on word of mouth that isn't backed up by the any statistical metric. Correct to say xDefiant isn't falling off, but it's player base pales in comparison to multiple other F2P games on most other store fronts, and it lost out to multiple paid single player and multiple games as well. This would very strongly suggest it has carved a niche and not set a standard.
There's also out of pocket comments such as "the casual nature of xDefiant" which goes against the games selling point, which is to be more competitive than Call of Duty, the most casual game in the market for the overwhelming majority of people due in large part of its SBMM scheme.
I'm actually really surprised you'd put out a video with so many blanket statements like this. xDefiant may be doing it's own business and carving it's own legacy, co-existing with other games on the market, but that's about all it's doing. Fortnite and Call of Duty are making billions of their match making scheme, it would be self destructive to their entire ecosystem if they did anything suggested here.
I tell my friends this all the time. All XDefiant has to do is give the players what COD won't, and they'll make money for as long as COD is around.
They’re losing players and didn’t season 1 just start, I mean having issues that are unacceptable for a pvp fps like hit registration for as long as the game’s been out is kinda pathetic
@fenrirsfolly92 last time I played the hit registration was good. Idk how it was when u last played tho. But my point still stands.
That game is never going to compete with cod.
@@LetYahArisee it’ll always compete with 6v6 multiplayer. I been playin cod for over a decade. All they have to do is what I said b4.
@@Doyenn Cod is the standard of multiplayer fps in its genre. No other game is gonna top it. Its too late. Battlefield maybe but that's it. Xdefiant is not good for a long period of time, it's boring, but cod is also to me. These are just facts though about the gaming scene besides my opinion.
I’m gonna be honest most people who complain about SBMM are usually like a 1KD players who act like they’re 6KD players. Once they realize they’re not that good they’ll probably have more fun. I’m currently a 5KD and I get “causal” lobbies pretty often.
I DIED WITH THE HORSE EXAMPLE 😂
EOMM BOYCOTT STILL IN EFFECT
yup and the boycot will continue till its removed
I've been playing Cold War recently and what i found out is if you play on the lesser played game modes like demolition there is virtually no SBMM. I'm guessing because the player pool is so small it doesn't lock you out of "lower-skill" lobbies because there is only so many people playing and becomes rng. After swearing off cod for SBMM this was very refreshing and fun.
They're reluctant to discuss it because nothing is changing, and they want to cash in on the hype for just a little bit longer
Even if BO6 doesn’t have no EOMM or SBMM, we should expect half of the player base who got carried by it since MW2019 begging for it back. XDefiant for example might be extremely sweaty, but that actually could encourage them to get better. I remember playing MW3 (2011) for the first time, and I sucked so such, but it encouraged me to get better. My point is that EOMM and SBMM ruin FPS games, and we want just a match making system that doesn’t involve skill, just connection or region that allow a smooth and fresh gameplay.
Yeah like going 1 and 26 at the start was actually fun because it’s a new game and you didn’t know what was happening. It’s like these kids can’t handle not being as good in their first match when we didn’t mind back in the day. And you got to see the growth process as you practiced and got better. Now you get punished for investing time in the game
no 1 is begging for modern safespace windowdoorfare 2019
idk what "player base" you're imagining but not a single person enjoys sbmm at the level it has become in the past 5 years.
While matchmaking in XDefiant is the main reason I love it, enemy visibility is a very close, and in my opinion, not enough talked about second. Finally, a shooter where I can focus on actual shooting, instead of spending half that time trying to figure out if that tiny grey smudge on my screen is an enemy or just a trash bin, and the other half trying to track them while my gun gets diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and my screen lights up like a Christmas tree due to supernova levels of muzzle flash. Enemy visibility has taken such a backseat in recent years, so it's extremely refreshing to see a developer recognize and effectively counteract that.
I know you joke about SBMM being free content to farm, but it truly does enrage me because it's permanently ruined a once beloved franchise and I can't help myself 😂
It is free, it's a word 99% of the people just know they're supposed to hate it and have no actual comprehension of. They hear or remember stories of dominating lobbies and think that is SBMM not people getting better and/or you getting worse.
@@aelinstue9431 idc if people don't understand it, as long as they hate it. SBMM has ruined the pubs experience.
