Introduction
So, I think we’ve all seen the extremity of the flawed Banhammer in Halo: Reach and by now a fair few of us have been unfairly banned from EXP earning and in some cases from Matchmaking entirely for no reason whatsoever.
The Old System
The way the system works is simple, if you don’t get a single kill in a game you are marked as an AFK player, after one to three games of this (it’s pretty random, doesn’t take player history into account) it bans you from earning EXP and eventually from Matchmaking if this is repeated enough times.
The Flaw
To explain how the system is flawed I’ll present a number of scenarios. The basis is all focused on the new player.
Player Alpha buys Halo: Reach, he’s new to the FPS Genre in general and as a result he plays a few games in Matchmaking and after not getting any kills, due to the dis-functional matchmaking system matching him against stronger players, is banned from earning EXP.
Player Beta invites his girlfriend to play Halo: Reach with him, she doesn’t play games that often but decides to try it in order to spend time with him and have fun together, not too concerned about doing well but more in how to play the game and to try to play online with him, after not getting any kills the system bans his account from earning EXP as his guest account (his girlfriend) hasn’t gotten any kills.
Player Gamma begins to teach his daughter how to play the game, after some time in campaign, custom games and forge, they head into matchmaking, due to the inconsistency a child will display, his daughter is unable to get any kills for several games, resulting in an EXP ban for the account she is a guest on, Player Gamma’s.
Player Delta likes to perform hiding tactics with his clan or team, regardless of the argued legitimacy of these tactics, it’s an option one can take without modifying the software or hardware and is a result is not breaking the rules or ToS in any way. Due to his lack of kills, he is banned from earning EXP with a majority or all of his clan members.
The New System
What I’d like to propose is a new system of determining the real AFK players from unskilled players or those with an unorthodox strategy.
Simply put, the system will not detect between kills and no kills but rather, varied movement. If the movement direction for a player changes at least several times during the game (which can be at the beginning or at the end of the game as well as throughout), then the system will recognise that this player is not AFK and will not EXP ban the player regardless of lack of kills.
So can this be done? The answer is that it already has been.
On Halo 2, the game viewer allowed a player to view his or her prior games in near-real time, not like theatre, but rather more of a birds eye view of the map with the player’s emblem moving about a static map.
On Atlas, Halo: Reach’s official smartphone application, a player can view his currently played game in real time, in a similar manner to Halo 2’s game viewer, and can see his movement on a mini-map on the smartphone.
Finally, on every Halo game ever made, a player can be detected via the motion sensor of any other player, meaning that movement has been picked up.
Closing
In closing I’d like to state that this new system would stop people being unfairly banned from matchmaking due to a relative, friend or inexperienced player playing as a guest or on their account and would not punish players who play badly whilst still raining punishment down on AFK players.
