Hi everyone,
I love Halo, I always have.
However, I cannot hide from the fact that Reach, and now Halo 4, have some what lost their Halo identity as highly competitive multiplayer games.
Arena in Reach was okay, but I still found myself wishing for a set of ranked playlists where and see my rank rise and fall with each game I played.
I was so pleased to hear that they are bringing back a 1-50 system for Halo 4, and for this I am VERY thankful to 343i.
BUT, I don’t see why it is exclusive to Waypoint, I don’t want to have to either quit back to the dashboard and boot Waypoint or go over to my PC after each game to check whether I’ve leveled up or not. That’s just silly! I honestly can’t think of a good, solid reason for 343i no including it in the full game.
Here are a few reasons I’ve heard around the forums for not including it in the full game:
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It produces cheaters, boosters and derankers.
Okay, I can see this being a minor problem but why not use a instaban system?
And anyway, I don’t remember these issues being a big deal in Halo 3, that ranking system was good and I played it up the release of Reach. -
It’s just another source for smack-talk in the lobby.
Really? The game is rated M (16 in the UK). That means that no one should really be unprepared for offensive language. And there will always be the option to mute players quickly and easily. -
It makes the game less fun for non-competitive players
Non-competitive players can still have their fun in the unranked/social playlists where they can earn their XP and unlock that “sweet new armor mod”. Competitive playlists would obviously not give players and more or less XP so there would be no incentive to play competitive apart from the 1 - 50 rank.
When it comes down to it it’s just about catering for all areas of the community, and since Halo has always had the reputation of being a highly competitive game it seems only right that we have a TrueSkill system integrated into the full game.
As Halo moves into the modern era of gaming it would be a real shame if it lost it’s identity. At this rate by 2020 all games will use the COD style multiplayer “template”. It would be nice if Halo stayed as Halo.
Please share your thoughts, agree or disagree. I’d like to think I’ve presented a fair argument and I’m open to debate.
Thanks!