Embark dispels myths about Arc Raiders' aggression-based matchmaking: 'We don't make any value or moral judgments … it's a bit of a blunt instrument'

When an extraction shooter comes out and says it's matchmaking people according to how much they decide to shoot, folks naturally have a lot of questions. Embark recently revealed that Arc Raiders is now using an "aggression-based matchmaking" system, as well as other unspecified parameters, to join players with similar playstyles.

"So if your preference is to do PvE and you have less conflict with players … you'll get more matched up [with that sort of play]. Obviously, it's not a full science," Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund told GamesBeat.

The news triggered all sorts of reactions—some celebrated the idea of being rewarded for peaceful play with peaceful lobbies, others felt like Arc Raiders was penalizing them for enjoying PvP, and some worried their bloody trios matches would poison their solo matchmaking.

After the hubbub Embark design lead Virgil Watkins took to setting the record straight in an interview with GamesRadar+, starting with the label "aggression-based matchmaking" itself.

Watkins said "it's a bit of a misnomer calling it aggression-based, and it is something we're going to keep tuning, but people aren't far off in how they think it works."

As some assumed back when Söderlund described the system, Watkins says Arc Raiders is not making "any value or moral judgments" when you shoot someone in the back.

"We can track who shoots first and who takes damage and who [does] whatever. But the one thing the system does not do is attempt to assume intent. If I'm a very bad player and you're a good player, and I'm the aggressor and I just miss all my shots and you defend yourself, the game doesn't know what the intent was. They just saw you kill me because I'm terrible," Watkins said.

"It's not the game judging you for your actions. It's purely around, just, are you engaging in PvP at all? So it's a bit of a blunt instrument, which is why we're continuing to add and tune what we do with it."

Assumptions have been flying wild and freely, but personally, that is exactly how I interpreted the system originally. That means it's certainly possible to sidestep the system by adjusting your behavior to not look like an aggressor in the game's eyes, but Watkins says the team is fine with players having that amount of agency in the process.

The goal, as Söderlund also noted, is to push similar players together, not to lock away PvP players on their own blood island. I have just 13 player kills over 50 hours (all self defense, I swear!) and yet I still run into the odd serial killer.

Weirdly, Watkins also contradicted Söderlund's previous assertion that Arc Raiders uses traditional skill-based matchmaking in its equation.

"We don't do anything like skill-based matchmaking or gear-based matchmaking," he said. "It's really just this kind of rating system we have that maneuvers, and we're just going to keep monitoring match health and player response, and tune it from there."

Curious.