In case you have not noticed Reach is now Number 4. A new precedent for ANY major halo title. 343 has fixed reach but i fear it may be too late. Do you think Halo will ever recapture its dominance that it held firmly from halo 1-3 and rise again?
I certainly hope so, or maybe I’m just too old at the age of 24 and don’t understand what kids like anymore…
4 to what? dont even say mw2 or black ops or ill die laughing.
> 4 to what? dont even say mw2 or black ops or ill die laughing.
Blops
GoW3
MW2
And soon enough, BF3 and MW3.
I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
Thats a damn shame.
I know for a fact GoW is just a new release that will continue to rock the leaderboards for about 2 months. And Black ops doesnt surprise me either because noobs that are bad think halo “sucks.”
But the fact that mw2 is even on there is a shame to both black ops and halo reach.
This says “CoD has a bigger online fanbase than halo reach, and that Black ops broke quickscoping”
> I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
they need to go back to what made CE and H2 great, high skill gap but still open to new players
then they need to make strict MM matching so you dont have 10 year vets going against brand new players , guests, and COD converts
also a good ranking that locks you at 50 and or around your max rank and then starts an arena style competition amongst 50s will prevent players from making new accounts
iono just my ideas
> > I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
>
> they need to go back to what made CE and H2 great, high skill gap but still open to new players
>
> then they need to make strict MM matching so you dont have 10 year vets going against brand new players , guests, and COD converts
>
> also a good ranking that locks you at 50 and or around your max rank and then starts an arena style competition amongst 50s will prevent players from making new accounts
>
> iono just my ideas
great summary mike ma dmd,
halo 2 with hitscan was awesome.
And the ranking system needs an overhaul - Ive been playing for 9 years, and I play kids that its their third game of reach…
> > > I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
> >
> > they need to go back to what made CE and H2 great, high skill gap but still open to new players
> >
> > then they need to make strict MM matching so you dont have 10 year vets going against brand new players , guests, and COD converts
> >
> > also a good ranking that locks you at 50 and or around your max rank and then starts an arena style competition amongst 50s will prevent players from making new accounts
> >
> > iono just my ideas
>
> great summary mike ma dmd,
> halo 2 with hitscan was awesome.
> And the ranking system needs an overhaul - Ive been playing for 9 years, and I play kids that its their third game of reach…
and thats what makes kids go “WTF halo is BS yo lets play COD.” Its not fun getting trampled on, but it is fun discovering a new kind of FPS against other new players.
> 4 to what? dont even say mw2 or black ops or ill die laughing.
Which proves his point.
A 2 year old game and a disgrace of a shooter are beating Halo Reach.
> > I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
>
> they need to go back to what made CE and H2 great, high skill gap but still open to new players
>
> then they need to make strict MM matching so you dont have 10 year vets going against brand new players , guests, and COD converts
>
> also a good ranking that locks you at 50 and or around your max rank and then starts an arena style competition amongst 50s will prevent players from making new accounts
>
> iono just my ideas
this. exactly this.
what halo needs is the massive skill gaps that halos 1 and 2 had. that is why those games are titans, and the rest looked like sheep in comparison.
when halo was about SKILL, and DEVELOPMENT people LOVED it.
theres few things more fun than picking up an awesome game with GOOD mechanics, and learning that any and all time and effort you put into getting better will help you do exactly that.
to be completely honest, i actually feel sorry for the people who started playing halo with halo 3 and reach, who havent extensively played halos 1 and 2. halos 1 and 2 are LEAGUES ahead of halos 3 and reach. sure they might not have been the ‘prettiest’ games, but OH MY GOODNESS did they PLAY WELL.
now, im pretty phenomenal at halo 1 and 2. the funny thing about that is, im not even 1/5th as good as i could be because the skill gap in those games is so GIGANTIC.
