343I, please could you add all Episodes of Spartan Ops to matchmaking instead of just the current episode? It kind of sucks that you cannot just find a game on an earlier episode in matchmaking without having to arrange doing so with friends. This game mode would be alot better with a matchmaking option also, people shouldn’t have to plan their life around playing a game.
And please add the ability to play Matchmaking on Legendary. Heroic is so easy with 4 players.
Or after 5 episode is out. Merge all chapters and let as play by selecting episodes
You can play prior episodes with friends on any difficulty setting you wish to play on.
343i will not to my knowledge ever reintroduce old episodes to matchmaking.
The reasoning behind this is that the population for Spartan Ops matchmaking is so low already that spreading out the players over all of the episodes would lead to a very poor matchmaking experience. Which is both agreeable and sound in reason.
> You can play prior episodes with friends on any difficulty setting you wish to play on.
>
> 343i will not to my knowledge ever reintroduce old episodes to matchmaking.
>
> The reasoning behind this is that the population for Spartan Ops matchmaking is so low already that spreading out the players over all of the episodes would lead to a very poor matchmaking experience. Which is both agreeable and sound in reason.
True, but who cares if its a low pop? If people want to wait as it adds players to play a chapter let them. By not having all the episodes up it turns away people who are behind on them. Only adding to the low pop.
> > You can play prior episodes with friends on any difficulty setting you wish to play on.
> >
> > 343i will not to my knowledge ever reintroduce old episodes to matchmaking.
> >
> > The reasoning behind this is that the population for Spartan Ops matchmaking is so low already that spreading out the players over all of the episodes would lead to a very poor matchmaking experience. Which is both agreeable and sound in reason.
>
> True, but who cares if its a low pop? If people want to wait as it adds players to play a chapter let them. By not having all the episodes up it turns away people who are behind on them. Only adding to the low pop.
Thumbs up to Ryder, Providing more attracts more, maybe not alot, but still more then nothing. Do this, plus legendary options, as some of use cannot fight legendary solo, but there’s always that random champ on match making who can really make it work.
Do this, you’ll make us all happy.
- rmleloup
Unlimited lives and no checkpoints? Anyone with time on thier hands can tear through it on legendary, haven’t tried the matchmaking didn’t realize it wouldn’t replay old chapters. Maybe after the seasons done they’ll enable a search?
> You can play prior episodes with friends on any difficulty setting you wish to play on.
People shouldn’t have to plan their lives around a game.
And what do you think they will do once all 5 episodes are out? Just have matchmaking for the last episode only? Because it “thins out the population” That sounds pretty dumb to me.
If they roll it back and start matchmaking from episode 1-5 again I’d even be happy. A rotation of episodes would at least mean players can catch up outside of having to arrange for friends to join in outside of a matchmaking system.
They will make more people happy with a matchmaking option than not. Do us a favour 343I.
I was thinking about getting Halo 4 for the holidays, so I did some research. I loved playing Firefight in Reach, and the Matchmaking made it so much more convenient to find people to play due to my rather unconventional work hours.
Hearing now that there is no matchmaking for older Episodes/Missions of Spartan Ops is a real let down. What about the people that didn’t buy it on release? Are we supposed to be penalized for not throwing our money at you right from the go?
The reasoning behind the matchmaking is quite flawed, as the weekly nature of the episodes is most likely the real cause of the low player numbers.
As with a TV show, once you’ve seen it, there’s no real reason to watch it again and again. Sure, you come by every week to check it out, but once you’ve done it, it’s done, and there’s no more reason to stay in Spartan Ops. If you look at the player numbers I would guess you see a lot of players in the first two days of each episode, then everybody leaves.
Why? Because unless you have dedicated friends to play the older episodes there’s just nothing to do here. All you can do is play the current episode then wait for the next one, and no matter how great the episode may be, after the third time or so it will get boring and you will leave to play MP or some other game (the lack of Co-Op Matchmaking for the Campaign is another really strange decision).
I’m sorry, but there is something very deeply ingrained in a lot of players that takes issue with someone telling you what you can play when. Firefight/Reach let you just play something different with random people anytime you want, with different maps you could choose from. Sure, it was no episodic, story-driven experience, but the availability and diversity is what made it continuously interesting for so many people.
As such, I feel that because I did not buy the game at release, I am now missing out on quite a lot of content, and that irks me a lot. I was looking forward to playing both Halo4 campaign and Spartan Ops, but with 343 telling me “I’m sorry, unless you have friends to play with, the only thing we let you play is this” I pretty much feel like telling them to go F*** themselves.
