"Deadlock Dev Enhances Matchmaking with ChatGPT"

A month ago, Deadlock promised to revamp its matchmaking system, and it seems a developer working on Valve's upcoming MOBA-hero shooter game found the perfect algorithm to use, thanks to a conversation with the AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Deadlock's New Matchmaking Found Using ChatGPT

Deadlock's MMR Matchmaking Criticized by Fans

The new matchmaking algorithm for Valve's upcoming MOBA-hero shooter, Deadlock, was discovered through ChatGPT—the generative AI chatbot developed by OpenAI—as revealed by Valve engineer Fletcher Dunn in a recent series of posts on Twitter (X). "A few days ago we switched Deadlock's matchmaking hero selection to the Hungarian algorithm. I found it using ChatGPT," Dunn shared, along with screenshots of his conversation with the chatbot. In the conversation, ChatGPT recommended the Hungarian algorithm for Deadlock's matchmaking needs.

A quick search on the Deadlock subreddit reveals players' negative feedback regarding the game's previous MMR matchmaking system. "I have noticed that the more games I've been playing, naturally I get harder games with better enemies. But I never had better/equally skilled teammates," one player shared, with other players echoing similar sentiments. Another player commented, "I know it's alpha but at the very least looking at how many games people have played would be nice. It felt like every one on my team was in their first/second game vs people who actually know what they are doing. Feels pretty bad."

(c) r/DeadlockTheGame The Deadlock team was quick to respond to the criticism from its player base. Last month, a Deadlock developer wrote on the game's Discord server, "the hero-based MMR one doesn't work very well [at the moment]. It'll be more effective once we finish a full rewrite of the [matchmaking] system we are working on." According to Dunn, they were able to find the most suitable algorithm for the matchmaking system with the help of Generative AI.

"ChatGPT has achieved an important milestone in its level of usefulness for me: I have a tab in Chrome that is reserved for it, always open," Dunn shared in a separate tweet. The Valve engineer does not shy away from utilizing the utility that ChatGPT offers, expressing more recently that he's "gonna keep posting my ChatGPT wins, because this thing keeps blowing my mind, and I think there are some skeptics who don't get how amazing this tool is."

While Dunn celebrated this milestone, he also acknowledged the mixed feelings about using generative AI. "I am kind of conflicted because it is often replacing asking the question to another human IRL, or at least tweeting it out to the virtual braintrust. I guess this is good (the whole point?), but it's just another way for computers to replace human interaction," he shared. Meanwhile, one social media user responded, saying, "I think the skepticism comes from the narrative some corporate people are trying to push that AI is going to replace programmers."

Algorithms help sort sets of data based on a set of parameters, rules, instructions, and/or conditions. This is most commonly illustrated when you look something up on Google, and the search engine returns pages of search results based on what you've typed out in the search box. In a gaming context, where there are at least two parties involved (for example, A and B), the algorithm can take into account A's preferences and help A match with the most suitable teammates and/or against enemies. As with Dunn, he asked ChatGPT to find the most suitable algorithm "where only one side has any preferences," that can solve certain problems and find the most optimal or suitable "match" in a bipartite—meaning, involving two parties—matching setup.

Despite these efforts, some fans remain dissatisfied and visibly frustrated with Deadlock's performance. "That explains why there has been a sudden increase of complaints about the matchmaking. It has been awful lately. All thanks to you fcking around on ChatGPT," one fan wrote in reply to Dunn's recent tweet, with another telling him to "Go work instead of publishing screenshots of ChatGPT on Twitter you fcking disgrace, millionaire company can't fix a beta game in 1 year."

Meanwhile, we at Game8 believe that Valve is working on something incredible with the upcoming release of Deadlock. You can read more about our thoughts on the game and our experience with its playtest in the article at the link below!