skill gap this, skill gap that, but what about the new players? when you make GOOD mechanics that are straight forward, intuitive, logical, and non contradictory, people will fall in love with the game with ease, even if they arent that great at it.
but urza! if the game has too big of a skill gap, wont new players be turned off from the game? thats where matchmaking comes in. you simply pair like-skilled players together using some formula (one that hopefully 343 will be able to change without a title update), as best as you can, and watch people duke it out and play for hours on end.
i think matchmaking should be something like this:
kills + assists / deaths (all statistics for the past 3 months) weighted at 25%
win percent weighted at 50%
and something that takes the skill level of who you are playing against into consideration, weighted at the final 25% (resembling 1 to 50, or using 1 to 50). what i mean by this is, if the average level of the players on your team is level 40, and the average for the other team is level 36, the following will happen:
if you WIN, you will gain LESS experience.
if you LOSE, you will lose MORE experience.
so basically, you gain less experience for winning games that you should win, and lose more experience for losing games you should win.
> http://majornelson.com/2011/09/29/live-activity-for-week-of-september-19th/
>
> In case you have not noticed Reach is now Number 4. A new precedent for ANY major halo title. 343 has fixed reach but i fear it may be too late. Do you think Halo will ever recapture its dominance that it held firmly from halo 1-3 and rise again?
>
> I certainly hope so, or maybe I’m just too old at the age of 24 and don’t understand what kids like anymore…
No, sadly I dont. Game developers have breed this new generation of casual gamers dumbing down games and now they are being forced to cater to them and Halo at its core is a competitve game that can be played casually. Its the same reason why franchises like Quake and CS are not as popular as they once were, they were not willing to ruin their games to appeal more to the “dude bro” gamers that now are the majority and are ruining the FPS industry by forcing developers to cater to them for better sales.
Bungie tried catering to the casual gamers more with Reach and it backfired losing alot of the core Halo fanbase that were dedicated followers of the series. Halo will forever be accessible for all gamers, but making it more casual friendly will just ruin the game as proved by Reach.
I don’t understand you people. You all hate CoD, a game that got popular because it’s played by casuals, and you want Halo to become popular again by increasing the skill gap? It’s not that I don’t want a higher skill gap, but there are way more casuals on Xbox Live than hardcore players, so how will punishing the casuals get Halo a higher population?
343 never fixed Reach, Hell they made it worse. Halo Reach was supposibly the most terrible Halo game according to “the fans” when the “community” gave feedback on what they wanted. Halo was killed by the fans or atleast that’s what the “fans” say. Am i the only one who actually liked the game the way it was,before 343 came into the picture?
Is it really a miracle that Halo Reach drops a spot when a new big title is released? I mean, Reach may be a bad game, but what does Live activity chart really show? That Reach isn’t popular? Basically, the Live activity chart only proves that Reach isn’t casual enough to be popular.
Sorry, I just needed to point that out because I’m pretty tired of people showing the Live activity chart day after day. We could just forget that Reach isn’t popular and concentrate on the fact it’s also not very good as a game. Because in reality, I don’t care about popularity at all as long as the gameplay is good.
Anyway, it has been obvious for a year that Halo 4 can’t make the same mistakes as Reach, we don’t need activity charts to see those mistakes. Especially when showing that Halo is among the five most popular titles is kind of a thin argument.
I don’t know what to say Urza worded it pretty well. The game needs skill gap to be good. But a matter of fact is, skill gap only guarantees the longetivity, the popularity needs to be achieved by other means. If you only want a good game, the game only needs skill gap, but if you want a popular game, it also needs to be easily approachable for everyone.
How to get those two to work in harmony is the problem. I would say easy to learn, hard to master is the way to go. Something that Halo CE and 2 did pretty well, 3 didn’t and Reach was more of a easy to learn, easy to master.
But I’m not a new player, I don’t know how to make it easily approachable for everyone. There is this very thin line in skill gap between competitive and casual. They could possibly utilize that and make more casual additions below that line and more hardcore additions (in a lack of better term) above that line. the additions on either side wouldn’t impact the other.
