Ranked vs. Social and what that should mean.
On the outside it seems like the difference between the two is pretty simple. Ranked is for competitive players/play, and Social is for a more casual audience, right? Well I don’t think that that is necessarily true. Halo 5 has effectively limited the amount social playlists so that casual players are either forced into gametypes that they don’t want to play necessarily (BTB) or they are forced to play in in ranked playlists. Forcing casual players into ranked playlists drastically lowers the amount of competitive play that these playlists generate. From this I think it can be easily deduced that because of the lack actual social, non-ranked, playlists that the ranked playlists have been taken over by casual players for the most part, turning them into places where competitive play cannot exist. They try to fix this with ranking tiers, so that lower ranked people are only matched against lower tier people. There is an inherent flaw to this though, as skill level is not a 1-1 relationship to whether or not someone enjoys playing socially, or competitively. Diamond players can enjoy social playlists more, while Bronze people can be the most competitive players in the world.
How do you fix this?
I think that this is obvious. They should reduce the amount of Ranked playlists so that people that want to play competitively will be together. This would effectively increase the player pool in those playlists, allowing the ranking system to better match people, and create a much more competitive environment. Personally I think that there should only be three Ranked playlists, Team HCS (Arena), Team Slayer, and FFA. All other currently Ranked playlists should be moved to social, allowing people that want to play casually to not be forced into the Ranked playlists.
Teams vs. Solo
This is a huge problem when it comes to higher level competitive play. A team of four vs. a team of people all playing solo is usually very lopsided. Communication is so important in these scenarios that the team with four solo players is at a huge disadvantage. This isn’t the least bit competitive. There are a couple solutions to this. 343i could make it so that solo players are only matched against other people that solo-ing. But what is the difference between this and just casual play? Likewise, they could require people to use a mic while playing in Ranked, but with Kinect being a thing that becomes a lot less desirable. To me the only option that makes any sense in requiring people that play in Ranked playlists to go in with a full team. Destiny’s Trials of Osiris is a perfect example of this. At it’s core Destiny is not a competitive game, but Trials is some of the most intense gameplay I’ve ever experienced.
Other Benefits
Communication is arguably the most important thing when it comes to doing anything with a team at a high level. Forcing teams to go into Ranked together would basically force people to talk. This alone would make these playlists much more competitive. This would also allow the Ranking system to better match teams. By putting a single value on a team instead of trying to match eight different ranks, the system would match closer games, even further creating a more competitive atmosphere.
What do you people think?
The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
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> The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
I seriously don’t want to have to worry about my rank in every match I play. Sometimes I just want to goof around and have fun. You clearly don’t understand why Halo was so popular for so long. Saying -Yoink- like “There is no reason for social playlists.” Get out of here. Clearly the emphasis on competitive has killed the population in this game.
Ranked- i’m trying to win and i care about my performance. Thats where i care to have opponents of equal skill to myself and teammates of equal skill.
Social- I dont care about wins or losses or my performance or that of others. I want to kick back with a few beers and mess around. I just want to get a match be it with Timmy who just got the game today and is their first fps title or against a pro team. Doesnt matter. I just want to play and goof around.
H5 needs more social. btb is not enough.
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> > 2533274857405414;2:
> > The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
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> I seriously don’t want to have to worry about my rank in every match I play. Sometimes I just want to goof around and have fun. You clearly don’t understand why Halo was so popular for so long. Saying -Yoink- like “There is no reason for social playlists.” Get out of here. Clearly the emphasis on competitive has killed the population in this game.
Halo wasn’t defined by social either play lol. Regardless, yes there should be social non ranked playlists. Even competitive players will want to play without lowering their rank or k/d. If there’s no social then they have to work harder to keep their rank and k/d the same. With social playlists separating the two an mlg guy could play and screw off without having to work back to where he was from screwing off before. Having h4 being to social didn’t help and h5 being to compatible won’t help, needs to be an in between.
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> The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
The problem with that is a lot of people care about their rank so they aren’t going to play casually or mess around since their rank will potentially go down if they lose. It also complicates things because if you’re at a high rank, you really won’t be able to play casually without constantly being on respawn so you won’t be having any fun to begin with. There needs to be a place for people to not be so serious and currently there is only Warzone and BTB to do that which many people may not even want to play.
The funny part is even social is still ranked since the ranks are just hidden so if you’re a higher ranked person you’re still going to match those type of players and may end up in the same scenario that I described above about playing casually if the other team is actually trying.
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> > 2533274857405414;2:
> > The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
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> The problem with that is a lot of people care about their rank so they aren’t going to play casually or mess around since their rank will potentially go down if they lose. It also complicates things because if you’re at a high rank, you really won’t be able to play casually without constantly being on respawn so you won’t be having any fun to begin with. There needs to be a place for people to not be so serious and currently there is only Warzone and BTB to do that which many people may not even want to play them.
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> The funny part is even social is still ranked since the ranks are just hidden so if you’re a higher ranked person you’re still going to match those type of players and may end up in the same scenario that I described above about playing casually if the other team are actually trying.
Social also has our k/d mixed with ranked play as well. Really a good way to make me a tad bit upset. All them war zone deaths on gun geese, maybe a few on scout hogs too 
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> The ranking means that you play fair, balanced matches, It’s as simple as that. There should be no reason for social playlists to exist if matchmaking works properly. If you are a bad player then ranking means you won’t get annihilated by good players, and visa versa for the good players. No reason players should be getting ridiculous k/ds from killing noobs.
What about if you had a much higher rank than your friends, and when you try and play ranked with them, it’s not fun for anyone? This is where social shined for a lot of people. You need to be able to have that option to play with others that are not on your same skill level and no one will have to worry about a rank next to their name. Social playlists were very popular in H3 and Reach was majorly a social game and it was also very popular.
My main purpose of this was to state that ranked should require teams to go in together. Every other playlists should be social.