I have been seeing people talking about how they are leveling up too fast in their progression system and that they longevity of the game will suffer for it. While I understand that leveling up too fast can hurt how much you want to keep playing, don’t forget that the Skill Rank is coming in a couple of months. I suggest playing for that rank instead and whatever progress you make in the Progression system is merely a bonus.
You don’t have to be some uber-competitive player who only spends their time in the MLG playlist. Just look at me, I never ranked higher than 31 in Halo 3. By most accounts I am considered a “casual” simply because my rank isn’t that great.
But I can tell you this: As I finished up my time with Halo 3 there was a certain satisfaction to be had when your rank went from 28 to 29, from 29 to 30, and from 30 to 31. I never got higher, but I’ll be darned if I didn’t have a lot of good fun playing with people of my own skill level while trying to increase my skill ranking. It kept me coming back, it kept my friends coming back, and those few times I played with my friends who were level 45 or higher and we won were some of the most satisfying wins I had in Halo 3.
Let’s be honest, skill rank or no skill rank if people are playing online we’re playing to win. I don’t put GRID or Dirt 3 in my Xbox and not race to win online. I don’t put in Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat and hope to come in second. No, I play to win. We ALL play to win, skill rank or no skill rank. The benefit that 343 is giving us is a way to track how well we do at winning. It’s a point of reference you can keep coming back to try and improve and level up.
It’s not just “pixels next to your name,” it’s an indication of how good you are as a player. It’s a constant reminder to want to go out and win the next match you play. Whether you could reach a max Skill Rank in Halo 3 or if you were lost in the middle with all of the other “average” players like myself, if you are a hardcore competitive player or a casual gamer, winning is fun. Pulling off that amazing feat to give your team the win is fun. Working together as a team to accomplish a win is fun.
I plan on having a lot of “fun” starting tomorrow. Whether you like visible ranks or not, I’m sure we can all agree that when we play against other people online our goal is to win, and that’s something worth playing for and working to increase a rank for.
> iv been saying that for years. welcome to the club
I imagine a lot of people have. Hopefully people from both sides of the argument can just agree that playing to win is why we play online. Whether you care about your rank or not may not matter, but winning is the name of the game!
> I’ll just play for my skill IN-GAME skill based ranking… oh wait…
I would prefer it to be in-game, but at this point I don’t know where it’s going to be besides Waypoint. But a skill based system is better than no skill based system. But we can always request that it shows up in game
I would happily play for my TrueSkill rank but as that’s being implemented in 2 months I won’t have much to do if it’s as easy to rank up as people say.
This may just be for me, but I don’t find it that fun if I’m not really aiming towards something, not necessarily bragging rights, more personal achievement.
how am meant to play for something that i don’t have easy access to?
i just tried to check halo 4 stats and asked me to login, great, because i forgot my recovery information for my gamertag so i can’t recover the password to sign in and check.
I never play for progression rank. I play to have fun with my friends or to have fun in higher ranked games. Playing 50 high and having a close game was fun for me, I didn’t care about the exp I got from it. Like the OP said just play to have fun, however that may be even if ranking up is how you have fun. Just play and enjoy yourself.
> how am meant to play for something that i don’t have easy access to?
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> i just tried to check halo 4 stats and asked me to login, great, because i forgot my recovery information for my gamertag so i can’t recover the password to sign in and check.
>
> great, just great!
I know it’s not visible at launch, but it’s coming. I know there is debate about whether or not it will be in game. I’m hoping it is in game, myself.
Agreed, but i’m not playing for rank, progession etc. I just want to have fun, regardless of winning or losing as long as it’s fair and both teams tried their hardest, then it’ll be a good game.
> > I’ll just play for my skill IN-GAME skill based ranking… oh wait…
>
> I would prefer it to be in-game, but at this point I don’t know where it’s going to be besides Waypoint. But a skill based system is better than no skill based system. But we can always request that it shows up in game
They’ll most likely have to change that and make it in-game. It’s the whole reason people clamored for it back.
