Is Effective Matchmaking Possible?
The list of Real Time Strategy games where the factions are unique yet balanced is limited to one: Starcraft. The others fit into two categories: games with symmetrical factions and games where the units are imbalanced.
We can debate why it is so difficult to balance asymmetrical units in a strategy game endlessly, but it is clear that the time and dedication required to accomplish this feat is available to a select few developers. Blizzard’s new focus with Starcraft II is matchmaking; will they put the same effort into effective balancing?
Is it possible for Blizzard to make the game sophisticated enough for the highest levels of competition yet accessible enough for casual first time RTS players? If anybody can do it, Blizzard can, but it might just be impossible.
Beginner’s Luck
Competitive online gaming has historically been only open to first adopters. Once a game has been out for a while there’s no way to jump in. It’s not fun to load up a game 6 months after it has come out just to be crushed by every other player who has the advantage of 6 months of experience.
Even worse is that there are always players with more time than you. I go by the rule of 50. If you are willing to play for 30 minutes per day, somebody out there is willing to play for (approximately) 25 hours a day. Even if you are playing on day 1, you will quickly fall behind the talent curve. Challenges are amusing, but it’s not fun to play a game you’re guaranteed to lose.
This image is a visualization of my online RTS performance. I'm the little purple guys. My opponent is represented by a number of things, but mostly lasers. Oh god why
It’s no coincidence that cooperative multiplayer has grown hugely in popularity in the last five years when a decade ago it was essentially nonexistent. Players enjoy the thrill of interacting with others online, and even if you’re twice as skilled as your teammate you can still both have a satisfying experience.
Is competitive multiplayer doomed to relative obscurity?
Early Matchmaking
This isn’t an unidentified problem, and developers have long been working on solutions. Their first was a rudimentary ranking system. This essentially gave you a score based on your win / loss record and the relative quality of opponent based on their win / loss record. Games used these standings to group players into brackets.
What those early solutions didn’t count on, however, was that everybody on the internet is a douche bag. While a top player will want to compete against skilled opponents some of the time, they will also want to beat down new players with unexpected frequency.
The best players would have dummy accounts that had a poor record due to a few intentionally thrown matches, and they would use those to be matched up with new players who had no chance against them. Griefing is so widespread in online gaming that the term had to be invented.
Oh look, my first game and I'm dead in 10 seconds again
Blizzard’s Approach
Blizzard is doing one thing that’s going to help: forcing online players to use Battle.net. This will be a system that unifies all accounts and information and makes it far more difficult to create a dummy account for low level matches. Sure, players might go so far as to purchase 2 copies of the game and two Battle.net accounts if they really want to grief low level players, but for the average high level participant it will pose a significant obstacle.
The expectation that this will solve the problem completely, however, is foolish. Blizzard’s matchmaking system will have to incentivize players to self-select into the appropriate category: elite or beginner. But how?
The first thing that’s being done is that competitive multiplayer ‘leagues’ will play out over a medium period of time. A skilled player can’t try to scam his way into a lower tier for a few matches; he will be stuck there for a prolonged period of time.
Maybe Blizzard will include more cooperative or new player friendly options, and fewer instant death explosions (pictured)
Blizzard is also making it easier to match up with your friends and other players with whom you are familiar. This will ensure players experience fewer random matches with players pretending to be worse than they actually are.
In addition, practice leagues will be an option for beginners. In these, the pace of the game will be slowed down and there will be limited rush abilities. The worst players will still be beaten, but at least they will understand why they’re being beaten and will have the ability to learn from the experience rather than just losing instantly to a team using hotkeys and advanced strategies. A reduced speed game is probably unattractive to top players.
Finally, the replay system will cut down on the zerg rush instant deaths that could happen in the original Starcraft. Players might not know how their opponent achieved what they did in such a short period of time, but at least now they can go back and watch the replay. Starcraft II is going to be the first game in which the replay can be rewound and analyzed step by step.
Beginners are always going to struggle at a game until they grow familiar with the mechanics. A game like Starcraft II is going to have a steep learning curve and due to its similarity with Starcraft, many players who already know the basics of advanced strategy.
No system is going to be perfect, but hopefully there will still be a niche for casual players who don’t want to learn sophisticated strategies and hotkey shortcuts. Starcraft II has a chance to be the first truly casual friendly online RTS.
