MCC Matchmaking Playlists

Long-time Halo player here, and I, along with many others that I play with, have a huge issue with the format of the MCC matchmaking playlists.
While the idea of the MCC was beyond great, and a relief for an old school player like myself, I feel that the execution of the matchmaking playlists was no where close to where it should have been. Before I get in to the real problem, I will provide some background experience/preferences prior to the making of MCC.

Halo 1 - this was the gateway drug of games for me
Halo 2 - BEST GAME EVER! NOTHING TOPS IT! (from a matchmaking standpoint)
Halo 3 - Garbage!
Halo Reach - decent
Halo 4 - Garbage
Halo 5 - Garbage

Biggest issue(s) with Halo MCC:

  • When searching a Team Slayer, Snipers, Team Doubles, or Team Hardcore playlist, I run the risk of playing a Halo 3 or later game. In the ranked categories, this sucks for not only me, but it also sucks for my teammates. I HATE ANYTHING THAT IS NOT HALO CE or HALO 2!!!
    **Solution - Before anyone comments saying that I should stick playing the Halo 2 Classic playlist only, just hear me out. Not as of lately, but in the past, I HAVE seen some minor updates to the MCC matchmaking playlists, whether a playlist was added or taken away, so I know it can be done…Will the powers that be PLEASE look in to dividing up the the playlists not only by “Genre” (if you will), but also by Halo version? I realize this will decrease the amount of activity per playlist, which would then account for a slightly longer search for players, but it would make this game a billion times more enjoyable for the the long-time fans who purchased this game solely for the overall objective of why MCC exists, and that is for the players to have the ability to play their favorite Halo game(s) (and that game’s original playlist) that is/are no longer available on their dedicated servers. Allowing each halo to have its own list of playlists will make this game (MCC) how I think it was originally intended to be, and in doing so, I truly believe that word of mouth will get around quick enough to see a huge jump in activity back to this game. Please see my logic below…

Halo 1 - Team Slayer, Doubles, FFA, Team Objective, Team Snipers, etc.
Halo 2 - Team Slayer, Doubles, FFA, Team Hardcore, Team Snipers, etc.
…and so on for each Halo and whatever playlists were in the original game, or whatever playlists might receive the most activity.

All in all, I love playing MCC, but only when I get the personally preferred version of Halo as the game about to played after voting. I know the majority of other players would agree, and the reason for the steep decline in activity from the release until now, was because of the weakness of the Matchmaking playlists. If it’s not TOO much to ask for, from a programming/major update standpoint, I believe it will be well worth the effort. Thanks for reading!

  • bigdaddytp
    12+ year xbox live member under same GT

***All who have read and agree, please reply with your thoughts or improvements. Also feel free to re-post/share. The quicker more people see this, and hopefully agree, the quicker it will get to the problem being fixed.

So, I can’t really argue with a lot of your posts - I’m a huge Halo 2 fan as well, but I also really liked Halo 3 which is where we differ.

The problem with sub dividing each playlist is that the MCC population is just so damn low that people just aren’t going to find matches in a lot of those playlists. I get that notion that “well if you add the things the people playing it want, that the population will increase”, but I don’t really buy into that. The MCC was one of the biggest failures in recent gaming history, and unfortunately despite what it offers and how much fun it is, its legacy will be forever tarnished. A lot of people who own it still think it’s broken (it certainly isn’t 100% fixed), and a lot of the others have moved onto Halo 5.

It’s a shame that 343 doesn’t believe in population counters, because that would really help the community gauge how and where people were playing.