skill gap shmill gap

Games Other Halo
1

Some will talk about the skill gap, and some will laud previous halos as having larger skill gaps (which makes some sense- CE had so little assistance to aim you could really tell who was the better shot).

So, the other day I was playing CE with two of my boys, AR and pistol starts on battle creek. My 9 year old, who has been a halo fan since he could hold a controller, ended up winnjng, 15 to 13 to whatever my youngest had. So we switch to reach, anniversary game type with goldpro settings (so 3sk pistol, 4sk DMR), and play a match on battle creek. I destroy both my sons by more than ten.

What does that mean? If CE has a larger skill gap why am I so much better than my sons at reach? I have more time logged into CE than all of my kids combined, but that’s the one halo where they hold up best. Halo 2 and 3 ends up similar to reach… I destroy. Granted, I usually win at CE, and my sons win from above is a little exceptional, but my wins are never as great in CE as in the sequels.

What does that say about the skill gaps of each game if my wins in the halo with the largest skill gap are smallest?

2

Not sure how to answer you.

It goes against logic and some people’s arguments, but I’ve found my experiences to be similar. If I try my hardest, I can dominate at Reach far more easily than comparable effort will yield in games like CE or Halo 2.

All I can say is, you recognize the continuing debate about skill gaps in Reach. Directly comparing it to CE as you did seems to have yielded some very interesting results.

Wish my dad played Halo with me, but that’s an age gap and not a skill gap. :stuck_out_tongue:

3

This really doesn’t say anything.

And you’re trying to compare Gold Pro to default Reach? Gold Pro or just MLG ZBNS in general has a skill gap greater than that of H3 and would probably surpass or at least match H2 if it weren’t for button glitches, while vanilla Reach is just derplol mania.

And I guarantee it would be totally different if you matched yourself (or even if I matched) against Ogre 2 or someone who has been pro since CE. CE’s skill had a lot to do with power up and power weapon manipulation via grenades, manipulation and control of the spawn system along with button glitches such as BLB. The way Bungie intended CE to play was nothing out of the ordinary, but it’s what the community did to it that made it great. Same goes for H2, H2 would never have been the competitive Juggernaut it was if it weren’t for button combos.

Also, anyone who actually has a decent understanding of the spectrum of Halo games know that Reach’s surface skill level is deeper than any previous games . Which surface “Complexities” such as bloom, AA’s, and otherwise, there is a drastic difference between players who understand how to use them and players who don’t. The problem is that, anyone of even marginal playtime or experience will understand these and that they no longer apply after maybe 10% up the spectrum, and then they actually hinder the top of the spectrum and “crunch” it down.

Unless you’re son is like a miniature Roy i think it’s safe to say you and your offspring are lower on the skill spectrum, in which your understanding of Reach’s mechanics may provide a great benefit to you. Although if you vs’d me or someone at the skill level when there is no significant difference in our understanding of the AA’s and bloom, I guarantee it would be much different.

Also, manipulation of H2, H3, and MLG/Gold Pro power ups, power weapons, and strategies is easier than that of CE. So in CE both you and your son(s) don’t understand the best way to play the game, while in H2, H3, MLG/GoldPro-Reach you understand it but they don’t, resulting in a very skewed result.

edit: forgot you weren’t talking about default Reach; paragraph 4 and 5 don’t really apply (‘Also anyone who actuallly…’ being paragraph 4)

For further clarification, skill gap is not linear or even a bell curve. There are very specific important milestones that create very large spikes in skill gap. I guarantee that you have passed far more “milestones” in Reach than you son(s) when compared to CE, hence the skewed results. Not to mention the simple fact of the lack of transitioning, as CE’s milestones are higher up than any of it’s predecessors, hence it’s praise competitively.

Again though, the results are skewed also in the sense that you are playing GP, settings that do their best to emulate the highest skill gap possible. Honestly the fact that you played GP makes it much harder for me to give a simple easily understandable explanation as to why you experienced what you experienced.

Also, anyone agrees or disagreeing when comparing default Reach is completely invalid, due to the huge difference in skill gap between Vanilla and GP.

4

> This really doesn’t say anything.

I know :wink:

> And you’re trying to compare Gold Pro to default Reach?

no… but I think there’s something to be said for goldpro settings. I think reach plays exceptionally well with them.

> Also, anyone who actually has a decent understanding of the spectrum of Halo games know that Reach’s surface skill level is deeper than any previous games . Which surface “Complexities” such as bloom, AA’s, and otherwise, there is a drastic difference between players who understand how to use them and players who don’t. The problem is that, anyone of even marginal playtime or experience will understand these and that they no longer apply after maybe 10% up the spectrum, and then they actually hinder the top of the spectrum and “crunch” it down.

it shouldn’t surprise you then that when we play with AA’s, my oldest son plays better than when we don’t. In the example games we played there were no AA’s

> Unless you’re son is like a miniature Roy i think it’s safe to say you and your offspring are lower on the skill spectrum, in which your understanding of Reach’s mechanics may provide a great benefit to you. Although if you vs’d me or someone at the skill level when there is no significant difference in our understanding of the AA’s and bloom, I guarantee it would be much different.
>
> Also, manipulation of H2, H3, and MLG/Gold Pro power ups, power weapons, and strategies is easier than that of CE. So in CE both you and your son(s) don’t understand the best way to play the game, while in H2, H3, MLG/GoldPro-Reach you understand it but they don’t, resulting in a very skewed result.

I figured that for 2 and 3 its an issue of map knowledge that gives me the advantage. But battle creek is fundamentally the same in both CE, h2 and reach, but its only in CE where I don’t dominate as easily. My guess is there’s some other knowledge I have for the sequels that I lack for CE beyond the maps.

> For further clarification, skill gap is not linear or even a bell curve. There are very specific important milestones that create very large spikes in skill gap. I guarantee that you have passed far more “milestones” in Reach than you son(s) when compared to CE, hence the skewed results. Not to mention the simple fact of the lack of transitioning, as CE’s milestones are higher up than any of it’s predecessors, hence it’s praise competitively.

I think a curve does well to explain the gap. A simple parabola… if skill is x, and performance is y then at low skill levels performance is going to be relatively close, while the difference in performance increases exponentially (pun!) as x gets bigger. I also think there are gated/interdependent skills where certain levels must be achieved before the next overall level can be reached.

> Again though, the results are skewed also in the sense that you are playing GP, settings that do their best to emulate the highest skill gap possible. Honestly the fact that you played GP makes it much harder for me to give a simple easily understandable explanation as to why you experienced what you experienced.

I thought it was really odd. It makes me want to experiment. With all the remakes that we have across the 4 games I should be able to get some interesting results.