Big Team Battle was great when it first came out, but after a couple of days I found that more and more people were quitting games or just avoiding the objective entirely. My solution won’t fix BTB, but it might help alleviate some of the problems of BTB in Halo 5. I suggest that 343 adds a separate Big Team Slayer and Big Team objective playlist so players won’t immediately quit a match after they find out the game type they’re playing is CTF or Slayer.
It won’t entirely fix the problem, but maybe less people will quit because they’ll actually be busy trying to play the game type they chose. And then objective game type players like myself won’t be frustrated with their allies trying to play Slayer on a CTF or Strongholds gametype. Personally I think 343 needs to return the VETO system so players can choose the best maps like they used to. Some players might get frustrated that they don’t get to see the uncommon maps as much. but there is a reason they aren’t chosen as much…
And honestly that statement wasn’t meant to offend the developers who worked painstakingly hard on those maps. It’s just very difficult to create a good multiplayer map. Also if I remember correctly Bungie’s VETO system in previous Halo games actually forced players to play a map that they disliked if they and the community VETOed it too much. So technically a VETO system doesn’t matter much, but if the player perceives that they had an impact on the maps and gametypes they play then I think they would have a better time. “I chose this because I wanted to play it and not because I was forced to play it.”
Actually I just realized something… The biggest problem with Halo 5 isn’t the gameplay. It’s actually the perception of choice. The gameplay in the old Halo games isn’t necessarily better than the new ones. Some of them are actually a lot worse than the old ones, but the reason why those games had such a good strong impact on people was because those games offered a sense of freedom that other multiplayer games didn’t have at the time.
Some people disliked Reach, but it’s one of the Halos that I had more time with. I probably would have played 3 a lot more, but my family couldn’t afford a good internet connection back then so I was limited to playing the campaign most of the time. Anyways Reach and the old Halo games had this freedom that you could do whatever you wanted. My cousin would spend HOURS in forge creating maps and going AFK so I’d join his Forge lobby then -Yoink- around with his map. I was a teenager back then so the stunts would vary from putting a -Yoink!- made out of the boulders in the middle of the map to writing stupid words with the walls, but you could do a lot with the Halo games back then.
The VETO system wouldn’t really allow players to choose their maps, but it did offer the perception of them choosing their maps. Actually you could almost compare it to old Soviet systems and American systems. I’m going to use a cafeteria model for this example. The Soviet or poor execution of Communist method of doing things would go like this. The government knows you need to eat different fruits so they control your diet. Monday you must eat an apple, tuesday you must eat a banana, wednesday you must eat an orange and so on and so on. The government decides what you eat so they make sure you get your daily weekly servings of fruit. Eventually the pattern becomes dull and you become frustrated at the government.
The American or democratic way of doing this would do like this though. Big brother knows you need these food types, but he’ll give you a choice between two or three different fruit a day, but they change the type of fruit you can choose each day so you still get your healthy servings of fruit and vitamins that they provide. That way you perceive that you made a choice to eat something different that day, but technically the government is still deciding what you’re eating. That way if the person decides that they don’t like something then they will perceive it as their fault instead of the government’s.
And honestly it’s not hard to make an excuse why this food wasn’t available this day or the other day. For food all you have to say is that it’s too expensive ship out different foods every day so they’re done once a week and the bananas or whatever food you want rots before it reaches the end of the week. For a game players will complain that there isn’t enough variety so you make more maps.
Another way players felt like the had more freedom in Halo games was because Bungie put maps that the community made into an actual playable playlist. If you didn’t like or got sick of the maps that the developers made then you played one from the community.
The game felt more like a place that you can hangout instead of just a game. It’s hard to explain my feelings about it, but that’s about all that I can put into words for it. Anyways I apologize for going off track and maybe defying the forum rules, but I still think that a separate Big Team Slayer and Big Team Objective playlist would really help Big Team Battle. Although now that I talk and think about it, Halo 5 will have to give the players more “choice” in order to make the players that perception that their “choice” matters. It’s like the difference between “I tried to do something” or “I couldn’t do something because X.”
And actually the idea that sparked this train of thought was the way grocery stores are organized to increase profit. CBC Marketplace didn’t make a fantastic video about it, but it was good enough and showed how advertisers try to use emotion and the perception of choice to make you buy something. Thank you for your efforts in trying to make a good Halo game so far 343i. I hope the game is able to improve a lot over the next few months.
I’m not sure if I’ll be playing due to the aiming issues I have with the game right now that I’m waiting to be fixed, but I’ll definitely be watching the changes and see how the game evolves for better or worse.