How to change to SBMM in MW3? The developers ask for player feedback
Many Modern Warfare 3 players complain about the “cumbersome” SBMM. After an AMA on Reddit, it’s hard for Sledgehammer Games to be able to ignore the issue.
Ten days after its release, opinions about MW3 are becoming more and more, and it is clear that they are currently very mixed. The campaign mode is extremely short and unoriginal, an open world zombie that satisfies as much as it disappoints or is even harshly criticized by the multiplayer side “recycled”… It seems that the MW3 developers delivered nothing, or almost nothing.
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The discovery could not be more revealing, Modern Warfare 3 Metacritic ratingIt is currently set to 55/100, which makes it Worst Call of Duty rating After Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified on PS Vita (which then received a score of 33/100).
What’s worse is that the user rating is particularly alarming so far: 1.7/10 for 1,265 reviews. If the game seems like it’s suffering from constant review bombardment for days, the facts are there: MW3 struggles to convince.
But what crystallizes the tensions and criticisms above all can be summed up in 4 little letters: SBMM (short for “Matchmaking skills“or skill-based matchmaking).
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SBMM: What is it, and why is it controversial?
SBMM is an algorithmic matchmaking system whose primary goal is to provide balanced online gaming to players, by grouping players together in a lobby based on their level of play. For more details, we invite you to review our article dedicated to SBMM.
SBMM has been a topic of heated debate within the Call of Duty community for many years. In MW3, critics of this system are particularly vocal, as SBMM is considered to be ubiquitous and overly aggressive.
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Players complain about having to try hard all the time and not being able to relax anymore. In addition, SBMM has some notable disadvantages: higher probability of votes (in order to find players of the same level), more “smooth” games and the like because players have a more or less equivalent level, difficulties in playing with lower level friends because they find themselves against more efficient players via rebalancing or even longer wait times to find a game… This is only a non-exhaustive list of the many criticisms made in SBMM.
Sledgehammer opens Pandora’s Box by asking players for their opinions
On the evening of November 19, 2023, the development studio responsible for MW3’s multiplayer game – Sledgehammer Games – launched an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit.
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Keen to show that the studio has been listening to players since the release of MW3, Sledgehammer Games decided to organize an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the subreddit r/ModernWarfareIIIwith the aim of sharing the community’s ideas with its developers, but also to take players’ temperature on the game’s flaws and suggest solutions.
“We’re Slegehammer Games, the main studio behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Ask us anything [Édition multijoueur] !
Very quickly and without surprise, hundreds of comments poured in on SBMM, some demanding its downgrade, others more extreme demanding its removal altogether.
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🚨 sbmm | SHG opened a thread on Reddit to receive opinions about the multiplayer #MW3And provide answers.
It’s no surprise that more and more people are talking about SBMM 😅 This will be a chance to see if they will really discuss it or reject it! pic.twitter.com/nVAJrVk4QH
– Dexerto Intel FR (@DexertoIntelFR) November 20, 2023
“Can you lower SBMM so that my ping is the only priority for matchmaking?”, “It’s exhausting to face tryrs in 90% of my matches.”, “It is impossible to play with my friends because of SBMM”We can read in the comments countless times.
Given the very wide range of criticisms expressed about MW3’s matchmaking and its SBMM, it seems difficult for Sledgehammer Games to hide the topic and not provide a clear and transparent response to the community, whether it is in the direction of the complainants or not. But nothing has been decided yet, and we will have to wait until the evening of Monday, November 20 at 9 pm French time, in the hope of getting answers.
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Towards a categorized playlist and casually pulling SBMM?
A solution regularly suggested by the community is to create a “casual” playlist without SBMM so players can play in a more relaxed environment, as well as a ranked/ranked mode for more competitive players, who want to get the better of their opponents. Their level (or even higher). If Sledgehammer Games has indeed confirmed that Ranked Mode will be coming to MW3 during Reloaded Season 01, we don’t know yet if this will have any impact on SBMM in casual playlists.
As soon as we have more information about the evolution of SBMM in MW3, we will of course not fail to share it with you.
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