Bring Back Social Features

[Dwug_Addict]

To my understanding, it was said clearly that Infinite will deliver and cater to both newcomers, veterans, and even new FPS players. 343 was pretty adamant about wanting to return Halo to its roots.

I know there’s a few cores missing in Infinite that separates it from the past titles, but I want to focus on the social aspect of Halo, more specifically, Halo Infinite.

Halo was held together by its social design and options. Allowing players to interact with each other in more ways than what we see today.

SBMM:
SBMM should not be available for any social playlist. It should be a mix between all players alike. That way, new players will learn against a harder player, more casuals will likely face off against other casuals, and everyone will have games they win some or lose some. 2 casual players in a party should not equate to a squad of comptetitve players. This is a serious issue that makes the game miserable to play and enjoy with friends. SBMM should stay in Ranked playlists and out of the way of social playlists, so players finally have a game to kick back and relax on.

Lobbies:
One key social aspect of Halo were the player lobbies and their capabilities. Pregame and postgame lobbies were so fun for players to communicate with each other, opponents or team, and was a fun way to release a bit of trash talk or praise. Especially for solo players, as solos were more entertained and inclined to remain in the lobby depending on the activities happening.

Voting System
This system nailed the social community quite firmly, and should really return in Infinite. Map veto was fun and convenient knowing everyone has a chance to avoid one of their least favorite maps. I’d say it’s a pretty necessary system to have in Halo’s multiplayer.

Party Up
Partying up was a solid quick way to stick with other players you clicked with, while remaining in the same intermission. This, again, strongly moulded Halo’s social acitivity and is how many of us met amazing friends back in Halo 3/Halo Reach days. Therefore, it would be very smart to have it return.

To wrap things up, I’m happy to see how Halo has evolved as far as gameplay goes, but Halo’s roots were more about bringing the community together with a lot of well planned features. A social system played a major part in the franchise, and since its been taken out, every Halo game made has seemed so dry, lonely, and boring. You get on, find a quick match, and are returned to the title screen immediately after the match is done.

I feel if 343 can return that social system, things will look a lot brighter and be a lot less stressful waiting for new content and updates. The majority of the playerbase misses these features, and I hope it can be brought back soon so the game actually feels alive again.

[General_Fox]

If you want an actual social experience you should be asking for a server browser list and give people the ability to host their own matches. Ones that keep players that stay in the match even after it ends so a new match can be created.

[Dwug_Addict]

Server hosting similar to Battlefield’s features does seem like a cool idea, but this post is about bringing back social features Halo was truly known and loved for.

And I can only assume their latest Server Browser feature put into MCC will be put into Infinite as well. Logically after Forge is released, of course. But even with MCC’s Browser, it is still far from achieving a stable, ever-growing community, as even MCC does not hold any features I mentioned.

[General_Fox]

The removal of SBMM would just take one thing out and replace it with another problem. This part of the game has been an issue with matchmaking in general since Halo 2. Actually, I’d argue that this is an issue with matchmaking in general.

Lobies would probably be nice to ensure there is enough people in the game before it starts. I don’t really see communications getting any better though. Most people don’t want to talk to other people, that’s one of the reasons no one talks in this game. People have stopped tolerating one another is what I always presumed. Too many different people and having to adjust to everyone is a chore. You might get more of a peep out of people, but more then likely you’ll still frequently get hit with silent rooms where no one even considers talking in the first place.

If they can incorporate voting it could be fine. Main problem here is people will often drop if they don’t get he choices they want. But people already do that now because “I don’t want to play this”. This would be best with lobbies so the match doesn’t start till you get enough people who do want to play it to actually play it I will admit. I’d like the ability to vote to forfeit as well in matches so one sided slaughters can be ended quicker and people can move on.

No issues with Party up systrem. I would like a means to start game communities that people can join and leave kind of like how steam allows steam communities. Would help those who have difficult times trying to find people to play with before searching for games out. The less we stop using the matchmaker to find teammates, the better it’ll be for everyone IMO.

[Dwug_Addict]

Players don’t interact anymore because Halo began to be developed excluding those features. CoD still has high traffic communication lobbies, because they never really cut that feature. Granted, CoD is still infamous for the most toxic players via mic comms, Halo never continued theirs to see how the community interacts with one another. Your “chore” is also aided with a mute input. Social interaction is entirely optional, and should come and stay that way, as it benefits more than anything, since solo players who don’t care for it can simply not participate and mute the lobby (or just opponents) if desired.

As far as players leaving games, both Halo 3 and Reach rarely had that issue. Only because there were penalties in play. But not only would there be penalty in Infinite, but a bot replacement to fill the spot. I get more players quitting on me due to their poor gameplay than anything anyways. I don’t really see it being a risky feature, as it worked in previous titles quite well.

SBMM should be in play to SOME degree, but 343’s system now is so flawed, I’d just rather not play most times, as their equations to skillsets are insanely flawed. I’d guess that a balanced XP system would benefit much better, so we wouldn’t see any changes until the new progression system launches anyway. I’d love a system that allows me to play with my friends without it being equal to some championship skill pressure. That’s absolutely absurd, if you ask me.

But, this is just me going further into detail. What worked with previous titles might work just as well today, but we won’t find out unless they convenient these features. But all of those features are still beneficial regardless. It will only enhance a social experience. I don’t quite see what could go so wrong with that.