It's so infuriating having 1 or 2 great games and get rekt by pros after, thanks mr activision
It’s crazy that over 10 years ago, I played with terrible ping (because there were no servers at the time) and I was terrible at the game AND still had more fun than I do now with SBMM.
GIVE THE COMMUNITY WHAT WE WANT!! I cannot understand how any “expert” would ever think they know more than the community about what they want.
I feel like not enough people are going to appreciate how good that camera ad was.
I’d like to provide a counter-point to this argument, which is that I heard about all the benefits of not having skill-based matchmaking, in XDefiant, and looked forward to it with great anticipation. Because it was supposed to be so ‘casual’. When it finally got here, I played it for the better part of a weekend and came away feeling that the game was not for me (and haven’t really played it since). I struggled to get, really, like *any* meaningful kills, or make any meaningful progress in leveling up the small set of launch weapons. It reminded me of the COD multiplayer era of 2009-2013, when gamer-culture toxicity was at its peak. After the school shooting in Newton, CT, I put quasi-realistic FPS shooters aside. When I came back to COD, during the pandemic, I found it not ‘easy’ but at least doable. ‘Fun’, even. I re-learned the core mechanics and was able to enjoy myself for 1-3 hour sessions. I could casually pick it up - and put it down - without feeling like I was being manipulated or herded into cattle lanes. I guess, if there’s a ‘fat’ (both in numbers as well as average mass ;) part of the market that actually *likes* SBMM, whether they’re in touch with it or not, then why not offer it as an option? Is there any good reason why they couldn’t? Speaking as a software person I’ll answer my own question and say ‘no’ (there really isn’t). Like, why can’t we have *both* a (what feels to me like a) truly casual mode *and* a solely ping-based mode? I’d be more inclined to explore the latter if I knew I could fall back on the former. The basic proposition of: that *not* having SBMM equates to “I suck,” (which I didn’t think I did) is demoralizing. And, now that the curtain has been ripped away, it just puts me off of competitive multiplayer altogether. I’m 53 and *don’t* live in my parents’ basement- I maintain two households (that my kids split time between) as well as an entire department at work. I suppose there’s some ostensibly ‘facial’ hair, on my neck, but I wouldn’t call it a beard? It's pretty scraggly, to be honest. Mostly, I just don’t have a lot of free time. I guess I *like* SBMM? I’m still not really sure. The argument of “if you don’t like *not* having SBMM” == “you suck” is corrosive. I like to play the game, I like to have fun. I like being #2 on the winning team (on average, sometimes #1) or #1 on the losing team (often). If these stats, along with a (very marginally) >1.0 K/D, pencils out to “I suck,” then why bother? It makes me want to put down the controller and, I don’t know, go do something else. Like figure out why my landscaper is charging me so much. Does this pov make sense? What am I missing?
It seems like you prefer the core experience of Call of Duty over XDefiant. From your comments, the matchmaking in XDefiant seems satisfactory, but it appears you are in a lower bracket and thus not experiencing the more competitive levels.
I’ve heard from friends that leveling up weapons in XDefiant can be painfully slow. You mentioned that none of your kills felt meaningful, but I'm not sure what you mean by that. In any objective-based game mode, every kill contributes to your team's progress and the enemy's setback. Even in team deathmatch, each kill matters as it directly affects the match outcome.
I agree that having an option to toggle skill-based matchmaking on or off would be beneficial. Just a simple button for "skill-based on" and "skill-based off" could provide players with their preferred experience.
You suggested having a solely ping-based mode and a casual mode, but these are essentially the same. Any skill algorithm makes the experience more competitive. Ping-based matchmaking would offer a variety of gameplay experiences, ranging from dominant performances to more balanced matches. This randomness can be enjoyable and educational, even for less skilled players.
Such a system could lead to blowout games where one team dominates, which can be fun and a learning experience for players striving to improve. Close games would still occur occasionally, making them more exciting and less forced.
Everyone has their preferences in gameplay. A kill/death ratio (KD) of around 1.0 is average, but KD isn't always a true indicator of skill. A player with a high KD might use cheap tactics, while generally, a KD above 2 or 3 indicates a strong player who significantly influences the match.
If criticism affects your enjoyment, then perhaps reconsider your approach. Many people tell me I suck, but I continue because I love the game and want to improve. I hope this makes sense. Happy gaming!
Please paragraph space...
