Due to many posts made by members of the halo community I feel that it is necessary to make a topic on the NEED for Ranked and Social playlists. In this post I will try to explain why this is a valid necessity for Halo Reach to become a better game for the ENTIRE community.
The Current State of Halo Reach Matchmaking
Currently the true skill system in Reach does not work. Players from a wide range of skill are matched up against each other repeatedly. The problem that arises from this is it creates suboptimal conditions for all players to have fun and succeed. If player A is highly skilled and plays player B who is low in skill the resulting game will be lopsided. Player A will outplay player B and win easily. This is not fun for EITHER player. The reason this match is not fun is because the game was not close. From a spectator’s point of view would you rather watch a baseball game where one team wins by 20 runs or a game that goes into the 11th inning and to the last out? Most people would take the latter. Let us examine the situation between players A and B. Player A will likely be bored because player B cannot tax his true ability in the game. Likewise player B will be frustrated because he cannot challenge player A in any fashion. Now this is an extreme situation where both players come from the opposite side of the skill spectrum. Unfortunately, Halo Reach is just a toned down version of this example.
The Solution
Matchmaking must be divided into two subdivisions of Ranked and Social. In these Ranked and Social subdivisions both playlists should have an EQUAL number of playlists in each. Ranked playlists must match players of the closest available skill with each other.
Why?
The Halo community is composed of a diverse set of ages, skills, and play styles. Every part of the community is entitled to enjoying the game that they like, some love. There is no reason, no excuse even, that any part of the community cannot find some way to enjoy the game due to a poor matchmaking system. By dividing matchmaking into ranked and social playlists you allow for like-minded players to play against each other. Ranked is for the hardcore player who plays to win and in winning this player finds fun. Social is for the player that wants to play for fun, winning is a bonus. The division of playlists not only matches people of equal mindset but also gives the player a choice. Many players will play different playlists based on mood. The Social player sometimes wants to compete and play to win. Vice versa the hardcore player may want to just play for fun at times. The current system does not allow for this choice because there is only one choice. Forcing these two very different mindsets to play each other is detrimental to not only the game but the community itself. Each side feels the other should have the same mindset and find it astonishing that someone could play THEIR game a different way. The friction between these two sets of people will always happen BUT the division of matchmaking would allow for both sides to play the game the way they want too.
Conclusion
Halo is a unique game that can be played in endless ways. Name another game where you can play a competitive match and then immediately go into a crazy game of griffball, rocket race, hog potato, etc. (Granted most games do not have hammers, warthogs, etc. But what other game provides the player such a wide range of options?) The competitive match and hog potato are in no way the same. Why are they being treated the same? Both are amazing in different ways for different people. Hog potato for some is great fun to just mess around and do something that is off the beaten path from your normal FPS. The competitive match is inherently different though and should be given every possible attempt to be made more competitive. Making a competitive match or playlist ranked can only benefit for people that compete and try to win. Lastly why not allow for that playlist to not be ranked at the same time and be put in the social playlist? Why can’t Halo be competitive and fun at the same time? In other words why is matchmaking not divided into ranked and social playlists?
> The players to benefit most from ranked playlists will be the casuals.
>
> Playlists like BTB and team slayer are swamped with tryhard parties tearing through casual players.
> These tryhards (like me) will move to ranked.
True but “tryhards” (I feel everyone should try to the best they can but lol that is me, I do get what you are saying though) would also benefit with competitive matches.
100% agree. Should have been like that from the start. Though it’s pointless asking for 1 - 50 at this point, the Arena ranking system could fufil the same role.
I couldent agree more how can anyone expext to have a good time playing halo, you constenly play with or aginst people that are either no where near your skill or a lot better than you are. so you either rape or get raped how can anyone get better with screwedup statistics like that? not to mention that theres only 2 whole game types that dont allow guests. ontop of that i believe that if an actual racking system was established like the one they have but just more play lists with it, and make it so you can actualy drop down in rank eiser, I bet it would significantly cut out on all the quitters, because now people will have somthing to work for. because if you just tell them after they quit 6 matches that they cant join matchmaking for 10 min that serves no purpous its just a slap on the wrist but now if you penelize them on somthing they have been working hard to get (like being onyx)they would be alot more inclined to stick it out and try you harest. just had to get it out of my system.
> 100% agree. Should have been like that from the start. Though it’s pointless asking for 1 - 50 at this point, the Arena ranking system could fufil the same role.
