Posted in: Electronic Arts, Games, Video Games | Tagged: ea games, Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Has A Patent For Better Matchmaking

Published Thu, 31 Dec 2020 12:55:30 -0600

Something really cool but also kinda weird to find out at the end of the year is what EA Games has been patenting. Something new that caught the eyes of a few people this week is that the company filed a patent back in 2018 called Game Quality-Centric Matchmaking For Online Gaming, which is essentially designed to help better pair players up with people who are on the same level as they are based on four key scores. Here's the quick synopsis of this system.

A system and method optimizes game quality by matching players for an online game to one of several virtual games. This matching process may involve filtering the players who wish to play according to various constraint minimizing criteria, packing the players into one or more virtual games to optimize game quality factors of the virtual games, and then instantiating the virtual games to actual online games played by the players. The game packing process may be iterative and may involve adding a new player into a virtual game. Game quality factor (GQF) values prior to and after the placement of the new player in the virtual game may be compared. The comparison of the GQF values may be used, at least in part to determine whether the new player is to remain in the virtual game. Various criteria may be considered in instantiating a virtual game.

In theory, the way this should work is that the four scores determine who you get paired up with based on how you play, where you're ranked, and other key factors that appear to include your attitude (just in case you're a jerk with a ton of complaints). It doesn't look like the system is being implemented at the moment, but it is an interesting find that the company basically has a way to make their matchmaking systems better, if they choose to implement it.

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