Bungie ended up removing the skill-based matchmaking from the majority of Destiny 2’s PvP Crucible playlists, due to the demands of the fanbase. This is not very intuitive, as it would be considered normal to play against people of a comparable skill. Well, it is a bit more complicated than that. Skill-based matchmaking has become a controversial topic in most multiplayer games. In Destiny, for example, skill-based matchmaking results in longer waits for matches.
Yesterday’s announcement says that skill-based matchmaking is now removed from all Crucible playlists, with the notable exception of Survival, also known as Competitive, Survival” Freelance, also known as solo Comp, and the Elimination mode. Game modes such as Trials of Osiris were not based on skill to begin with, but rather on the wins on your ticket, so they will remain like this.
Bungie said that some of their goals include the shortening of queue times, the improvement of the connection quality of matches and providing more places where the outcome of the match is less important than actually enjoying the experience of playing. Bungie has also declared that they are trying to play into the strengths of Crucible, which is a fast-past, chaotic action game.
Crucible matches sometimes suffer from laggy players which are one continent away and they are just warping all over the place. It is a good thing that these will not be present in the game anymore, but, regardless, removing skill as a factor in the matchmaking process is sure to make a lot of players really angry.
If skill-based matchmaking works as intended, every game will be a challenge for everyone involved. Since everyone is as good as you, you really do your best to not screw up. What this does, however, is make it less fun to just hang out in the game, shoot around and experiment. Whether the developers made the right choice is up to everybody, but I personally agree with their decision.