Are we the problem?

Games Other Halo
1

Alright, so I’ve played enough matchmaking… and it drives me crazy. There are those games that occur where you’re just wondering how the hell you could be matched up so poorly: you (or myself) always seem to have the Carebears on their team, while facing off against the Delta squad! Like… how? Anyways, while that is somewhat of the problem, that is not the complete problem: the problem is the community itself. We have become accustomed to joining a party with friends and just chatting with them… or we don’t plug in our mic… or we just leave it muted. Why? I don’t know why, because I get on my mic and I go off; I don’t see why others don’t. Could the mic have broken? Sure. It could have. But you can buy a cheap one for $25, or look for deals: I got the Turtle Beach XO Four Stealth for $80 from Best Buy because they had a sale going on them. Regardless, you know you are playing a competitive game… why would you not want to be prepared to play at a high scale? I notice that there are some games where the only problem is that the team is not communicating in the least, which leads us to being trampled because the other team seems to be doing the opposite of that.

Stop worrying about what a stranger thinks of your voice. Just get on and communicate. Halo 5, as far as I’m concerned, but the community has become a bit of an anchor because they all reminisce of the past, stating how good they used to be… or how well they used to play with their teams, and how unbeatable they were, and how they could have gone pro. If you could’ve, you would’ve. If you want to tell us about how you could have done that, then you should also play like you would have, which means communicate. Help. I have called out enemy locations several times and have not had one single person turn to help; until I died. We’re not playing to trade kills… we’re playing to take kills, and keep our teammates alive in the process (at least for slayer; but even in objective gametypes, if you can’t slay at all, your chances of winning are greatly reduced).

So… for the sake of the competitive community: plug in your mic! Leave your party chats! Communicate with the people that you are on a team with at that particular moment, whether they are communicating or not. Some people will follow your example and start plugging in their mics to communicate as well when they hear you; it will go on. Stop going under the impression of, “Well, I’m not playing customs or Gamebattles, so I’m not going to actually try!” and play every game as if you’re in the finals of an MLG tournament.

Play to win, and play to have fun. It’s not fair to give random players any less than you would your team, especially for those who don’t get to play as often as others do anymore. The community has grown up, and a number of us have responsibilities now. But that doesn’t mean we don’t still want to win the game when we do have a chance to play. Give me a fair chance. I don’t like people entering my game and ruining my experience, so why would I do it to others?

2

I think a good place to start would be to lower the hostility towards one another. I’ve been in some games where 15-18 year olds (I assume) are mocking or making fun of younger kids on the same team. Be helpful and don’t discourage the younger player base. It’s no wonder people don’t plug in their mic when the ones who do are playing music in the background or simply being obnoxious. I will communicate and help with callouts when sensible mature teammates are also chatting. And to be critical of myself, I prefer not to communicate with my team when the majority of the ones playing are 10 years old. I just feel like it’s a lost cause, and they’re having fun win or lose. In conclusion, we all have our own issues to address to become better teammates. I have a $240 headset, I guess I should try to use it more.

Edit: Just as a side note, while writing this I was primarily focusing around Warzone.

3

I think 343 could barrow a play from blizzard in how they handle ranking in Hearthstone. When seasons reset, players start automatically the next season at a certain rank based on the previous season, not all the way at ground zero like the brand new player. Also, early ranks cant go backwards, only forward. The biggest problem is people trying to earn ranks are being paired with people that they have no business being paired with.

4

Wow. A lot going on here. I’m gonna start with the assertion that we are the problem. While I’m generally something of a fan of the idea of personal responsibility, in this case I’m going to lay the blame squarely at the feet of the developer and of xbox live, and not at the feet of the players. In this case I really think that player behavior is the symptom of a problem, rather than the problem itself. And the problem is not of our making. Well, not exactly. More on that in a minute.

Xbox live is obvious. Party chat killed game chat. I guess the reality may be a little more complicated than that, and party chat isn’t the only reason people don’t mic up anymore, but it’s definitely the 800 pound gorilla.

