Matchmaking
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The new Arena system explained
One of the many changes that came along with Patch 3.0.8 was a new and nebulous Arena matchmaking and rating system that nobody was aware of except, perhaps, the guys over at Blizzard. When the new system debuted, it was met with mixed reactions and Blizzard was forced to suspend Arena play for a few days while they straightened out the kinks. The system was back a few days later, with ratings rolled back to pre-maintenance numbers and Achievements reset. Some players report being able to keep the items bought during that period, despite Blizzard stating that these would be removed and Arena points refunded.Blizzard poster Aratil dropped by the PvP forums earlier to explain -- in layman's terms -- the new Arena system. The new system is supposed to match players according to skill, rather than gear. Exactly how the system determines skill wasn't made clear, although Kalgan explained that the system uses a Gaussian Density Filter. New to the system is a 'hidden rating' that's different from either the personal or team rating, and is unique to the player regardless of how many Arena teams he or she plays with.What's clear from Aratil's post is that the change was intended to "promote the enjoyment of Arenas". Under the new system, highly skilled players will be matched up against other teams that provide a challenge while newer players just starting Arenas won't feel shut out. In a way, this can be likened to the low barrier of entry for raiding in Wrath of the Lich King. They're still tweaking the system, specially as far as ratings losses and gains are concerned, but the overall goal is to make Arenas more fun. I think we can all agree that more fun is always good. As long as it's working as intended, that is.
Arena matching system changed in patch 3.0.8
There's a new matchmaking system out in 3.0.8 for arenas, and the change (surprise surprise) did not make it into the patch notes.Update: Please see this post for further information.The system is thus:There is a rating, one that you cannot see, which will match you "against others of equal skill." This rating is different for each of the arena brackets. At the end of each match, the internal rating, the one you cannot see, is changed. The cycle then repeats itself when you queue up for your next match.There isn't any more information that that, which was released by Bornakk late last night. Bornakk warns that you might notice some odd behavior in arena matches.
Anti-Aliased: See the griefing, taste the griefing pt. 2
Problem number two is Sony's lack of action. Moderators are few and far between, the automated system in place doesn't work too well, and people feel that they can get away with whatever they want. There's no sense of authority or control in Home, and that's a detriment. Now, I'm not pushing for everyone to be horribly oppressed, but there needs to be some sense of order and control that's apparent to the players. When word spreads that you can't get away with certain behaviors, the behavior begins to diminish over time.And, finally, problem number three -- there are avatars involved. Even if your turn off their voice chat and visual text chat, you still have a crazy annoying avatar chasing after you, clipping your torso when you go to bowl that next frame. The answer to this problem is to simply ignore him, as he will probably go away, but this phenomenon is still annoying and not fun for any user. You just want to play your game sans problems, right?Xbox Live seems to have have found the solution to these problems by sheer accident. Then answer is simply to avoid these problems by not doing them. It doesn't over-promise content, it does provide control for the users, and it avoids visual avatars in most games. (Except in the case of the Xbox Live vision camera; we're just going to temporarily forget about that. Especially as it only works with a few games.)The success comes from the fact that if you mute someone and report them for harassment, Xbox Live makes sure you avoid that player in your online play. If the automatic matchmaking has a choice between game A and game B, and game A has a person you hate in it, you'll be placed in game B without noticing it. Home does not have that luxury because the entire world is linked together. You mute someone and there's no guarantee that you'll never see him again.So what can Home do? I say introduce the ultimate ban -- avatar removal. You mute someone and it removes their avatar from on screen for you. You don't see them, you don't hear them, you don't worry about them. Sure, you might end up banning half of the Home community, but now you have control over what you see and do in Home.In the end, that's what it all comes down to -- user control. Let the user determine their own experience; don't force it on them. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who really likes all of the controls that Xbox Live provides, even if he can't buy a virtual couch for his Xbox Dashboard. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane friends. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.
Gears of War 2 matchmaking servers boosted
Epic gave the old Gears servers a good hard boot, er, re-boot earlier this week, claiming that the new configuration will allow the matchmaking servers to support more players per server. "Based on what we're seeing so far, matchmaking times have improved significantly," reports senior producer Rod Fergusson on the Epic Forums. Fergusson does admit, though, that potential delays are always looming. Playlists are subject to low player population at any time, for example, and there isn't always the right sized party to merge with your own party. Don't fret, Fergusson promises "we're not done yet."
