I was excited to see the inclusion of the FFA throwback playlist when I logged on today. Excited because I thought this would be a throwback to Halo 3 rumble pit. But after playing a couple of matches, a slayer game never came up so I exited out and read the description: Oddball and KOTH only. My excitement quickly turned to disappointment.
I loved Rumble Pit back in the day. But frankly, I always would have preferred a straight FFA slayer. Though this wasn’t the case, I was always grateful that the emphasis was on slayer. I’d usually be slightly let down when Oddball or King of the Hill came up, but I’d get through it and go on to the next match. It was my understanding that the reason that there was a variety of game types was because all matches affected your ranking and Bungie wanted players to be well rounded. A level 45 rumble pit player couldn’t just be a slayer specialist, they had to be versatile as well.
Now that there really isn’t a competitive ranking system, I’d suggest giving the players what they want. Sure, keep Regicide and FFA Throwback. But give us a skill based FFA slayer playlist, please. Regicide is too casual with it’s penalizing of the top player. Of course there is skill involved, but the luck factor is immensely higher than straight kill based scoring would be.
I will also add that when there was a ranking system, players were highly encouraged to actually compete in the game type being played. This is to say that in KOTH, if a player completely ignored the objective, it would negatively impact their ranking. Without a competitive ranking system, when experience is mostly a function of finishing and not of winning, the temptation is too great to just ignore the game type completely and boost your kill/death ratio (and ego) but camping away from the hill in KOTH with a sniper rifle and/or DMR/BR/etc and just kill the defenseless players actually trying to compete as was intended. This is unsportsmanlike, annoying, and in my opinion, unavoidable within the context of such an unranked playlist. This is why I would prefer to avoid this behavior by playing slayer, the game type I actually enjoy most, which is, after all, the point of a game we play in our leisure time.
At the very least, give us something like the old rumble pit, where the steak of the playlist is slayer and the garnish is Oddball or KOTH. But frankly, I never understood why you needed to be so miserly with your playlists. Just add a slayer to your current offerings. I would be willing to bet that if you were to take a poll as to a preferred FFA playlist a straight slayer would be on top and it wouldn’t be close.
Some players prefer team based game types, some players prefer to go at it alone and I am not the only player with this preference. Not having a serious FFA slayer game type is a huge omission and a big let down for players like me.