The reason is because there is no split-screen.
Back in Halo 3, social meant that you could have guests. Social is where you got your dormmates to come grab a controller and hop on a guest profile and play Slayer on Sandtrap. Social is when you had your cousins over or friends over who didn’t have Halo but wanted to play it, and they could hop in at any second. Social is where you ran into everyone else having guest accounts, and then becoming truly baffled when a guest account would just destroy you.
Without splitscreen, there will never be a social playlist because it’s impossible to have guests. Everyone is on their own screen and trying hard to win.
Halo 5 will never be a truly social game.
This is quite accurate. No Split Screen= No Social
No n00b friends on your own tv splattering you with a chopper = no social.
I think you’re just scratching the surface. Halo 5 at its core is just not built for social, and it is for more reasons than the removal of split-screen. There’s no attitude change in the social playlists, ever. People don’t appear to be playing for fun and still seem to be playing for their K/D. Either that, or just the way the game itself is played, with all of the more subtle changes, removes that “fun” from Halo 5.
OP nailed it. Slap a social sticker on it all you want but it’s still not social w/o split screen. When it was announced I was actually one of the folks who at first scoffed at there being no split screen in H5 as I’ve never utilized it in previous Halo games but I now understand its importance to the series after playing 4 months without the joy of killing noobs.
I miss killing social noobs every now and again or randomly dancing/humping objects with fellow social players who decided to cast aside our chromatic differences and to rejoice in a hump dance. Halo 5 is all competitive all the time and it needs the balance back.
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> OP nailed it. Slap a social sticker on it all you want but it’s still not social w/o split screen. When it was announced I was actually one of the folks who at first scoffed at there being no split screen in H5 as I’ve never utilized it in previous Halo games but I now understand its importance to the series after playing 4 months without the joy of killing noobs.
>
> I miss killing social noobs every now and again or randomly dancing/humping objects with fellow social players who decided to cast aside our chromatic differences and to rejoice in a hump dance. Halo 5 is all competitive all the time and it needs the balance back.
Yes exactly. In Halo 3 you can stop shooting at an enemy and -Yoink!-, and in about a minute both teams will be teabagging, laughing, and sharing Warthogs and such. Now its rare, and when you do see that stuff its usually in Warzone, which is the closest we have to an actual social playlist.
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> > 2573485501370683;5:
> > OP nailed it. Slap a social sticker on it all you want but it’s still not social w/o split screen. When it was announced I was actually one of the folks who at first scoffed at there being no split screen in H5 as I’ve never utilized it in previous Halo games but I now understand its importance to the series after playing 4 months without the joy of killing noobs.
> >
> > I miss killing social noobs every now and again or randomly dancing/humping objects with fellow social players who decided to cast aside our chromatic differences and to rejoice in a hump dance. Halo 5 is all competitive all the time and it needs the balance back.
>
>
> Yes exactly. In Halo 3 you can stop shooting at an enemy and -Yoink!-, and in about a minute both teams will be teabagging, laughing, and sharing Warthogs and such. Now its rare, and when you do see that stuff its usually in Warzone, which is the closest we have to an actual social playlist.
And then you stick somebody off the lift on Narrows from downtown, and all four of you playing on your splitscreen start laughing and start trying to do it. That’s completely absent in Halo 5.
Perhaps they should rename it to casual playlist then your point would be moot.
It goes deeper than splitscreen.
343 have completely missed what made Halo “great” over the years. They’re appealing to a crowd that hasn’t existed since Halo 2, the absolute hardcore crowd. Halo has never been this competitive focussed in a long, long time yet Bungie used to cater to both playing styles by offering plenty of support for both kinds of play (leaning more on the casual social side as time went on). It makes sense when you look at the playlists, the overall map design and how poor custom game support has been. It is clear what area they have focussed on.
Halo 5 has literally nothing to offer casual and social Halo players and it really is frustrating considering Halo has made a home for these kind of players over the years. What do we have exactly? Almost entirely ranked based multiplayer in arena? BTB with absolutely poor map selection? Warzone which is now just as competitive as the ranked playlists? All you have to do is look back at previous Halo titles and the population for each playlist. The more competitve focussed playlists often had less players than their social brothers. It’s like 343 thought going all MLG would bring in a new crowd or something but besides HCS Halo 5 has gained little attention from players and the media.
Everything in this game is designed from an absolute competitive standpoint, from the map design and down to the tiniest little gameplay tweaks. This would be fine if they offered the same level as content for players like myself, who like to play casually and have fun whilst not taking the game too seriously. I pretty much played BTB exclusively since Halo 2 and regularly jumped into other social playlists for a break but look at the offerings we currently have. 4 months in and they’re finally getting some social content out? BTB is still an absolute mess and joke of a playlist and we’re still lacking major game modes for custom games.
To put it simply, Halo isn’t fun anymore. 343 catered for competitiveness over fun. A grave mistake in my opinion.
This post needs more likes and attention!!!
