[quote] But a casual game? What's the point of employing strict SBMM?[/quote] First off, Bungie has stated that skill considerations are currently loose as they've ever been. The purpose of having then at all is to create an environment where the largest number of players possible have a chance to win and find success. Which is exactly what a 50% win/loss ratio for the community will do. If a group of players feel they never have a chance to win, they'll just stop playing, and that's bad for the entire community. [quote] Bungie has a 50% W/L preservation (which defeats the purpose of SBMM, because SBMM in a ladder system would naturally bring you to a 1.0 KD and 50% W/L by itself, if you play enough games. At that point you stagnate in the ladder, and your skill level has accurately been determined, relative to other players)) [/quote] Can't you see that this means that Destiny has a skill rating ladder? It's just invisible to the player. If you win a lot of games the system will find you more difficult opponents until you begin to lose and your records even out. That is [i]exactly[/i] how a skill ladder functions. Now, why is it hidden from the players? Likely in an attempt to prevent griefing and gaming of the system. Bungie has had over a decade of matchmaking experience. They essentially invented the current party-based matchmaking system that practically every console fps now uses, and in every halo game the social playlists were [i]defacto[/i] ranked just like the ranked lists, but player ranks were hidden so people wouldn't obsess over success. Even in those social playlists there were common instances of players intentionally losing large numbers of matches to lower their trueskill score so that they could face weaker opponents and stomp. And in the ranked lists players employed all manner of exploits to gain an advantage, like intentionally manipulating the network connection to gain host, then droping opponents from the game or lagging them out. Additionally, if you payed attention over the various Halo releases you'd notice Bungie included less and less obvious ranking info even in their ranked playlists. Halo 2 had an actual leaderboard. Within which the highest ranked were almost exclusively cheaters. Bungie removed the leaderboards from future games and went to a level system thereby obfuscating your actual trueskill ladder position. All of this because some people will do whatever they can to cheat to feel better about their virtual ranking. Skill consideration in matchmaking benefits the [i]overwhelming majority[/i] of players. Those that can't see that simply don't understand the problem. Balance issues are largely beside the point. And personally, I think private matches along with an in-game group finder, would go a long way to solving the "why is everyone trying so hard" complaints.