A lot of people have been suggesting there be social and ranked versions of the same game modes i.e. a ranked/social version of Slayer, FFA, SWAT, etc. However, I am inclined to disagree.
I believe the meaning of social should be related to game modes with “fun” and “randomness” in mind. With that, I am referring to Infection, Action Sack, Grifball, and more. If the developers release social versions and duplicate game modes unnecessarily, you’re scraping little butter over too much bread. In other words, population counters for ranked modes will dwindle since everyone will flock to social instead.
And for what? In order to provide players with higher skill differences so they can stomp on people more often? That’s not how a game should be about. It should be about fair competition. Therefore, I think the modes are fine in their ranked form. If you want to relax and not play “sweaty”, then that’s where Action Sack and Infected should shine. That and custom games.
I’m assuming modes like grifball will be social. Slayer I think belongs in ranked because of it’s intense gameplay. Rocket Party was so much fun. That should be a social mode as well as infection when it comes.
Social games need to be ranked… at least internally with matchmaking… so that you are pitted against players of similar skill. Otherwise it’s just random… with highly skilled players feasting their k/d ratios upon the unwashed masses.
So, a playlist suddenly becomes “social” just because you aren’t given a rank?
If you are inclined to play in a care-free manner… that is fine… you should mostly be matched against similarly loose players… so what’s the problem?
Maybe we need a special playlist where you just get five minutes to run around and shoot things with no scores being recorded. That might allow people to get their jollies on.
Social versions of core playlists are for people who just want to unwind and/or practice without having to worry about sweating over their visible stats. I think there’s valid arguments for them (“Just because I don’t want to try hard at the moment doesn’t mean I want to play gimmicky nonsense like fiesta either”) and against them (“Uh, what are custom games for dude?”) More valid arguments in favor of them though.
> 2533274837711938;4:
> social game modes
>
> RUMBLE PIT
>
> SOCIAL SLAYER
>
> BTB
>
> TEAM ACTION SACK
>
> GRIFBALL
>
> SOCIAL SKIRMISH
>
> TEAM SNIPERS
>
> BOOM THERE YOU GO
Regarding social slayer, social BTB, and social rumble pit, who’s going to bother playing the ranked versions of these modes when the noobs are going to be plentiful in social playlists? Again, the populations will be unnecessarily spread to thin over duplicate modes.
I agree with Grifball and Action Sack being social because the modes are supposed to be about fun more than competition. Grifball could be competitive, but that may be saved for a temporary weekend playlist (same goes for Team Snipers).
> Regarding social slayer, social BTB, and social rumble pit, who’s going to bother playing the ranked versions of these modes when the noobs are going to be plentiful in social playlists?
People who care about rank?
Meanwhile people who don’t want to play sweaty ranked Slayer aren’t going to just play it anyways…they’re going to quit the game.
> 2533274819302824;7:
> Social versions of core playlists are for people who just want to unwind and/or practice without having to worry about sweating over their visible stats. I think there’s valid arguments for them (“Just because I don’t want to try hard at the moment doesn’t mean I want to play gimmicky nonsense like fiesta either”) and against them (“Uh, what are custom games for dude?”) More valid arguments in favor of them though.
My question is as follows. How is it possible to “unwind” and “relax” against a team of human players? What key component needs to be implemented in order to have such a casual experience? The answer to that: Unfair skill differences. As a result of lower skill levels being present more often in social modes, this means the higher skilled player(s) will not have potent competition. As such, **there will be a huge disparity between the teams, causing unfairness for the sake of pleasing a select few.**No…this is the reason why I believe certain modes should stay competitive (slayer, KotH, Strongholds, CTF) while other “fun” modes should exist in order to bring that relaxation (Infection, Action Sack, Grifball, Racing, etc.). In other words, to relax and unwind as you suggest, leave that to the “fun” modes as listed earlier to offer that experience instead of taking it away from others in the form of unfair teams via social versions of ranked games.
> 2533274819302824;9:
> > Regarding social slayer, social BTB, and social rumble pit, who’s going to bother playing the ranked versions of these modes when the noobs are going to be plentiful in social playlists?
>
>
> People who care about rank?
>
> Meanwhile people who don’t want to play sweaty ranked Slayer aren’t going to just play it anyways…they’re going to quit the game.
And the people getting destroyed won’t want to play social either since the skill differences are too immense. In other words, having to sweat a little bit more is far better than destroying those who didn’t deserve it (due to unfair skill differences).
I honestly don’t care about ranks at all why in the hell should I play against a tryhard if I don’t want to? Does that mean I have to lose every -Yoink!- match to avoid that? Bungie did it before and it worked out fine I never needed to really face someone who was ranked if I didn’t feel like it because I had the option to actually go in with a reason to try hard in ranked playlists.
This game not so much I could care less I would have more fun forging which can get pretty long, tiresome and boring than be stressed with this ranked playlist. Plus its like the same -Yoink- anyway well after a while since its bundled not a separate playlist. Breakout is mostly killing instead of capturing the flag its just there to distract or force a player to move rather than an objective.
100% disagree, and how anyone can agree is beyond me.
Social refers to fun, casual, lazy, relaxing…most of the things that video games aim to provide. Yes, there is a large competitive crowd, and yes, I was practically on my knees during Halo 4’s lifetime, asking for ranks because simple progression doesn’t do anyone any good.
But the current state of the game requires you to:
Have teammates at all times. There aren’t any playlists aside from BTB and potentially SWAT that don’t require communication at all times, especially once you hit Platinum 5 and into the Diamond and Onyx ranks. After 5 games of easy players in my first 5 placement matches, the next 5 are all Diamond 2-4 and we get smoked if we only have 2-3 people using mics.
