Why Halo Should Encourage Competitive Gaming

Games Other Halo
1

Before we all start arguing over what has been said in multiple threads, I would like to have clean conversations that are informative and give suggestions on what should be done. Their is no need to violently arguing over this. We all want what’s best for Halo 4, so let’s give our opinions about the situation in a civilized discussion. KEEP IT CLEAN

To start off, I don’t think Halo 4 needs a visible ranking system, but I think it would give more to those who want to play competitively. Halo 4 is still going to be a great game without it. However, if 343 added a separate playlist allowing visible ranks, it would encourage competitive gamers to play, well, competitively. Those who don’t want a rank can play “Social”, and those who want a rank next to them can play “Ranked”. This worked great with Halo 3 because it separated good 'ol fun with competitive gameplay. It gave the best of both worlds.

I know the Truskill system had it’s flaws, which allowed alternate accounts, selling, and boosting. However, would it have been that hard to make a more strict, yet viable system instead of throwing it all out? We don’t even need 1-50. All people want to see is how good they stack with the rest of the community to help them reach the desire to get better at the game. If we had a system that was better than the truskill system and removed boosting and other exploits, the only effect it would have would be the occasional trash talk about X player having a better rank than Y player.

The overall disappointment, however, is the way they handled the situation. Games that have incredibly high competitive gaming potential should implement a system that supports that. Starcraft 2 has it. League of Legends has it. Even the newest Call of Duty is implementing a system of their own. 343 took a competitive first person shooter and gave it no competitive aspect, which in the end discourages competitive gamers from playing a competitive game, which makes no sense.

Again, i’m not saying Halo 4 needs a ranking system. All i’m saying is that competitive gaming needs to be encouraged instead of just ignored. I will still be enjoying Halo 4 and will probably use gamebattles to feed my competitive urge. However, I just wish 343 would create a system that caters to all gamers.

BTW, Happy Halloween Everyone!

What are your thoughts about the situation?

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There are a million topics on this. MOD can you start locking all topics like this so people will stop making them.

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> There are a million topics on this. MOD can you start locking all topics like this so people will stop making them.

All I want is a more civil and clean conversation about the situation instead of messy threads full of hate that keep infecting the forums. We should be giving out our suggestions about what 343 should do instead of crying about what they are currently doing.

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MLG is competitive gaming…and they don’t play for a number. They play to win, like everyone should.

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> Before we all start arguing over what has been said in multiple threads, I would like to have clean conversations that are informative and give suggestions on what should be done. Their is no need for violently arguing over this. We all want what’s best for Halo 4, so let’s give our opinions about the situation in a civilized discussion. KEEP IT CLEAN
>
> To start off, I don’t think Halo 4 needs a visible ranking system, but I think it would give more to those who want to play competitively. Halo 4 is still going to be a great game without it. However, if 343 added a separate playlist allowing visible ranks, it would encourage competitive gamers to play, well, competitively. Those who don’t want a rank can play “Social”, and those who want a rank next to them can play “Ranked”. This worked great with Halo 3 because it separated good 'ol fun with competitive gameplay. It gave the best of both worlds.
>
> I know the Truskill system had it’s flaws, which allowed alternate accounts, selling, and boosting. However, would it have been that hard to make a more strict, yet viable system instead of throwing it all out? We don’t even need 1-50. All people want to see is how good they stack with the rest of the community to help them reach the desire to get better at the game. If we had a system that was better than the truskill system and removed boosting and other exploits, the only effect it would have would be the occasional trash talk about X player having a better rank than Y player.
>
> The overall disappointment, however, is the way they handled the situation. Games that have incredibly high competitive gaming potential should implement a system that supports that. Starcraft 2 has it. League of Legends has it. Even the newest Call of Duty is implementing a system of their own. 343 took a competitive first person shooter and gave it no competitive aspect, which in the end discourages competitive gamers from playing a competitive game, which makes no sense.
>
> Again, i’m not saying Halo 4 needs a ranking system. All i’m saying is that competitive gaming needs to be encouraged instead of just ignored. I will still be enjoying Halo 4 and will probably use gamebattles to feed my competitive urge. However, I just wish 343 would create a system that caters to all gamers.
>
> BTW, Happy Halloween Everyone!
>
> What are your thoughts about the situation?

Perfectly said. I hope 343i is listening carefully for their future title update

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> MLG is competitive gaming…and they don’t play for a number. They play to win, like everyone should. But thanks for the clean thread.

Have you read the OP? I said that it would be wise to implement a system that encourages competitive gameplay, not a number. Competitive gamers want to be competitive with other competitive gamers, and that’s what 343 should try to do.