Both of you
@@Digger-Nicksorry, I didn’t write it with perfect clarity in mind, I just wanted to respond to this gentleman here as quick as I could before I forgot everything I had to say. Hopefully my revised comment is a little easier to read.
Former semi-pro cod player here….. heres my take on sbmm
the reasoning for SBMM is bs lol. It doesn’t “protect” new, bad, or disabled players whatsoever. I see new, bad , and disabled players all the time in mu lobbies. They are in my team while i go against a 6 stack and I’m the only one positive. In talking about people that appear to only have one hand and have to stop walking to turn….. no joke. It doesn’t “protect” any kind of “bad player” at all. Imagine people believing activisions lies like theres actually lobbies of only disabled players out there that they play in 100% of the time. Anyone who’s good at the game and plays solo and not always in a 6 stack knows the players Activision says sbmm “protects” are usually their teammates
@@UhKimboze Wait- then what does it mean if I’m usually #1 on the losing team and (often) #2 or (occasionally) #1 on the winning team? Is that ’SBMM’? With like a 1.2-1.3 K/D? Is it, does it make everybody get that same status? Is that what SBMM is? Makes everybody ‘the same’? Or? Still don’t really understand the outcomes of how it works. Vs. solely ping-based. Little help here? I've previously placed at like 87-88% in various ranked modes, in the past (old BO, MW 2019, COD Mobile). Is that just where SBMM 'settles' everyone out' at? It's 'ELO'-based, right? Like chess (I know how to code that). Still not getting it.
There’s nothing like winning a hard fought game when you know you earned it and that the game didn’t determine who was going to win prior to the match starting.
Impeccable timing
Former COD player here. I'm not coming back to COD until they remove all SBMM. The match/player variety in XDefiant is so refreshing.
The fact that you still upload vids talking about CoD after so much (HUGE MW3 in depth series fan), makes me very happy. Thank you Drift0r.
One of the things that keeps me engaged in a game is getting better and showing improvement over time. With SBMM, you can’t tell how much better you are becoming and it ruins the point in playing for a lot of people.
For example, playing COD multiplayer is boring for me. I can’t tell how good I am at the game when I’m going against the top 1-5% of players every match (and yes I am, crim in warzone and multiplayer, could probably be ire if I had a better squad/better internet.)
But it’s crazy how I’ve played COD for 15 years and my public match KD this year is like a 1.8. But on XD I have over a 3KD and a 2.5 WL. There is zero reason for me to play cod. My IRLs can’t compete in my lobbies but they love to hop on XD even if they are a 0.5-0.9 KD player.
My drive for playing is being the best player I can be. I sucked at Apex when I first started, but grinded and was able to hit masters. I would hold an 85-90 win percentage in 2k every year (that game sucks now and no ranked system).
Fact is, there is no reason to play cod. Hard to grind camos in sweat lobbies, harder than it should be for me to drop nukes and 100 bombs, and the ranked systems are awful compared to other games.
What's hilarious about this topic is that most PC games have community servers with zero SBMM, and have been running like that for literal decades. Console devs trying to imagine what that would be like, while just ignoring the mountains of existing data
I will say it’s neat seeing so many ppl that live close to me on xdefiant while in cod with a larger player base I run into people from way further away
You’re fighting the good fight Drift0r. I appreciate you
What it boils down to is the developers want to spend R&D to control what random matchmaking does for free
I'm so looking forward to more SBMM. It'll keep the sweats away and be worth playing. You lot can keep Xdefiant for your sweaty bouncing sliding and toxic lobbies
Been watching you since Black OPs 2 In-Depth. I hope you feel better Drift. The community has been missing you for real🙏🏽
There are way too many cod players that are convinced they are being kept down by it when it's actually helping them, if CoD goes with a no or limited SBMM system, there's going to be a lot of people humbled or in denial thinking the devs are lying that SBMM isn't in the game.
God it feels great to hear this voice again. We are so back baby!
The horse joke killed me 💀🤣
Im very excited for the release of b06. Not because im gonna buy it, but because most of the sweats will move onto b06 meaning the matchmaker for mw3 will be forced to make more casual matchups
That would’ve been funny if today’s sponsor was xdefiant 😂
Your first 30 seconds is very true. XDefiant has so many hit reg / netcode issues but I still play it over MW3
I’m really interested to see how all of it’s going to turn out… XDefiant got so much love for not having SBMM so CoD needs to step it up.
