Call of Duty’s skill-based matchmaking, a hot button topic for the past few years, is seemingly at the forefront of all players’ minds—even those who haven’t even picked up the game yet.
The latest discussion took place in a Reddit thread on Jan. 10, spurred on by a self-professed “chill casual dad gamer” who said that they were interested in picking up the newest CoD game for some fun.
“Is this game ok for someone playing like 30 minutes a day, looking for something where I don’t get killed 10 seconds after I spawn (AKA I want to play against noobs like me),” they said. “I don’t really care for my K/D ratio, I used to love MW2 (the original one back in the days) playing objective centered games.”
Weathered CoD players were quick to point out how harsh skill-based matchmaking can be in MW3, warning the chill dad gamer about what may be in store for them in their multiplayer lobbies.
“This is what you can expect,” said one player, who’s clearly enjoyed a bit of MW3. “Match one: wrecked. Match two: wrecked again, one more match and I’m done. Match three: 2.5 K/D! I’m back! Match four, five, six: absolutely wrecked by no scopes slide cancel esports. K/D drops to .99: ‘I’m ready to quit this game overall, one more match.'”
That experience should sound familiar to most CoD players, especially over the past few years. It feels like every time a player has a good game, they’re immediately punished with a tougher matchup.
“I’ll have two matches of doing okay, then the map selection will be Shipmas and Meat,” another player said of their matchmaking experience. “This is a sure thing and if I leave the lobby, the cycle repeats. If I play one of the maps I’ll get wrecked, then another game of getting wrecked, then the baby wakes up and I play one game holding her and going 23-6.”
Other players suggested playing Zombies and avoiding multiplayer entirely due to SBMM, or to play modes like Invasion or Ground War. But the SBMM problem persists, leaving many to wonder just who benefits the most from the system if even chill dad gamers can’t chill while gaming.