This is the first time ever that a Halo title is not in the top 3 on Major Nelson’s Live Activity chart.
But this is not because Halo is not as good or as popular as it once was. It still has a very large fan base.
The difference now is simply that there are more people on Xbox Live than ever before. Most of them are not hardcore gamers. They prefer simple, casual shooters like CoD. The core competitive players are still there playing Halo, but they’re just outnumbered by the casual crowd.
My worry is that the majority will convince 343i to make Halo more like CoD. Please don’t. I like Halo the way it is. I do like most of the changes in the title update, but please don’t remove the target reticule bloom. If people want an easy FPS, they can play CoD.
> > I certainly hope so…let’s just say that I am glad they are releasing another Halo game next year so Reach won’t be the Halo game with the most users online at one time.
>
> they need to go back to what made CE and H2 great, high skill gap but still open to new players
>
> then they need to make strict MM matching so you dont have 10 year vets going against brand new players , guests, and COD converts
>
> also a good ranking that locks you at 50 and or around your max rank and then starts an arena style competition amongst 50s will prevent players from making new accounts
>
> iono just my ideas
yep… there is skill in reach still( maybe not halo 2, but there a whole lot more than cod), but the main problem is the ranking system. You dont get to play in competitive games because you just play random people all the time. A ranking system like h2’s benefits everyone… good players get competitive matches, while noobs dont get slaughtered all the time and start whining. The problem the game developers have is that they are trying to cater to more casual gamers by not having it ranked… which is totally backwards. The casual gamers need the ranking system so they don’t play against pros non stop.
> I do like most of the changes in the title update, but please don’t remove the target reticule bloom. If people want an easy FPS, they can play CoD.
Last time I checked, bloom made the DMR random and inconsistent. Removing it definitely doesn’t make the game easier, just more consistent.
> > I do like most of the changes in the title update, but please don’t remove the target reticule bloom. If people want an easy FPS, they can play CoD.
>
> Last time I checked, bloom made the DMR random and inconsistent. Removing it definitely doesn’t make the game easier, just more consistent.
I find the DMR very consistent. You just need to stop spamming it and focus your shots. Some people call that skill.
> > > I do like most of the changes in the title update, but please don’t remove the target reticule bloom. If people want an easy FPS, they can play CoD.
> >
> > Last time I checked, bloom made the DMR random and inconsistent. Removing it definitely doesn’t make the game easier, just more consistent.
>
> I find the DMR very consistent. You just need to stop spamming it and focus your shots. Some people call that skill.
At this current moment, I’m tired to start a bloom debate. Bloom is inconsistent and there is a random factor associated with it. It’s not really my business if you can’t see it, nor do I have to have to reprove something I have proved hundreds of times. So, instead of starting a debate, you should put my user name on the forum search and look for topic names such as “The Skilled Player should kill the less Skilled Player - Community Discussion” and “DMR Overpowered could be a good thing… DMR Ranters please read”. My posts in those threads have enough reasoning for why bloom is flawed. I am honestly starting to get bored for having to go through the same discussion over and over again.
Besides, if you can enjoy bloom, that’s cool, it’s just that you shouldn’t say that removing bloom makes the game any more easier or less skillful because that is clearly not the case. And lastly, if you read my posts, you can see that bloom is a good concept on paper, Reach just failed at implementing it.
> > > I do like most of the changes in the title update, but please don’t remove the target reticule bloom. If people want an easy FPS, they can play CoD.
> >
> > Last time I checked, bloom made the DMR random and inconsistent. Removing it definitely doesn’t make the game easier, just more consistent.
>
> I find the DMR very consistent. You just need to stop spamming it and focus your shots. Some people call that skill.
Its random, its not working as intended, Already been stated by 343, in the weekly update 8/31/11.