And now I’ll have a go at 343. For the record, I’m a fan and I largely hail them for what they’ve accomplished. But if this game has a glaring flaw, a flaw which carries serious implications for the quality and longevity of Halo 5 multiplayer, then it’s the problematic ranking system. It isn’t hard to learn how this system works, it isn’t hard to understand how the mechanism could produce results that are less than optimal, and it’s all too easy to see the frustrations of players who are on the wrong end of its failures. These forums, indeed this very thread, are a part of the record. So is quitting, which, if you believe the forums, is pervasive. But the saddest result of all is not the players who come here to call out the problem, or those who quit matches, but rather the ones who simply give up, sell back their copy of the game, and then move on to something else. Of course, the ranking system isn’t exclusively the fault of 343 inasmuch as they were simply addressing a persistent and vehement community demand. And to that extent I blame the community. Not myself, of course, but definitely everyone who ever thought that Halo 4 was worthless because there was no visible skill-based ranking. Those people provided the impetus for the return of visible ranks, and now that we have them we’re right back to many (though not all) of the excesses of the Halo 3 ranking system. Be careful what you wish for.

As for solutions, I suppose the old “avoid ranked play lists” rings a little hollow if only because 343 is doing everything in its power to force people onto the rank ladder. I’d say they deserve a serious shaming for that if it wasn’t for the existence of a few un-ranked play lists and, of course, warzone. Nevertheless, the focus on rank ladders in this game is genuinely unfortunate. The game should tailor itself to the players - not the other way around. The real solution, as has been pointed out by many before me, is to play in whatever play list you want, but ignore the ranks. That’s sound advice, but a little disingenuous as it completely ignores the frailties and inadequacies of human psychology. And a mis-matched game is pure garbage whether you’ve seen the other players’ ranks or not.

Maybe ranks are a pendulum, and just as Reach and Halo 4 were a reaction against the problems of the Halo 3 system, maybe Halo 7 and 8 will be a rankless reaction to the problems of this game and the next. Time will tell. Until then I’m really grateful for warzone. R.I.P. team slayer.

5

> 2533274873843883;4:
> Wow. A lot going on here. I’m gonna start with the assertion that we are the problem. While I’m generally something of a fan of the idea of personal responsibility, in this case I’m going to lay the blame squarely at the feet of the developer and of xbox live, and not at the feet of the players. In this case I really think that player behavior is the symptom of a problem, rather than the problem itself. And the problem is not of our making. Well, not exactly. More on that in a minute.
>
> Xbox live is obvious. Party chat killed game chat. I guess the reality may be a little more complicated than that, and party chat isn’t the only reason people don’t mic up anymore, but it’s definitely the 800 pound gorilla.

I don’t excuse the developers and Xbox Live from their share of the fault, but a good amount of it is still placed upon the players. Xbox Live decided to release a party chat system that allowed people to chat with their friends, rather than communicating with people that they do not know; I have no option with that option being there. There are ways that the developer can counter that, such as on another game… I cannot recall which game it was, but I do remember that if you attempted to play certain playlists while in party chat, it would remove you from party chat and force you to game chat. That is an option that they could have done to keep the competitive playlists competitive on Halo 5. However, the choice is still on that of the player… the blame for Microsoft for giving us more options to work with should not be a fault, but it is personal responsibility that leads to us having to ignore the party chat to be able to communicate with the people that we are actually playing with, rather than people that are merely on our friend(s) list(s). It’s the “800-pound gorilla” that we could choose to eliminate simply by making the choice to remain in game chat to play the game that we are playing.

6

I use my mic whenever i can i enjoy working as a team and meating new people.

7

Personally I think people don’t like using mics because it opens the door to having those clingy people that add you and send you invites every day for the next 3 years. I always use my mic and just because I communicate and say GG doesn’t mean I want to be your friend and team up. That being said, use your mics, especially in ranked playlists.

8

I always use mic and inseveral hundred team games i have probably been teamed with anothet mic user 4 times-no joke. Not sure if this is isolated to lower than diamond ranks (which i feel i am way overdue thanjs to the useless placement system).

But i do get the other side of the coin. Some arena players, frustratingly to me, at gold/plat level dont care about winning and/or teamwork. They just want to mess around like it was a social playlist which i can kinda get. But it is their choice. As it is when i warn a teammate at 49-49 not to charge a room with full enemy team carrying a sniper and lying in ambush. Its still his choice to do that even if he messes it up for the rest of his team.

9

I would write some problems on here but it seems you guys have covered most of them!
I struggle to get get games let alone games with people communicating on Mic
So I’ve an idea, add me as a friend and we can get a group base together that works together plays for fun and doesn’t use party chat (I am aware that there are spirant companies which I’m a member of, I just though I would drop this sentiment in before any one tries to shoot me down (pun intended)

10

Unfortunately, I can’t be as communicative in the multiplayer as I’d like to be. I live with room-mates, and I can’t be calling out enemy positions loudly all the time. It would be inconsiderate, and obnoxious of me.

11

People will blame the game for issues like this that just simply can’t be avoided.