Matchmaking has come a pretty long way in the last few years, but it looks like it’s going to be moving forward thanks to Stardock’s Impulse gaming service (Steam’s competitor). A Gamasutra article notes that in the next Impulse update, a new matchmaking feature is going to be introduced that allows for more “refined matchmaking”:
You [rank] a bunch of categories, like how competitive you are,” explained Wardell. “What matters to you in someone you want to play? Are they a similar age to you? Do they have a good PC? How competitive are they? Are they all about winning, or are they about having fun? Do they value their time? You don’t just get to say, ‘Yeah, max them all out.’ You put them in order of importance.”
Those self-identified traits are used to match up gamers. If you aren’t online when a match with your game is found, you’ll see the notification when you log in, and you can send a friend request if you choose.
“I say, ‘Alright, I want to play Sins of a Solar Empire or World of Warcraft or Team Fortress,” Wardell continued. “I can choose either a particular group of buddies I want to play with, or everybody on my friend list, or someone who’s similar to me, even if I don’t know them.
“Then it will tell me, ‘So and so, who is 84 percent compatible with you, is going into Sins of a Solar Empire. Do you want to launch Sins of Solar Empire?’ It launches the game, you find that person, you get together, and play with them.”
Added the CEO, “The idea is that now you can play with people who are similar to you, rather than some 14-year-old griefer who’s shooting you in the back every time because he thinks it’s funny.”
Initial reactions to this seem to be jokes along the lines that the gaming service is now combining with a dating service site to figure out people to “connect with” to play video games. In a sense, that’s very true, but I think it can definitely add value if implemented correctly. Of course, I don’t know if Impulse has any games that are so popular online that it can afford to really nitpick about the matchmaking, but I wouldn’t mind playing with similar minded people as me in Halo 3 or Left 4 Dead. The current rating system is just not working on the 360. What’s the point of picking which group your gamer profile belongs to if it just matches you up with everyone in every group anyway?