Play Halo enough to not get rusty. I took a 3-week break after the New Year due to a new full time job and other ventures, and when I came back to play some Halo, I was horrible. Couldn’t aim, couldn’t strafe, couldn’t finish any kills, and went negative in nearly every game. Coming back to Halo after a decent amount of time and finding that you aren’t at the same level that you were when you placed into Diamond 4 is extremely frustrating because, as we all know, you will derank with only a few losses. I didn’t bother playing any of the ranked playlists, and stuck with BTB because I had to.
Social is necessary for those of us who don’t have mics, don’t have teammates who can hop on whenever we want them to, and don’t play every day. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for 343i to stop with the over-correcting and start balancing. Halo 4 had no ranks, and everyone complained. Then Halo 5 came out and 343i made everything ranked, and everyone complained.
Institute a Social Arena with Slayer, CTF, Strongholds, Arena Breakout, and add a Social SWAT or Slayer only playlist as well, alongside BTB. Let the gamers relax for five seconds.
> 2535434496323314;15:
> Institute a Social Arena with Slayer, CTF, Strongholds, Arena Breakout, and add a Social SWAT or Slayer only playlist as well, alongside BTB. Let the gamers relax for five seconds.
I keep asking this, but how can this “relaxation” come to play? By placing anybody into lobbies and creating an unfair team balance? Is this done in order to benefit the veterans while the rest suffer?
> 2597611927948033;16:
> > 2535434496323314;15:
> > Institute a Social Arena with Slayer, CTF, Strongholds, Arena Breakout, and add a Social SWAT or Slayer only playlist as well, alongside BTB. Let the gamers relax for five seconds.
>
>
> I keep asking this, but how can this “relaxation” come to play? By placing anybody into lobbies and creating an unfair team balance? Is this done in order to benefit the veterans while the rest suffer?
Valid point, but relaxation comes from not calling out every player. It comes from not worrying about losing the upgrade on your rank that you just got. It comes from not worrying that you suck after taking a break. It comes from not worrying about finding a team of 4 with mics.
Relaxation comes from being able to pop in the game, enjoy it by myself with no drawbacks to something I’ve work towards. Obviously it won’t be “anyone”, as Halo has always (or at least has said it has always) had a Trueskill hidden from players. By using Trueskill, possibly with larger search options than in ranked, the game should be able to match decent teams against each other.
Sometimes, it is more relaxing to lose 50-30 in Social than lose 50-30 in ranked, simply because you worry about more in ranked.
> 2597611927948033;16:
> > 2535434496323314;15:
> > Institute a Social Arena with Slayer, CTF, Strongholds, Arena Breakout, and add a Social SWAT or Slayer only playlist as well, alongside BTB. Let the gamers relax for five seconds.
>
>
> I keep asking this, but how can this “relaxation” come to play? By placing anybody into lobbies and creating an unfair team balance? Is this done in order to benefit the veterans while the rest suffer?
Unfair? Your joking right, had to face three diamonds with one gold vs us being all gold some balance, besides Halo 2-3 did it just fine since you already knew what you were getting into you as a individual had to pick up the slack for the weakest link. Plus you knew the situations because it was more strategy and figuring out how to handle a situation where its 3v1 and your teammates are just respawning but they lack the skill to comfortably back you up.
You were a one man army but you also had the methods to use team work. Halo 5 is just teamwork, teamwork, teamwork since you get shot in like 3 different directions half the time, most likely getting tripled or squad teamed with possibly a slim chance at survival(unless they suck) and your teammates are completely useless and need friends to play with.
Why in the hell do I need friends to play when these randoms should at least understand the concept of supporting oneself.
> 2533274925960280;18:
> > 2597611927948033;16:
> > > 2535434496323314;15:
> > > Why in the hell do I need friends to play when these randoms should at least understand the concept of supporting oneself.
So why would suggesting a “social” playlist be a reasonable fix to this? If you ask me, social would make things worse since they would be less able to support oneself due to the increased randomness of team balancing. In other words, instead of a bronze player going 3-10 against a silver/gold user, now he’ll be going 2-25 because he faced off against a diamond/onyx rank instead.
I can understand ranked having minor issues of skill disparity, but those moments would be a lot less common when compared to something completely random like social playlists.
> 2597611927948033;19:
> > 2533274925960280;18:
> > > 2597611927948033;16:
> > > > 2535434496323314;15:
> > > > Why in the hell do I need friends to play when these randoms should at least understand the concept of supporting oneself.
>
>
> So why would suggesting a “social” playlist be a reasonable fix to this? If you ask me, social would make things worse since they would be less able to support oneself due to the increased randomness of team balancing. In other words, instead of a bronze player going 3-10 against a silver/gold user, now he’ll be going 2-25 because he faced off against a diamond/onyx rank instead.
>
> I can understand ranked having minor issues of skill disparity, but those moments would be a lot less common when compared to something completely random like social playlists.
You aren’t understanding this won’t be based on skill but fun because there’s no reason to give a -Yoink- you aren’t losing but K/D thats if you care about k/d at all. At this point there’s little to worry about losing the game because again who cares its a social playlist honestly? If there’s a guy who’s waaay better well who cares that’s the whole point in social its like Grifball, who cares my teammates kill me I kill them by accident then proceed to kill the enemies so what. Plus involving K/D to social would just be nonsense since its something to relax.