I feel so strongly about Halo and its impact on my life that I decided to create an account simply to voice my thoughts on an aspect of Halo 4 that I think desperately needs addressed. I will share with you what lured me into Halo and what has repelled me from halo as of late.
Firstly: I have been playing halo since six months prior to the release of Halo 2 (2004)
Secondly: I have enjoyed the privilege of thousands of games, countless friendships, Several local tournaments and 4 MLG appearances.
Thirdly: I am 28 years old, Hold a B.S. and am studying for my Masters, am a certified teacher in the state of Texas and have ran my own company for two years.
Halo 2 was a great game. Halo 3 was a great game. Reach is a good game but is lacking a fundamental aspect that makes Halo appealing. The addition of bloom and armor abilities were damaging to the mechanics of Halo, but the single most damaging thing that has happened to halo is the ranking system. Apart from the fun and the game play itself, the number rank in halo 2 was what drew me in. I wanted to level up because it was a tangible reflection on my skill increasing. I wanted to out level my friends and in turn they would try harder to out-level me. The ranking system required that you developed teamwork and communication or you would get steamrolled in the team playlists. If you were an aspiring MLG gamer, which I became around 2006, it gave you the chance to match up against players of a higher caliber. MLG aside the first two years of my Halo experience I didn't know what a gaming tournament was. I simply wanted to get 3 of my buddies together and try to dominate the world. We used to play team slayer for hours on end. Each level we progressed the matches got more and more intense. It was such a rush. It was so fun. The fun continued until the release of Reach. I do not dislike the Mechanics of Reach. I dislike the Armor abilities and the bloom but the thing that was absolutely essential to the halo experience was destroyed. Now when a group of buddies and myself go into team slayer the skill level is so out of whack. We play against people with negative K/D ratios all the time and destroy them. The gimmicks need to be removed. The robotic arms and the confetti and the inclement weather and armor lock. The playlists need to be sheared down to a hand full of simple lists. If you want zombies, make a custom. Get that playlist out of halo. If you want grifball, make a custom. It needs to be simply divided between ranked and unranked. Ranked has no armor abilities, no bloom, and 1-50 rank. Unranked has all the bloom, armor abilities, and all the gimmicks. Unranked can have all the eclipse rankings and inheritor rankings but leave that out of Ranked please. This is one lifelong fan who doesn't want this franchise to disappear.
Thank you for your time.
