Making Halo Accessible

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Making Halo Accessible - Part One

The attitude that 343 has shown towards Halo multiplayer has made it evidently clear that widespread, traditional Halo gameplay is a thing of the past and will probably never again exist in a state other than one or two playlists. Many of the core tenants of the series were modified or removed for the sake of fulfilling a studio-wide goal of increasing accessibility. Calling for the return of pre-Reach multiplayer is a fools errand at this point, but I think that 343 can do several things to improve their future games without deviating from the course that they have set for themselves.

Making the Story Accessible

There’s no denying that 343 has tried to really flesh out the Halo universe, even if you disagree with their approaches. Campaign and Spartan Ops in Halo 4 have adopted ambitious stories, but there’s an inconsistency. Correct me if I’m wrong, but all of the content relating to Spartan Ops can be found in the mode itself, whereas the Campaign has content (terminals) that exists in Halo Waypoint. Will the average everyday player know exactly where to go if they want to gain some background information on what’s happening in the game? Perhaps, but the danger of alienating potential audience members would be reduced if this content were available in-game. It would be a shame to see a well-crafted story remain fragmented. I think it would a good idea if, for the future, priority is given to ensuring that all story elements are available to players in-game so that they can experience them as they play through non-multiplayer modes.

Making Ranks Accessible

Like the story, player progression and development should not be left out of the location where players will spend most of their time: in the game. I don’t doubt that 343 wants to engage everyday players their own career, but will everyday players be motivated to regularly switch between game and Halo Waypoint just to see how they advanced from the previous match? Why not have that information available in both locations?

I get that 343 and the new Halo crowd are terrified of boosting, cheating and the inherent elitism that comes with in-game skill-based ranks. However, that’s just one side of the coin. It’s important to remember that said ranks have proven themselves to be one of the most powerful mechanics in increasing player retention and motivating players to truly invest themselves in the game and their performance.

There are people today, in 2013, who still commit themselves to Halo 3 for the purpose of trying to get closer to a 50. If you look at Halo 3 streams on Twitch, you see MLG pros playing now and then. You see people going on perfect 50 runs. Visible skill-based ranks next to your gamertag in the lobby just CAN’T be ignored.

When cheating in Halo 3 began to accelerate, there were upstanding community members who dedicated their time to provide evidence of derankers, DDoSers and boosters in general. Although labeling people out on forums will remain as a rule violation, I don’t doubt that these types of community members would gladly help out again if it meant the return of in-game ranks. 343 could establish a formal service for evidence and player name submission. With the feedback provided by players in this service, sustenance team members could evaluate instances involving foul play and take the appropriate action to keep matchmaking clean. This way, visible skill-based ranks could exist in the game without rampant abuse.

Making Functionality Accessible

From what I’ve gathered from player feedback as well as videos and screenshots, there is a great amount of disdain towards Halo 4’s UI. It goes without saying that if people are spending less time in a lobby trying to locate settings or features, they’ll probably be spending more time actually playing the game, which can only be a good thing. Decide on what the most important and commonly used tools are (active roster, custom game options, file browser, etc.) and make them available without forcing the user to traverse multiple menus.

This doesn’t just apply to the game’s UI though - it also applies to the HUD. If someone picks up the flag, I seriously doubt that they need to see text on the screen telling them that they’re carrying the flag. If 343 removes the extraneous clutter that doesn’t add any value to the game, players will be able to focus more on what they’re doing, making the gameplay more accessible. This might seem trivial, but if it’s pointless, there’s no need to have it. On the flipside, important elements like the red X should be available from the get-go because they relay important information regarding player movement and enable gamers to make important decisions (don’t push up on a map if you see tons of red Xs - hang back and wait for them to respawn before making a move). Having the most critical details front and centre is the way to get players more involved in the game.

2

Making Halo Accessible - Part Two

Making Gameplay Accessible

For me, the most confusing part of 343’s design logic was that they wanted to make the multiplayer more accessible for everyone, but they ended up introducing gameplay-affecting unlocks. When everyone spawned with the same weapons and grenades, the only main discrepancies that existed amongst everyone were player skill, networking conditions, map spawn locations and so on. With gameplay-affecting unlocks, new players have to content with others who are not only better at the game, but who also have more tools at their disposal. It would seem that the gameplay introduced by 343 is more inaccessible than accessible.

