Cheers,
after the announcement of Halo 5 I realised more than ever how the community is split in two: The competitive gamers and the social ones.
No, that’s not a new conclusion at all - but it’s an important one.
I believe that a different way of matchmaking could solve the conflict between those two fractions and by the way many more problems Halo 4 matchmaking caused.
But first things first:
Competitive gamers are very conservative. They wish everything should be the way it was in Halo 1 to 3.
This might not speak for all, but to sum it up, their demands are:
- No loadouts
- No personal ordnance
- No armor abilities
- No perks
- Just rudimentary equality
The social gamers are a bit more “open minded”, when it comes to something new. They like the ability to customize all those things to their personal needs and preferences.
They might find it boring to have all those options gone.
And they don’t mind if a game isn’t about map control or whatever.
As a competitive gamer you don’t have to like this, but you need to understand that this part of the community is as important as your own. There is no wrong or right.
So instead of saying “get rid of Infinity Slayer, AA, Perks, PO, this weapon, that stuff and so on”, just give them the option “to live their own life”. Basically you need two multiplayer modes.
Here’s the problem with Halo 4:
When you want to play online, you first of all have to choose a playlist.
There are clearly competitive playlist, clearly social playlist…and those who aren’t really defined. And those cause the actual trouble.
Some playlists are mixing competitive and social gamers together.
I think BTB is a good example for this. Here you’ve got IS and BT Slayer. Both kinda go in different directions, even though it could be starker.
So there are those two fractions of gamers in one group of 16 people and they have to agree on one thing - it’s impossible. But they have to. And if you have to play IS, because there are slightly more social gamers in this group, pisses the competitive gamers off. It kinda takes away the BTB playlist for them.
So this is just one problem caused by playlists.
Another ones:
- You play certain maps over and over again
- you play certain game modes over an over again
- quitters - because they dislike a map/mode
- DLC maps kinda never appear
- even Forge Island is quite rare
- the endless discussion which gametype fits in which playlist. which should stay and which should go?
This creates an unsatisfying gaming experience.
Most of the time you play a compromise - but this is not the exact game you want.
And all because you get mixed up with a bunch of random-players per playlist.
The solution: If 343 should get rid of anything, it’s not AA, not IS, not the SAW. They should get rid of the idea of playlist.
It would cause less anger, if you could chose a more direct way.
Instead of playlist, you see a list that can be sorted by map, game type, popularity, DLC, featured, new, old…whatever.
So you could say “hey, I want to play something on Exile”. You pick it.
Then you say “I hate IS, so lets pick LS” - you pick that too.
An then you wait until 7, 13 or 15 other players join.
Those players would have chosen the exact match like you. Everyone really WANTS to play this match. It’s no compromise. You weren’t mixed up with social players. They won’t outvote you and force you to play something you don’t even like.
On the other hand you would have IS matches where nobody gives a -Yoink- weather there are Loadouts, ordnance or mapcontrol.
Live and let live (:
Other advantages:
- You could easily say “Naaah I already played Ragnarok 3 times in a row. Lets chose something else”.
- You could say “I really really feel like a game of KOTH on Exile right now”. And you will get it. You don’t have to hope it’s one of the three random maps you can vote on. You don’t have to depend on the other players in you group to vote the same.
Because when you think about it: There are like 7 maps in a playlist. Every map offers around 3 Gametypes. So cou have 21 possibilities - but matchmaking offers only 3 random maps out of 21? Even 3 out of 15 or 3 out of 10 is just a small piece of what you could be able to play. And it’s random. So you have to eat or shut up.
Oh and you won’t depend on all of the other 7-16 players in your group to accidentally have the DLC maps. You just pick the map and wait for other DLC-owners to join.
Of course you should still have a quick-match-option.
You should see how popular a map/gametype is, so you know how long you might have to wait.
Problems that should be solved by this:
- it won’t mix up competitive and social gamers
- so no more discussions about new elements vs. oldschool Halo - let the others play IS, you could play the real stuff.
- you would be actually be able to play DLC maps
- no complaining about “Husky Raid all the time”
- no complaining about “Ragnarok all the time”
- no more eat or die
In the end you should have the exact matches you want, and most of all a satisfying gaming experience.
So to me, or let’s say in my mind this feels like the best solution to end many discussions and many complaining. I believe there are many details missing that should be thought through (e.g. ranking?). So this is not final. It’s just a direction.
You can also say this is total -Yoink- - playlist are the best thing ever. So feel free to discuss and optimize.