Halo 3: November matchmaking update revealed [update]
In its weekly update, Bungie has revealed Halo 3's matchmaking changes for November, which will add a four-day Double XP special playlist inspired by Thanksgiving among other changes. Fans of specific weapons will want to note that Bungie has removed Team Sniper and Team Shotgun variants from Ranked Team Slayer but sniper fans can welcome their favorite variant back into the Hardcore rotation with a ranked 4v4 Team Sniper playlist. Other changes include map variant changes in ranked matches and map frequency. Check out Bungie's Weekly Update for the entire list of changes.Ed. Note: This is Xav's 777th post at X3F. Fitting, isn't it?Update: Looks like this was last week's weekly update. We're not sure how we missed it then, but here it is now!
Halo 3 update lands on Sept. 23 brings new features to B.net
The anticipated second title update to the Xbox 360 power-house Halo 3 is scheduled to release on Tuesday, September 23. Bringing fresh achievements to the popular shooter as well as a host of new features to Bungie.net, the second update will also revamp the player rating system within the game as well as kick-start the September playlists which adds new variants of current maps into ranked games as well as retire classic gameplay variants like Rocket Race and Big Team Battle.Some users will notice changes already made to Bungie.net but the changes will only become fully apparent when the update is released. Before our inbox becomes flooded on Tuesday with tips on broken updates there are a few things to keep in mind. Halo 3 ... pretty popular. According to Bungie's Luke Smith players may experience issues with everything from the playlists to actually obtaining the update -- a listing of possible Zero Hour scenarios can be found in the latest Weekly Update. In the update Smith also revealed one of the newly added achievements will not be available until September 25 also known as Halo 3's first birthday.After a year of shelf-life and its battle for top seed in the Xbox Live rankings, what is your excitement level for the Halo 3 update?[Thanks for everyone who sent this in]
COD4 playlist changes in the pipeline
Considering how long the game has been out now, we're glad that Infinity Ward is keeping up with its community and making sure that they continue to play. Over at IAMfourzerotwo's blog he's updated readers on the playlists that'll be "in testing" over the weekend. The best and most liked of the lot will be added to the playlists in the next update. The four playlists that'll be tested include Multi-bomb Search and Destroy and Hardcore HQ. The full run down with playlist descriptions are listed after the break.
Dungeon Runners offering level-balanced PvP, sort of
In an interesting twist on the usual PvP fare, NCsoft has implemented "magically balanced" PvP into the matchmaking service for Dungeon Runners, their fun and free Diablo-esque hack and slasher. In the past, those vying for some PvP action in Dungeon Runners had to sit in the matchmaking queue, hoping that a team of their requisite levels was also waiting for a battle. The demographic tends to skew more casual, so this was a process that in the past could be a bit painful. As West Karana reports, the new "magically balanced" system brought about in Build 95 adjusts player levels and team strengths in order to match teams more quickly and ostensibly guarantee a fair fight.Alas, it doesn't work quite as advertised. Even with their levels adjusted to more competitive levels, newer players still lack the kind of skill variety and gear that veteran players are going to be packing. So while it's a novel idea to speed along the matchmaking process by evening the odds on paper, it's still slanted towards the people stacked with purples. It's going to take a bit more work at the grindstone before PvP becomes worthwhile for lower-leveled players.If you ask us though, it's nice that they're even trying.
Dungeon Runners Build 95 patch notes
The free, ad-supported title Dungeon Runners has updated to Build 95, and extensive patch notes have been posted on the official site. The meat of the new build centers around a revamping of the current PvP system, which the developers admit hadn't been the game's strong suit previously. The upgraded system involves scaling everyone's level in a PvP battle to 101, to make matchmaking quicker and fairer. However, players will still have an incentive to better their characters, as the game will differentiate toons that are well-equipped and skilled for their level, and make their level 101 incarnation stronger. Similarly, a poorly equipped character will end up with a weak level 101 in PvP. The "magical rebalancing" (to borrow their phrase) will also account for outnumbering, and will boost the strength of players on the overwhelmed side.Along with the PvP updates, there were a few other tweaks to skills, items, the UI, and a bunch of new quests. The full list of changes is linked below at the Dungeon Runners website, and you can also download the game there.
