Farming in Halo 5. What is it and what can 343 do?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

> Video version of this post <

Hi guys, I’m Rtas and I wanted to talk about something which has deeply affected Warzone in Halo 5 since the game came out 10 months ago. It’s called farming, and besides destroying the game experience, it is completely against what Halo has always represented.

What is it?
Basically, farming means that a team is able to capture all bases, but instead of destroying the enemy core and finishing off the match, the attackers push into the enemy homebase until the dominate the other team and utterly spawnkill them. The match often ends when they reach 1000 points or the other team quits.
In short words, this whole strategy means that the attackers get easy kills, exploit the spawn system and humiliate their opponents until the game is over, turning it into a nightmare for the other team. On the contrary, attacking to destroy the enemy core is entirely different, as you are in fact trying to finish the match as quickly as possible and not bash the opposite team. Farming means that you don’t care about how the opponents feel and you only want to increase your personal stats for no reason at all.

What are the consequences of farming?
While farming is a completely legal and legitimate strategy, just as many others, it is based on ruining the players’ experience and achieve good numbers in matchmaking by getting easy kills, instead of actually fighting for your victory, which is what Halo represents. I am not saying that capturing all bases and reach the core is easy, but waiting a few meters away from the enemy spawn with an Answer to murder them is.
The main outcome of farming is that many Halo fans have stopped playing Warzone regularly, angered, in order to avoid farmers, as they just want to enjoy the game and not get wiped out in all matches. Besides, the community is splitting, due to the conflict between players who accept farming and people who simply want to play Warzone relaxed and want farmers out of matchmaking. It is unquestionable that this is profoundly damaging Halo 5 and its old school community.

Why is farming bad?
Farming is negative for the following reasons:

  • it ruins the players’ enjoyment of the game and makes Warzone an unpleasant place to play, which is the opposite of its primary goal.
  • aware that farmers are in the other team, many players quit right after the match has started, which already throws the team into a difficult situation.
  • it splits the community, decreases the population and creates unnecessary conflicts. The Halo population was already in a delicate state, and we cannot risk it again with immature and selfish attitudes like these.
  • farming goes against the spirit of Halo: honour, friendly rivalry and skill. Halo means, as far as I am concerned, winning fairly and not humiliating the enemy team, which is the best conception of competitiveness.

What can 343 Industries do to solve this issue?
From my viewpoint, there are 7 possible solutions to fix this problem.

  • Allow the players to give up when all bases are captured. Players who are being dominated could make use of an option in the start menu or in the D-pad which would let them surrender in these situations, as long as they were more than 50% of the members of the team (7/12, 8/12, 5/9…). With this surrender, the core would destroy itself and the attackers would get the ordinary 1000 points. - Ban farmers from Halo 5. At this point, no player affected by these people would reject the possibility of punishing them. The ban could be temporary or permanent. - Mark farmers in Halo 5’s UI in some way. It would work like reputation in Xbox Live, but harsher. Farmers would wear a badge in their emblem so players could quickly identify them and avoid them. - Encourage people to report farmers. Give the players the necessary tools. For instance, an option in Halo 5 to report a farmer, which would lead this person to a temporary ban after several reports. Second example: make Xbox Live reputation so you can truly avoid them or get them banned from Xbox Live as well. - Don’t penalize quitters. In this context, it’s completely understandable that a player quits the game. Furthermore, Warzone is generally regarded as the ‘casual’, not competitive multiplayer in Halo 5, so the banhammer doesn’t make much sense here. - Add filters to avoid teams. Farmers always work in arranged teams. Therefore, if 343 adds a filter to not match teams, you would only get to play with random unorganized players. - Automatically match teams with teams. It is close to no. 6, but would work without filters. Organized teams over 5 players would go into this category.Options 1 (allow players to give up), 3 (mark farmers in their emblems) and 7 (match teams with teams) seem the best ways to prevent this issue and try to get back to the friendly Warzone.

From my personal perspective, farming is one of the most toxic topics that I have ever seen. Farmers are simply childish people who care nothing about Halo nor its players and will get their XP no matter the cost, even if that means angering a whole community or ruining the experience of a kid. They show no mercy and they don’t respect the most basic moral standards, and that’s why I think they should be banned from Halo, although I am aware that it is not the best solution.