I started playing fps games in 2020 with WZ. Not a MP fan but I like battle royales. Man, wz og was so good because it was linear for the casual player. The game went south with Vangarbage with the movement meta and op weapons(which I admit they had character) with 10 attachments. I am really happy that I found Bloodstrike on tablet(crossplay with pc).Linear, Movement, Characters and the game rewards you with your in game actions. If it goes console WZ is in trouble.
But Xdefiant is free
I mean Bo6 will be on game pass so while technically not free a lot of people already have games pass and it’s well worth it as well
And it’s a boring game
@@CardiacYew-xt5zqI like xdefiant but the abilities make it to where I can only play for like an hour or two. They gotta nerf a lot of the characters
Its too bad its not enjoyable to play.
@@vSyren It even feels free lol and in general I don't like the feel of Ubisoft games nor the graphics.
SBMM is the demon that never goes away
It’s always been there it just got worse because of cross play
@@bray2079Crossplay adds more variety, and a bigger playerbase. Crossplay has nothing to do with sbmm. Sbmm has gotten worse because of eomm, and the devs cranking the sbmm up. It also doesn't help that every name now has a TTV in their tag trying to be a popular pub stomper.
Made literally by the *demon* ware
@@bray2079 It was not always there, stop lying.
@Digger-Nick SBMM was always in cod. It's just way more advanced now, and it doesn't help that every person wants to be a cod pro.
I sincerely hope they have a somewhat loose SBMM and not “SBMM”, whether that’s their badly tuned PBMM or EOMM whatever other system they’ve used recently
Glad to see you’re doing well and looking well, Drift
As someone that has stopped apex bc of unfair sbmm, I can tell you that MM is everything.
I am a casual, 4k kills on pathfinder over 3 yrs of apex but onky 0.7 avg k/d. However I only ever get lobbies with 20 bombs and masters, which I dont wanna fonafter a 10 hrs workday
I played a LOT of Battlefront 2 2017 Heros vs Villains, especially during Covid. That is one mode in one game I can think of that benefits MASSIVELY from SBMM. I mean, it wasn’t even fun when you stomped people, and definitely wasn’t fun to get stomped.
One thing I never could understand about cod’s current matchmaking is why they implemented it to begin with? The game had very loose matchmaking ‘back in the good old days’ and became a juggernaut. Then they just decided to flip the switch, and for what?
wait no way I used to watch your vids like 15 years ago lol. crazy how you're still around keep it up
I was playing a mobile battle royale game called BLOODSTRIKE (has a decently populated PC version). In December, developers added SBMM to protect lower skill players and bots to compensate. Im 1,89 K/D player and I absolutely despise it's existence. Not only that it ruined the lobby pacing, but there was always full lobby of real players at the time. I even learnt it and was only dying by snipers and shotguns. Now I don't even play it because of bugs and game being hella boring.
There’s absolutely no way this is making them money in multiplayer. I think Warzone blinds them from how flat out dead MP is today. The ranked play scene is bigger than casual now, that would seem impossible 5 years ago.
While it’s true there isn’t sbmm in XDefiant like there is in COD, COD has retained players far better than XDefiant. Like it or not, Activision’s engagement based matchmaking works as they intended
I don’t really have a problem with SBMM itself as long as it’s paired with a fair ranking system with no hidden MMR.
What I have a problem with is EOMM, which is what COD uses. Matches are made based on what their algorithms determine would keep players playing the longest. For example, if the algorithm determines that you need the next match to be a win in order for you to keep playing then it’ll find some players at a significantly lower skill level and match you up with them.
The worst part is they employ EOMM in Ranked Mode which makes the mode utterly pointless. The ranks aren’t fair and don’t accurately indicate skill level.
I played MW2 yesterday (least favorite COD ever) and now that my lobbies are normal it’s more fun than I ever had in MW3. It is literally 60% of the experience.
Imo it's more important to separate crossplay. Pc back to pc lobbies and Xbox and Playstation together. Most casuals quit the moment they die to a pc player. They don't rage quit they just lose motivation. I think it's a bigger issue in current day gaming than people realize.
I get this with cod . As if he sbmm wasn't bad enough it's watching pc players track you through walls on the kill cam .
fax no one wants to play with pc nerds
but i guess there bringing back prestige so that’s kinda give an incentive now
SBMM wouldn’t be an issue if it wasn’t tuned too much. It’s so obvious and it affects every single one of your games (game is in control and not you).
