The competitive community has been very vocal about wanting the return of ranked playlists and more classic style gameplay and that probably should happen.
But in social playlists what would you guys think of a system that allows you to choose what map you want to play on? Sure you can go in and still select a random map but why not give the people what they want?
For players that do not like this idea you can always go into ranked where the maps would be selected in a more traditional manner. This could also be a great way to allow custom maps into matchmaking if it were implemented into playlists where one of them could be a true community list.
I am interested to see not only what you guys think of this idea but if you have any suggestions to make this even better.
I think this is a good idea within limits. For competitive gameplay players shouldn’t be allowed to pick a map because you want to maintain a level setting that can’t be bent by individual preference (which might be seen as a way to game the system by selecting only those maps that one happens to do best on, where in a more idealized setting one should be able to compete in all relevant circumstances.) But for social the focus should be on the entertainment value of the match which is going to be impacted if you force people to play on crap they don’t like. Ergo, let them choose the map.
But you must restrict that. If you let a host decide the map you play on you have to trust that he’ll pick something which A. represents the interests of a fair portion of the group he’s playing with (ie. that he’s a good host for the virtual party) and B. that map is up the standards of online play. In a game without a map editor you could get away with the first assumption but in Halo there’s an INCREDIBLE amount of potential to break the game. Even something as simple as giving one team an extra power weapon can have a tremendous impact on the game and that’s by no means the full extent of what you can do. It’s fully possible to create a pit for red team and a mound of tanks for blue and let the match be nothing but kill farming.
So, you have to reign people in, prevent custom maps from being used in matchmaking unless they’ve undergone a thorough review process (ie. what you have now) and to make sure things remain democratic you forgo the host system and leave map choice up to voting. That’s what social should be, the same or at least just similar to what we have now in terms of how maps are managed.