I feel so strongly about Halo and its impact on my life that I decided to create an account simply to voice my thoughts on an aspect of Halo 4 that I think desperately needs addressed. I will share with you what lured me into Halo and what has repelled me from halo as of late.
Firstly: I have been playing halo since six months prior to the release of Halo 2 (2004)
Secondly: I have enjoyed the privilege of thousands of games, countless friendships, Several local tournaments and 4 MLG appearances.
Thirdly: I am 28 years old, Hold a B.S. and am studying for my Masters, am a certified teacher in the state of Texas and have ran my own company for two years.
Halo 2 was a great game. Halo 3 was a great game. Reach is a good game but is lacking a fundamental aspect that makes Halo appealing. The addition of bloom and armor abilities were damaging to the mechanics of Halo, but the single most damaging thing that has happened to halo is the ranking system. Apart from the fun and the game play itself, the number rank in halo 2 was what drew me in. I wanted to level up because it was a tangible reflection on my skill increasing. I wanted to out level my friends and in turn they would try harder to out-level me. The ranking system required that you developed teamwork and communication or you would get steamrolled in the team playlists. If you were an aspiring MLG gamer, which I became around 2006, it gave you the chance to match up against players of a higher caliber. MLG aside the first two years of my Halo experience I didn’t know what a gaming tournament was. I simply wanted to get 3 of my buddies together and try to dominate the world. We used to play team slayer for hours on end. Each level we progressed the matches got more and more intense. It was such a rush. It was so fun. The fun continued until the release of Reach. I do not dislike the Mechanics of Reach. I dislike the Armor abilities and the bloom but the thing that was absolutely essential to the halo experience was destroyed. Now when a group of buddies and myself go into team slayer the skill level is so out of whack. We play against people with negative K/D ratios all the time and destroy them. The gimmicks need to be removed. The robotic arms and the confetti and the inclement weather and armor lock. The playlists need to be sheared down to a hand full of simple lists. If you want zombies, make a custom. Get that playlist out of halo. If you want grifball, make a custom. It needs to be simply divided between ranked and unranked. Ranked has no armor abilities, no bloom, and 1-50 rank. Unranked has all the bloom, armor abilities, and all the gimmicks. Unranked can have all the eclipse rankings and inheritor rankings but leave that out of Ranked please. This is one lifelong fan who doesn’t want this franchise to disappear.
A skill based ranking system is surely one of the aspects that set Halo apart from other games. I don’t know of a single game that actually has skill based ranks besides Halo, and it is definitely a very strong incentive to keep playing. Any time based ranking system will eventually get maxed out, by any player that tries, but a skill based ranking system can potentially never get maxed out. I have been playing competitively for 6 years and I am still improving my game, and I still have room for improvement. After years of Halo I finally got my LW’s 50. No other ranking system can last that long.
However, I do not want visible ranks in Halo 4 to based on skill. That creates too much incentive to manipulate the system, and in the end diminishes the point of the highest rank being reserved for the best players, since everyone just cheats for the highest rank.
What I want for Halo 4 is a skill based matchmaking system, where only you can see where you skill lies among the population. Imagine Halo 3’s 1-50, except only you can see it and there is other information like where you stack up against the whole population. Cheat for your rank and congrats, only you will see that 50, and you will get stomped on by legit players if you ever search on it.
> What I want for Halo 4 is a skill based matchmaking system, where only you can see where you skill lies among the population. Imagine Halo 3’s 1-50, except only you can see it and there is other information like where you stack up against the whole population. Cheat for your rank and congrats, only you will see that 50, and you will get stomped on by legit players if you ever search on it.
I still miss Halo 3s ranking system, or even Halo 2s. I worked hard for my LW 50. Got it three days before Reach from the launch of H3. Yeah a lot of people cheated for their 50s but I mean can’t 343 implement a better system than bungie and make the banhammer somewhat accurate? I’m competitive and I like for people to see that and now that I am a high rank for a reason. All my friends surpassed me when it came to Reach because we graduated and none of them went to college and sat around home playing Reach. None of them are in the least bit skilled in the game, they just play a lot. I’m a legend after having a job and going to school full time but I am skilled player and can wipe the floor with the lot of em. Furthermore true skill ranking should be brought back. This isn’t COD.
> I still miss Halo 3s ranking system, or even Halo 2s. I worked hard for my LW 50. Got it three days before Reach from the launch of H3. Yeah a lot of people cheated for their 50s but I mean can’t 343 implement a better system than bungie and make the banhammer somewhat accurate? I’m competitive and I like for people to see that and now that I am a high rank for a reason. All my friends surpassed me when it came to Reach because we graduated and none of them went to college and sat around home playing Reach. None of them are in the least bit skilled in the game, they just play a lot. I’m a legend after having a job and going to school full time but I am skilled player and can wipe the floor with the lot of em. Furthermore true skill ranking should be brought back. This isn’t COD.