For a game that is thriving matchmaking is taking way longer than it ever took. It use to be instant but now it’s taking me a few minutes. What is funny that most people had fun in the part of the game that had sbmm(the welcome playlist)
There’s just one problem… they could turn it back on at any point. Like how they leave Muslim after 2 weeks of launch and doing what they said they wouldn’t.
But as far as SBMM/EOMM… I like not having it. Being able to feel like my win or loss wasn’t predetermined actually makes me want to play. Otherwise SBMM will do its thing and performance punishment like at work…
I love SBMM. It's better than any MM system before it. Reason being: I can reverse boost by way of session joining and absolutely destroy pub lobbies like never before. Recognize the system and beat it :)
I just want cod to be like an old cod days that were so much enjoyable
Less people play COID now than ever. SBMM has lwoered the player count.
For me the matchmaking is the difference between COD being a game I spend hundreds of hours on every year and barely playing at all.. This horrific variant of 'SBMM' has ruined every COD for me it's been in.
Im sure you aren't at 100 percent or anything, but you look a lot better and have more energy than you have in a while. Good to see after being around on your channel for 12 years at this point. Be well
3:50 in regards to this, it really depends on the game. Sbmm isnt bad universally, it works in apex and overwatch because those games are inherently competitive.
Apex doesnt have easy respawns so sbmm is necessary to prevent bad players from spending all their time in the menu screen, and overwatch is a hero shooter with a heavy requirement for teamwork so sbmm is necessary to make the game enjoyable.
Cod is a casual game at its core, so sbmm is inherently antagonistic. It heavily limits the social aspect, especially with the lobbies disbanding, and destroys any semblance of relaxation. The game doesnt shine when you are sweating, it shines when you are just chilling out.
Actually its even worse in cod because its eomm and not sbmm, so it will give you extremely strict matches a majority of the time then give you a few extremely easy lobbies to keep you from leaving, ruining your average lobby and ruining the lobby for everyone else when it gives you an easy one.
I don't think they'll do anything differently. They don't actually know how big of a marketshare the anti-SBMM crowd represents, only that XDefiant is taking a bite out of that portion. If XDefiant's playerbase has stabilized, Activision may assume everyone who cares enough to leave already has, and they'll keep doing what they know instead of risking something new.
They won’t rid of it because on paper it makes them more money.
Activision has to understand that 99.9% of players who play COD are playing to have fun and have a good time and not after an 8 or 9 hour day of work and sweating to win 2 or 3 maps and achieve good results.
Is it difficult to understand? Occasionally entering a lobby with people at your level or better is totally acceptable, now this constantly happening causes many people to stop playing the game.
If eomm is in bo6, it's still going to be the same as any other previous cod we have gotten the past five years.
Bro the horse had me lol
It's only a few good players that want to feel like a god to bad players. SBMM is better for everyone else and keeps player retention, hence why it is there and will be there. About xdefiant, i am a casual, i did not even know it existed, it's not even on the radar, prolly cause it's not on Steam as well. I'm sure like 500 sweats enjoy it, but theres no way to measure how many people play it. On Steam there is.
SBMM convo is very simple: very strong SBMM in ranked...pretty weak SBMM in non-ranked. The problem COD created for itself is that 1) not all the titles have actual ranked queues and 2) they turned normal matches into ranked matches but you get no reward
Yessir! The magic 4 letter phrase: SBMM. Farm that content! Easy money...
So, we all come at mp fps from our own experience and pov, obviously. As a 15 year casual player of COD MP, all I can say for sure is right now I'm enjoying MW3. And, get this, in the last month I've enjoyed the matches, even more? Yes, MW3 matchmaking feels way smoother. Basically, more consistent lobbies. Less swings from dominant to destroyed. So, what changed? What if a big chunk if the great players went to XD. Or, a big chunk of sweaties went to XD. Or maybe MW3 adjusted SBMM in June. Clearly few if any know for sure why, but I'm looking forward to playing MW3 tonight. More so now then in May. Remember, if a bunch of players left COD for XD that could have an effect on MW3 MM. At this moment for me, I'm loving MW3 more then 2 months ago. I'm glad XD players are happy. Me too.
Activision keeps taking things and data from warzone and stuffing it into cod multiplayer. I don’t think the matchmaking system has made sense in multiplayer for a while, but since multiplayer is an afterthought now, activision doesn’t care. All they care about is warzone.
