I’ve played all of the Halo games and from my own experiences what made the games really fun was not only wiping the floor with my friends, but teaming up with them and taking on others of similar skill. In H2 and H3 my friends and I weren’t that great, but it was still nice to be able to gauge ourselves as a certain skill level. At first the game was just about having fun and the ranking number meant nothing, but as numerous deathmatches passed the game became stale. That’s when the number became more important because it was a personal challenge/goal to get higher and higher. We weren’t always attached to having a “high” rank, but when we became infatuated, numerous emotions were created that were both good and bad from the winning or losing that occurred in ranked play. We were all fueled by that number that now means absolutely nothing. By that I mean no one cares what your H2 or H3 rank was because your rank is irrelevant, but I’m sure a lot of you genuinely cared back in the day. Your skill rank number was an added incentive and connection to competitiveness that caused adrenaline rushes, headaches, and for some tears.
Then Halo: Reach was released… my friends and I were as hyped as ever, extremely intrigued about how the arena rankings would work. We all joked how it would be a total failure, but not one of my friends truly believed the joke because “come on we are talking about halo, man!” sadly we were wrong. After a short duration of playing the individual rating system separated us as a team because instead of having the common goal of winning we all just wanted great stats. This led to arguing over power weapons and even kill steals that didn’t really matter in the older games as much. We decided that our friendships were worth more than arguing all day in Halo so we pretty much quit the Arena. Later many “Social” matches were played, but the exciting and intense competitive do or die environment was gone and the game became stale like all the others. Because of the lacking ranking system the game no longer really had an incentive anymore for my group of friends to keep on trucking and then we quit.
Now I know that we do not have exact information on Halo 4’s ranking system/systems ,but it is safe to say that the successful formula for my group of friends and probably others is to have a ranking system that is similar to H2/H3’s
With all this said here is a very old video that shares a similar viewpoint that I hope you’ll all watch with an open mind. Said video.
P.s From what I’ve seen at E3 the game looks appealing I just hope the game stays relevant for longer than what Reach did among my friends so I can continue making fun memories with them.
TL;DR Halo needs a ranking system as another incentive to continue playing past the first few fresh months of gameplay.
> I’ve played all of the Halo games and from my own experiences what made the games really fun was not only wiping the floor with my friends, but teaming up with them and taking on others of similar skill. In H2 and H3 my friends and I weren’t that great, but it was still nice to be able to gauge ourselves as a certain skill level. At first the game was just about having fun and the ranking number meant nothing, but as numerous deathmatches passed the game became stale. That’s when the number became more important because it was a personal challenge/goal to get higher and higher. We weren’t always attached to having a “high” rank, but when we became infatuated, numerous emotions were created that were both good and bad from the winning or losing that occurred in ranked play. We were all fueled by that number that now means absolutely nothing. By that I mean no one cares what your H2 or H3 rank was because your rank is irrelevant, but I’m sure a lot of you genuinely cared back in the day. Your skill rank number was an added incentive and connection to competitiveness that caused adrenaline rushes, headaches, and for some tears.
>
> Then Halo: Reach was released… my friends and I were as hyped as ever, extremely intrigued about how the arena rankings would work. We all joked how it would be a total failure, but not one of my friends truly believed the joke because “come on we are talking about halo, man!” sadly we were wrong. After a short duration of playing the individual rating system separated us as a team because instead of having the common goal of winning we all just wanted great stats. This led to arguing over power weapons and even kill steals that didn’t really matter in the older games as much. We decided that our friendships were worth more than arguing all day in Halo so we pretty much quit the Arena. Later many “Social” matches were played, but the exciting and intense competitive do or die environment was gone and the game became stale like all the others. Because of the lacking ranking system the game no longer really had an incentive anymore for my group of friends to keep on trucking and then we quit.
>
> Now I know that we do not have exact information on Halo 4’s ranking system/systems ,but it is safe to say that the successful formula for my group of friends and probably others is to have a ranking system that is similar to H2/H3’s
>
> With all this said here is a very old video that shares a similar viewpoint that I hope you’ll all watch with an open mind. Said video.
>
> P.s From what I’ve seen at E3 the game looks appealing I just hope the game stays relevant for longer than what Reach did among my friends so I can continue making fun memories with them.
>
>
> TL;DR Halo needs a ranking system as another incentive to continue playing past the first few fresh months of gameplay.
well said sir 
> Fun and spartan ops?
Yes, the game will be very fun the first few weeks/months!! Spartan Ops will be great if it doesn’t lag when you play with friends. Also what I got from E3 is that Spartan Ops is just a weekly release of 5 missions that tie into the campaign story. Those missions will be fun and new the first time, but most likely on the shorter side. I’m sure the first few weeks will be packed with great missions and then the quality will drop off due to rushing to put out new missions ever week. Who knows hopefully I’ll be proved wrong.
TL;DR Spartan Ops will be a new experience that is beat weekly the first day it is released.