To try and remedy this problem, gameplay-affecting unlocks should be removed entirely. However, the functionality associated with those unlocks doesn’t need to be removed. Instead, it should be contained in a way that affects all players equally. For example, things like the fast track package could probably be translated to a special event like a double XP weekend. This would give players something to look forward to and allow players to reap the benefits without compromising their loadouts.

Now, I don’t play Halo 4, so I don’t profess to be very smart when it comes to understanding support upgrades and the other tactical packages. I’m not entire sure what the ideal solution for keeping these elements without making them be unlockables is, but the people at 343 are smart and I’m sure that they could figure one out, reinforcing Halo’s past image as an industry leader.

In terms of the basic elements of loadouts (primary weapon, secondary weapon and grenades), I think that a regression is in order. Specifically AND FOR MATCHMAKING ONLY, loadouts should return to the way they were in Reach where each element was dictated by the gametype rather than by the player choice. This increases predictability, but also creates the opportunity for frustrating gameplay (I’m looking at you, AR starts). Ultimately, it’s up to 343 to ensure that forced loadouts in core gametypes like Slayer and CTF empower players without sacrificing balance. For example, if 343 were to keep both the BR and DMR in their next game, BR-start loadouts would let players be able to defend themselves off spawn and at range, but not be able to cross-map with the DMR. The modifications that 343 has made to weapons like the assault rifle and the needler convince me that people would not just drift towards the utility weapons automatically (since those guns can hold their own in their respective ranges). If the sandbox is designed properly, player choice won’t be limited, but players will have a better idea of what to expect from their enemies at the start of a game.

3

Read from start to finish. Extremely well-thought out post. This thread here needs much attention.

4

> Read from start to finish. Extremely well-thought out post. This thread here needs much attention.

Thank you. I thought of something else.

Making Halo Accessible - Part Three

Making Stats Accessible

This is also largely related to the situation facing ranks. I find it incredibly baffling that players have to sign into the Waypoint website to view their Halo 4 stats. I understand that 343 wants to make the entire Halo Waypoint platform an integral component of the Halo experience, but the current system alienates players who want to view their careers without making an account. Not only that, but the stats app is loaded with information to the point where trying to find something in particular can be slow and time-consuming, making the whole process less accessible.

In my opinion, 343 did a very good job with their Reach service record design on Waypoint. You don’t need to sign in and only account-specific details (tag history, downloads, etc.) are restricted to people who aren’t signed in. The Reach service records offer stats regarding game history, weapons, enemies and all other essentials on the main tab. Best of all, working with the Reach service record is not slow or frustrating due to clutter. Signed in users should continue to be offered the services like downloads and custom challenges, but for the future, let everything else be available to the public, or give users an option to hide their stats to non-signed in members if they don’t want to attract lurkers. Halo Waypoint can continue to be the hub for all things Halo, but loosened sign-in restrictions can help players pay more attention to their progress.

5

I agree with almost everything in this post, well done! I’d like to point out that Reach’s UI was simply so amazing (the best in the franchise without a doubt) that I actually spent more time traversing the gorgeous menus than playing the lacklustre game. I played hours and hours of Firefight, Campaign, and Matchmaking just to see my Commendations go up and I spent even more hours just… staring at them! ;D

6

This has gotta be one of the best posts I’ve read in a while, although it states the obvious, it goes in-depth on said obviousness.

Making the Story Accessible

Before Halo 4 launched, 343 made it clear they wanted an in-depth story but without alienating the players who didn’t read the books and other extra story stuff out there. Sadly they didn’t achieve this, I am still confused as to why the Didact was on Requiem and why he had it out for humanity. (if someone could clear this up for me in a PM or something, I’d appreciate it)

On the topic of terminals and the videos from them - they were originally planned to be in-game but due to some unexpected issues with the company who created them, there wasn’t enough time to get them on-disc before the game went gold so they left the terminals in but made you visit Waypoint for the videos which sucked :confused: That alone would have cleared up a lot issues for a lot of people without forcing them to read the books.

343 admitted themselves that they were not clear enough with the story at a panel at GDC I believe and they’ve said countless times that they will learn from their mistakes on Halo 4.

