The future of Halo and competitive gaming

Games Other Halo
#1

First time poster on these forums so go easy on me and READ THE WHOLE THING.

Who would complain about there being a 1-50 ranking system? I never understood why Bungie took away 1-50 with Reach. 1-50 gave people something to strive for in a game. Getting together with friends and giving it our all to achieve new ranks was great fun. I still remember playing hours at a time just to try and level up.

The Arena gives hardly any incentive. It eliminates teamwork. Ever heard the saying “Win as a team and lose as a team”? All that happens in Arena is getting rated 5 days and blam, you have your division. Seeing yourself gradually climb up ranks was such a great feeling and Arena doesn’t have this.

I will never understand why a gaming company (I’m talking about Bungie and Reach) will try to cater to casual players, while completely ignoring the long-time hardcore vets, when this franchise basically brought competitive gaming to consoles.

Some things people need to realize:

  1. Casuals will buy the game anyway. They don’t care what weapon they start with, if there’s bloom in the game, if there are classes (loadouts or whatever you want to call them), or how the game mechanics work.

  2. Competitive players do care. Why not cater matchmaking, or at the very least ranked matchmaking, to them? Take a look at Halo 2/3. The games were almost perfectly balanced (Not taking into account boosters, and network manipulators that are a seperate problem but can be dealt with). Nobody had an upper-hand. You, your teammates, and your opponents all had the same start and chance to win the match.

  3. CLASS WARFARE UNBALANCES COMPETITIVE GAMING. Keep in mind we’re talking about first-person shooters. Do you remember how big Halo 3 was in the MLG community? Look at it in Halo Reach, it’s nowhere near as big as it used to be. Classes, and bloom were the two biggest problems. It randomized gameplay. At least when I got out-BR’d I knew it was because my opponent was a better shot than me. In Reach he could’ve have just gotten lucky by spamming which is both stupid mechanics and just plainly annoying.

  4. Skill > Luck. Random weapon spawns, Really? What happened to timing power weapons and having map control? This system punishes strategy. Do I really have to explain why punishing strategic gameplay is a bad thing?

That’s all for now. I might add to this later and I might not.

Have a good day. :]

Oh, also please point and laugh at any typos I make so I can correct them.

#2

I edited the title to resemble the main post a little more.

Gonna reserve one just in-case I start feeling “talky”.

#3

Prepare to be flamed to hell and back. Any opinion here that isn’t part of the hivemind is not welcome.

On topic, I agree, but if I were you I’d run far, far away before the rush of rage posts start flooding into this topic.

#4

This is rather well developed. I want to thank you for that first of all. And I whole heartedly agree we need the true skill system back. Rank is kinda pointless when you can gain it by doing everything. To me inheritors are people with too much time. And most people over hero aren’t even good anymore. I’m a casual kinda player if you give me the option but I like if you can match me with a challange and a good team. Reach failed to do this so I go back to Halo 3 every once in a while.

As for the random power weapon drop system. I think this will force people to be better. I myself don’t care for power weapons, I don’t use them outside of invasion or BTB, and when I do its for clearing out capture zones or taking out vehicles. True skill should be killing with that balanced weapon you have and not knowing where and when a power weapon spawns.

#5

Unfortunately when you have MicroCa$h on your back hassling you to make lots and lots of money. Its hard to make a good game.

But I agree with you. Bungie had no excuse to make a Call of Duty Halo, personally I think they made it to attract the CoD audience and make a massive profit while killing the series.

343i have no excuse to not make a game for the competitive community.

#6

> Prepare to be flamed to hell and back. Any opinion here that isn’t part of the hivemind is not welcome.
>
> On topic, I agree, but if I were you I’d run far, far away before the rush of rage posts start flooding into this topic.

No, unorganized hate based purely on little information and their own speculation is found mostly annoying.

Constructive, organized critism or thoughts are fine, such as this.

#7

Unfortunately i think that the competitive side of halo is going downhill. Could be wrong tho, and i hope i am.

#8

> Bungie had no excuse to make a Call of Duty Halo, personally I think they made it to attract the CoD audience and make a massive profit while killing the series.

I’m not going to say Bungie tried to copy CoD; however, I will say that I’ve never noticed a game outsell the one it’s trying to imitate.

#9

> Unfortunately when you have MicroCa$h on your back hassling you to make lots and lots of money. Its hard to make a good game.
>
> But I agree with you. Bungie had no excuse to make a Call of Duty Halo, personally I think they made it to attract the CoD audience and make a massive profit while killing the series.
>
> 343i have no excuse to not make a game for the competitive community.

Reach was probably the furthest from CoD of the series actually(AA’s+Reticle bloom+Slow kill times), but thats not to say it was as god tier as the Halo trilogy games. I cant really blame the publisher/developer for chasing after the most popular FPS it has been happening ever since Doom came out and a whole bunch of “Doom clones” started popping up.

