Halo 5 has the most smurfs ive seen in any halo game. Games are one sided and not enjoyable 70% of the time ( for me). All it takes is one low ranked smurf in the lobby. Part of the reason there are so many smurfs is also because microsoft allows silver accounts to play online as long as one has gold on that xbox.
It’s annoying being deceived this way. However I tend to just ignore the issue, as long as the smurfs don’t rain on my parade then they can smurf all day long.
I think the damage has been done when it came to smurfs. They’re out there, and they don’t seem to have any regrets in their actions.
It’s that kind of mentality that will leave no one left alive after the zombie apocalypse.
Every-time I play against a Smurf I just want to put a $7 million Bounty on them, are they so obsess with a High rank, or do they just want to pick on the Newcomers/ Fresh spawn skilled players, will be ruined, probably, not forever though
Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
> 2535428779736382;5:
> Every-time I play against a Smurf I just want to put a $7 million Bounty on them, are they so obsess with a High rank, or do they just want to pick on the Newcomers/ Fresh spawn skilled players, will be ruined, probably, not forever though
I think its more about getting a high rank than ruining the game for newer players. Even then the effect is the same, it ruins the game for many people .
> 2533274923562209;6:
> Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
Players have more than one smurf account, they just keep on making them. Ive seen people with 5 smurfs or more.
> 2533274923562209;6:
> Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
This is true and untrue at the same time. How real or how exaggerated we think smurfing is has entirely to do with where an individual player falls on the rank ladder. If you’re a superior player then of course you’re relatively unaffected. You see almost no smurfing and you would legitimately say that the smurfing problem is exaggerated. If, on the other hand, you’re a lower skilled player then you’re exactly the player who is being targeted by smurfing. A Smurf with an artificially low skill ranking will, by definition, be a phenomenon only experienced by other low skilled players, and the problem will seem to you proportionally larger.
The question is, why would xbl or 343 be willing to tolerate a loophole that allows exploitation of the weakest (and often the newest) players in the franchise? Saying that the reason is so younger siblings can play on their own accounts without forcing mom or dad to pony up an extra $60 a year seems to me to be offensively regressive, simplistic, cynical, and insensitive. The truth of the matter is that somebody somewhere has decided that players of a certain description are more valuable to the game than players of other description. What, you say??? The gaming environment wittingly or unwittingly favoring players who are good at the game over players who are not??? This game, like any other, is so full of bias in favor of skill, some intentional, some unintentional, that it boggles the mind how anyone can come to this franchise as a new player and not be driven away in a matter of hours. The only reason in doesn’t work that way on an on-going basis is because the newest players tend to be the youngest and most inexperienced, and therefore the least knowledgeable of and the least sensitive to the BS that is a regular feature of skill-assessment and matchmaking. It’s sad that they put up with the garbage without even being aware that the system has this abuse built into it, but that’s sort of the nature of abuse. We only resist it when it seems like an anomaly - if it’s systemic then we accept it because that’s just “the way things work.” Sad.
> 2533274805919869;8:
> > 2533274923562209;6:
> > Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
>
> Players have more than one smurf account, they just keep on making them. Ive seen people with 5 smurfs or more.
Sadly im one of them. But the good news is my Smurf accounts tend to help the other team. I’m a reverse Smurf. I intentionally run out to die and don’t even go for kills even after getting my rank. I enjoy knowing that is there are Smurfs out there’s this is my way was trolling them.
> 2535423403773231;10:
> > 2533274805919869;8:
> > > 2533274923562209;6:
> > > Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
> >
> > Players have more than one smurf account, they just keep on making them. Ive seen people with 5 smurfs or more.
>
> Sadly im one of them. But the good news is my Smurf accounts tend to help the other team. I’m a reverse Smurf. I intentionally run out to die and don’t even go for kills even after getting my rank. I enjoy knowing that is there are Smurfs out there’s this is my way was trolling them.
Backwards thinking because you then are ruining the game for the team you are on.
> 2533274805919869;1:
> Halo 5 has the most smurfs ive seen in any halo game. Games are one sided and not enjoyable 70% of the time ( for me). All it takes is one low ranked smurf in the lobby. Part of the reason there are so many smurfs is also because microsoft allows silver accounts to play online as long as one has gold on that xbox.
A lot of the smurfs out there exists because of two or three things.
1 (main reason): People with high rank play on smurfs because when soloQing with a high ranked all you match up with is a high skilled team of four. Which makes it really hard to play.
