Before we even begin, I know it’s a skill issue. I know. I spent a lot of time with Modern Warfare 3’s beta on PlayStation 5 the past two weekends. I hit max level, maxed out a couple of guns, and enjoyed the nostalgia of it all. I mean, Highrise? Rust and Skidrow? I was basically born there.
I had a good amount of fun in the MW3 beta. The game feels great to play, the movement is fluid, the weapons are fun to shoot, it looks good, and it’s a blast to play some of the maps I grew up with.
But I can’t stop thinking about how much more fun I could have been having.
I think I’m a slightly above-average player, even now in my elevated age. I’ve lost several milliseconds in my response time and I don’t play the game for four-plus hours every night like I used to, so I get rusty at times, but I feel like I can still hold my own.
That is, until skill-based matchmaking kicks in.
As a mostly solo player now at the ripe old age of 34, I feel incredibly punished any time I find myself having any level of success when it comes to score, kills, and wins. It’s only a matter of time before I’m matched up against Shotzzy Jr. and Clayster 2.0, while I’m teamed up with people who clearly must be trying to play while changing their child’s diaper or something.
While never officially acknowledged or recognized by Activision, skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has been widely felt by players across the spectrum of skill levels, mostly since Modern Warfare 2019. There’s always some degree of SBMM in multiplayer games, but it was ratcheted up then, and it must be working for Activision’s bottom line because it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
The goal of SBMM, in theory, is to keep players matched against those of a similar skill level. But in reality, this leads to situations like the ones below where the lowest-skilled players are matched against each other and can feel a sense of accomplishment without getting randomly matched against a group of demons who ruin their night and force them off the game.
But in the end, I’m not bad enough to get matched up against those “do they even know where the minimap is” players like seen in the video above by JGOD, but I’m also not good enough to avoid getting thrown into sweaty lobbies every other game. And so I suffer.
Some players out there have truly mastered the newer movement mechanics in CoD. And it’s their right to do so, and it makes them the better players for it. I simply can’t keep up, and that’s fine, but it pushes me away from playing the game for fun as a casual gamer.
I just wish I could focus more on the positives of MW3’s beta, like the guns, the maps, the interesting new lethals and field upgrades, the killstreaks and scorestreaks, and the nostalgia of it all. But I just keep coming back to wishing I wasn’t punished for doing decently well.
It makes me think that maybe I’m just not this franchise’s demographic anymore, and I feel like I’m a little bit caught in the middle. But it appears I am not alone, as several other players on social media agree that SBMM is a bit strong.
Maybe one day my skills will degenerate to the point where I end up in the lobbies like the one above. For now, I must bring my headband when I attempt to gather intel on a new gun so I can write a loadout guide.
But that’s okay. There’s still fun to be had (in smaller increments than before), and a portion of the community seems to be really enjoying the new movement mechanics, which rewards skill, fast reactions, and hand-eye coordination.
And, better yet, I think this game will be excellent to watch for this season’s Call of Duty League action. The world’s best players with these movement mechanics on MW2 2009’s classic maps means we could be in for truly something special.
And then I’ll get inspired to hop on the game and gun enemies down like Simp, only to be brought back down to earth at the speed of a predator missile.
As for myself, well, I’ll try my best to level up my guns in Rust 24/7 without giving into the compulsion to rip my PS5 out of the wall after being turned on by a GFueled-up 12-year-old who is just better at the game than me at this point in my life in every facet imaginable.
It’s a skill issue.
