Pixonic, Fix The Matchmaking (Or I May Write A Song About You)
Friends at Pixonic (and fellow Pilots) -
In the spring of 2008, a group of musicians flew on United Airlines from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Omaha, Nebraska. Upon arrival, they learned that one of their instruments had not survived rough handling from baggage porters. After unsuccesfully seeking recompense from the airline, they did what we all do when wronged: they wrote a song about the experience! I almost forgot, they also shared it on social media.
First of all, I defy anyone to write a better song about airline baggage mishaps. You'll be humming "you broke it, you should fix it/you're liable just admit it" all damn day. Would you believe that catchy little ditty's YouTube video got 17 million views? United's stock took a tumble as a result, and the Sons of Maxwell found a niche within a niche of Canadian country music as consumer protection advocates!
In a post last week, I described War Robots as a game in a Nash Equilibrium. Simply put, this means a player can not benefit by changing strategies while the other players keep their strategies unchanged. Ultimately, this is bad business for Pixonic. Readers will remember that I devote much more time to studying game play than video game companies, but it is my opinion that War Robots could become an institution among video games IF players felt most of their battles were fair.
So here's the how-to!
Currently, matchmaking is done exclusively by pilot rating (according to Pixonic). This system awards points for victories and subtracts them for defeats, and is intended to reflect pilot skill. As we have all learned, however, there is a large subset of players who manipulate the system. The "tankers" lose on purpose, they do it very quickly and with relative ease, and they appear in battles against far weaker opponents.
One popular idea for arresting this behavior is the "ratchet rule." It's a simple idea borrowed from labor relations, and it means that once you've moved forward, you don't go back. If pilots reach a certain level, they would stay there for matchmaking purposes. It's a good idea, and Pixonic should implement it. But it won't work by itself, because it would create a hard ceiling - many players would just avoid any advancement. I learned it first-hand by playing my son's account in Bronze league - there are players who build monster hangars without ever playing a battle in Diamond or above.
Because of this, hangar strength also needs to be part of matchmaking. We've seen this cause problems too, as anyone who had to face the swarms of Magnum Gepards will attest. With that said, the community content creators and the U agree that matches based on the robots and weapons a pilot equips are generally much fairer than matches that are based on rating alone. Pixonic could rank hangar strength by quintile - top 20%, next 20%, etc.
From there, it's a simple either/or: pilots in the top 20% of hangar strength OR the top 20% of ratings would be matched for battles. Thus, even if a tanker had a very low rating, his MK2 Bulgasari would put him in a battle against someone with similar equipment.
The beauty of this solution is that the numbers can be easily changed to create the group sizes needed for short wait times. If the top 5% or 10% of pilots is a big enough group, they can play each other. If 25% are needed to have a viable group, no problem. Matchmaking changes can occur on Pixonic's end of the server(s), so we don't even need to wait for an update.
The U will be launching an in-depth look at how fair battles actually are in the current matchmaking system, but perception is reality. Regardless of what our data looks like, if players feel like they can't get enough fair battles, it's bad for everyone. How bad? To borrow a sociological concept, it is corrosive to the well-being of the whole society. In the real world, countries (and US states) with greater equality of income have lower rates of obesity, child mortality, mental illness, homicide, incarceration, and virtually every other measure of well-being. More equality = more happiness. Check the UN/UNICEF data out for yourself in this really amazing fifteen minute TED talk.
Results in the Art of the Assist coming soon!
Your humble servant and still a huge fan of the game,
Dr. Yat
Faculty Notes
First of all, I defy anyone to write a better song about airline baggage mishaps. You'll be humming "you broke it, you should fix it/you're liable just admit it" all damn day. Would you believe that catchy little ditty's YouTube video got 17 million views? United's stock took a tumble as a result, and the Sons of Maxwell found a niche within a niche of Canadian country music as consumer protection advocates!
In a post last week, I described War Robots as a game in a Nash Equilibrium. Simply put, this means a player can not benefit by changing strategies while the other players keep their strategies unchanged. Ultimately, this is bad business for Pixonic. Readers will remember that I devote much more time to studying game play than video game companies, but it is my opinion that War Robots could become an institution among video games IF players felt most of their battles were fair.
So here's the how-to!
Currently, matchmaking is done exclusively by pilot rating (according to Pixonic). This system awards points for victories and subtracts them for defeats, and is intended to reflect pilot skill. As we have all learned, however, there is a large subset of players who manipulate the system. The "tankers" lose on purpose, they do it very quickly and with relative ease, and they appear in battles against far weaker opponents.
