I’ve been a hardcore Halo fan since Halo: CE and am a proud owner of the games, consoles, books, action figures, you name it. But Reach multiplayer doesn’t hold my interest and I think I’ve finally figured out why.
People are so concerned with getting the challenges that they don’t care about the game. I just spend 15 minutes getting spawn-camped by a sniper in a CTF match - not once did the other team actually try to take the flag of course. It seems across the board that it’s more important to kill than it is to win. Look at Grifball, for example, people will hold the bomb and just hammer the other team to oblivion and never once try and score. I’m pretty sure that’s not what the objective of Grifball is, but with credits and challenges on the line, the real meaning is lost.
I remember epic battles and flag caps and bomb plants and when winning the game was everything. Now, it seems the only way I’m allowed to play depends on what the challenge of the day or week it. There’s no thrill in victory because half the time the other team isn’t even trying to earn the objective. Losing isn’t satisfying (that feeling from losing a hard-fought, close game) because there’s no sense of challenge, no epic battle between two parties.
I personally could care less about credits and commendations and shiny medals, or becoming an inheritor. I just want to play and have fun, but when people have incentive to violate the rules of the game (the tacit rules like trying to actually capture the flag in a CTF game), there’s no reason for me to play.
> I’ve been a hardcore Halo fan since Halo: CE and am a proud owner of the games, consoles, books, action figures, you name it. But Reach multiplayer doesn’t hold my interest and I think I’ve finally figured out why.
>
> People are so concerned with getting the challenges that they don’t care about the game. I just spend 15 minutes getting spawn-camped by a sniper in a CTF match - not once did the other team actually try to take the flag of course. It seems across the board that it’s more important to kill than it is to win. Look at Grifball, for example, people will hold the bomb and just hammer the other team to oblivion and never once try and score. I’m pretty sure that’s not what the objective of Grifball is, but with credits and challenges on the line, the real meaning is lost.
>
> I remember epic battles and flag caps and bomb plants and when winning the game was everything. Now, it seems the only way I’m allowed to play depends on what the challenge of the day or week it. There’s no thrill in victory because half the time the other team isn’t even trying to earn the objective. Losing isn’t satisfying (that feeling from losing a hard-fought, close game) because there’s no sense of challenge, no epic battle between two parties.
>
> I personally could care less about credits and commendations and shiny medals, or becoming an inheritor. I just want to play and have fun, but when people have incentive to violate the rules of the game (the tacit rules like trying to actually capture the flag in a CTF game), there’s no reason for me to play.
>
> I’m curious to see if anyone else feels this way.
I dont even try for the MP challanges anymore tbh. I only do the FF ones since i can do most of them alone. Its not the C&C that ruin it for me its mostly the jerks.
It all comes back to there being no valid ranking system. There’s nothing to play for. I admit it, I don’t even play to win. I play for a good KD. In halo 3 I never cared about KD, just getting that 50.
Now it’s the complete opposite because rank means nothing and anyone can get to the max.
I’ve never been one to care about rank in past Halo games or even k/d for that matter. I’m an old fart. I just play to have fun, so I pretty much feel the same way when it comes to the ranks earned in Reach. The challenges are an interesting way to keep people playing and I have fun trying to earn some of them but I’d still play without them.
Having said that I think those who believe a return to a proper ranking system may help have a very valid argument. If you’re not awarding players for winning and actual teamwork, what incentive do they have to play the game the way it was meant to be played?
I’m not an Arena player, however someone mentioned to me earlier this evening that the Arena update now emphasizes winning over personal stats and achievements. If that’s true, I’d be a proponent of seeing that sort of thing implemented for all playlists. Make winning more important. Not just disregarding the objective of the game and doing what’s needed to finish a challenge.
There are plenty of place in the playlist for the Lone Wolf or slaughter master mentality, but objective games should be more about team work and actually playing within the good-faith rules of the game.
This is why I hardly ever play Optimatch in Halo Reach. When it’s objectives the only thing people are doing is stat -Yoink!-. There’s no fun in getting spawn killed by tanks, snipers, and banshees. Then if I go into Firefight match making I get the away from controller boosters. That makes it less fun for me because now my lives are being used up by someone that isn’t even playing in Firefight Limited and Firefight Arcade is no fun because everyone votes FRGFight and Rocket Fight. My commendation for FF heavy weapons made it to onyx already. I shouldn’t have that onyx yet. It’s like seriously? Then in Campaign MM there is constant lag, players who aren’t there, and people that just sit there and betray you constantly. I have no real reason to play this game anymore.
Maybe if they made commendations based of actually completing the objectives people would play them the way it’s supposed to be played?