Embark Studios seems to have embraced a term the fans have created to describe Arc Raiders.
In an interview with Dean Takahashi for GamesBeat, Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund talked about the game’s matchmaking. As paraphrased by IGN, Patrick said this:
Obviously first it’s skill-based of course. Then you have solos, duos, and trios.
And then we also, since a week ago or so, we introduced a system where we also matchmake based on how prone you are to PvP or PvE.
So if your preference is to do PvE and you have less conflict with players… you’ll get more matched up [with similar players]. Obviously it’s not a full science.
Afterwards, Dean asked Patrick upfront:
I did have someone ask me like are is there aggression-based matchmaking?
This was Patrick’s spontaneous reply:
And that sounds like that’s and and that’s exactly what it is.
Should Everyone Adopt Aggression-Based Matchmaking?
We suspect that other game developers, such as Activision’s Call of Duty studios, also account for how aggressive their players are when it comes to matchmaking. So this is probably not a completely new idea for any of them.
Aggressive players may not necessarily be the same as high level players. If you look at the example of GrndpaGaming, this is a real veteran who snipes in-game the same way he served in the US military in real life. There’s something chilling watching him play, but a lot of his playtime is spent patiently waiting instead of rushing in.
Arc Raiders’ game design may uniquely position it in such a way that it makes sense to match aggressive players against each other. We imagine there’s a larger fraction of the player base who wants to spend more time in the extraction side of the game than the shooter side.
Aggression-based matchmaking may not work for all multiplayer online shooters. But then, there may be enough potential in the idea that the studios may want to consider it.
In fact, maybe even co-operative shooters like Borderlands 4 and Helldivers 2 may be more enjoyable if players are matched with each other based on aggression level. And maybe this could extend beyond shooters, to fighting games like Street Fighter 6, or kart racers like Mario Kart World.
We don’t exactly want to see this become some huge trend that the industry jumps onto and then abandons. Maybe Embark should share what they’ve learned to help their peers decide if this idea could work for them.