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> > MLG is competitive gaming…and they don’t play for a number. They play to win, like everyone should. But thanks for the clean thread.
>
> Have you read the OP? I said that it would be wise to implement a system that encourages competitive gameplay, not a number. Competitive gamers want to be competitive with other competitive gamers, and that’s what 343 should try to do.

They have with this TruSkill system that nobody knows about. I’m not bashing your post but just saying you don’t know if this TruSkill system is heavily flawed or not.

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> MLG is competitive gaming…and they don’t play for a number. They play to win, like everyone should.

But not everyone else will if they have nothing to lose…

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> > > MLG is competitive gaming…and they don’t play for a number. They play to win, like everyone should. But thanks for the clean thread.
> >
> > Have you read the OP? I said that it would be wise to implement a system that encourages competitive gameplay, not a number. Competitive gamers want to be competitive with other competitive gamers, and that’s what 343 should try to do.
>
> They have with this TruSkill system that nobody knows about. I’m not bashing your post but just saying you don’t know if this TruSkill system is heavily flawed or not.

The TruSkill system was implemented in Halo 3. It was the system that decided weather or not you were going to level in rank after winning a match. They announced a system that helps match you with players who have a similar level of skill, Which is a good thing. However, it just doesn’t help encourage competitive gaming the way it should, which is why I think 343 should put a little more thought into what they are doing.

Also, I apologize if I was being defensive. I was just strengthening my thoughts on what actions 343 should make.

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I think that all that needs to be said on both sides with what material and evidence we have at this point has been said already, but you, sir, have done a good service to all by endorsing a skill-based visible ranking system without any bad-mouthing or Force Colonels whatsoever.

11

Thanks for the non-argumentative forum thread. You can really tell who’s actually thinking and who’s blindly raging at this current topic :confused: But I agree with a lot of your points. Separate playlists such as the Halo 3 “Ranked” and “Social” playlists were great ideas. Like you said, it separated the casuals from the competitives

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Why not just make the stats seen online in the waypoint profiles of this site be visible in-game? I mean, if players are wanting goals, why not look at them and go, “You know what? My W/L ratio is pretty crappy. I should look up why I am being terrible, or go online, and find ways to improve myself.”

We don’t NEED a visible rank. Before Halo 2 was glitched and modded as all hell, we were stocked not because it had a rank system. We were hyped that the game was solid. It played well. I didn’t know back then there was a rank system that would match me up with similar players, yet I bought a copy because the last game was awesome.

Granted, I liked the Halo 2 system. However, when all the button glitching and modding occured in ranked playlists, I asked myself, “What’s the point of even trying to get to the max rank when no one along the way wants to play fair?” Same happened in Halo 3. Same thing happened with Reach, except the question was, “What’s the point of matchmaking when it can’t keep players beyond my skill level(both ways) away from me?”

To me, there is too much harm than good to come with a ranking system, especially when the developers only real response to problems like cheating was through programs that ban you when you do a recognized pattern. They don’t got the man power, and players don’t have the patience to deal with them.

Granted, I wish they could do more, like remove the rank cap, and adjust the high and low ends to keep players from not getting matches. However, this didn’t happen.

The only thing I truly think MM really needs is a Social and a Competitive playlist. Social for large parties, players looking for practice, and guests who are on the fence to buy a copy or don’t have the means of going online. Meanwhile, Competetive will be available for those who are looking for a more competitive enviornment that matches players of similar skill together, and keep guests out.

If there is one aspect of Reach I didn’t like was that it allowed guests to be everywhere. In my experience, the team who has the most guests tend to lose because they either have players being jerks, or they do not know how to play. Get them in when people are trying to find a close match, and it’s just not going to happen.

Competitive matches are like Water. Guests are like oil. They don’t mix, and they leave a bad taste in your mouth. I’m all for subs-only, and social playlists. However, I believe there is no point for asking for a visible rank. You got a website with tons of information that will tell you where you suck at. If they are not good enough for those guys, they’re out of luck. The community cannot handle rankings. It happened 3 times. I think they get the idea that its time to make visible rankings hit the showers.

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> However, <mark>if 343 added a separate playlist</mark> allowing visible ranks, it would encourage competitive gamers to play, well, competitively. Those who don’t want a rank can play “Social”, and those who want a rank next to them can play “Ranked”. This worked great with Halo 3 because it separated good 'ol fun with competitive gameplay. It gave the best of both worlds.

i don’t think it’s a good idea because then people will start complaining about equal rights and then there will be more blah blah blah and less of “let’s just have fun”. pretty soon people will be like, “but what about the semi competitive players? can’t we have our own seperate playlist as well?” or the “extremely competitive players”. not that these will happen, but i’m just trying to show a different point of view.