Halo 2 reset and matchmaking updates delayed
The promised rank reset and matchmaking playlist updates to Halo 2 have been delayed, but are scheduled for next week. With the release of the two new multiplayer maps, Bungie had hoped to implement them into matchmaking and do a rank reset. But due to people having troubles getting the maps they are waiting a little longer. Though, Frankie assures us that they are actively working with the Xbox team to figure out all the anomalies that sprung up with releasing the maps the way they did. So, enjoy your Halo 2 rank one blissful week longer.[Thanks, Zac LaCombe]
Introducing the Halo 3 Beta Leaderboard/List
So, Phase 1 and 2 of the Halo 3 beta have closed, with most of us getting in. We even know that parties and matchmaking will be available, so you'll be able to play with your friends. A bunch of you readers left comments about getting in and wanted to exchange gamertags with those who were in the same boat. While we were busy throwing paper airplanes around the office here at Fanboy Towers, the idea came about to put together a comprehensive list of gamertags of beta participants. Better yet, we'll leave all the hard work to you, dear reader. If you're in the Halo 3 beta, sign up at our fancy schmancy custom leaderboard. We ask that those relying on Crackdown's invites to please only put your tag on the list after you've nabbed yourself a copy of the game. While you're at it, if you haven't added yourself to either of our standard leaderboards, feel free to do so now.Xbox 360 Fanboy Halo 3 Beta ParticipantsOther X3F Leaderboards:Xbox 360 Fanboy LeaderboardXbox 360 Fanboy Leaderboard Mk. II
Bungie owns up to Halo 2's flaws
Edge Online posted an interview with Bungie, where various team members discuss Halo 3, the development process and other aspects of the team's infrastructure. One thing has seemingly stood out from the article, though, and that is their view on Halo 2. The comments from Technical Lead Chris Butcher seem to be generating the most buzz. He feels that the team miscalculated on Halo 2 and that the multiplayer should have been exponentially better than what was released on the disc. He even goes so far as to say that he can't even play Halo 2, and uses that as a springboard to illustrate that Halo 3 will not fall into the same trap. Bungie has been known to be hyper critical of their own work in the past. While their opinions may be a little on the extreme side, if it motivates them to make Halo 3 the best it can be, then everybody wins. So, what do you think? Was Halo 2 really that bad? It still set the standard of how party matchmaking should be done, right? To have a look at the rest of the interview, which touches on many things other than what was wrong with Halo 2, click the "Read" link.[Thanks, KilgoreTrout]
Shadowrun forgoes TrueSkill for 'party' play, Epic told the truth [update 1]
Shadowrun will use a friend-linking party system for ranked matches, yes, but developer FASA had to forgo the use of Microsoft's TrueSkill matchmaking system to implement the feature. In fact, according to Knuckles Dawson who had a chance to play Shadowrun, FASA has built its own matchmaking system from scratch. Microsoft's TrueSkill system does not allow friends to play together in ranked matches -- the explanation Epic used in its own defense.It's hard to knock Epic for opting to go with TrueSkill. Heck, the system was already in place, and there were seemingly more important areas of development to focus resources on -- and Epic succeeded with an exceptional title. But there's no denying that the Xbox Live community has been upset with how the limitations of TrueSkill affect Gears of War. Epic is certainly considering these opinions, and it wouldn't be too far-fetched to predict that a future update will replace TrueSkill with an Epic-designed matchmaking system that supports parties.[Update: We incorrectly identified Knuckles Dawson as an employee of Shadowrun developer FASA when he is in fact an echidna an avid Xbox Live player invited by the FASA team to test out their title. The post has been amended.]
Halo 3 matchmaking, and why GOW's is broken
1UP continues its parade of Halo 3 coverage today with a new interview. The interview centers around the matchmaking system that Bungie is developing for Halo 3. Besides the obvious issue of cheating, Bungie talks about Halo 3's new ranking system. In addition to the traditional skill based ranking system, Bungie is implementing a new experience based ranking system (according to the latest issue of EGM, these will be actual military ranks). The idea is that whether you win or lose, you will gain some experience. This way, when a new playlist pops up and everyone is a level 1, you'll still have an idea of each player's relative skill level -- i.e. the guy with 300 hours of play time will probably beat the guy with 10.
The better matchmaking method, Gears or Halo?