Making Ranks Accessible

Completely agree here. Customizing loadouts should still exist but not as in-depth as they were for Halo 4. There were a few big changes that came out of the game because of Support Upgrades/Tactical Packages alone.

Resupply - This perk allows you to pickup grenades from dead bodies only if you were using it, this essentially slowed gameplay down as people were being stuck with their gun after throwing their initial starting grenades until they died or picked some up from ordnance. Removing this perk and allowing players to pickup grenades without a perk would be beneficial as it would speed up the game if players can lower shields more often.

Shielding - This perks allows your shield to recharge slightly faster than the default six seconds it is (IIRC). For this perk to work, the default shield recharge rate had to be increased for it to be balanced and actually have a use.

This in term makes a lot of games slow paced as once a player has been shot, he will run off, hide behind a wall, wait six seconds then run back out, rinse and repeat until they die. Removing this as a perk would be beneficial as it would once again, speed gameplay up. I’d love to see the shield recharge time be tweaked for Halo 4 too but it may be a little to late for that now.

Stability - This perks makes you flinch less while being shot. Although I see flinch being removed & descoping being implemented for the next Halo 5, I’d still like to discuss why it sucks that this was a perk.

Stability is a perk which unlocks after completing the Rogue specialization which is only possible once you’ve reached at least SR-60. For a few months, this perk was only available to those who purchased the Limited Edition of the game or got a code for early access. This means for a few months, those players who completed the Rogue specialization were able to cross map players without any worry of Flinch because they paid extra for the game essentially - don’t do this for Halo 5.

As for flinch as a whole, it shouldn’t have been random. It should have been predictable. Have the same flinch patterns so that players who take the time to learn where their reticule will go will be able to make the right moves to fight against it.

Either way, having these unlocks in the game overall made the game less accessible for new players as they would just be getting beat by players who have had the game for longer than them.

Something to try would be everyone gets all the weapons at the start, but ranking up, doing challenges, etc would unlock camos & armour skins for your Spartan which had NO EFFECT in-game, just visual. It would give reason a play once they hit the max rank.

As for skill-based ranks, Halo 3 nailed it completely. It was stated multiple times that ranks weren’t included because it would encourage boosting/cheating. Let’s not forget that the current ranking system encourages boosting as well, any ranking system will. Heck, people cheat even if there isn’t one. This is never going to change.

How to combat it? Improve your banhammer and add in-game report tools and have a dedicated few on the team deal with them.

Making Functionality Accessible

Go back to Reach’s UI, improve when needed. The Halo 4 UI was god awful. I mean putting someone’s gamertag sideways was completely silly.

You stated most of the flaws and I agree with them entirely, not much input on this really.

Making Gameplay Accessible

Agreed entirely once again.

Making Stats Accessible

The way statistics are presented on Halo Waypoint pisses me off more than anything. Other than the fact that the important information is buried behind multiple clicks, it is slow, clunky and doesn’t run good on all PCs (especially old ones).

I don’t know if many people know, but the design for this page was actually created by Cynergy with a bit of help from 343 Industries to make it more Haloy. I was a massive fan of Bungie’s statistics display for Halo 3 & Reach were it was viewable on all devices, didn’t go slow, wasn’t a pain to the eye and generally easier to navigate.

Even the Halo: Reach stats page on Halo Waypoint can be slow at times and is quite jumpy on old PCs compared to Bungie’s version. I realize they can’t just copy Bungie’s design entirely but take notes and improve and don’t outsource it to a company who cares more about looks than functionality because the end of the day, little to none care about the looks when they just want to see how well they did in a game a day or two ago.

7

After reading everything I agree 100% with you .

Although I would say Halo 3 had the best post game stats in game and later on line / it was simple and easy .
So much good info in here I don’t have anything to add.

8

-Instant Ranking up or Ranking down -
Halo 3 you would go up or down after the game
Halo Reach you had to wait a day or 2 to see what rank you had earned
And with Halo 4 CSR it runs a game behind

Why make us wait
Make ranking up or down in social or Ranked playlists instant / no delay

9

Ok a little more input from me

Xp and Exp per playlist and why I feel its so important
Clicky Click Click

10

I am still really wanting Spartan Ops to be made available for offline play.