343 Industries must take part in this issue as soon as possible, because it won’t disappear and it will keep affecting players in Warzone and causing conflicts. 343 needs to speak their mind about farming and say if they will take actions to prevent it and keep the friendly pace of Warzone, or if they will permit one of the problems that has damaged the Halo community most.
Thanks for listening and have a good day!

2

Don’t penalize quitters in social playlists or unranked playlists. Problem solved.

3

> 2535453668882729;2:
> Don’t penalize quitters in social playlists or unranked playlists. Problem solved.

You wouldn’t solve the problem because they would still farm.

4

people have spawn killed in every halo game (in btb). idk why people cry about it so much more now

5

I have been thinking about this actually. Its very annoying when such a thing happens. I think quitters shouldn’t be punished if they leave this kind of a game

6

> 2533274868733264;3:
> > 2535453668882729;2:
> > Don’t penalize quitters in social playlists or unranked playlists. Problem solved.
>
>
> You wouldn’t solve the problem because they would still farm.

I disagree… it would solve the problem. Why should anyone care about -Yoinks!- who want to act like that? The solution should be focused on solving the problem for those who are affected, not by trying to force -Yoinks!- to play sportingly.

7

The reason I don’t core is not because I dislike halo or don’t care, but more because I barely ever get to use my REQ’s and charging at a core and handing the enemy team my REQ’s because I wanted to be nice.

8

> 2533274868733264;3:
> > 2535453668882729;2:
> > Don’t penalize quitters in social playlists or unranked playlists. Problem solved.
>
>
> You wouldn’t solve the problem because they would still farm.

Honestly the only problem I can see is that people get banned for quitting unfair matches. Why should they get banned temporarily for quitting, especially in an unranked/social playlist? Farming is not a problem. People are literally complaining about getting owned in a video game by better players. Removing better players from playing the game would not fix the problem either. If you don’t want to play against someone, you block them. It is not the games fault for matching you against them. By allowing people to quit, they won’t have to deal with getting banned for it, and everyone is happy. Banning better players who are “farming” wouldn’t be a good move by 343’s part. Farming is such a gray line (controversial) that anyone who does well in a game could be subject to being banned.

9

But getting on topic I’ll take a look at the effects of your suggestions.

> 2533274868733264;1:
>
>
> - Allow the players to give up when all bases are captured. Players who are being dominated could make use of an option in the start menu or in the D-pad which would let them surrender in these situations, as long as they were more than 50% of the members of the team (7/12, 8/12, 5/9…). With this surrender, the core would destroy itself and the attackers would get the ordinary 1000 points.

This is the best solution honestly, it has no negative effects other than people might develop a new way to farm.

> 2533274868733264;1:
> 2. Ban farmers from Halo 5. At this point, no player affected by these people would reject the possibility of punishing them. The ban could be temporary or permanent.

No, this will result in many innocent people being punished because people on this game don’t know the difference between farming, and getting beaten. Not only that, but those players bought the game too, so they have just as much of a right to play the game as the people who get farmed.

> 3. Mark farmers in Halo 5’s UI in some way. It would work like reputation in Xbox Live, but harsher. Farmers would wear a badge in their emblem so players could quickly identify them and avoid them.

That would needlessly ruin their reputation when playing other games, not only that it also makes the game nearly unplayable to those who get reported enough to get too avoid me, even if they only farmed once or twice.

> 4. Encourage people to report farmers. Give the players the necessary tools. For instance, an option in Halo 5 to report a farmer, which would lead this person to a temporary ban after several reports. Second example: make Xbox Live reputation so you can truly avoid them or get them banned from Xbox Live as well.

Why? Just why? Why do people deserve to get banned from xbox live, something you spend hundreds of dollars on, just because they beat you in a video game? This would not only needlessly waste peoples money and time, it would also cause a huge uproar on the forums and further decrease population.

> 5. Don’t penalize quitters. In this context, it’s completely understandable that a player quits the game. Furthermore, Warzone is generally regarded as the ‘casual’, not competitive multiplayer in Halo 5, so the banhammer doesn’t make much sense here.

