SBMM has existed yes, but it was essentially random because the priority was always low queue times over anything else. It wasn't until the later cods like Advanced Warfare where they started prioritising it more and then MW2019 really killed the matchmaking experience by relying on skill as a factor way too much (this by the way, is the issue we are talking about now when we refer to SBMM, not ancient systems like TrueSkill that didn't have much sway, except for stopping the best of the best matching with the worst of the worst, which I would agree with being fine).
Call of Duty until ~2014 always prioritised queue times, same with the emergence of Battle Royales when they took over the online space for a while in 2017-2020. Fortnite had the quick queues with little SBMM, if any, because queue times were the most important thing. Now you wait a bit longer get against half players similar skill to yourself and the rest of the lobby is filled with bots to speed up matchmaking times, it's terrible and unfun.
That's the issue we are talking about and it's not an unpopular opinion. It's nothing to do with my own skill, infact I have gotten worse at shooters in the last few years if anything as I have gotten older and I still don't want SBMM. Back when I played Cod everyday on console I was pretty average, but slowly got better until I quit consoles in 2014. On PC I mainly played CS, which I became very good at yes. I was a bit better than average on Fortnite/PUBG and would win like 1 in 10 with a decent amount of kills. Now I can win like every game because it's all bots. It's boring. I can beat anyone now because I'm not matched with or against people who are better than me, I don't learn anything.
I want to jump into a game and have fun, I want to lose some, I want to win some, I want to try in some, I want to goof around in others. The strictness of SBMM today prevents that from happening. I can't join a lobby of people, lose to them and then try to beat them in the next game, because they reset the lobby after every match. Cod is also a lot less social because of this, you can't make friends or enemies across matches anymore. These big multiplayer games have dropped fun, instead they want people to win win win so they keep playing and buy skins. That's why people don't improve anymore, there's no challenge, every game is the same thing, same strategy required.
I played some mainstream games recently and they put you against bots and stuff for like 10 of your first games, I end up quitting because I just want to play versus players, every game wants this heavily curated experience and it sucks. Let players have fun again, if people want to play against bots, give them a mode to. If they want "fair" games against players, they can play ranked. Just give us our casual lobbies back.
Not true, unless you are in the absolute bottom 1%. We all enjoyed games before SBMM, it only became a real thing in like the last 6 years, don't know why everyone is suddenly scared to have a challenge every few games.
Before SBMM you stomped some and got stomped in some, no matter your skill level, because you sometimes had worse players and sometimes some better players. It made the big wins more exciting and forced you to try new things to win vs better players. It's incredibly bland playing against the same skill level, every game is predictable and you will never improve as a player.
They are low elo forever because they only play low elo games. There are way more low elo players than not, so without SBMM they wont get stomped all the time, it was never like that before so I dont get why we are pretending it will be now.
Because the modes are casual, I should be able to have a bit of fun, some games will be easy, some games will be harder. I can experiment with different styles, loadouts whatever. SBMM in casual modes ruins this, because every game turns into a sweaty slog.
You also dont improve at games past a certain point by killing bots and players just as bad as yourself. I got better by playing against and with the better players, the lobbies were more diverse which was more fun and better for learning.
Never said it was the fault of the creators, I love the idea of Linux and wish it was the mainstream desktop OS, then none of these issues would really exist. I only have issue with people pretending it's so simple to change to it from Windows, which is just almost never true.
I have an Nvidia card because it was the best option for me at the time I bought it, Valve's Proton hadn't matured enough for Linux to even be considered for gaming at that time (other Linux quirks aside). As much as I support FOSS, I love playing a variety of games with friends and that just wasn't going to be feasible with Linux 5-6 years ago. I wasn't going to dual-boot when I would end up spending most of my time in Windows anyway and the rest of my time troubleshooting Linux.
Now AMD has released a good card, Proton is really good and Linux has progressed further to where I can seriously consider it. With Windows 10 support ending, I am very likely to jump ship.
I have Nvidia yeah and quickly learnt that I wasn't going to get it working smoothly and went back to Windows. If I manage to get a RRP 9070XT, then I will try Linux again.
I hate the "stop using windows" comments, when it's quite impossible to have the same experience without specific hardware and setups.
Can I run multi-monitor high refresh rates without the desktop slugging? Last time I seriously tried switching to Linux, this seemingly simple setup in 2024 was too much for it to handle.
There's a few, like Openguessr too. But they are not really Geoguessr alternatives in the same way Geotastic is, with all the community features, I also like the transparency Geotastic has with running costs, I can donate to cover my own usage without overspending for profiteering like is the case with Geoguessr now.
They are adding a "Steam pass", which doesn't let you play on the web and your web subscription doesnt let you play the Steam version. Just play Geotastic instead.
The main writers have since left Rockstar. Dan Houser left in 2020. I feel GTA will lose it's charm with this next entry, I hope I am wrong, but something just feels off. Either way, won't be buying it until it's on a good sale, reviews dependent too.
At that point they might as well let you plug in a mouse to the console and then you might as well just buy a Steam Deck anyway.