Matchmaker

In multiplayer video games, matchmaking is the process of connecting players together for online play sessions. There are a few ways this can be done, some of which will be mentioned below.

Parties are groups of players who are treated as a single entity by matchmaking systems. A party can skip from session to session without its players becoming separated from each other. The concept is particularly well suited to playlists, which can automatically handle the logistics of finding or creating play sessions with enough room for the whole group.

Lobbies are menu screens where players can inspect the upcoming game session, examine the results of the last, change their settings, and talk to each other. In many games, players return to the lobby at the end of each session. In some, players joining a session that has already started are placed in the lobby until the start of the next. As lobbies consume very few resources they are sometimes additionally used as a "holding pen" for players while a suitable host for the coming session is found. Lobbies created by playlists often have a countdown timer before the session starts, while lobbies created by a player generally transition at that player's discretion.

Many matchmaking systems feature a ranking system that attempts to match players of roughly equal ability together. One such example of this is Xbox Live's TrueSkill system. Games that utilize this method tend to use divisions and tiers for their matchmaking rating system.

Some games (particularly those with dedicated servers) present a list of active sessions to players and allow them to manually select one. This system can be used in conjunction with ranking and lobbies. One of the games that makes use of this and also happens to be a Gameye customer is Chivalry 2 be sure to check them out! Most of these server browsers allow players to filter the results they provide. Common filter criteria include server name, player count, game mode, and latency.