Yes, yes, we've all heard the complaining about SWAT not being present during the first week of the game.
I completely understood. At first, I too was outraged by the utter lack of playlists. Then, I remembered that SWAT was not added to Reach until a while after its release. But then I also remembered that Halo: Reach had a permanent SWAT playlist!
Looking at the current playlists of Halo 4's matchmaking, I see a bland selection of the typical, vanilla game modes that are present on every Halo since 3. No Grifball, no Rocket Race, no Team Snipers (but wait), no SchWATguns or SWAT Magnums modes under SWAT.
"Oh, it's alright, they just haven't had a chance to put the playlists together yet, they just need the community to make maps appropriate for game modes like Rocket Race and Grifball! Besides, 343i says they're gonna be doing weekly matchmaking updates, adding the playlists the Halo community knows and loves, right?"
Wrong.
Nope. Instead, we're gonna add all these playlists for a week each, unless you're really lucky and we choose to leave them in for TWO weeks! And after that, we'll switch them out with something else for ANOTHER week! If you don't like the new playlist, SUCKS FOR YOU, the old one is gone and you probably won't see it again for a long long time if at all! Go play some more Slayer.
"But wait, why can't you just leave the playlists in permanently? If so few people play them to the point where it wastes your server space, you can take them down. Like, I was real excited when you added Snipers. Back in Halo 3, I would always play it every once in a while when I wanted a break from fast paced, run n gun gameplay of SWAT and Slayer. I don't wanna play my heart out on it for a week and then not get to play it ever again! Besides, getting to play Snipers would really help me get that Commendation done a whole lot easier than the ones like Fuel Rod Cannon or Concussion Rifle, where I hardly ever see those weapons in game!"
LOL why would anyone ever want to base a game's multiplayer off of the extremely successful and fun one of a previous game? That doesn't make any sense at all! Letting players play whatever playlist they want, whenever they want? What planet are you from?
"This is stupid! I like what you did with the progression system and I guess the maps, but none of that matters if I can't have fun playing the crazy, senseless, and completely awesome game modes like I did in Halo 3! I'm going to play Gears of Duty: Assassin's Battlefield 7!"
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Who knows. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I missed some news post saying that these game modes will eventually be permanent. All I'm trying to get across is that this "weekly rotation" of classic playlists is bad. It takes away greatly from the fun that I can get from this game. FFA Throwback comes out next week. Instead of being able to play Team Snipers, I'll get to play some more vanilla gametypes because the only FFA playlist I can stand is Regicide (implying there are any other FFA playlists anyways). And yes, SWAT is a vanilla gametype that has no business being in a rotation anyways Besides, is it really THAT hard to make fun playlists permanent? Bungie was probably a LOT less funded than 343i, but still listened to what the players thought and kept their favorite playlists permanent, instead of basing the same decisions off of computerized statistics of which playlist was most popular this week or that week. After playing the campaign of Halo 4, I had hoped that matchmaking would be a more redeeming quality of the game, but so far I am disappointed.
I'm not a game critic or anything. This post is coming from a gamer who has played Halo since its humble beginnings. I can appreciate the changes that 343i has brought forth in Halo 4, but in this case, it causes Halo to lose its qualities as a unique first person shooter based on the community. I want my experience with multiplayer to be based more upon "Hey, we suck at team slayer. Let's go shoot people with rockets and hit people with hammers" instead of "Hey, we suck at team slayer. Let's go do the same thing, but with an objective thrown in." Whether you all get buttmad and go all defensive for 343i or you share my opinion, I just want 343i to know how I feel, and how the game can be changed, before it's too late.
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