I understand why they thought it would be necessary to consolidate the player population, but their “solution” actually exacerbates the problem. They’re basically saying “This week, you can only play this level.” Now, personally, this already galls me on a basis of principle - I do not like being told what to do with a video game I paid for, and on some level I feel cheated out of a part of the game - but does nobody at 343 see that limiting the accessibility of episodic content also limits the options and reasons for people to stay with it?
If you wait all week for your favorite TV-Show, you watch it and then turn off the TV and wait for the next episode. There’s a reason why many TV-Shows now let you watch the current season’s episodes on their website so you can catch up with what’s been happening, but with TV-Shows you don’t need 3 other people to really enjoy it.
If Spartan Ops had all the Episodes in matchmaking it would actually create an influx of people playing it, since they’d have more reason to be there and stay there. New-comers could start at the beginning and not be forced to try and understand things from around the middle. The people that have already played the episodes will of course play the new one first, but when they are finished they can stick around and play some of the older ones as well. If they had an episode they really liked they can enjoy it with people without previous planning or invites.
The decision to limit matchmaking to the current episode is a terrible mistake, that limits Spartan Ops to a weekly “event” with no replay value, an event dependent on something outside of player control, and can in no way hold up to the convenient accessibility and availability of Firefight.
I urge 343 to reconsider their view on this, because it is simply put exactly the wrong way to go about it.
> I was thinking about getting Halo 4 for the holidays, so I did some research. I loved playing Firefight in Reach, and the Matchmaking made it so much more convenient to find people to play due to my rather unconventional work hours.
>
> Hearing now that there is no matchmaking for older Episodes/Missions of Spartan Ops is a real let down. What about the people that didn’t buy it on release? Are we supposed to be penalized for not throwing our money at you right from the go?
>
> The reasoning behind the matchmaking is quite flawed, as the weekly nature of the episodes is most likely the real cause of the low player numbers.
>
> As with a TV show, once you’ve seen it, there’s no real reason to watch it again and again. Sure, you come by every week to check it out, but once you’ve done it, it’s done, and there’s no more reason to stay in Spartan Ops. If you look at the player numbers I would guess you see a lot of players in the first two days of each episode, then everybody leaves.
> Why? Because unless you have dedicated friends to play the older episodes there’s just nothing to do here. All you can do is play the current episode then wait for the next one, and no matter how great the episode may be, after the third time or so it will get boring and you will leave to play MP or some other game (the lack of Co-Op Matchmaking for the Campaign is another really strange decision).
>
> I’m sorry, but there is something very deeply ingrained in a lot of players that takes issue with someone telling you what you can play when. Firefight/Reach let you just play something different with random people anytime you want, with different maps you could choose from. Sure, it was no episodic, story-driven experience, but the availability and diversity is what made it continuously interesting for so many people.
>
> As such, I feel that because I did not buy the game at release, I am now missing out on quite a lot of content, and that irks me a lot. I was looking forward to playing both Halo4 campaign and Spartan Ops, but with 343 telling me “I’m sorry, unless you have friends to play with, the only thing we let you play is this” I pretty much feel like telling them to go F*** themselves.
>
> I understand why they thought it would be necessary to consolidate the player population, but their “solution” actually exacerbates the problem. They’re basically saying “This week, you can only play this level.” Now, personally, this already galls me on a basis of principle - I do not like being told what to do with a video game I paid for, and on some level I feel cheated out of a part of the game - but does nobody at 343 see that limiting the accessibility of episodic content also limits the options and reasons for people to stay with it?
>
> If you wait all week for your favorite TV-Show, you watch it and then turn off the TV and wait for the next episode. There’s a reason why many TV-Shows now let you watch the current season’s episodes on their website so you can catch up with what’s been happening, but with TV-Shows you don’t need 3 other people to really enjoy it.
>
> If Spartan Ops had all the Episodes in matchmaking it would actually create an influx of people playing it, since they’d have more reason to be there and stay there. New-comers could start at the beginning and not be forced to try and understand things from around the middle. The people that have already played the episodes will of course play the new one first, but when they are finished they can stick around and play some of the older ones as well. If they had an episode they really liked they can enjoy it with people without previous planning or invites.
>
> The decision to limit matchmaking to the current episode is a terrible mistake, that limits Spartan Ops to a weekly “event” with no replay value, an event dependent on something outside of player control, and can in no way hold up to the convenient accessibility and availability of Firefight.
>
> I urge 343 to reconsider their view on this, because it is simply put exactly the wrong way to go about it.
