A community divided. Does it have to be?

Games Other Halo
1

When I come on to these forums and look at the topics I see a whole slew of different topics. Everything from blind rage at Halo 4 just because it’s different than other Halo’s, to blind support of Halo 4 from people who ignore its flaws and everything in between.

There really can be no arguing that the community isn’t divided. There seems to be about 1/3 of people who hate everything about Halo 4 to 1/3 who love everything about it to 1/3 that hate some things and love others.

I am reminded of what happened to the Mass Effect community after the ME3 ending fiasco. There was about 1/2 of the fanbase who loved the ending for what it was and about 1/2 that hated it and thought it needed saving in the form of a new ending, one containing the popular Indoctrination Theory. BioWare is now in a tough spot, they are coming up on their last DLC and they need to decide if they will try to appeal to one side or the other, or somehow both. It’s not going to be easy for them to fix it, but for 343i it really could be quite simple as to how to reunite the community.

The solution is simple, Halo 4 needs to have its playlists reworked. Some people like how Infinity Slayer plays, others hate it and want a more classice style playlist. The simple solution would be to offer both, and I know they are in the case of Slayer (Team Throwdown…YES!!!), but there are other playlist that need a classic version as well.

To summarize, TL;DR: The community is divided right now, some people like Halo 4 some hate it some are in between. But there is a simple solution to reunite the Halo community, just add, or in some cases remove playlist so that Halo fans of all types can pop in Halo 4 and find something they enjoy. Team Throwdown is a very good start to this, but 343i needs to continue this trend with other gametypes like CTF that are currently only playable in the new style and not available as its classic flag juggling style. I think the playlist should be divided into two categories, one where everything uses the current settings from Infinity playlists, and one that has classic versions of all the gametypes like CTF and Slayer. Call it ranked and social or something else, but the point is that anyone who puts Halo 4 in, be them 11 year Halo veterans or players who are having their first experience with Halo, everyone should be able to find a gametype they like.

Feel free to elaborate on how these playlists should be set up or what playlists should be made available. Also, if you see some scenario in which this idea wouldn’t work, please feel free to explain why. Thanks for reading, and hopefully if this gain enough attention 343i will take notice of this and see that its not too late to reunite the community.

2

Playlist ideas:

Infinity playlist: Offers all of the current playlist we see in Halo 4. Post TU hopefully somethings in this playlist will be worked on, from DMR and Boltshot to the randomness of Ordnance.

Throwdown playlist: Offers all the playlist from the Infinity playlist, only with custom settings for competitiveness. (Preferably no sprint), pre-set loadouts and or no loadouts, and you get the gist of it, basically Halo 2/3 style gameplay in Halo 4.

3

The community is divided, doesn’t have to be. One of the reasons I like the off-topic thread in the general forums. A lot of the nay sayers and defenders come there just to chat, much better environment.

I agree we all have one common goal and that is to make Halo 4 the best it can be. We just all don’t agree how to get to that point.

Team Throw down is obviously a step in the right direction, and I love it. At the same time I personally don’t want 343i to abandon the idea of infinity, load outs ordnance etc. I would love to see a competitive play list as well for the infinity settings and a casual playlist.

In my dream world:

Competitive Infinity:

Infinity Slayer
Infinity Oddball (no ordnance)
Infinity Big team Objective (no ordnance)
Infinity King of the Hill (no ordnance)
Infinity doubles
Infinity Multi-team
Team Regicide (no ordnance)

Competitive Classic:

Slayer
Oddball
Big Team Objective Objective
King of the Hill
doubles
Multi team
Lone wolf
Regicide

Casual:

Action Sack
Griftball
Team Swords
Team Snipers
FFA Rumble pit

4

Well Mr. Gribble, it doesn’t have to be, so long as each community gets their fair share. Halo 3 had it right. I didn’t see any casuals having a problem with Halo 2 either. I’d say we were most in Harmony around those days, until Reach and Halo 4 started abandoning the competitive community and halo’s roots. There’s still always a chance.

5

> Well Mr. Gribble, it doesn’t have to be, so long as each community gets their fair share. Halo 3 had it right. I didn’t see any casuals having a problem with Halo 2 either. I’d say we were most in Harmony around those days, until Reach and Halo 4 started <mark>abandoning</mark> the competitive community and halo’s roots. There’s still always a chance.

Please don’t use that word. 343i is working on Team throw down, the CSR and promoting more tournaments with AGL and -Yoink!- gaming. You are not forgotten.

6

for the most part i enjoy Halo 4 but i dont ignore the issues it has. however i know that it takes time to make a good MP time which i think 343i is really working on. so i look forward to every monday.

7

The community has always been divided ever since halo 2 showed. The difference between back then and now is people are a hell of a lot louder.

8

> The community is divided, doesn’t have to be. One of the reasons I like the off-topic thread in the general forums. A lot of the nay sayers and defenders come there just to chat, much better environment.
>
> I agree we all have one common goal and that is to make Halo 4 the best it can be. We just all don’t agree how to get to that point.
>
> Team Throw down is obviously a step in the right direction, and I love it. At the same time I personally don’t want 343i to abandon the idea of infinity, load outs ordnance etc. I would love to see a competitive play list as well for the infinity settings and a casual playlist.
>
> In my dream world:
>
> Competitive Infinity:
>
> Infinity Slayer
> Infinity Oddball (no ordnance)
> Infinity Big team Objective (no ordnance)
> Infinity King of the Hill (no ordnance)
> Infinity doubles
> Infinity Multi-team
> Team Regicide (no ordnance)
>
> Competitive Classic:
>
> Slayer
> Oddball
> Big Team Objective Objective
> King of the Hill
> doubles
> Multi team
> Lone wolf
> Regicide
>
> Casual:
>
> Action Sack
> Griftball
> Team Swords
> Team Snipers
> FFA Rumble pit

They don’t need to abandon Infinity, but it needs tweaking to balance it.I think the only glaring issue is Ordnance. I think Ordnance’s should have different tiers of rewards. For your first Ordnance meter fill up of the game you should get an average power weapon like the needler or something like that. Should you manage to fill it again, which most decent players can then it should give you things like damage boost, speed boost, overshield or drop down a load of every grenade type for you to fill up on. When and if you can fill your ordnance up again for a 3rd time then and only then should you get power weapons like the rocket launcher, binary rifle, incineration canon and so forth. That way, you would have earned them more significantly and you won’t be able to get them within the first 3 minutes of the game and basically dominate the rest of the game.