There are times in video games to reward skill, and then there are times to cater to new players or “casual” players.
If the best player in an FFA just always pulled ahead and stayed there, people would get discouraged. Unlike in team games, there really isn’t much to blame it on besides yourself. People need the “my teammates were bad” excuse so they can keep their egos high enough to keep playing. Playlist population is important for all of us.
By making a FFA playlist with a built-in handicap, you find a creative way to hand out excuses for losses, thereby keeping people playing. Take the below, for example.
If you win a regicide, you can tell yourself it is because you are good at the game. You beat out a whole bunch of other people (ignore the fact that half of them were late joiners). Life is good, I’ll go play a CTF now.
if you lose a regicide, you can tell yourself it must be because the point system is flawed, and your bounty was really high allowing for them to catch up. Maybe it was because you joined a game in progress. You could always tell yourself “well, I got a decent K/D, it’s not my fault the playlist is broken”.
The more you look at 343i’s decisions, the more you can see they are terrified of losing playlist populations. (rotational playlists is another example). Giving people excuses to tell themselves when they lose is a big part of keeping casuals playing and keeping playlist populations high. A regular FFA would not accomplish this.
So to all of you pros complaining that your deaths are worth 35 points each, remember this:
You aren’t playing Regicide for you…you’re playing it for Halo
