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How Activision Uses Matchmaking Tricks to Sell In-Game Items

Kayant

Member
Ok and that’s one implementation of it, as I bolded in my reply

Take your L and go sit in the corner
Whoosh someone gets upset really easily LUL.

Right the one implementation that specifically gives gameplay advantages which the OP isn't supposed to be about. :thinking:
 

TwiztidElf

Member
The real story here has been lost among Activisions gross and abhorrent behavior.

The term "Marquee Player". I'm still laughing. lol.

N6fUhB3.jpg
 

kuYuri

Member
Activision might have been doing this for years. Since nobody knows their algorithms, they can use it for decades before filing a patent, if they want.

I’ve already said in a post after that I read the article wrong, but it turns out that Activision released a statement saying they aren’t using this tech, so
 
I made a thread about this before but this is just the top of the iceberg. Lootboxes/MTs are often rigged to squeeze as much cash as possible out of users. It's all a giant scam. I have this from someone who would know.
 
Positive spin: the fact that Activision has a patent on this means other publishers can't do the same thing
I was listening to Sterling's video over this and finally realized the same thing. Well, at least I'll probably be good for 20 years. I'm not too fond of Activision's relatively small current stable of games
 

WoolyNinja

Member
The things this could be used for are scummy sure. But what really gets me mad is how these companies complain "waaaaaah, $60 isn't enough cause games cost so much to make now."

Well maybe if you'd stop wasting time trying to figure out how to fuck over gamers you could use that time to create great content and then the game wouldn't cost as much to make. Greedy companies are getting out of hand.
 
So basically, they put you into games with higher skilled players just to get destroyed in hopes you will buy their items to be as cool as them.

This is disgusting.

You should always be matched by skill only so everyone has a fairer chance.

What if it has the adverse affect? Player keeps getting destroyed and just quits and doesn't play the game?

Not buying any game which uses this shit, so go on, put it in games Activision, watch it turn away players.
 
Positive spin: the fact that Activision has a patent on this means other publishers can't do the same thing
They'll just do slightly different things.

Considering the metrics these games can collect, and how these online systems are impenetrable black boxes that can be tweaked in a million invisible ways to hone in on player profiles and adjust elements of gameplay and reward and progression to direct player behavior, we're only glimpsing the outlines of these systems and whats to come.
 
This is an aside, but I was thinking about this exact thing in GTA 5 Online two nights ago... Especially after reading this part of the link: "For instance, the microtransaction engine may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player. A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player."

To pretext, I play pretty low key in GTAO... just a simple country MC biker. No attack helicopters, no jets, no flying bikes. I could afford it... I own 3 drug businesses -- it's just my role play and mostly only reason I play GTAO. I've put quite a few hundreds of hours into it (mention this only to say I got a pretty good sample of deaths). And I pretty much only ever die when I'm just delivering a bag of drugs on my bike, and helicopter or jet comes and nukes me lol... I don't care of course because if you did why would you ever play GTAO... Just making the point that it seems like poor game design, poor matchmaking.

But .... Other night I was thinking, with such a huge population of GTAO players and an easy time to populate lobbies, why doesn't Rockstar metter match <Rank 100 players with each other, or players that have 'aircraft access' only with those that do, and new or non-aircraft players with just those..

But why would they? Why would you want to not let 'rich' players grief poor players, when you're also trying to sell 'money' to those poor players.

Point of the story is: regardless you're using special matchmaking to try match players in a way that promotes microtransactions, or you just let randomness make it naturally, it definitely still probably influences a lot of online games.

Rockstar may not have added 'bad' matchmaking to promote RMT, but I wouldn't be surprised that Rockstar's decisions not add 'good' matchmaking was to promote RMT.

That's the thing with RMT in general, whether GTAO, Shadow of War, MGS V, even Deus Ex MD. Whether it ends up being a factor or not, it makes you wonder, is X game feature or lack of Y game feature genuinely based on purely what the designer thinks makes a better game, or is it there to somehow promote RMT -- even if only indirectly and in a subtle way. I mean, for two of those games their RMT ended up being useless for the story, and people still questioned MGS V and Deus Ex MD's microtransactions at release; Shadow of War has faced the same 'integrity of the grind' or 'authenticity of game design' concerns

Anyhow, just some random musing because that quote I opened with reminded me of GTAO.
 

Oxirane

Member
Have games tried rendering rare cosmetic items onto players who don't own them while in multiplayer matches just to nudge people to buy them?
It would probably be too risky with the prevalence of YouTube and Twitch streaming, but you could target players who change the skin of particular characters often.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
I’ve already said in a post after that I read the article wrong, but it turns out that Activision released a statement saying they aren’t using this tech, so

And you believe them?

In BO3 the scenario of the best player being teamed up with the worst happens, and that doc runs through that exact scenario, coincidence?
 

Anarion07

Member
I’ve already said in a post after that I read the article wrong, but it turns out that Activision released a statement saying they aren’t using this tech, so

Which I also said in my post. I just provided a little info on how patents work, since I work in that field.
 
Sweet. Timer to stop buying their games. Fuck this industry gets more insidious every year.

When you have plenty of gamers white knighting for corporations and defending their implementations for greedy microtransactions, can you blame them?

We as gamers only have ourselves to blame sadly enough.
 

llehuty

Member
What if it has the adverse affect? Player keeps getting destroyed and just quits and doesn't play the game?

They probably don't mind; the player already bought the game, and seems like he/she is not willing to spend more money. They will get less server load.

I'm honestly not surprised at all about this, I've always assumed that this is the default scheme for games with online microtransactions, and the reason why there should be some kind of regulation.
 
No wonder AAA games are so generic, instead of designing ways to make the game more fun, they're designing ways to get people to spend more money on microtransactions.

"Its cosmetic only!" "Inflation!" Just keep defending them, imagine how bad things are going to get next gen.
 

kuYuri

Member
And you believe them?

In BO3 the scenario of the best player being teamed up with the worst happens, and that doc runs through that exact scenario, coincidence?

It doesn't matter what I believe. ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯

If you have conclusive evidence to the statement's contrary, feel free to post it.
 
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