I would not say pointless to ask for 1-50. It gave me personally a lot more incentive to play because it updated instantly. (like when you moved up you saw your number move up) Where as Arena only updates daily, regardless anything that gets the job done would be welcome. (including arena but hopefully with some tweaking)
Yes- Arena needs its playlist section (like community, Competitive and co-operative) back w/ the different game modes like it used to.
Arena as 1 gametype/playlist does not work and is unfair to the skill focused community (I am a bit more of a casual player saying this btw). There needs to be more gametypes that have the Arena system organized together (Like Team SWAT and Snipers, maybe an MLG slayer playlist as well)
I hated the Arena system at first, but now I have come to like it. It IS fun, at least for me, to see how high I can get my division. Although, the only people that it means anything to is myself and the people I play with. Back in H3 you couldn’t rank up with achieving a given high skill, making it very important what your high skill was.
Also, H2 1-50, I really don’t think would work because it’s SO hard to get to 50. probably 5% of anyone about 45 was actually legit; I mean you had to bridge host just to not get standbyed. With the Halo 3 system a 50 isn’t an unattainable item that you can only drool over, anyone who is decent can get one. Maybe make it a little harder than H3’s, but not as unattainable as H2, IMO.
Well there’s plenty of options really, but regardless we need more ranked, HOW they are ranked can be figured out later.
> > 100% agree. Should have been like that from the start. Though it’s pointless asking for 1 - 50 at this point, the Arena ranking system could fufil the same role.
>
> I would not say pointless to ask for 1-50. It gave me personally a lot more incentive to play because it updated instantly. (like when you moved up you saw your number move up) Where as Arena only updates daily, regardless anything that gets the job done would be welcome. (including arena but hopefully with some tweaking)
I ment pointless as in, they wont add it now. It would be much easier for them to implement the Arena system, thats all.
Reach really does need more ranked playlists. Ranked playlists help drive people more to play and continue playing. The current state of Reach is basically all social playlists that don’t leave players with much motivation to try, stay in the game or continue playing Halo. I know that there is supposedly an invisible ranking system, but it doesn’t seem to work very well at all in my experience. Also, having just one ranked playlist seems pretty dumb overall since there were previously much more to choose from in the Halo series.
> > > 100% agree. Should have been like that from the start. Though it’s pointless asking for 1 - 50 at this point, the Arena ranking system could fufil the same role.
> >
> > I would not say pointless to ask for 1-50. It gave me personally a lot more incentive to play because it updated instantly. (like when you moved up you saw your number move up) Where as Arena only updates daily, regardless anything that gets the job done would be welcome. (including arena but hopefully with some tweaking)
>
> I ment pointless as in, they wont add it now. It would be much easier for them to implement the Arena system, thats all.
Ohhh sorry for the misunderstanding :(, I got what your saying though and your right about that as well, how do you feel about arena updating instantly instead of daily?
> I hated the Arena system at first, but now I have come to like it. It IS fun, at least for me, to see how high I can get my division. Although, the only people that it means anything to is myself and the people I play with. Back in H3 you couldn’t rank up with achieving a given high skill, making it very important what your high skill was.
>
> Also, H2 1-50, I really don’t think would work because it’s SO hard to get to 50. probably 5% of anyone about 45 was actually legit; I mean you had to bridge host just to not get standbyed. With the Halo 3 system a 50 isn’t an unattainable item that you can only drool over, anyone who is decent can get one. Maybe make it a little harder than H3’s, but not as unattainable as H2, IMO.
>
> Well there’s plenty of options really, but regardless we need more ranked, HOW they are ranked can be figured out later.
Good points I feel if 343 was to engage in an open discussion about what they plan to do in regards to rank it would be very helpful for us to get what we want across to them and in turn create a system that everyone could be happy with.
I agree, Halo needs to stick to its roots. Proof of this is how successful Gears 3 is, sticked to its roots without dramatically changing gameplay. Don’t get me wrong I kind of like having Armor Abilities, but not bloom now that I had over a year’s experience having to deal with it.
Also to people saying “Thats what Arena is for”…well Arena doesn’t have objective…and I can only play Slayer for so long.
I don’t understand why Bungie nor 343 have implemented any other Arena playlists. It seems like it would be so simple and now that it is 100% W/L the rating system is only vestigial. I really wish 343 would make a statement about why there aren’t any other ranked playlists.
If skill was always used for matching but the option to publicly display one’s skill rating was specifically opt-in, then all playlists could be made ranked without adversely affecting the experience for (non-egomaniacal) competitive or casual players. :\