I mean those greedy -Yoinks!- at Activision came out of nowhere with their main goal of reaping the most profit as possible, and have done nothing but milk the -Yoink- out of previously good gaming franchises and destroy good developers like Infinity Ward. If Activision ever did that to Blizzard, im pretty sure the Internet would have a meltdown with all the nerd raging(WoW+SC fans…) that would occur. That being said, I think they will have ranked playlists or a section of play lists dedicated to competitive game play with pre-set loadouts and the traditional power weapon system and such they wouldnt repeat the same mistakes of Reach.

#10

I’m not gonna bash on this topic, but the game changes and it needs to change. I think I explained this in one of my topics a while back. All the new random weapon spawns, weapon loadouts, and all this new stuff makes it like a futuristic military game that REQUIRES studying what the opposing team is using and what colors they use so you know how to attack that person. The loadouts is important it shows that a four member team can work. Noble Team didn’t have all the same weapons and they were like the best of the best. If Noble Team had all the same weapons what good would it do to act as a team.

Example without loadouts, ok we all got our assault rifles and pistols lets sneak along the walls and try to kill the other guys with the same weapons faster than they can shoot us.
Example with loadouts, All right I want a sniper out on that ledge, rocket launcher in that corner, two mean with BR to do a recon of the map.

Which example sounds better? I think the new system is designed to adapt and overcome the opposing enemy.

Random weapon spawns: In a real fight against the Covenant, Forerunners, etc. do you think the UNSC is gonna drop the weapon in a set location everytime, in the exact location? No, I don’t think so. What if the wind catches the weapon and it lands a few kilometers away from the exact location? You adapt and overcome and you track it to the location of where it drops.

Be Spartans, men who are designed to always fight, to adapt and overcome, to win with hardly any causalities, and be the most elite in the UNSC. You don’t memorize where and how things are gonna go, you decide what to do right there and then. The Chief didn’t memorize how to find Cortana in Halo 3 in the Flood infested cruiser, he had to search and fight his way to where he thought the AI was.

Competitive matchmaking sounds like it does in the name. You have to be aggressive with the other team, adapt and overcome, you can’t be nice.

The Join In-game thing, you lose men that aren’t coming back. Reinforcements are called in. So don’t think of those guys as quiters, their guys who got killed and aren’t getting back up to finish the fight and you need to get more men to bring back the upper hand.

#11

Oh look, its another “competitive > casual” thread.

#12

> Oh look, its another “competitive > casual” thread.

With outdated details such as random weapon drops!

#13

Does the “competetive” community not remember the hate and bashing of the Halo 3 Battle Rifle? About the complaining of the randomization of “spread”? About how they complained that “spammers” could get lucky and win BR matches just because of this random factor? About how they begged for a single shot, hit scan utility weapon that would be more “controllable”?

Or are you just telling me I’m old?

#14
  1. Welcome to the forum.
  2. This competitive vs. casual has been rehashed so many times that it’s safe to say 343 gets the 1-50 competitive’s side of the argument.
  3. A vocal minority of the Competitives apparently cannot discern between social halo fans and casuals and therefore lump them as a subclass unworthy of input until they have a 50. Thus sucking the fun out of this forum or any rational open conversation beyond the world is flat and all else is COD, until for them BS Angel smacks all players under par with a picture or blog post saying -Yoink- Halo 4, we’ve decided to release Halo 3 instead. Maybe then… and really I suspect that won’t even appease their fright filled nights full of armor locking, DMR spamming, nuke grenadin, and bloom riders mindless quest to some how eat their Halo 3 disks.
  4. This forum needs more “what if” and “I came up with new gun” posts.
  5. So basically a recap: 1-50 has been driven into every post or thread page in one way or another. If anything your argument or concern has been given voice generously.
#15

> Does the “competetive” community not remember the hate and bashing of the Halo 3 Battle Rifle? About the complaining of the randomization of “spread”? About how they complained that “spammers” could get lucky and win BR matches just because of this random factor? About how they begged for a single shot, hit scan utility weapon that would be more “controllable”?
>
> Or are you just telling me I’m old?

I dont recall anyone asking for a random bloom mechanic on that single-shot utility weapon…

#16

It shouldnt be this complicated.

Have a proper trueskill system in place (unlike Reach), who knows it may be a number or a shiny emblem that’s NOT hidden while catering to the softer side of Halo and giving plenty of fun playlists to mess around in and enjoy life online with a couple buds.

Drinks, Pizza, and buffalo wings may or may not be present during H4 LAN parties. Supply and demand, you know how it is.

#17

Sigh…
Microsoft wants money, and Many People want a FUN game to play.
[Epic mood shift]

However, do you know WHY Bungie changed the ranking system in each Halo Game? They were trying to fix it, because they had problems with the previous one. Halo 3 was far from perfect in it’s ranking system, as you had to lose every once in a while to rank up, and if you didn’t you could be “rank locked.”
That single nuance, the simplicity of being “rank locked” let Boosters, second accounters, sold 50’s and derankers to proliferate and profit. Is that something you want in Halo 4? People selling and making money off a Halo black market? Do you really want the possible savior of the Halo series to have such a reputation?

