SBMM, known as skilled-based matchmaking, is a system that many online multiplayer games have implemented to pair players with others who share the same skill levels. It’s been a system that’s been the center of many hot debates online, showing that it has some kinks to work out. Still, despite some criticism, it seems that PlayStation may be taking inspiration from it for their latest patent, as it discusses the possibilities of adding an SBMM-like feature into single-player games where difficulty scales in real-time to accommodate players’ skill levels.
The patent, which was made public last week, describes collecting data to help determine a user’s experience and to reflect the game’s difficulty based on that. The better you do, the harder it would become, while the worse you do, the easier it will be to play.
“Methods of the present disclosure may collect data when a user plays one or more different types of games when determinations are made as to whether the difficulty of a game should be changed. The collected data maybe evaluated to identify whether a user gaming performance level corresponds to an expected level of performance. When the user gaming performance level does not correspond to an expected level of performance, parameters that change the difficultly of the game may be changed automatically. Parameters that relate to movement speed, delay or hesitation, character strengths, numbers of competitors, or other metrics may be changed incrementally until a current user performance level corresponds to an expectation level of a particular user currently playing the game. At this time, the user expectation level may be changed, and the process may be repeated as skills of the user are developed over time.”
I know it’s patent and all, but this sounds like an awful idea, if I am honest. If it comes true, then it should be an optional setting, not one that’s forced as many play single-player games to enjoy the narrative, not to get frustrated because they’re getting constantly killed by a boss who now outskills you.
This is strikingly similar to how SBMM works in online games, especially for Call of Duty — a game where users have been very vocal about SBMM throwing them into matches where the opposing team far outskills them.
Let’s just hope this remains to be a patent, or as I mentioned, just as an option for players looking for the challenge.
Source: Patentscope via Exputer