One popular idea for arresting this behavior is the "ratchet rule." It's a simple idea borrowed from labor relations, and it means that once you've moved forward, you don't go back. If pilots reach a certain level, they would stay there for matchmaking purposes. It's a good idea, and Pixonic should implement it. But it won't work by itself, because it would create a hard ceiling - many players would just avoid any advancement. I learned it first-hand by playing my son's account in Bronze league - there are players who build monster hangars without ever playing a battle in Diamond or above.
Because of this, hangar strength also needs to be part of matchmaking. We've seen this cause problems too, as anyone who had to face the swarms of Magnum Gepards will attest. With that said, the community content creators and the U agree that matches based on the robots and weapons a pilot equips are generally much fairer than matches that are based on rating alone. Pixonic could rank hangar strength by quintile - top 20%, next 20%, etc.
From there, it's a simple either/or: pilots in the top 20% of hangar strength OR the top 20% of ratings would be matched for battles. Thus, even if a tanker had a very low rating, his MK2 Bulgasari would put him in a battle against someone with similar equipment.
The beauty of this solution is that the numbers can be easily changed to create the group sizes needed for short wait times. If the top 5% or 10% of pilots is a big enough group, they can play each other. If 25% are needed to have a viable group, no problem. Matchmaking changes can occur on Pixonic's end of the server(s), so we don't even need to wait for an update.
The U will be launching an in-depth look at how fair battles actually are in the current matchmaking system, but perception is reality. Regardless of what our data looks like, if players feel like they can't get enough fair battles, it's bad for everyone. How bad? To borrow a sociological concept, it is corrosive to the well-being of the whole society. In the real world, countries (and US states) with greater equality of income have lower rates of obesity, child mortality, mental illness, homicide, incarceration, and virtually every other measure of well-being. More equality = more happiness. Check the UN/UNICEF data out for yourself in this really amazing fifteen minute TED talk.
Results in the Art of the Assist coming soon!
Your humble servant and still a huge fan of the game,
Dr. Yat
Faculty Notes
If you read the U's blog, please hit the subscribe button here and at our YouTube channel! We do not (and can not) spam or bother you. You get an email notification when we post new content. Contact us at warrobotsu@gmail.com.
The U is not just a blog ... we are also iOS clans #48669 [theU] for Masters/Champs and #139479 [U-2] for Diamond/Expert. We welcome skilled communicators from around the world.
The U is not just a blog ... we are also iOS clans #48669 [theU] for Masters/Champs and #139479 [U-2] for Diamond/Expert. We welcome skilled communicators from around the world.
Happy Thursday Dr. Yat !
ReplyDeleteI've often considered the "ratchet rule" and how it would be an immediate fix to the tanking issues we are experiencing today. Let's face it, isn't it our nature to want to better ourselves and advance? But of course this system would in essence have a penalty effect for anyone with a new bot or weapon that is not appropriately leveled up yet. I feel that an algorithm taking into account hangar strength can be the only solution. That way players like me and you will be able to squad play with our sons without having to have multiple accounts as well as many other payers who would like to squad play with their friends who may be newer payers. I believe that also would present it's own set of problems but of all the options available I feel it would offer the best opportunity to provide for a "level" playing field. It would certainly be interesting to know exactly what the different options would be for better matchmaking and analyze the pro's and con's of each.
Thanx for all you do for the WR community,
Dominic M
Hey Dominic! I think combining both systems is best, but nothing is perfect. In my idea, a pilot might wait to bring a new weapon onboard, but this is a small price to pay for evenly matched battles!
DeleteI like this idea that once you advance to a league you cant go back, also One league should face the same league, like Expert faces Expert & Masters! it should only be Expert 1,2 & 3 Vs Expert 1,2 & 3 , but they say that enough players might not be available at that time, so the solution is that it is not necessary to always start a battle when there are 12 players! they can make and start a match of 4vs4, why not! the core issues as of now in WR are
ReplyDelete1] Tankers.
2] Lags and Teleporting.
3] Match making.
5] Availability of resources.
4] Sync Drops(for making more than 2.5 million silver in a single battle :o) can you imagine? I have seen a player facing full squad from same clan dealing 4.6 million damage and earning a total silver of 2.5 millions(premium).
You are right Tahir, and this is something I hadn't really thought about - sync drops outside of events to obtain lots of silver at once.
Delete