Taken from the Bulletin
> Comprised of three brand new Halo 4 Multiplayer maps (Wreckage, Harvest and Shatter), the Crimson Map Pack will launch on December 10. A mere seven days after that, the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge officially begins. To give you adequate time to enjoy both, Spartan Ops will go on a mid-season break starting December 10. Fret not, though, because your entire Spartan Ops timeline will still be both accessible and playable. On top of that, we will also be featuring a Best of Spartan Ops compilation next week, made up of the following chapters:
>
> • Core – Chapter 5 of Episode 1
> • Hacksaw – Chapter 3 of Episode 2
> • Shootout in Valhalla – Chapter 4 of Episode 3
> • The Didact’s Gift – Chapter 5 of Episode 4
> • Spartan Miller – Chapter 1 of Episode 5
>
>
> Then, from December 17 – January 14, episodes 1-5 will be re-entered into Matchmaking (one episode per week) to support the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge, and allow anyone who missed the first run or wants to replay a previous chapter to easily find teammates online.
>
> The second half of Spartan Ops Season 1 will resume later in January with brand new episodes, chapters, locations and maps (as discussed in our recent Spartan Ops developer interview). Be sure to tune into the Spike TV 10th Annual Video Game Awards, live on Spike TV, December 7 at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT for more information and an exclusive first-look at the continuation of Spartan Ops Season 1!
http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2012/12/06/The-Halo-Bulletin-120612-.aspx
Well, that’s not really the point. People loved playing Firefight. People liked playing Co-Op Campaign since Halo 3. And Reach had both Campaign Matchmaking and Firefight Matchmaking. It might not be everyone’s preference, but I can right now still go online with Reach and find a Firefight or Campaign match with decent connections without any problems.
The same goes for Gears of War 3, Horde and Campaign. While Halo might have gained its status from PvP, the co-operative aspect of Halo 3, ODST and especially Reach has attracted the co-op crowd - it was something Reach was specifically marketed with: “You’ll never have to play Firefight alone again.”
There’s something very gratifying about playing a game you like WITH people against the AI - an AI that doesn’t (for the most part) use the little Multiplayer Tricks you so often fall victim to. Multiplayer is pretty limited in both space, content and pacing, due to its fast gameplay rather limiting to co-operative play as well - oh, you can play as a team and everything, but you cannot play co-op like Firefight or Spartan Ops or Campaign.
How long do you think people would keep playing if every week there was only one map in Multiplayer Matchmaking? Different game modes, but only one map. And they change that every week. At some point, it will get extremely boring, like playing a (Multiplayer) Demo.
As it is, if you want to play Co-Op without friends to play with you, the only thing you can play is the Spartan Ops of the week. There’s nothing else. Nothing. Else. How does that sound good when compared to open Campaign or Firefight Matchmaking from Halo Reach? How can that be considered a step forward?
I don’t see the reasoning behind that.
The explained reason of consolidating the player base is simply wrong. Less choices will always lead to less people because it gives them less reasons to go there. And people are already talking about the repetitiveness of the levels.
If you liked the first episode more than the others, you can only play with random people if 343 says it’s the episode of the week? Law of Averages dictates that some episodes will be better while some will be worse, but you can’t play your favorite when you want. And yet, no matter how much you like any episode, how often can you really play it before it gets boring?
I would state that the diminishing player numbers 343 are quoting as the reason for this terrible decision, are in fact proof of this very fact. Spartan Ops is the only option for Co-Op Halo Players dependent on Matchmaking, people that generally enjoy to experience a game with others in a more co-operative spirit. People usually play Co-Op with that very spirit in mind, contrary to people with the competitive attitude of PvP. It’s a different player pool. These people enjoyed and still enjoy the Co-Op Features of Reach, while they are severely restricted by the extremely limited options of a small weekly buffet of Spartan Ops.
And I will guarantee that players numbers will drastically increase if they opened up all of the Spartan Ops into Matchmaking all the time.
> > Then, from December 17 – January 14, episodes 1-5 will be re-entered into Matchmaking (one episode per week) to support the Halo 4 Infinity Challenge, and allow anyone who missed the first run or wants to replay a previous chapter to easily find teammates online.
And this… While it might not be meant to, it’s one of the more patronizing, overbearing and arrogant statements I’ve heard this year from game companies.
“… to ALLOW anyone… to EASILY find teammates online.”
Which says 343 does NOT allow you to replay a previous chapter whenever you want, easily finding teammates online. It might be semantics, but the choice of words is quite indicative of the intention: WE tell you when you are allowed do something you want to do.