11

> I am still really wanting Spartan Ops to be made available for offline play.

OK cool but what does that have to do with this topic.

Also in my opinion Ops and FF are pointless just add them into campaign - sorry that’s just how I feel

12

A very well thought out thread. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I certainly hope that this thread gets noticed.

13

Agreed,

But remember it was not 343 that changed Halo for the worse, it was Bungie with REACH. I believe Halo 4 is a great improvement on REACH, but still a let down when compared to Halo 2/3.

It will be interesting to see where the Next Halo will go. What path will it take.

A Halo 3 path or Halo 4/REACH one.

I think the best improvements from Halo REACH to Halo 3, was the UI and Network Code.

Halo REACH choice to choose “Prefer Good Connection” was great. I believe over 90% of games were lag free.

Halo 4 which does not have this option, but 343 says does not need to, as it runs in the background. I be lucky to get 10% of games lag free.

Recently playing Halo 3, the UI is so bad compared to REACH. At least Bungie got something right with REACH.

14

> -Instant Ranking up or Ranking down -
> Halo 3 you would go up or down after the game
> Halo Reach you had to wait a day or 2 to see what rank you had earned
> And with Halo 4 CSR it runs a game behind
>
> Why make us wait
> Make ranking up or down in social or Ranked playlists instant / no delay

Halo REACH didn’t have RANKS.

Halo 3 TU ranking system was the best. But Halo 2 Ranking system on Bungie.Net you could actually see where you were in that rank.

15

> I agree with almost everything in this post, well done! I’d like to point out that Reach’s UI was simply so amazing (the best in the franchise without a doubt) that I actually spent more time traversing the gorgeous menus than playing the lacklustre game. I played hours and hours of Firefight, Campaign, and Matchmaking just to see my Commendations go up and I spent even more hours just… staring at them! ;D

I also agree that Reach had the best UI. I actually extremely dislike H4’s.

> -Instant Ranking up or Ranking down -
> Halo 3 you would go up or down after the game
> Halo Reach you had to wait a day or 2 to see what rank you had earned
> And with Halo 4 CSR it runs a game behind
>
> Why make us wait
> Make ranking up or down in social or Ranked playlists instant / no delay

I agree with this too.

I really hope someone from 343 takes the time to read through this.

16

I agree 100% with everything you said.

Well done.

17

How is making the game complicated and imabalanced the same as making it accessible?

Halo was simple, it was VERY easy to learn the basics.

And the Matchmaking system in Halo 3 was specifically designed to keep players in matches on their level, the noobs played with noobs, how was it not accessible when they weren’t getting slaughtered over and over?

18

For a man who hasn’t played halo 4 you got my full attention and on the wagon. This thread will be made in a monument to all our sins.

Really great info and yes the customization for loadouts is way too much.

See Reach has taught the community lessons in more ways than one.

Once again great info.

19

> How is making the game complicated and imabalanced the same as making it accessible?
>
> Halo was simple, it was VERY easy to learn the basics.

Precisely - this is what I was saying:

> For me, the most confusing part of 343’s design logic was that they wanted to make the multiplayer more accessible for everyone, but they ended up introducing gameplay-affecting unlocks. When everyone spawned with the same weapons and grenades, the only main discrepancies that existed amongst everyone were player skill, networking conditions, map spawn locations and so on. With gameplay-affecting unlocks, new players have to content with others who are not only better at the game, but who also have more tools at their disposal. It would seem that the gameplay introduced by 343 is more inaccessible than accessible.

> And the Matchmaking system in Halo 3 was specifically designed to keep players in matches on their level, the noobs played with noobs, how was it not accessible when they weren’t getting slaughtered over and over?

Agreed again. I emphasized the power that visible skill-based ranks have to get players invested in the game and called for more community-343 interaction to try and deal with abusers.

Shipping a matchmaking-enabled Halo game without visible skill-based ranks isn’t fair to anyone. With said ranks and an integrity system side by side, the incentive is there and everyone can enjoy it without having to always worry about skewed matches. They’ll still exist of course, but I feel that they won’t happen nearly as often.

Thanks for the support everyone.

20

I have a question when you talked about the Reach loadouts and comparing it to 4s how would you change the customization between them?