This would encourage those who don’t like the map, or don’t think they can win to quit, ending in a domino effect kinda think where only a few people on your team is left. Not the best of ideas.

> 6. Add filters to avoid teams. Farmers always work in arranged teams. Therefore, if 343 adds a filter to not match teams, you would only get to play with random unorganized players.

The line after the bold is untrue. Randoms farm just as much as teams do. This stems from the fact that a well defended core is not something you would want to go at solo, or even go at, at all if you’ll just be wasting your REQ’s, there’s also the fact that weapons and vehicles are easily lost in warzone so when given the opportunity to live longer with them, people will most likely do it. Other than that, it isn’t that big of a deal.

> 7. Automatically match teams with teams. It is close to no. 6, but would work without filters. Organized teams over 5 players would go into this category.

It’s not that easy to do but other than that, this doesn’t provide many if any negatives other than the fact that it will make warzone competitive and boring in my opinion.

10

Honestly farming has been a part of Halo since it first premired on XBL with Halo 2. The CTF farm was real. It’s just more common now because it’s so easy to do. Faster ttk allows small organized groups to get an early advantage on unsuspecting teams. Warzone in and of itself is designed to be a snowball gametype, so a quick lead can easily end in a massive punishment for their opposition due to how the REQ system is designed.

It doesn’t take a full team to farm. A group of 4 or 5 players can easily get the setup going, and a lot of the randoms I’ve encountered just go along with the farm because commendations.

What the farmees need is a way to fight back or defend themselves. Whether it be safe zones, free powerups, cheaper REQs, you name it.

Not penalizing people for quitting is great and all, but people still shouldn’t feel the need to quit. It’s a bandaid, and they still wasted however much time they invested in that match beforehand. So they are still at a loss.

11

> 2533274868733264;1:
> 4. Encourage people to report farmers. Give the players the necessary tools. For instance, an option in Halo 5 to report a farmer, which would lead this person to a temporary ban after several reports. Second example: make Xbox Live reputation so you can truly avoid them or get them banned from Xbox Live as well.

> 2535406272231884;9:
> Why? Just why? Why do people deserve to get banned from xbox live, something you spend hundreds of dollars on, just because they beat you in a video game? This would not only needlessly waste peoples money and time, it would also cause a huge uproar on the forums and further decrease population.

No, they most certainly didn’t “just beat you in a video game.”…

I can deal with losing, and have actually lost most of my Halo 5 matchmaking encounters. If my crew loses to a vastly superior team, gg! Shake it off and move along to the next match. But, if a team executes a triple-cap in the first few minutes of the match, moves to the enemy’s home base, attacks their opponent’s core room and has multiple Spartans guarding the inside of that room without taking a single shot at the core itself to extend the game for an additional 15-20 minutes, that easily qualifies for an Unsporting Behavior report within Xbox Live. Anyone who thinks otherwise has a rather warped interpretation of good/bad sportsmanship.

12

I mean really these kind of post is what has made this game what it is today. “I want more things to work for” , so you get all these nifty cute little goals to shoot for. Guess what that brings in?! People who take it to another level and just focus on that. Aka farmers. It’s funny how people are more worried about how others are playing the game than themselves.

13

> 2542657289632179;11:
> > 2533274868733264;1:
> > 4. Encourage people to report farmers. Give the players the necessary tools. For instance, an option in Halo 5 to report a farmer, which would lead this person to a temporary ban after several reports. Second example: make Xbox Live reputation so you can truly avoid them or get them banned from Xbox Live as well.
>
>
>
>
> > 2535406272231884;9:
> > Why? Just why? Why do people deserve to get banned from xbox live, something you spend hundreds of dollars on, just because they beat you in a video game? This would not only needlessly waste peoples money and time, it would also cause a huge uproar on the forums and further decrease population.
>
>
> No, they most certainly didn’t _“just beat you in a video game.”_I can deal with losing, and have actually lost most of my Halo 5 matchmaking encounters. If my crew loses to a vastly superior team, gg! Shake it off and move along to the next match. But, if a team executes a triple-cap in the first few minutes of the match, moves to the enemy’s home base, attacks their opponent’s core room and has multiple Spartans guarding the inside of that room without taking a single shot at the core itself to extend the game for an additional 15-20 minutes, that easily qualifies for an Unsporting Behavior report within Xbox Live. Anyone who thinks otherwise has a rather warped interpretation of good/bad sportsmanship.

