For those of you still on the fence about whether the upcoming CSR should be implemented in-game or not, I’ve attempted to make it into a slightly more realistic scenario.
Now, let’s say that you work extremely hard and put all of your dedication into something, and the fruit of your hard work is a car. The harder you work, and the more effort and hours you put into whatever it is you are doing to receive said car, will affect the status of car you get. higher status cars are given to the people who work hard towards their goal, while beaters are given to people who slack and don’t care. This is a pretty normal and realistic outcome in life.
Considering this scenario, you now have a car that reflects in complete form how hard you have worked towards it. You will either have complete pride in it, and be eccentric to drive it and show it off, or you will be embarrassed to be seen in it, and have incentive to work harder and improve it. No one wants to have a '92 Toyota corolla when there’s others tearing up the highways in a Lambo. You’ll begin to work harder to achieve that goal.
Unless, we consider a second scenario.
In this situation, you still receive a certain status car as a representation of your work ethic, but you don’t actually drive this one. It’s more of a personal gratification kind of thing. It sits in your garage, for only you and those interested enough to go see it, but generally it’s just there, collecting dust. Heck, you don’t even really check it that often. it doesn’t affect you’re actions and it won’t give you a reputation, so why bother improving it? No one will see it, and you won’t see anyone else’s. You have no incentive to improve your car because it isn’t visible to those around you. You won’t even have to see what others have worked towards! You can skate by in a ignorant bliss, never bothered or envious of what others have.
I think you can see where I’m going with this. A visible CSR in game promotes a more competitive and gratifying experience. You have to work hard towards upgrading your status, and work even harder to keep it. No one wants to be the 22 in a game of 45-50s, so they will work harder to reach a higher rank. ask anyone that got a 50 in any previous CSR visible game the feeling when they first hit that rank. It’s indescribable. Absolutely incredible. Euphoric, even. And the pride you have in getting it makes all the gameplay worth it. And there’s even MORE to be said in maintaining it and playing on it.
This is a necessary part of keeping Halo competitive and maintaining it’s longevity. The community has spoken, BS Angel. You cannot ignore us any longer on this topic.
Now, I can see your reasoning for why it should be on Waypoint.I get it. It gives “less incentive for cheaters and de-rankers” and helps keep the halo experience competitive. It allows for changes to be made more easily if any bugs/glitches are found in the coding, along with making it easier to ban known cheaters. These are fairly good reasons for you to have for why it should be Waypoint bound. And with all honesty, having it accessible from my phone would make it just as easy to view as in game, as far as my own rank goes at least.
But let’s make sure you understand that your reasoning for it being on Waypoint is only positive in your eyes, and can/has been discredited by multiple community members and posters alike.
-
Saying you are doing this to discourage cheating is a good hearted idea, but it doesn’t actually do anything. Do you honestly believe that a group of hackers is going to stop cheating just because you view a rank on Waypoint? No. It’s the rank that matters to cheaters, not where you see it.
-
De-rankers Only existed because of the way the CSR worked in previous iterations of Halo. I have complete faith that a team of developers could produce an algorithm that would negate the idea of such practice and take it out of the equation indefinitely.
-
Viewing the CSR rankings on your computer is something absolutely doable by all people that will have a rank. However, Not everyone has a phone to do this with, making it a serious hassle to view their progress, and the ranks of those in game with them (although that’s a complete hassle to everyone with a Waypoint CSR as it is). in either situation You’re making it a situationable system where a “Seamless interaction” is only doable with a smartphone.
-
There have been multiple polls showing by a striking margin the amount of people that want this in game. I mean, a ridiculous amount somewhere in the 95%/5% area. Ignoing that would be a terrible decision, both business and community wise.
This is something you need to think about, 343i. You can’t look at the numbers, polls, discussions, arguments, commentaries, and videso as to why this needs to be implemented in-game and just ignore them. And do you know why? Because Halo was the only game that had it, and that’s what made it different. That’s the only reason I, and many people I know, played it over COD/Gears. Once you stray from what made a game great, what do you have?
Thank you for what you have done so far, but you must listen to the community on this one. The wrong decision will have consequences that your company cannot stand to suffer this early into the franchise.
Again, thank you for your consideration.