The Meaning of SBMM: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know the definition of SBMM? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on the acronym SBMM, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What does the acronym SBMM stand for?

According to Redbull, Urban Dictionary, and Ginx, the term SBMm stands for Skill Based Matchmaking. This is a gaming term that is used to describe how the game’s algorithm matches players up against each other. SBMM matched the different video game players based on different criteria that the developers chose. This could be based on accuracy, games won, score, kill/death ratio, length of time playing the game, and many more factors. Skill-based matchmaking was a big point of controversy in the game Call of Duty.

According to Britannica, Call of Duty is an electronic game that brought many advancements to the first-person shooter genre of game. This game won many different awards in 2003 and 2004 following its release. Call of Duty is a game franchise that combines challenging single-player missions with a multiplayer engine. The game allows players to advance through WWII in a series of different campaigns or to play against real humans in multiplayer mode. The game’s popularity spawned many different sequels and expansions including Call of Duty II, Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty III, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Skill-based matchmaking was a big point of controversy in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Before SBMM was implemented, a player would use a server browser to jump in, find a game, and play with whatever level of players you ended up with. Sometimes this meant that you would be in way over your head, and sometimes it meant that you ended up in a game that was way too easy. This could get very frustrating for different players. Some people felt like they were always playing against people who were much more advanced or experienced than they were, while others felt the reverse was true. Many other games also include skill-based matchmaking such as League of Legends and Fortnite. These place new players against new players and the experienced and skilled up against alike gamers

Therefore, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sought to implement both elements. The game’s algorithm attempted to match a player up with people who were right around their skill level. Thus, you would always feel fairly evenly matched and move up to battle people who were at your same level as you improved. However, while in the other Call of Duty games, the range of skill you were matched up against was far wider, in Modern Warfare, the range was very small. Therefore, everyone you play against is almost identical to your own skill level. This makes some players frustrated because they feel that they can never really improve because they are never challenged. Additionally, it makes it much harder to win a game since everyone is at the same skill level as one another. Many believe that what makes a game fun is the randomness of it all. In one game, you might get dominated but learn a lot, while in others, you might destroy the other team and feel victorious. 

It is not that people do not think games should include skill-based matchmaking, it is simply that people believe the range for these matches in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is much too narrow. Some people believe that in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, there should be a ranked mode and an unranked mode so that people can enjoy randomization at times and participate in the matchmaking system at other times. The Call of Duty community including many pro players in eSports, content creators, streamers and YouTubers who once enjoyed playing the game felt that the similar skill level was too closely matched and made the game less fun. They took to social media to complain, and the anger at the game’s SBMM was trending.

According to The Free Dictionary, the acronym SBMM also has a couple of other definitions. However, these are used far less commonly than the term skill-based matchmaking and should therefore be used sparingly. If you do decide to use one of these alternate definitions for SBMM, make sure that you provide the reader with the proper context so that there is no confusion. This way, the reader will be able to infer the intended meaning of SBMM. This should be standard practice any time that you decide to use an acronym that has more than one possible definition. 

  • Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (California) – According to SBMM, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum located in Santa Barbara, California opened in July 2000 in the former Naval Reserve Building. This museum is on a mission to explore the rich and diverse maritime history of the Santa Barbara channel. It was founded by a group of fishermen, divers, and sailors. 
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Overall, the term SBMM most frequently stands for skill-based matchmaking. This is a term that is used in online multiplayer games, most commonly within the Call of Duty franchise. This term refers to the process of matching similarly skilled [layers up against one another. The developers believe that this will lead to an evenly-matched game, but some players believe that in certain iterations of the game Call of Duty, the skill levels were too narrowly matched which took a lot of the fun and randomization out of the game. Skilled players and newbies alike were frustrated by its implementation. 

Sources:

  1. https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SBMM
  2. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=SBMM
  3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Call-of-Duty
  4. https://www.ginx.tv/en/call-of-duty/what-is-sbmm-and-why-are-call-of-duty-fans-so-against-it
  5. https://www.redbull.com/in-en/the-real-issue-with-skill-based-matchmaking-in-call-of-duty-modern-warfare#:~:text=As%20a%20whole%20skill%2Dbased,not%20one%20or%20the%20other.
  6. https://sbmm.org/