Dear 343 - From an avid gamer,
If there is one thing that I have learned in my many years of playing Halo, nothing has deprived Halo Reach gameplay more than the lack of incentive to win. If there was only one thing fixed with Reach, for me, it wouldn’t be bloom, armor lock, revenant sniping, file share viewing, living dead betrayal booting, 2’s trick in Arena, or even Invasion map control.
The only thing I would want fixed is the incentive to win games.
Don’t get me wrong, during Bungie’s last few months of Halo Reach, Jeremiah switch Arena’s ranking system over to win/loss instead of daily rating. That was a HUGE plus in the right direction. In Arena, players actually have to win games in order to rank up. This creates a competitive atmosphere that everyone loves and has the most fun with.
I have spent many hours into Halo Reach. Nothing annoys me more than seeing that you don’t even have to win games to rank up. Many players complain about teamkilling, camping in their own bases the entire game, not rushing the objective, stat -Yoink!-, and camo sniping. If there was a simple fix to end all of this, it would be to add incentive to win. Players in Reach aren’t forced to win games, so they do all of this other stuff to deteriorate from other players’ experience.
This adds another level of frustration to many players and forces them to quit. Then you have an uneven 1 sided game. This forces more players to either quit or stay and get spawn killed or badly beaten in a game that they don’t enjoy. You see, with the incentive to win games, players try to work together as a team. Players try to get that Bomb or Flag into the scoring zone. There is a level of trust that players establish with their random teammates. They trust that their teammates can pick up the guy with the flag in the Warthog, protect the bomb guy with the Banshee, hold down a crucial location of map control. Players need to trust each other.
How can this level of trust be established when there is nothing to achieve?
Let me ask you this: How can a group of players paired together in an online matchmaking service, trust each other enough to win a game, when winning doesn’t even matter?
In Halo 3, you were FORCED to win a game to rank up. It’s that simple. You wanted to get an awesome rank in Halo 3? Win games. It didn’t matter if you were in Ranked or Social playlists. You had to win. Everyone knows this. Teams were working together, trying to out slay or capture that flag. Every map had a niche that players used at the start of the game.
> - Anyone remember Sand-trap? It was a RACE to the Banshee!
> - What about Valhalla? Get that Laser!- Guardian? What about Sniper? Shotgun? Over-shield?
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> You see, after playing these maps enough times, it become common knowledge on strategies used on how to win that map. In Reach, players LITERALLY do whatever they want. Part of the reason for this is simple - commendations. Commendations are the reason many players stay back and rack up on that KD to get those massive sprees game after game. They don’t need to win the game, they just need to get a high KD. Players who do this don’t even care if they lose the game. They have no reason to care, because winning doesn’t matter. This is sad that Halo has degraded to this level. Winning should be the most important thing when it comes to competitive online gaming.
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> There are also many different players who have incentive to win games. It’s a personal incentive though. Maybe they’re on HaloTracker or HaloCharts (I know it’s ended) and they need to maintain a certain win percentage. But the difference is that 3rd party website has provided that service to them, not the game itself.
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> Just because a team of players has the incentive to win games for a win percentage, doesn’t mean their opponents do. This is a major problem that should be addressed. This deteriorates from the competitive spirit of the Halo.
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> > You’re working on that Flag and your heart is racing with 30 seconds left, seeing if you guys are going to “Ruff-Gonja” that flag all the way back to the base. Many opponents are stacked against you!
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> > You’re so close in winning and it’s almost there you can feel it! Your teammate gets sniped and you’re the only one left to grab that flag! You don’t even care if you die as long as you touch that flag! Time runs out and Jeff Stietzer says “SUDDEN DEATH”. A Warthog races by you only to get lasered by the enemy team. It’s almost game over and you capture it! You’ve won the game!
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> You see, I have only had that feeling maybe 3-4 times in Reach. It’s mainly because I placed in TOP of last Summers HaloCharts BTB Tournament with the team “Dood Nailerz!”. That was a great time! We we’re competing against other teams that had incentive to win and do whatever it took to get that win.
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> So… Halo 4
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> 343, all I ask is that you have an incentive to win. Give the winning team/player something that others cannot have. Give them a REASON to go for that flag, arm that bomb, capture that territory. Bring back that competitive spirit that existed back in Halo 2 and Halo 3 matchmaking. Players will quit less, work as a team more and learn those different tactics to try and get the upper hand on their opponent at the start of the match.
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> However you’re developing a ranking system for Multiplayer in Halo 4, go with it. Just make sure there is a reason to actually WIN the game.
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> Thank you,
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> Spawnling