The casual gamers have come and gone, lack of split screen is most likely a huge contributing factor. Without casual gamers there is no social.
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> > 2533274814810562;6:
> > > 2573485501370683;5:
> > > OP nailed it. Slap a social sticker on it all you want but it’s still not social w/o split screen. When it was announced I was actually one of the folks who at first scoffed at there being no split screen in H5 as I’ve never utilized it in previous Halo games but I now understand its importance to the series after playing 4 months without the joy of killing noobs.
> > >
> > > I miss killing social noobs every now and again or randomly dancing/humping objects with fellow social players who decided to cast aside our chromatic differences and to rejoice in a hump dance. Halo 5 is all competitive all the time and it needs the balance back.
> >
> >
> > Yes exactly. In Halo 3 you can stop shooting at an enemy and -Yoink!-, and in about a minute both teams will be teabagging, laughing, and sharing Warthogs and such. Now its rare, and when you do see that stuff its usually in Warzone, which is the closest we have to an actual social playlist.
>
>
> And then you stick somebody off the lift on Narrows from downtown, and all four of you playing on your splitscreen start laughing and start trying to do it. That’s completely absent in Halo 5.
Its almost like, the aspects that made the previous halo games fun…don’t exist in 5 
LE GASP.
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> > 2533274850493408;7:
> > > 2533274814810562;6:
> > > > 2573485501370683;5:
> > > > OP nailed it. Slap a social sticker on it all you want but it’s still not social w/o split screen. When it was announced I was actually one of the folks who at first scoffed at there being no split screen in H5 as I’ve never utilized it in previous Halo games but I now understand its importance to the series after playing 4 months without the joy of killing noobs.
> > > >
> > > > I miss killing social noobs every now and again or randomly dancing/humping objects with fellow social players who decided to cast aside our chromatic differences and to rejoice in a hump dance. Halo 5 is all competitive all the time and it needs the ba
>
>
> Its almost like, the aspects that made the previous halo games fun…don’t exist in 5 LE GASP.
Agreed
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> The casual gamers have come and gone, lack of split screen is most likely a huge contributing factor. Without casual gamers there is no social.
Also this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ we were all casuals once.
It’s definitely one of the bigger reasons.
I do think the game will be able to weave a social atmosphere into Griffball, Infection and Action Sack when they eventually show up- but the likes of Big Team and Social Slayer/CTF are largely hampered by the lack of splitscreen.
The other big reasons are IMO:
-The dev maps are all built for the competitive side, both how they look and how they play. They benefit trick jumps and create a lot of chance CQC encounters which in turn enlarges the skill gap. Also, there are no vehicles in them. At all. That is a focus point of Social Halo.
-The lack of variety in gametypes, leaving just the plain and competitive ones. People who want to dive into a diverse playlist literally can’t. This also holds back Forge, which is THE Social element of Halo.
-Alongside the lack of basic modes, there is also a distinct lack of purely social modes and playlists. Griffball, Infection, Action Sack.
-No proper File Share and Browser. Without this feature, you’re basically taking a beatiful bird (because Forge really is amazing this time) and snapping off its wings. The heart of Social Halo isn’t given a chance to take off, and it may already be to late to build that community.
-No Firefight/SpOps/PVE mode. That type of thing is always less competitive and more co-operarive. Firefight had a major following in Reach which 343i haven’t bothered with this time. Warzone isn’t the same. It’s something, but not that.
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> I think you’re just scratching the surface. Halo 5 at its core is just not built for social, and it is for more reasons than the removal of split-screen. There’s no attitude change in the social playlists, ever. People don’t appear to be playing for fun and still seem to be playing for their K/D. Either that, or just the way the game itself is played, with all of the more subtle changes, removes that “fun” from Halo 5.
I agree with this. I think in order for a playlist to be truly social we need games that aren’t focus on slaying, or even focused on objectives centered around being good at slaying. Lets look at some gametypes in the past that might make the cut of being truly social. Gametypes that the hardcore proscope mlg’s can’t turn into a competive experience.
- Infection
- Grifball
- Rocket Race
- Gungoose CTF
- Mongoose Race
- Ricochet
- Shotty Snipers (although I don’t think this one would make the cut any longer)These a few of the gametypes that can not be turned into a feeding fest on less skilled people. With the new forge capabilities, people are making GREAT gametypes that don’t having slaying in mind, so why can’t 343i?
My only concern with Grifball is if it turns into what Reach did eventually, with people just getting killionaires by kill mining the spawn locations. It wasn’t as huge of a problem in Halo 3 because you didn’t have the abilities, but that’s what does concern me. Teams of 4 getting in and just trying to rack up the kills.
While it’s not the only reason, the positive effect of split screen on social play is often overlooked. A lack of split-screen is definitely one of the big reasons.
This…honestly just scratches the surface.
They burned the social side of the game HARD, and I honestly don’t know why…
Did they think that the series was split half/half competitive and lore?
This is kind of right, but not the entire problem.