Word for word.
Yep you’re right. It can be as good as it wants but if the sbmm is in public matches I’m not interested.
Xdef does have sbmm . Also, no lay down feture , no streaks, no kill cam, no hard core mode . That thing that no "pro" plays in , like dmalaner..
Skill diff
You are just bad at the game
It doesn’t have sbmm, but it does have team balancing
Also no kill streaks is a big W for gameplay. Most people actual play the objective and go for the win instead of in cod where half the lobby is playing for killstreaks in dom and hardpoint, farming easy kills.
If you’re the type of player with a higher Kd in dom/hp then TDM you now what’s up
@oxonomy2372 which is, in and of itself, SBMM. If you take SBMM out entirely, balancing is random and the game quickly devolves into a community of sweats and people just trying out the game for the first time. Bungie removed SBMM entirely from certain PvP modes for a while, and the result was that the player count gradually collapsed as no one was having fun anymore.
Like you’ve already said. The game has been in development for a couple of years and to change the matchmaking. One could be an absolute nightmare.
A little bit like just before Infinite warfare was showcased the community went “I can’t wait for the reveal of the next COD, I hope it isn’t another spacey jet pack one because we are done with that now”
Then infinity ward had to release it with soooo much backlash from the community.
I think BO6 will tank, I don’t think it will be very popular because of the matchmaking. But I also can’t see the matchmaking change now
Man if there’s one thing about drift0r. He’s bringing up his medical issues 😂
Problem for me is that sbmm makes every round the same. Their usually just very sweaty, same few weapons being used, same gameplay styles etc. It gets boring and predictable once the meta has been set.
Like when Black ops 6 comes out Xdefiant isn't going to fall off a cliff... SBMM or not
Shiiiiid ...
It won't lol that's funny that you assume that lol
Xd is not perfect, but at least it's fun, and it feels like the stats matter .
I loved every Treyarch game, but the sweaty EOMM gameplay is just life sucking. I'm casual, I don't want every match to be so try hard crazy, that's what ranked is for. But they won't listen to this really common complaint... So, for the first time, I won't buy a Treyarch game. Just isn't worth the headache, or thumb ache!
@@LudzillaJ 💯💯
Honestly if they remove SBMM I think the game has very high potential to be at the same peak as Warzone 1 or MW2009
Xdefiant still has pretty bad SBMM, change my mind:
Except you can’t because when I play cod & xdefiant back to back, it feels almost the exact same
Exactly
Really? Maybe it’s because all the sweats went to xdefiant, not because of the matchmaking. Does Xdefiant matchmake faster than cod?
He also says that the number of players has not gone down, when it is an absolute lie, it has gone down and a lot, and it continues to go down every day. Now with mw3 and bo6 in launch game pass xdefiant is just waiting for his death
@@UhKimboze No, it takes much longer
Thank u Netduma for coming into my life!
I’m not a big fan of SBMM, but I do think the pocket of people vocally against it is relatively small, in comparison to the average player who might not pay any mind to matchmaking.
FWIW, I think XDF is a very good game, and can be great if it becomes a little smoother w/ hit-detection.
They need to do level based matchmaking. Sick and tired of seeing people max leveled in 1 week in my games when I go up maybe 5 levels a week
It really boils down to this; I’d rather play flip flop games where I have a streak of really good games and a streak of bad games. My issue with SBMM nowadays is that most games I am hovering around 1.00 KD per game. Which on paper sounds good, but some games I just wanna pop tf off and get high tier Killstreaks. Call it a skill issue or whatever, but I’ve found it so difficult to get killstreaks on newer cods vs. back in the day.
As much as I enjoy XDefiant, its netcode is weak and there a LOT of bugs, I don't think it's going to stand up very well against the likes of Black Ops 6 unless they can turn it around quickly enough
Unless COD removes SBMM from pubs I'm never buying one again.
I bet a lot of the xD community feel the same way.
Should give players an option with platform accessibility-Meaning options if you wanna play with PC or only consoles
1:08 I would say as long as Activision refuses to get rid of SBMM/EOMM in core game modes, the horse is very much alive. Let's give Peta a reason to be mad
If XD is so good why do you even care? Go forget about CoD and play XD.
@@aelinstue9431 who said anything about XD?