343 Industries,
First off let me say that I’ve been a Halo player since 13 years of age and with each and every game that has been made after the release of Halo the quality of the online game-play has deteriorated. I speak on behalf of everyone who started off with Halo 2 we all agree that Halo has been the greatest of all the games thus far and definitely the best game of all time. Once again I’m speaking for 95% of people who played Halo 2. First off the halo reach ranking system is abysmal. fairly talented players like myself play against extremely high ranks and don’t even get a competition. The ranking system in Halo 2 was the best, and Halo 3 was not far off. What makes those systems stand out is that your matched with similar skill level players. Quit trying to comply and compete with ranking systems in Call of Duty where its almost a socialistic ranking system and even the low level players are rewarded with a rank. If you want to be the leader in game making go back to your roots in Halo 2 where that revolutionary game set a precedent for all the games to come after it. The ranking system in reach means nothing. You can’t genuinely tell if someone is decent so it takes a lot away from incentives to get a high rank because the ranking system is diluted. It means nothing to be a high level in reach If you were a 42 in Halo you were among the most talented players to see the game. You need to interject that sort of incentives back into the ranking system. Even the colors around the ranking numbers 1-50 were admired and set after to get like the 31-33 which had the green and purple background. I would much rather have that then a straight number like in Halo 3 and I’m 19 years old. Even if you can’t abide exactly to the ranking system in Halo 2 at least find a median like in halo 3 were both parts of the market were satisfied when it came to a skill set rank along with a “amount played rank.”
Now talking about the actual game play. The worst thing that possibly was introduced in the online game play is “trading kills.” People don’t just throw a punch at each other and both come out dead. And the reaction time a person has to pull the trigger while bullets are in the air are close to nothing. But worst of all you changed the incentives of the game. By adding a socialistic “trading-kill” portion into the game your destroying incentives of ambitious players. Because there isn’t a winner out come. If you lose the battle you can rely on team work to communicate to finish the injured player off so by that alone your destroying alot of the team work portion into the average game. And that was one of the big parts of Halo 2 online that made it so great you could pick up a bunch of randoms with a motivation to really win and get into the game. along with the diluted ranking system now a-days it doesn’t even matter if you lost because you lose no rank you just might not get as much “credits” which you can gain by playing one extra game. Even if your clearly in the lead of a 1v1 battle and you have the right amount of damage done to you along with both players pressing beat down. Both come out dead and even the better player get a tie instead of a win.
One last simple thing is why can’t people watch film together there is no point in watching film of a game unless you can watch it together. I rarely go on reach film unless I did something incredible or I’m the most distraught I’ve ever been in my life.
These are only a few of the changes I on the behalf of thousands upon thousands of plays I’ve talked to that played Halo 2 need to see changed. And if you want your loyal fan base which made your product so big to continue to flourish and set records
Even I have come to question if I should even buy halo 4 because I would certainly not buy another game like reach where there is not even close to being a competitive atmosphere in the community but rather a lazy environment. So if you want me to buy the new game along with other loyal fans we need to see changes for the good where you started off
I speak on the behalf of myself, Brandon Sauter (I LiverpoolFC I) and Brennan Gulino(Nighlhawk68)as well as all the other Loyal Halo Fans. Check our track records of games played over the span of Halo 2,3 & reach and you’ll notice a significant drop in play.