So, I’m gonna try to keep this brief; as it pertains to solo players and OBVIOUSLY we just don’t matter in the long run to 343.
But i’m really concerned with the philosophy behind how you guys have an utter disregard for people who like to play alone. The removal of not just FFA and last Spartan standing, but also the plain disregard for how solo players should be treated even in a team setting.
Matches feel, in my opinion, wholly unbalanced 80 percent of the time. And by this I mean if I’m searching let’s say team slayer or social slayer alone; I’m getting matched WITH three other players who are very clearly not the most adept at the game. Which is totally fine. People exist at different skill levels and should play accordingly.
My issue is I’m a good player, who gets consistently paired with these people AS WELL AS and MORE IMPORTANTLY am pitted against enemy players who are of my skill level or higher playing as a team of 3-4 which runs the unfortunate route of me having to Carry three people against an onslaught of sweaty teams playing together, and I don’t see how this is fair or fun for anyone.
But specifically me and players like me who would rather play alone and frankly can’t find worth while people to team with and play with consistently as friends because the opposing team is locked in together and my players have to stop for no less than 10 seconds to figure out which button is meant to pick up the needler they’re standing over.
The removal of FFA and Last Spartan standing is both ridiculous and puzzling. You could make arguments about player count and retention. Which I understand. But you’re only further turning people like me off from the title by doing this.
Let’s not forget you have not implemented a party up system or just generally a social first matchmaking that allows people to greet eachother and make friends who play. And infact you seem to punish communication and social aspects of the game which SEVERELY reduced your player retention, because nobody has anyone new to play with, and thusly people keep losing matches and don’t want to play.
The basic issue really is if you have a player retention issue it’s your fault for shipping a less than adequate game. And punishing those of us who have stuck by you this past year by removing pivotal playlists and basically giving us the yoink is really (in my opinion) disrespectful and shows me how you feel about your individual players.
The very least that could be done is making social not such a sweat fest. Which you could easily do by not pairing players with sweats and instead just let social be what it was always meant to be; which is a fun crap shoot of mix and matched players.
If I’m searching alone, then pair me with players who are also searching alone. And certainly stop putting me with three randos, and then against a team of 3 or 4.
That’s not fun for them, that’s not fun for my team and that’s not fun for the person (me) who has consistently dealt with this issue since launch and is so fed up with going 24 and 6 and still seeing the DEFEAT sign at the end of every match because you’ve paired me against HCS wannabes while the next highest score on my team is Let’s check 4 and 16.
Please mend this. As a halo fan since CE. This is the worst this matchmaking has ever been and the cycle of issues that perpetuate eachother that you then try to “Fix” only lead to us going around in the same circle of player retention vs. player accessibility and for no reason being unwilling to see the connection between the two that would inevitably keep people playing if you stop trying to bandaid everything by removing options and telling players they don’t have a choice or a say in how they want to play the game.
MCC matchmaking is fantastic now. And why this wasn’t automatically what you guys went with for Infinite is completely beyond me. I’m sure I can speak for many of us when I say that we all assumed MCC was kind of the blueprint for how you would treat matchmaking going forward. Obviously that isn’t the case and you guys seem to just disregard or not learn.
That’s my two cents. I’m sure there’s things i’m not getting fully, I’m no developer. But I am an avid player since 2001. And I’ve seen this system at its best, and right now I’m seeing it at it’s worst.
And the best thing you could do to get people playing this game is to stop appeasing try hards and make the game and it’s playlists and matchmaking more accessible to players of every breed. Which is just not happening right now.