Shooters & SBMM - Anyone else miss server browsers?

[Troonbolone Acetate]

I'm a pretty avid destiny 2 player, I don't have much time to play videogames these days, so I am usually limited to one live service game and maybe a single player game here and there. One of my favorite things to do in the game is partake in the PvP, I like the arcade-like experience and a good portion of my friends enjoy it too, that is until SBMM was implemented since then I've noticed that my overall enjoyment with the game and playtime declined significantly.

SBMM has a very rocky past in Destiny, it was put in, taken out and just recently put back into the game again (that is just from the time I started playing). I've heard many people, (basically really low skilled players) saying that they like the current experience because the games feel more fair and they can actually compete. But this comes at a cost for more avidly casual players who inherently are just decent at clicking heads being pooled into subpar connection lobbies with players so good that in an SBMM world would have zero place being there. The reason being is that it's very difficult to match super high elo players without picking out from lower pools to fill the lobbies.

This experience really makes me reminisce the glory days of UT99, where you can just pick a server. You never know what you were going to get, sometimes you'd be the best but other times you'd be the worst. It made me realize in all honesty that server browsers were just a superior form of matchmaking than what most modern titles have today. As a dev people will moderate the servers for you, they'll boot bad connection players, re-balance teams, have rulesets etc.... It promotes fair play because admins that abuse their power just get no attention while better server hosts do. As a player it simply felt like I was playing a game, I didn't have an algorithm forcing a finetuned experience that I did not even ask for and in the case of D2 i can enjoy many of the odd builds i've put together over the years without being pigeonholed into meta territory constantly. People who wanna match high levels players can make their own servers with their own rules, people who just wanna play for fun can do so as well.

Kind of interested on what the community here thinks about modern approaches to online multiplayer you think we've regressed significantly? Or is my take very rose tinted and what we have now is way better.

 

[Toolbox]

I thought this was going to be a thread about super smash bros melee players becoming shooters, I am thoroughly disappointed and my day is ruined

 

[Fascist Frederick]

SBMM always benefits the less skilled and is a detriment to the higher skilled. Higher skilled players do not actually want to play against people of a similar skill because it's less fun to have to go full tryhard every match which they'd have to do if they weren't seal clubbing noobs 90% of the time. SBMM makes the higher skilled players feel like lower skilled players because it forces them to have a similar kill death ratio or win/loss ratio to that of your average noob.

 

[The Last Stand]

SBMM gives players a false sense of progression. Imagine being a new player suddenly dominating the lobby, then over time, the game automatically things you're a pro player. This'd be fine if it was separate from regular matchmaking as its own playlist and a record of how you'd rank up.

 

[Troonbolone Acetate]

SBMM always benefits the less skilled and is a detriment to the higher skilled. Higher skilled players do not actually want to play against people of a similar skill because it's less fun to have to go full tryhard every match which they'd have to do if they weren't seal clubbing noobs 90% of the time. SBMM makes the higher skilled players feel like lower skilled players because it forces them to have a similar kill death ratio or win/loss ratio to that of your average noob.

That's exactly how I feel, in my case I typically like to use off meta picks. When you're playing in diverse groups each match it's okay, but once the lobbies are weighted towards your skill level, it feels almost impossible to play optimally unless you use what is the top shit at the time.

I'd like to add too that the system does not account for what you use, if two players of equal skill rating exist and one uses the best setup in the game while the other uses a medicore or not optimal setup and still performs at the same rate, then who is the better player?

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

It sounds good in theory, but is absolute dogshit in practice.

At least with my experience in Call of Duty the past 3 years.

 

[StacticShock]

I thought this was going to be a thread about super smash bros melee players becoming shooters, I am thoroughly disappointed and my day is ruined

snake is in there ain't he? and mario/luigi had a xcom styled game lately...

I'm a pretty avid destiny 2 player

lol, destiny is a game that was retarded enough to add pvp even though it didn't need and more than often curbs the pve because of it until they realize they fucked up and rollback or release another reskin gun with different stats that isn't viable for pvp.

honestly i don't give much of a damn about the eternal bitching that pvp people will always have and on destiny i only care about the salt that pops up on the subreddit from time to time whenever they start crying about sbmm making match queues taking too long or how cbmm is not a good thing because p2p game reeeee.

i've seen complaints about iron banner shit that has light level scaling disabled and people have posted videos of their snipers dealing shit headshot damage on some enemies because their power level was too low, showing how immensely retarded that whole thing is.

and on the thread question, i don't miss server browsers because i play games where that is still relevant, i only play matchmaker games when my friends call me because you have to be stupid to play matchmaker game as a solo, you'll usually be stacked against premade teams so you can be stomped into the ground and they can have "fun", welcome to streamer era matchmakers nigger, it's here to stay.

 

[Toolbox]

snake is in there ain't he? and mario/luigi had a xcom styled game lately...

I was talking more along the lines of deodorantless smashfags also being edgelord incels and bringing that lifestyle to its end conclusion, could see it happening.

 

[The Ugly One]

Skill-based team balancing is way more fun than SBMM. IIRC Black Ops II did that.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Unfortunatly I don't see us retvrning to server browsers unless a massive crash happens and consumers fight back against games as a service.

 

[Toolbox]

Unfortunatly I don't see us retvrning to server browsers unless a massive crash happens and consumers fight back against games as a service.

Server browsers are still around in the indie scene and might be making a comeback there rather than just being old hat. Deep Rock Galactic has one, as well as full modding in a multiplayer game. That's a pretty big title now.