With all the excitement surrounding Gears of War this past week, I thought I'd compare its multiplayer with that of my other favorite Xbox game, Halo 2. Of course both games have great multiplayer aspects to them and both are quite fun, but for the sake of this blog post I'm not interested in what the multiplayer is like, I'm looking at how the matchmaking system is implemented. I really want to know how easy is it to get into a game that is ranked, how easy it is to setup a game in which your friends can play, and overall how the multiplayer experience is managed. I pick at my brain for these answers to this multiplayer conundrum ... after the break.
TrueSkill matchmaking demystified [update 1]
With all the hoopla surrounding Gears of War's matchmaking system we've been led to believe that come Emergence Day we won't get to play ranked games with our friends on Xbox Live. Well, that's only partially true. The smart folks over at Microsoft's Applied Games Group try to explain the TueSkill matchmaking system that Gears implements for ranked multiplayer sessions. They state that the TrueSkill system doesn't allow you to play ranked games against your friends due to the possibility of intentionally throwing a game to increase anther's rank. (That makes sense, keep going.) The other dark side of the coin is that the system doesn't allow you to "party up" with your friends either, due to them wanting to keep TrueSkill valid and completely random. (That kinda sucks, anything else?) The bright spot in all of this is that the TrueSkill system doesn't prevent you from playing alongside your friends, since you'll share the same outcome as them, but it's all up to chance of the TrueSkill system that you'll actually be paired with your buddy. Hopefully this clears up some of the mystery surrounding the matchmaking in Gears of War ... or maybe I just made you all the more confused.Update: Ok, after analyzing this more thoroughly it looks like Gears of War's rank isn't based solely off of your win/lose ratio, but takes into account numerous individual stats. So, the TrueSkill ranking system looks at players individually and not as a team, hence why you can't party with a buddy in ranked games. Thanks BenzMoney for your insight, but the outcome is still the same no matter who you want to point your finger at ... you can't play ranked matches of Gears of War with your friends in one party. Also, I fixed that evil spelling error and I love how you're keeping the new guy on his toes![Via VGBlogger]
Uno matchmaking fix on the way
UNO for Xbox Live Arcade (currently the game of choice for Xbox360Fanboy editorial meetings) is generally percieved as a successful take on the classic card game -- with one major flaw: gamers attempting to play a ranked match are thrown into their own lobby instead of being matched up, resulting in an annoying wait for competition. Fortunately Carbonated Games tells us a fix is near. UNO Program Manager Richard Thames Rowan posted the following response to complaints on K1lla's Xbox Domain:The UNO development team is aware of the problem that some people are having with matchmaking and has a fix going through certification right now. Hopefully, you'll see this roll out soon, so no need to email anyone.Finally, ranked matches without a 20 minute wait. There can be only one.
Battlefield 2142 scans of PC Gamer cover story leaked
The Battlefield 2142 hoopla is starting to look more and more real as scans of the PC Gamer issue in question have surfaced online with BF 2142 featured as the magazine's May cover story. Digg contributor Iced_Eagle has pointed us to an 8.5MB archive of images from the mag, with 9 pages concerned with 2142 and 2 pages having to do with Half-Life 2: Episode 1. If you're interested in knowing "where your unstoppable 20-foot Mech is," then you'd best get to that reading online or off ASAP. For those still skeptical of any gaming news outlet coming out with such a story in the general vicinity of April Fools' Day, keep in mind that the game appears to not only be the magazine's cover story, but that its coverage also fills up all those pages of print mentioned earlier. EGM merely dedicated a single page with a brief line in the table of contents to its Apple iGame prank this year, so this would seem like a lot of effort on PC Gamer or some extremely dedicated Photoshopper's part to fool the gaming public. Will this fall prove to be the point when the BF franchise finally frags in the future? At this point, it would certainly seem so. Read on for further details about the game; the cover pic links to the scans.
Free basic service on "PlayStation Network Platform"
Going by the working title "PlayStation Network Platform," Sony has announced that the basic level of its online service will be free (at least at first).While the company's "Live-killer" will readily support the PS3 at launch in November, it is not known to what extent the "PNP" (er, "PSNP"?) will support the PS2 and PSP.What are supported, however, are voice/video chat, messaging, matchmaking, ranking, game data uploading/downloading, shopping, content downloading, micro payments, subscriptions, and entitlement (i.e., user access) management. All of this will be tied together with a Live-like user login ID/handle name. Hello, 360... More P(S)NP pics follow.