2 (2nd highest reason): Smurfs/New accounts tends to some extent feel more responsive and less “Heavy” compared to their main account. And Yes, HeavyAim is not completely gone. The update felt good the first 1 or 2 days it was out, but it is gradually getting worse and worse again. For some reason often correlated with what SR you have (meaning how old the account is). The aiming is not consistent through different accounts.
3 (not that common): People boost their friends to higher ranks. Those smurf accounts are not smurfs that long because they get higher ranks too and eventually it evens out. This really doesn’t happen so much anymore.
Reason 1 and 2 are often the combined reason why people Smurf.
Can someone clarify what a smurf is please, and the advantages or reasons why people do it?
Have you been following Dr. Menke’s posts in the matchmaking feedback threads? They’ve been working on various measures to dissuade smurfing
It would interesting to know if there would’ve been the same amount or more smurfs than H5 back in the previous ranked Halos if MS had their current family gold account system back then.
> 2727626560040591;15:
> It would interesting to know if there would’ve been the same amount or more smurfs than H5 back in the previous ranked Halos if MS had their current family gold account system back then.
i doubt people would pay for 3 month subscriptions for smurf accounts .
> 2533274873843883;9:
> > 2533274923562209;6:
> > Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
>
> This is true and untrue at the same time. How real or how exaggerated we think smurfing is has entirely to do with where an individual player falls on the rank ladder. If you’re a superior player then of course you’re relatively unaffected. You see almost no smurfing and you would legitimately say that the smurfing problem is exaggerated. If, on the other hand, you’re a lower skilled player then you’re exactly the player who is being targeted by smurfing. A Smurf with an artificially low skill ranking will, by definition, be a phenomenon only experienced by other low skilled players, and the problem will seem to you proportionally larger.
>
> The question is, why would xbl or 343 be willing to tolerate a loophole that allows exploitation of the weakest (and often the newest) players in the franchise? Saying that the reason is so younger siblings can play on their own accounts without forcing mom or dad to pony up an extra $60 a year seems to me to be offensively regressive, simplistic, cynical, and insensitive. The truth of the matter is that somebody somewhere has decided that players of a certain description are more valuable to the game than players of other description. What, you say??? The gaming environment wittingly or unwittingly favoring players who are good at the game over players who are not??? This game, like any other, is so full of bias in favor of skill, some intentional, some unintentional, that it boggles the mind how anyone can come to this franchise as a new player and not be driven away in a matter of hours. The only reason in doesn’t work that way on an on-going basis is because the newest players tend to be the youngest and most inexperienced, and therefore the least knowledgeable of and the least sensitive to the BS that is a regular feature of skill-assessment and matchmaking. It’s sad that they put up with the garbage without even being aware that the system has this abuse built into it, but that’s sort of the nature of abuse. We only resist it when it seems like an anomaly - if it’s systemic then we accept it because that’s just “the way things work.” Sad.
Microsoft is in the business to make money ,regardless of how much it affects a tiny percent of the xbl community.And this is nothing new,smurfing,boosting,cheating has been going on for years and it hasn’t been addressed that we’ll imo,especially with 2 day or 1 month free trials
> 2533274813317074;14:
> Have you been following Dr. Menke’s posts in the matchmaking feedback threads? They’ve been working on various measures to dissuade smurfing
i haven’t
> 2533274923562209;6:
> Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
Hugely exaggerated.
I see people on hear all the time complaining about how it “happens every game” but I check their history and it’s like 1 or 2 out of every 10.
And even in the games that had a smurf, the outcome score is still pretty even half the time anyway.
The changes that they made to how Halo 5 assigns predicted skill levels is incredibly quick to adapt.
Within the first 5 games of a smurf, it’s already putting all the Platinums on the opposing team & all the Bronze/Silvers on the smurf’s team to compensate.
Within 10-20 games, it’s already giving them Diamond-Onyx matches.
The occasional blowout matches happen with or without smurfs, especially in Halo 5.
In H5, there’s a huge difference between two players of +/- the same skill, when one is warmed up & the other isn’t. More than any previous Halo.
So already, it’s going to be extremely difficult to predict/organise balanced matches.
Sometimes a Diamond plays like an Onyx, sometimes they play like a Platinum… if 2-4 players on a team are not playing like their “normal self,” the match is going to be completely lopsided period.
In some ways, smurf accounts actually help to mitigate this, because you can choose the account that you’re currently actually playing at.
If you’re warming up, play on a warm up account.