Exactly, no need to throw away a system that is only broken because measurements to prevent manipulation, aren’t in place.
Halo 3’s ranking system was good, but it was WAY to easy to get a 50. I don’t like the experience system at all, its what is killing competitive halo. Well that and the fact that bungie just noobed reach all together. In addition to a Halo 2 ranking system, we need parties to get matched up with other parties. I’m tired of playing 8 randoms when I’m in a big party. And vice versa, when I search MLG by myself I don’t want to be matched up with a team of 4 and stand no chance. An easy win is NOT fun, we want competitive games and skill based ranks bring that to a forefront.
Exactly “TS Massacre”. All 343 has to do is not be lazy. I know they have the technology to do so, especially with Microsoft close by. It’s only a matter of will they. Earning credits doesn’t necessarily have to go away because it is somewhat nice to buy stuff like armor, but not for it to be the main level up system. Like I said though I am completely fine with Halo 3 system being brought back with experience points from each game won. It was much slower yes, but that’s exactly why Halo 3 lasted so damn long and why reach will die as soon as Halo 4 comes out. Halo 3 is still kicking. It’s been 5 years, if Halo 2 was still alive I know damn well it would still be kicking hard. I’d be blazing it up all the time. A matter a fact I’m just about to buy it for the pc and get some friends to play it with me. I just wanna have fun playing Halo again. I grew up on it and I want to continue living on it.
Folks should just simmer down. We understand that Reach was a jolt to your systems. Reach was, among other things, an experiment. Bungie believed that the things they added, specifically Armor Abilities, would make the game more fun for players that just wanted a good time, and that the Arena would satisfy the needs of the competitive community. I know you will say they failed at both, but that’s not the issue here.
Reach’s ranking system is not the blueprint for Halo 4. Especially now. Competitive players don’t like it and casual players don’t care. If there’s anything on the planet that 343i should get, it’s THAT.
OK. THEY CAN"T USE HALO 2’s SYSTEM. IT’S JUST NOT ALLOWED.
The Halo 3 system will make TrueSkill unreliable, thus reducing the chances of fair matches.
I just read a thread where it was suggested that Ranked and Social playlists should be separate, with the Social games having all the bells and whistles and the Ranked games having just the basics. I like this idea because your rank in the Ranked playlists, however it’s determined, might actually mean something, and those players would most likely stay out of the Social playlists because of all the “noob stuff.”
> However, I do not want visible ranks in Halo 4 to based on skill. That creates too much incentive to manipulate the system, and in the end diminishes the point of the highest rank being reserved for the best players, since everyone just cheats for the highest rank.
Who cheats? I don’t remember anyone “cheating” since the host booting in halo 2. As long as the game is designed right, the only thing a visible rank will give incentive to do is work together and play their best
> > However, I do not want visible ranks in Halo 4 to based on skill. That creates too much incentive to manipulate the system, and in the end diminishes the point of the highest rank being reserved for the best players, since everyone just cheats for the highest rank.
>
> Who cheats? I don’t remember anyone “cheating” since the host booting in halo 2. As long as the game is designed right, the only thing a visible rank will give incentive to do is work together and play their best
One of my friends didn’t want to become a ‘golden refrigerator’ and got someone else to play lonewolves for him. So I think this is what he was refering to.
> > However, I do not want visible ranks in Halo 4 to based on skill. That creates too much incentive to manipulate the system, and in the end diminishes the point of the highest rank being reserved for the best players, since everyone just cheats for the highest rank.
>
> Who cheats? I don’t remember anyone “cheating” since the host booting in halo 2. As long as the game is designed right, the only thing a visible rank will give incentive to do is work together and play their best
-EXP boosting
-Modding
-DDoS
-Circle boosting
-Teaming up in LW’s
-Deranking
-Selling accounts
All of these are done to achieve a trueskill rank that is not accurate for the player. Furthermore, they distort the distribution of ranks among the population and diminish the prestige of the highest ranks.
I don’t know about you, but I remember going into custom games with my General back when the game first came out and everyone was like “OMG a general holy crap.” That was gone when the above list removed the prestige of a level 50.
I really hope 343 is listening to the Halo Community about having separate 1-50 Ranked and Social divisions for Halo 4 matchmaking. Honestly it is not very hard to create what both sides want in one game. It turned out great in Halo 3 and 343 needs to learn from Halo3 and Halo2, not from Reach. The ranking system is one of the biggest factors that decides if Players buy the game and play it for it’s complete lifespan or play a month of it.