The recent Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War alpha resulted in “skill-based matchmaking” (SBMM) trending on Twitter over the weekend. A large number of players have taken to social media to complain about SBMM in casual playlists, and noted that it took the fun out of matches and turned them into a frustrating experience.
When a fan wrongly theorized that previous Call of Duty titles, like Black Ops 2 and Modern Warfare 3, were fun to play because they didn’t use SBMM, Treyarch’s Director of Technology Martin Donlon corrected them by revealing that past Call of Duty titles did in fact have SBMM. However, it’s the implementation that seems to be the issue in Black Ops Cold War, and Donlon acknowledged that it’s a valid complaint.
“SBMM is one of many, many tuneable parameters in a matchmaking system,” he continued. “It’s funny watching people talk about it like it’s a big switch that can only be turned on or off.”
Treyarch also addressed players’ concerns about overpowered snipers, and revealed that they were intentionally buffed for the test.
“We buffed snipers to evaluate their performance in this alpha specifically,” said Designer Tony Flame. “Sniper rifles will have balance changes for the upcoming beta based on our analytics data this weekend.”
Elsewhere, the alpha confirmed that map voting will return in Black Ops Cold War.
The beta is set to begin on October 8th on the PlayStation 4. Black Ops Cold War will release on November 13th for current and next-gen platforms alongside PC.
[Source: MP1st]
