While I’m aware there aren’t too many like me in the Halo community (the forumgoing portion, anyway), gamers like me, being on the fence, tend to look on both sides of the fence, and thus have opinions on both ends of the debate.
The Halo Community, in my view, has not been pretty, and hasn’t been since more than halfway through Halo 3’s life cycle. But this is not different from any other AAA shooter. BF3 and MW3 have equally embarrassing communities.
The past few months, I have been trying to see the viewpoint of those who were not satisfied at all with Reach. It has not been easy, because, being completely honest here, I am nowhere near the greatest Halo player. Highest skill of 23. To many here, that’s scum, I know. Please stay away.
For Halo 4, yes, there needs to be an incentive to win, absolutely. More so than there was in Reach, I’ll agree with you there. When you consistently win, you get better, and when you lose, I hope most of us learn from our mistakes.
As for the 1-50 debate, again, both sides of the fence. Yes, striving to climb that ladder is fun and challenging. From my point of view, I was very happy when I finally broke 20 in Halo 3’s Team Slayer and got that promotion. And I was also happy with the matchmaking, knowing I was going to be matched with other 20’s. But there was a flaw in the system - a big enough flaw that 343 has taken notice: Boosters and Derankers.
An MLG pro recently campaigned for the return of 1-50, and one of the reasons he offered was so that good players could get 50’s and sell them. Wow.
Now, boosting isn’t as big of a problem as many opponents let on - any buyer of a 50 who isn’t up to snuff is going to eventually lose that 50, or never play on the account - money wasted. The biggest problem is derankers - people who purposefully fall in rank to get themselves matched with far less skilled players, and this is the worst type of gamer. They don’t want challenging matches - they just want wins.
My point overall is, in addition to addressing the issues above, 343 needs to keep what the casual crowd enjoyed about Reach, and ALSO provide the competitive gamers with the challenging, fast-paced gameplay that they loved with Halo 2 and 3. The fact that MLG is taking Reach out of the spotlight speaks volumes, I will admit.
Having fun, and also the push to win. Halo 4 can have both.
Discuss.