I really have no problem with IW putting me in lobbies with similar talent. To me that is how you get better. I also like to take it up a notch and enable crossplay against PC people semi frequently to improve my skills (for the record I have ALL aim assists turned off, always have on every shooter - I say that only because I have seen where PC players think console gamer's have an edge with certain aim assist options.).
My biggest gripe is the disbanding of lobbies after only one game. While I understand it is not IW's job to curate my friends list, I have to say a lot of my friends I have on my list came from COD lobbies since COD 2 in 2005. And yes I do use the search for group feature on the Xbox, but many times that turns out to be a 50/50 proposition on if I am vibing with new strangers or not. At least if I stay in a lobby for a few rounds I can get a feel if I want to party/friend up. Also I enjoy the competitive banter between the rounds of trying to go back and forth and get revenge after a loss, etc.. To me that is a lot of what COD is about.
The way it is set up now it is very "sterile" and the game simply does not feel as alive as I get placed in a lobby by myself every 5-8 minutes awaiting a new set of players. I'm not dumb and I totally get why the guy from Respawn said what he said and why Fortnite is doing SBMM as well. It is all about extending the tail as long as you can with these shooters and making you come back as much as possible to increase the chances of a micro-transaction purchase. The way they increase that is not alienating the bulk of the user base by having them get beaten into the ground match after match, which is the casual crowd.
However that being said, your hardcore crowd spends way more money long term than your casual crowd. I have a hard time believing the casual crowd played BO4 as often as I did into August. It seems they are throwing the middle finger to the people who are spending dollars, to chase the people who spend pennies. It makes no sense at all to me other than misguided greed. Activision is so reliant on this franchise that it pretty much is the whole portfolio by itself, which has forced them into this path to get every last cent out of everyone, while not realizing they are alienating the ones who purchase the bulk of their micro-transactions.
I agree with whomever stated they should just make two sets of lobbies...Casual and Ranked. Out of ALL the COD's this should be the EASIEST one to implement this on as there is cross play enabled which further guarantees plenty of people to play regardless of whether there is a subdivide or not.