Granted, Reach was not a step in the right direction for competitive play, but it did fix the problems that Halo 3 had: What’s the point of boosting, selling or making a second account when you’ll be reset in a month? And deranking? you’ll still climb the ladder just as fast at the beginning of your Reach career you would in the middle of it, and there is no possibility of being stuck at a rank for the rest of your career. However, as you know, it also created its own problems, most of which you have listed so I won’t bother.

If you followed Bungie’s weekly updates as thoroughly as I did then you’d understand why they did what they did.

I’m not gonna even go in to the whole BR spread argument, all the complaints about being rank locked or the spamming vs pacing debate, that’s up to you.

#18

> Does the “competetive” community not remember the hate and bashing of the Halo 3 Battle Rifle? About the complaining of the randomization of “spread”? About how they complained that “spammers” could get lucky and win BR matches just because of this random factor? About how they begged for a single shot, hit scan utility weapon that would be more “controllable”?
>
> Or are you just telling me I’m old?

Bloom was random, and there wasn’t much punishment for spamming.
The term ‘spamming’ was coined in Reach, and was never said before it.

Now, had Bungie not have been stupid, and kept recoil, it would have been fine.

#19

> I’m not gonna bash on this topic, but the game changes and it needs to change. I think I explained this in one of my topics a while back. All the new random weapon spawns, weapon loadouts, and all this new stuff makes it like a futuristic military game that REQUIRES studying what the opposing team is using and what colors they use so you know how to attack that person. The loadouts is important it shows that a four member team can work. Noble Team didn’t have all the same weapons and they were like the best of the best. If Noble Team had all the same weapons what good would it do to act as a team.
>
> Example without loadouts, ok we all got our assault rifles and pistols lets sneak along the walls and try to kill the other guys with the same weapons faster than they can shoot us.
> Example with loadouts, All right I want a sniper out on that ledge, rocket launcher in that corner, two mean with BR to do a recon of the map.
>
> Which example sounds better? I think the new system is designed to adapt and overcome the opposing enemy.
>
> Random weapon spawns: In a real fight against the Covenant, Forerunners, etc. do you think the UNSC is gonna drop the weapon in a set location everytime, in the exact location? No, I don’t think so. What if the wind catches the weapon and it lands a few kilometers away from the exact location? You adapt and overcome and you track it to the location of where it drops.
>
> Be Spartans, men who are designed to always fight, to adapt and overcome, to win with hardly any causalities, and be the most elite in the UNSC. You don’t memorize where and how things are gonna go, you decide what to do right there and then. The Chief didn’t memorize how to find Cortana in Halo 3 in the Flood infested cruiser, he had to search and fight his way to where he thought the AI was.
>
> Competitive matchmaking sounds like it does in the name. You have to be aggressive with the other team, adapt and overcome, you can’t be nice.
>
> The Join In-game thing, you lose men that aren’t coming back. Reinforcements are called in. So don’t think of those guys as quiters, their guys who got killed and aren’t getting back up to finish the fight and you need to get more men to bring back the upper hand.

We’re playing an arena shooter video game not a -Yoinking!- military shooter you dumb -Yoink-.

#20

> > I’m not gonna bash on this topic, but the game changes and it needs to change. I think I explained this in one of my topics a while back. All the new random weapon spawns, weapon loadouts, and all this new stuff makes it like a futuristic military game that REQUIRES studying what the opposing team is using and what colors they use so you know how to attack that person. The loadouts is important it shows that a four member team can work. Noble Team didn’t have all the same weapons and they were like the best of the best. If Noble Team had all the same weapons what good would it do to act as a team.
> >
> > Example without loadouts, ok we all got our assault rifles and pistols lets sneak along the walls and try to kill the other guys with the same weapons faster than they can shoot us.
> > Example with loadouts, All right I want a sniper out on that ledge, rocket launcher in that corner, two mean with BR to do a recon of the map.
> >
> > Which example sounds better? I think the new system is designed to adapt and overcome the opposing enemy.
> >
> > Random weapon spawns: In a real fight against the Covenant, Forerunners, etc. do you think the UNSC is gonna drop the weapon in a set location everytime, in the exact location? No, I don’t think so. What if the wind catches the weapon and it lands a few kilometers away from the exact location? You adapt and overcome and you track it to the location of where it drops.
> >
> > Be Spartans, men who are designed to always fight, to adapt and overcome, to win with hardly any causalities, and be the most elite in the UNSC. You don’t memorize where and how things are gonna go, you decide what to do right there and then. The Chief didn’t memorize how to find Cortana in Halo 3 in the Flood infested cruiser, he had to search and fight his way to where he thought the AI was.
> >
> > Competitive matchmaking sounds like it does in the name. You have to be aggressive with the other team, adapt and overcome, you can’t be nice.
> >
> > The Join In-game thing, you lose men that aren’t coming back. Reinforcements are called in. So don’t think of those guys as quiters, their guys who got killed and aren’t getting back up to finish the fight and you need to get more men to bring back the upper hand.
>
> We’re playing an arena shooter video game not a -Yoinking!- military shooter you dumb -Yoink!-.

It’s just my opinion, thank you very much. The canon of the game is built around a military Navy fighting a military alliance of aliens. I’m looking on the fun canon side of this debate.