It doesn’t matter if it’s unsporting or not. People paid money for this game, their xbox, and their xbox live, but to be banned from online for doing something that 1. doesn’t break the game, and 2. doesn’t do anything more than use up 20 minutes of people’s time is pretty stupid in my opinion. Anyone who thinks people deserve to have their money wasted over this is someone with a rather warped sense of justice.

14

> 2533274868733264;1:
> 1. Allow the players to give up when all bases are captured. Players who are being dominated could make use of an option in the start menu or in the D-pad which would let them surrender in these situations, as long as they were more than 50% of the members of the team (7/12, 8/12, 5/9…).

I don’t think this should be allowed until certain criteria are met or else you’ll just get people wanting to surrender right when you capture three bases. For example, it could be activated when more than 50% of your team quits, the score and difference in points have reached a certain point, and a time limit has been passed. The details would obviously have to ironed out for the best scenario.

> 2. Ban farmers from Halo 5. At this point, no player affected by these people would reject the possibility of punishing them. The ban could be temporary or permanent.

You said yourself that farming is legal and a legitimate strategy so why would we ban them for doing it? It’s mainly an issue with 343’s matching system and the maps themselves.

> 3. Mark farmers in Halo 5’s UI in some way. It would work like reputation in Xbox Live, but harsher. Farmers would wear a badge in their emblem so players could quickly identify them and avoid them.

That would just get abused and I doubt it would even be possible to do. It’s also in a way a public shaming which I don’t think 343 wants. I think the reputation feature is good enough.

> 5. Don’t penalize quitters. In this context, it’s completely understandable that a player quits the game. Furthermore, Warzone is generally regarded as the ‘casual’, not competitive multiplayer in Halo 5, so the banhammer doesn’t make much sense here.

I agree, but in order for that to work we need a JIP system that works. In its current form, the JIP system still needs a lot of work.

> 6. Add filters to avoid teams. Farmers always work in arranged teams. Therefore, if 343 adds a filter to not match teams, you would only get to play with random unorganized players.
> 7. Automatically match teams with teams. It is close to no. 6, but would work without filters. Organized teams over 5 players would go into this category.

You could just combine these two. I’ll also mention that the matching system should be better if you do match a team.

> 2535406272231884;9:
> It’s not that easy to do but other than that, this doesn’t provide many if any negatives other than the fact that it will make warzone competitive and boring in my opinion.

I’ve heard people say that farming is boring because there’s no competition. This could make it somewhat interesting for them.
.

15

> 2535406272231884;13:
> It doesn’t matter if it’s unsporting or not.

Yes, it does. There is an Xbox Live reporting category titled Unsporting Behavior for a reason.

The people who are unapologetic farmers aren’t naive, either. They realize that they are being condescending jerks (to put it politely) and ruining the game for their opponents… they just don’t care. They could easily complete two or three Warzone matches with a quick-core victory in the time that they devoted towards a lengthy farming session.

Using your reasoning, it doesn’t matter if people paid money for this game, their Xbox, and their Xbox Live. When they created their gamertag, they agreed to the Xbox Live Terms of Service and to abide by the Code of Conduct. If their online behavior is repeatedly inappropriate, they will probably be reported and get banned accordingly.

TL;DR… it does matter if it is unsporting or not.

16

Yes, this would be a good thing to implement to have fairness in gameplay. Being Spawn killed is extremely frustrating. I’ve only discovered one way to get out of this and that’s to spawn a vehicle like a quick Mongoose to change your spawn point and try to counter attack their positions. Worked for me a number of times.

