ESO dev lifts lid on the MMO’s MMR system saying “it’s nothing new”

After huge battleground changes recently hit the Elder Scrolls Online recently, players have become obsessed with MMR and how it all works.

PvP has received a renewed focus in the Elder Scrolls Online thanks to the most recent update which completely overhauled the game’s battlegrounds. Instead of the traditional version found previously in the Tamrielic game which consisted of three teams facing off against each other, things have become simplified and streamlined. Now, it’s just your team versus another one, and as a result of this new playing field fans are looking at the MMO’s matchmaking rating system and wondering what effects it has and how to navigate it.

We recently got the chance to speak to Elder Scrolls Online PvP designer Brian Wheeler about all the big changes hitting the MMORPG right now. One query that came up relates to the community’s current obsession with MMR, especially looking at how one goes up or down in rank against other players, and where the current system came from.

“What’s funny is it’s nothing new. We’ve had that. We’ve had that MMR system in since update 20,” Wheeler laughs. “When we launched battlegrounds with Morrowind, we had a pretty basic MMR that was based on your win and loss, and that’s it. What we explored after that was looking at Elo and TrueSkill and various things like that, because what it’s supposed to do is take into account your expected win rate or not, which is basically the MMR of your enemies.”

“So let’s say we’re in a group and the system gets the MMR average of our group and then it goes, what’s the group? What’s the enemy’s MMR, what’s their ranking and their average?” he continues. “If theirs is higher than yours and you lose, then you don’t take as big of a hit. But if you win, you get a bigger gain. The reverse goes for the other team. If they were fighting us and we’re lower and we win, they’re going to take a bigger hit because they lost to a crappier team.”

“The only calculation change we had to make was whether it’s looking at two other teams or just one other team in terms of are you going to win, or are you not going to win,” he says. “The calculations have always been based on win/loss, and it’s been very interesting seeing how much more people are getting interested in that because as a PvP and gamer nerd, I like looking at that stuff.”

That said, there’s a limit to how much the developer will share – as it might become open to abuse if the full MMR calculations ever became known. “We do have some help definitions that explain a little bit how it functions but as with many things in the game, we’re not going to tell you the exact calculations,” he lets us know. “That’s the secret in the sauce that we have across the board for the entire game.”

If you’d like to check out what’s new in this latest update which completely changed how battlegrounds work in ESO, head over to the full patch notes to get the lowdown.

Or you can always take a look at our guides to the best fantasy games and the best single-player MMOs you can play on PC, as they’re sure to help you find exactly what you’ve been looking for.

You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.