I think that some sort of ‘playlist activity’ feature should be included whenever possible in a future update, AKA “players currently active in this playlist.”
Q: What is ‘playlist activity’ and what does it do?
A: ‘Playlist Activity’ is very simple: it shows how many players are actively searching and/or engaged in a specific playlist.
Although many of you may be familiar with this small, but very helpful feature in Halo 3, here is an example of the idea that I am trying to promote:
Team Slayer - currently active players: 35,823
Big Team Battle - currently active players: 21,739
etc.
This information is not intended to display directly beside the playlist (ironically as I presented in my example), but somewhere appropriate on the screen. There could possibly be a ‘universal’ label of this information above all of the playlists that updates whenever you highlight a new playlist. Any method (no pun intended to any programmers out there) of delivering this small feature is ultimately up to our friends at 343, as long as the information is passed to the player.
The concept of ‘playlist activity’ can possibly be (slightly) expanded to include players currently searching for a match, players that have found a match, players that are engaged in a match, and the total population of all players in a given playlist (all of the players searching, waiting, and playing added together). Although this expansion would improve the old system and add a lot of useful information for the player, it is not entirely necessary if 343 doesn’t feel like this extra information is necessary.
Q: How does this feature benefit me as a player?
A: You have the knowledge of how many people are searching and/or are engaged in battle within the playlist you are interested in. This allows the player (you) to make your own decision on whether or not you want to switch playlists in hope to find a match quicker, have a larger population to match up with (more player skill variety), or any other reason that you may have to switch playlists.
Q: How does this feature benefit 343 Industries?
A: This information will give 343 the raw playlist data (which they already have) that will showcase which playlists that players prefer to play. This information will give the players knowledge of what playlists that other players enjoy playing, and determine why those playlists are preferred. 343 can do this now, but making this feature public will allow the players to aid in improving playlists and matchmaking altogether. For example, players would be able to post online and discuss why certain playlists aren’t as popular as others, and (possibly) come up with creative ways to improve unpopular playlists as a community.
Q: How does this feature benefit the game?
A: In this concept, data is displayed as close to ‘real-time’ as possible. This data can help 343 debug matchmaking issues whether they are current or future problems. This will inevitably provide a better matchmaking system, and a better game overall.
This is a very small feature that shouldn’t require too much effort to implement into the game, but this is also one small feature that could make a huge impact for a better experience as players and developers!
I think that we can add this feature if enough people show their support. If you wouldn’t mind seeing this feature in a future update (hopefully whenever 343 has the time and/or opportunity to implement this), then please leave a reply to show your support for this feature!