Hello. My name is Samuel.
I’m 23 years old, have -Yoink!-, a cognitive delay and minor motor impairments both of which place a cap on how well I can play any Halo title. This sometimes makes playing against other players a massive chore instead of fun for me as I become a detriment to both myself and any team I have matchmade with. I often times in Halo tend to be either towards the very bottom or towards the very top of the leaderboard. Why the inconsistency? To be honest, I don’t really know. With the way 343 have set up skill-based matchmaking for both MCC and Halo Infinite, I assume I may fit into a specific and very minor range of players which the SBMM system doesn’t know what to do with. Sometimes I am one of the ones who kick -Yoink- or, sometimes, I’m the one who gets his -Yoink- kicked and is the reason my team loses(Often times, this is the outcome).
Regardless of the reason why my matches are so inconssistant, one thing is for certain. For whatever reason, Halo’s 5, MCC and Infinite LOVE to put me against teams who are WAY above my own skill level given my disabilities. Which is why I propose this to you, the employees at 343 Industries. Please, make ALL the daily Practice Makes Perfection challenges available for both PVP and Bot matchmaking modes. Being forced to play PVP after completing so many of these specific daily’s really puts disabled players like me or even worse than me in a bad position because it forces us to go into a mode where we are nothing but cannon fodder for the enemy team to practically swat away and earn free points from because the SBMM system doesn’t know where to put us simply because we have one good day where we’re not as bad as we are normally.
I’m not asking you to change SBMM for us, I’m not gonna even dream of it. What I do ask again is that you make all the Practice Makes Perfection challenges available in both PVP and Bot matchmaking. That way, we don’t have to focus on weekly challenges that may force us to play PVP when some of us really can’t do that all that well. Bot matchmaking provides the perfect place for us to play with friends on the same team or with randoms and still have a fun time. Making Practice Makes Perfection only include Bot matchmaking to a certain point is a big blow to people like me. It puts a cap on how much we can play the game and have fun before we’re forced to go into other modes where, for the majority of the time, we don’t have fun. I have other -Yoink!- friends with cognitive delays as well and they all are SOOO looking forward to Bot Matchmaking for this reason. Alex, Dark, En… It provides such a great place for us to just jump into some random action without having to deal with things like cutscenes, mini-bosses, actual bosses… Just jump into any level, punch, shoot, steal objectives, etc. from a bunch of enemies that won’t tunnel us, won’t harass or put us down for our inability to play as well as them, won’t complain about being stuck in our shoes for once… They just go up against us as equals. And when we complete five matches and earn only another 100 XP , it allows us to at least continue to make SOME progression in whatever Battle Pass we or our parents or guardians paid to progress through rather than having to wait another whole day just to make it all the way to where we’re forced to play PVP to earn more XP for them.
I am done with having any more matches this weekend. After working hard to remove a picker bush from my yard, I came back inside just in time for the MP servers to go live today. Excited to play Halo Infinite after the amazing night I had last night after the servers went live a second time and mixed to mostly negative days I had previously with SBMM screwing me over so much. I was pumped, thinking that maybe, just maybe SBMM had finally found a good place for me. I’m not constantly on the receiving end of enemy Steaktaculars, finding more and more evenly matched games where it feels as though we genuinely could have won if I were better than my disabilities would allow. But then, after working in the sun, dealing with thick branches covered in thorns on a very warm day, after coming inside my house with some nice AC to play Halo Infinite, I got beaten, broken, destroyed… My -Yoink- handed to me on a Pewter Platter with Tomatoes to eat away at the lead and give me poisoning from it. I was now back on the receiving end of enemy steaktaculars, consistently ending up at the bottom of the scoreboard while the entire enemy team outplays not only myself but my teammates in an unfair fight. Match after match after match after match after match after match…
I had to go and let off some steam before the servers were taken offline at 4PM for me, Eastern Time. At 8 they came back on. After a nap, some food and water and a soda, I was ready to get back into the game. Behemoth had been released and I was excited. I instantly got into a match on Behemoth and died within a minute because the enemy team got both the Sniper Rifle and the Skewer before any of us, as well as hijacking our ghost and stealing the Warthog and Overshield for themselves, mowing down anybody who dared oppose them in a flash. when their toys ran out, they were still beating the pulp out of us, making sure that if we ever played on Behemoth again, we’d remember how our first match on it was the worst match-up in Halo history. I played for a little bit longer after that, always losing with the enemy team yet again getting more steaks than they could ever eat in their lives… Until my last match for this weekend happened. I don’t know if it was a problem with the servers but I was only getting Slayer matches. The WORST ones as that requires actually deliberately going up against other players in order to score points to win instead of sneaking around behind them to steal their flag from under their noses or to stealth-capture a zone I have only ONE MORE weekly challenge to beat before earning this week’s special skin which requires me to return the flag 3 times. I only needed one more to finish it and I don’t have any more challenge swaps.
I’m only on Practice Makes Perfection 7 at this moment. I have no other choice but to play PVP if I want to progress any further through the Battle-Pass now and earn my favorite skin in the game so far… Gold Estate. I just want to have fun and play the game, while earning at least SOME progression in the Battle Pass… So please… 343 Industries… Please make ALL the Practice Makes Perfection challenges in the game completable in BOTH PVP and against bots. If not for me, then for those like or even worse than me. You have an opportunity to make something that can be great not only for new players but for disabled ones too. All I ask is that ALL the PFP challenges be accomplishable in both types of matchmaking. That is all. Thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy forum post…
-Sincerely, Samuel(MrLegohaloman7)