I know I remember Team 5 saying at some point in the past that one way they were going to help newer players is by tweaking the matchmaker so that it only matches players with small collections with other players with small collections, etc. My question is: is this still going on? Does this happen on ladder?
If this is something that is actively happening, does that mean that there are several different 'layers' of the ladder - one where people have almost all the cards, one where people have roughly half the cards, one where people have almost no cards, etc.? Does the matchmaker also take into account lifetime wins? Does that also create another 'losers' ladder?
I have an F2P friend that has very few cards, but has an easy time ranking up the ladder, even with pretty bad 'kitchen sink' decks. I've watched him play, and it seems ridiculous to me that he can get so high up there with the quality of his decks, the number of misplays, etc.. Meanwhile, I'm facing all gold legend players down around rank 19, and every game is a complete chess match.
If this is happening, then this isn't really a fair way to set up a 'ladder'. In a ladder environment, it should be your rank, not your collection, play time, or win rate, that determines your opponent. There are people who aren't very good at card games who nevertheless enjoy collecting all the cards who will be fantastically and continually outmatched in such a scenario - and thus penalized for paying money for the game.
I know I remember Team 5 saying at some point in the past that one way they were going to help newer players is by tweaking the matchmaker so that it only matches players with small collections with other players with small collections, etc. My question is: is this still going on? Does this happen on ladder?
If this is something that is actively happening, does that mean that there are several different 'layers' of the ladder - one where people have almost all the cards, one where people have roughly half the cards, one where people have almost no cards, etc.? Does the matchmaker also take into account lifetime wins? Does that also create another 'losers' ladder?
I have an F2P friend that has very few cards, but has an easy time ranking up the ladder, even with pretty bad 'kitchen sink' decks. I've watched him play, and it seems ridiculous to me that he can get so high up there with the quality of his decks, the number of misplays, etc.. Meanwhile, I'm facing all gold legend players down around rank 19, and every game is a complete chess match.
If this is happening, then this isn't really a fair way to set up a 'ladder'. In a ladder environment, it should be your rank, not your collection, play time, or win rate, that determines your opponent. There are people who aren't very good at card games who nevertheless enjoy collecting all the cards who will be fantastically and continually outmatched in such a scenario - and thus penalized for paying money for the game.
Thoughts?
They've recently given a very clear announcement about how matchmaking works:
http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/2177-is-matchmaking-rigged-max-mccall-explains-the