The following is a post that I have made earlier in another forum. It compares a “new” (made up) game of kickball with halo, specifically how each new installment seems to become easier to play.
The optimal skill gap theory
Why is it that each halo game has become easier to play?
The answer is simple really, video games have turned into something that allows everyone to win. No more the fat kid being picked last for kickball… Why? If anyone makes contact with the ball it is an automatic homerun. What does it matter if he is fat when all he has to do is touch the ball.
Compare this example to halo. Hitting shots equals kicking the ball, fielding equals strafing. Well, in newer halos strafing has been weakened to the point of being useless. If we compared this to the “new” kickball game we would see that the kickball game now needs no fielders, why? Now that its based off the fact if someone kicks the ball its an automatic home run, that scenario can’t be fielded. The other possible outcome is that the kicker misses the ball, in which case again fielders are not necessary. Going back to halo it is now become a game where 1v1 battles are dependent on the OTHER person missing and an opponent has no chance to make the other guy miss. Instead it is a battle of who can have “perfect accuracy”.
In the kickball example the fat kid will still miss the ball from time to time while other “better” players well most likely hardly ever miss. This gives the illusion of a “skill gap” which in reality, is tiny at best. The question becomes why don’t game developers create a game where literally everyone wins all the time? The answer lies in the fact that they are more than likely trying to fake a significant skill gap. If everyone was the same skill level in a game even the fanboys would complain, then they too would want a higher skill gap to have a chance to proove how much more skilled they are than the players they play with. So what developers are trying to achieve is a skill gap that is small enough to give the largest majority of players a chance to be good at the game, while simultaneously creating a skill gap that is just big enough to trick that same majority of people into thinking that they are also better or worse than other players. Tbh they have tricked most of us, look at games like counterstrike and SC 2 or SC broodwar where the skill gap is so massive it makes halo look like a joke. In those games the skill gap difference between pro players is massive whereas in halo I would argue that its much smaller.
I feel another reason the developers have watered down halo’s skill gap is to push teamwork as more important than individual skill. Why would they do this? Well, whats harder losing as a team or by yourself? By pushing teamwork it gives “worse” gamers a scapegoat to blame on their loss, the team, rather than their individual skill. I mean individual skill is so meaningless that to blame it on yourself would be foolish.
I have made this post to bring this “theory” to the attention of this forum. More importantly I want to see what people think about the idea, whether its good, bad, crazy, ingenious, etc. Lastly I find it to be the best possible explanation for why certain features (skill based rank system, individual weapon modifiers, higher skill based aiming mechanics, faster strafe, and others) seem to be either ignored or put on the back burner for the development of most console fps shooters and more specifically halo 4. Granted there are many unknowns in what will come about to exist in Halo 4, the problem is that many features like individual weapon modifiers, higher skill based aiming mechanics, and others have been asked for by the community to be put into place in each successive halo. Unfortunately, these wants have been ignored and never realized in every single successive halo, to me there seems to be a pattern that cannot be ignored.
(modified tldr)
TL;DR The only explanation for watering down the skill gap is to make as many people as possible feel like they are good and succeeding at a game, while AT THE SAME TIME, giving the same majority of players just enough skill gap room to make these same players feel like others are failing at being better than them. The result is the “optimal skill gap” which not only allows the maximum amount of players to be “good” at a game but at the same time providing players with the illusion of being that much better than their fellow players. Doing this ensures that the player will continue to play the game because he/she is having a positive experience (rather than negative) with the game.
The game is not be helpful this way rather, it’s counterproductive.