Have you ever though you might be cr@p at this game

Oh I know I'm not very good!

But if they were matching me with people of similar skill, not level, then I shouldn't be losing all the time. As it happens, when I'm playing most people seem to be of a very similar level to me. Coincidence?

Just went online on MW2 and I can see what you mean. I admittedly am totally useless (too many years on wasd is my excuse ) but there was no way they were matching skill levels!!!

I think Infinity Ward's matchmaking system isn't necessarily bad, just that it's not clear as to what it's doing.

I was round a friend and his first game he was thrown in with Prestige people and various other ranks, we didn't necessarily do the best, but i blame that more on the random person that was running around with Marathon, Lightweight, Commando and a tactical knife

I'm just wondering whether or not IW will not incorporate a Halo 3 and Gears 2 like change to the system whereby you get shown your "rank" (how long you've been playing/experience) and a value for your "skill" and thus match people by the latter category.

Personally i still think the multiplayer is really rather decent even without "proper" servers but that's mainly because as i said earlier, i think it's more to do with the fact PC gamers aren't used to this system. I admit that sometimes having players host matches instead of dedicated servers can be worse, but as i also noted in one of my first posts in the thread, i've found the party system to be the best way of ensuring that when i play with friends that we're all on the same team.

As for the player cap, in some ways i disagree with it in that i do think that you should be able to decide the amount of people on a server, however i can also see IWs justification that 9 vs 9 is balanced for the maps. I mean sure you could have more people on maps like Derail or Wasteland, but i'd find you'd be pushing it even on those maps if you had 32 players. I mean 32 people on the "Cliffside" map in World at War was already more than enough...

I'm about 99% certain that the matchmaking system uses rank - and pretty much rank alone.

My mate got XBL today, and I asked him if I could have the first few plays online before he started - he obliged, and of course - in the first game everyone was a very low rank.

I owned, got a really good ratio and still low ranks.

I was winning most games, and certainly finishing top half in every single one.

Why didn't I start playing against the level 30/40/50 guys I usually get "matched" with?

Bored of it now. Think I'm gonna flog it (Xbox 360) ready for Battlefield Bad Company (2) which I prefer playing online anyway.

I cant do that it was a present from the wife, which is a shame as there is one of the best trade in /second hand shop almost at the en of the road from me.

The missus doesnt mind tbh. She bought me Assassins Creed 2 recently which I traded (+£15) for Mass Effect 2 last week. If I got rid and spent it on crap though she might not be too impressed!

I'm just starting to get this game sussed!

My K/D ratio has gone from 0.62 to 0.84 and rising, and I'm coming first in at least half of the free-for-all matches I play.

Last night I won a game with 30 kills and 4 deaths!

My highest kill-streak is still only 11 though. I use the attack helicopter and care package kill-streaks to get a lot of my kills.