If you’re drunk, play on a drunk account.
If you’re playing to your full potential, play on the main account.
Now you’re not screwing up the matchmaking algorithms by playing like a completely different person on your main account all the time.
Even before anybody smurfed, you still had people complaining about this like, “he’s not a legit 50” or “that guy HAS to be a deranker” when often times, it was actually just be a case of either a good player who took a week off, or a casual player who finally got their first 7-day streak of playing every day.
And that’s not even including the people who have to share their XBL account with other family members, the very reason these “smurf” accounts are there to begin with.
And then there’s the whole issue that a high skilled player can’t play with a low ranked friend without smurfing, since there’s no real social playlist in this game.
Win a few back-to-back games in social and suddenly the system treats both you & your friend like you’re #MLGPRO and only matches you against full parties of Diamond-Onyx-Champ players. It’s ridiculous.
And then you have to wonder, why is there even stat tracking on these so-called “Social” playlists?
Turn off all K/D tracking in social, turn off the narrow skill filters, and I promise you half the smurfs would disappear overnight.
The people who actually smurf specifically for the purpose of manipulating the system are a very small percentage, most are just legitimately trying to get a fair match in an already flawed system.
The majority of smurfs are a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.
If you want solutions, look for the heart of the Hydra rather than trying to chop off its heads.
There’s a reason why it’s only the H5 community whining about this, and Microsoft isn’t going to change their entire XBL policy just for one, lowly-populated game.
> 2533274834881503;19:
> > 2533274923562209;6:
> > Meh, still think smurfs are an over exaggerated issue, especially in a declining player base.
>
> Hugely exaggerated.
>
> I see people on hear all the time complaining about how it “happens every game” but I check their history and it’s like 1 or 2 out of every 10.
>
> And even in the games that had a smurf, the outcome score is still pretty even half the time anyway.
>
> The changes that they made to how Halo 5 assigns predicted skill levels is incredibly quick to adapt.
> Within the first 5 games of a smurf, it’s already putting all the Platinums on the opposing team & all the Bronze/Silvers on the smurf’s team to compensate.
> Within 10-20 games, it’s already giving them Diamond-Onyx matches.
>
> The occasional blowout matches happen with or without smurfs, especially in Halo 5.
> In H5, there’s a huge difference between two players of +/- the same skill, when one is warmed up & the other isn’t. More than any previous Halo.
> So already, it’s going to be extremely difficult to predict/organise balanced matches.
>
> Sometimes a Diamond plays like an Onyx, sometimes they play like a Platinum… if 2-4 players on a team are not playing like their “normal self,” the match is going to be completely lopsided period.
>
> In some ways, smurf accounts actually help to mitigate this, because you can choose the account that you’re currently actually playing at.
> If you’re warming up, play on a warm up account.
> If you’re drunk, play on a drunk account.
> If you’re playing to your full potential, play on the main account.
>
> Now you’re not screwing up the matchmaking algorithms by playing like a completely different person on your main account all the time.
> Even before anybody smurfed, you still had people complaining about this like, “he’s not a legit 50” or “that guy HAS to be a deranker” when often times, it was actually just be a case of either a good player who took a week off, or a casual player who finally got their first 7-day streak of playing every day.
> And that’s not even including the people who have to share their XBL account with other family members, the very reason these “smurf” accounts are there to begin with.
>
> And then there’s the whole issue that a high skilled player can’t play with a low ranked friend without smurfing, since there’s no real social playlist in this game.
> Win a few back-to-back games in social and suddenly the system treats both you & your friend like you’re #MLGPRO and only matches you against full parties of Diamond-Onyx-Champ players. It’s ridiculous.
>
> And then you have to wonder, why is there even stat tracking on these so-called “Social” playlists?
> Turn off all K/D tracking in social, turn off the narrow skill filters, and I promise you half the smurfs would disappear overnight.
> The people who actually smurf specifically for the purpose of manipulating the system are a very small percentage, most are just legitimately trying to get a fair match in an already flawed system.
>
> The majority of smurfs are a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.
> If you want solutions, look for the heart of the Hydra rather than trying to chop off its heads.
> There’s a reason why it’s only the H5 community whining about this, and Microsoft isn’t going to change their entire XBL policy just for one, lowly-populated game.
I agree with your last paragraph one hundred percent,if halo 5 was in the top five most played xbox one games then it would be a higher priority for Microsoft and xbl,but because it’s like 19 and slipping it will be slowly fixed