Call of Duty studio adopts controversial balancing methods.

Published: January 20, 2015 11:53 PM /

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Call of Duty Online

Call of Duty players have begun to notice that sledgehammer games is in the process of tightening their online multiplayer experience by cracking down on what they consider to be undesirable behaviors. Via a blog post on the sledgehammer website, studio head Michael Condrey clarified their position on matchmaking and on what method's they've adopted to combat the practice of ‘reverse boosting’, that is, when players kill themselves in order to circumvent skill based elements of the matchmaking system.

Some players have voiced their desire to be matched purely on server connection, and without any regard to matching skill levels and prestige ratings. Currently players tend to be thrown in against people at their own skill level. Leaving some players to complain that every game becomes highly competitive, removing the option for a more relaxed type of gameplay. Other players, specifically on PC, complain that skill based matchmaking limits the number of people available to play against.

While Condrey insists that skills based matchmaking is always secondary to matching players with good server connectivity, he stands behind the practice. Presumably, it makes the game more appealing to the average, casual CoD player, who in past years might have tired of losing repeatedly at the hands of better player.  Before the release of Advanced Warfare, Condrey admitted that the studio was trying to cut back on the popular tactic of Quickscoping, because some people had gotten too good at it. Summing up Sledgehammer's efforts to bring better competitive balance, Condrey wrote:

In short, almost universally, kill to death ratios are up, and people are playing longer, and that makes us happy.
On the topic of bans due to the practise of reverse boosting, he had this to say:
Playing at home, I’ve been randomly matched with players doing this and it’s incredibly frustrating to lose based largely on my team being down a contributing teammate…No one wants to lose an objective based match by effectively being outnumbered while their teammate shoots grenades into their own forehead 100 times in the corner
Do you think the studio is interfering with the way people want to to play their games? Has skill based match making helps or hinders you CoD experience? Let us know.

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