17

> 2542657289632179;15:
> > 2535406272231884;13:
> > It doesn’t matter if it’s unsporting or not.
>
>
> Yes, it does. There is an Xbox Live reporting category titled Unsporting Behavior for a reason.
>
> The people who are unapologetic farmers aren’t naive, either. They realize that they are being condescending jerks (to put it politely) and ruining the game for their opponents… they just don’t care. They could easily complete two or three Warzone matches with a quick-core victory in the time that they devoted towards a lengthy farming session.
>
> Using your reasoning, it doesn’t matter if people paid money for this game, their Xbox, and their Xbox Live. When they created their gamertag, they agreed to the Xbox Live Terms of Service and to abide by the Code of Conduct. If their online behavior is repeatedly inappropriate, they will probably be reported and get banned accordingly.
>
> TL;DR… it does matter if it is unsporting or not.

So what? You support people having their money wasted because some people can’t take a 15 minute loss?

Though their is a section for it, it shouldn’t be taken to the utmost seriousness that people get banned for something as small as this, I mean is this really on the scale that people deserve to get banned for it? Take a minute to think and stop sticking to the rules like its the ten commandments or something. I bet the xbox live team that covers this doesn’t even take it this seriously.

18

> 2535406272231884;17:
> So what? You support people having their money wasted because…

…they intentionally break the rules that they agreed to obey? Yes, I do.

> 2535406272231884;17:
> Though their is a section for it, it shouldn’t be taken to the utmost seriousness that people get banned for something as small as this, I mean is this really on the scale that people deserve to get banned for it?

In other words, you acknowledge that the rules exist, but they shouldn’t really apply to Warzone farmers? Seriously? As I said before, Warzone farmers realize that they are being condescending jerks and ruining the game for their opponents… they just don’t care. Perhaps you are the one who actually needs to take a minute to think.

Let’s be clear about this: nobody is going to get banned after being reported for Unsporting Behavior on rare occasions. However, if someone is repeatedly acting inappropriately (including Warzone farming), a steady stream of reports through Xbox Live will eventually affect their ability to play online matches, and they will have nobody to blame but themselves.

19

> 2542657289632179;18:
> > 2535406272231884;17:
> > So what? You support people having their money wasted because…
>
>
> …they intentionally break the rules that they agreed to obey? Yes, I do.
>
>
> > 2535406272231884;17:
> > Though their is a section for it, it shouldn’t be taken to the utmost seriousness that people get banned for something as small as this, I mean is this really on the scale that people deserve to get banned for it?
>
>
> In other words, you acknowledge that the rules exist, but they shouldn’t really apply to Warzone farmers? Seriously? As I said before, Warzone farmers realize that they are being condescending jerks and ruining the game for their opponents… they just don’t care. Perhaps you are the one who actually needs to take a minute to think.
>
> Let’s be clear about this: nobody is going to get banned after being reported for Unsporting Behavior on rare occasions. However, if someone is repeatedly acting inappropriately (including Warzone farming), a steady stream of reports through Xbox Live will eventually affect their ability to play online matches, and they will have nobody to blame but themselves.

I mean, being a sore loser is unsporting too. We should report everyone who complains about farming?

20

> 2542657289632179;18:
> > 2535406272231884;17:
> > So what? You support people having their money wasted because…
>
>
> …they intentionally break the rules that they agreed to obey? Yes, I do.
>
>
> > 2535406272231884;17:
> > Though their is a section for it, it shouldn’t be taken to the utmost seriousness that people get banned for something as small as this, I mean is this really on the scale that people deserve to get banned for it?
>
>
> In other words, you acknowledge that the rules exist, but they shouldn’t really apply to Warzone farmers? Seriously? As I said before, Warzone farmers realize that they are being condescending jerks and ruining the game for their opponents… they just don’t care. Perhaps you are the one who actually needs to take a minute to think.
>
> Let’s be clear about this: nobody is going to get banned after being reported for Unsporting Behavior on rare occasions. However, if someone is repeatedly acting inappropriately (including Warzone farming), a steady stream of reports through Xbox Live will eventually affect their ability to play online matches, and they will have nobody to blame but themselves.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t apply, I just don’t think it should be that serious of a punishment.

Other than that, if you believe being unsporting is such a serious offense, what about the people sending rude messages for losing a match? quitters? people who complain about what people do to them in the game? people who camp? people who go for kills?

These all fall under being unsportsmanlike(google), so what now?