I feel like halo 3 did matchmaking better than halo 4.
The reason I want to discuss this is because I really think halo 4, at its core, if you strip it of everything and you look at just the gameplay and mechanics is arguably as good if not better than halo 2 and 3. The thing that kind of kills the experience for me is the matchmaking system.
To make it clear I am not a halo purist. Ive played from the beggining of the franchise but I do not think load outs were a bad idea. If anything, it removed the pesky vote for BR start problem that halo 3 had. I enjoy infinity slayer and I think its a fresh experience. I do not approve of slayer pro because it removes many of the things that make halo 4 unique. I also believe weapon balance is greatly improved as opposed to Reach or halo 3. I know many disagree but whatever.
My main point is this:
There is a portion of the halo fanbase (includes me) that simply do not care about progression ranks. I could care less that I played a certain amount of time and got a meaningless number next to my name. I could care less about earning commendations to dress up my spartan. I could care less about earning specializations because I already have a load out that works perfectly for my play style.
So now I just play for the love of the game. Which is perfectly alright for now, but eventually I will get bored of mindless playing and inevitably I will move on to a different game.
Contrast this with halo 3 which I played for three years and still play off and on to this day. Halo 3s longevity was amazing, in part, because of the matchmaking system. The ranking system in halo 2/3 bred competitive players.
There is no playlist on halo 4 right now that you could play and get the same adrenaline rush that you got from playing ranked halo 3 and thats a fact. That sort of experience breathes competitiveness into your game and creates a unified community of players all striving towards a common goal.
That sort of experience also bleeds into other parts of the game. For example when me and my buddies would get tiered of going all try hard we would go into customs and play the game. Not only that, but we would practice in customs almost everyday. We legitimately wanted to get as good as possible at the game. We downloaded the MLG variants, we got the map packs, I even created some badly made forge maps etc.
Halo 4s matchmaking does not excite me to do any of these things. Does it really matter if Im good at the game or not? Im not working towards anything that requires me to bet that good at the game. Why download the mlg variants etc when they come out? Its not like Im going to be practicing to get better because of the above reason (Im not going pro anytime soon). Im just playing casually now repeatedly over and over anyways. Why even touch forge? Im not a forger and its not like customs are booming now how they were on halo 3. If I dont see any notable improvements I wont even get the map packs just like I did on Reach.
Conclusion:
The sad part about the situation is this. I am not in the minority of players that badly wants to like halo as much as they used to. I know many halo fans that dropped because of Reach and would love to come back into the halo community but you gotta throw us a bone here 343. At least Reach attempted to have a competitive playlist on launch date. As it stands now players like me got shafted with the ranking system (Even Reach had a competitive hopper even if it failed). Hopefully the CSR will be patched to be in-game to give us some incentive.
Good luck 343 I hope you succeed. Halo 4 is a great game but there is still a lot of work to be done.
If you guys agree with me or have something to say about the matchmaking system and how it could be improved message below. If you disagree also explain why and what you like about progression ranks. Thank you and DISCUSS