Lets go back to what Halo really is.
Halo 1, 2, and 3 set the path. Then Halo Reach came along. It appealed mostly to the kids who couldn't get a 50. The same kids who use an Assault Rifle in Team BR's or don't veto for BR's and play for the map. I am not bashing them, but based off what I have seen this is true. Not everyone can be, or cares to be good. However, the type of gameplay seemed to appeal to those exhausted with the fight to rank up simply because they weren't good enough.
Halo is, or at least was... 1-50 ranking system. This was what made people play the game for hours and hours and hours on end.. Trying to get their 50.. You don't play a game for credits to unlock armor... at the end of the day, who cares? The rank is what placed you with other people in the same skill range as you.. If your good, you had a 50 and played with other 50s. You didn't get partied up with level 12s or 20s when your a 50, that isnt fair to anyone. It's like playing a basketball game against Michael Jordan, just isn't fair. The rank is what gave Halo the "addiction" factor!
Then you guys argue, oh the ranking system is flawed. No, the Halo 3 ranking system was flawed. Halo 2's wasnt that bad, and was pretty close to perfect. Halo 3, the problem was with the math.. Now your going to tell me you can't change the algorithm to make the ranking system NOT take into consideration their number of losses? That is how "boosting" worked. If you remove boosting, you take away the real need to derank! They deranked because the more losses your account had, by purposely making the system THINK you were terrible. Then by playing with a fresh account, or not too bad off account, when you won the system thought "oh they won, and that kid he is with is terri-bad, so he should get an extra boost". End result was you would jump 2, 3 or 4 ranks! Remove the "losses" from the algorithm and you fix that! If you have struggled and have a lot of losses in H3, it became impossible to rank up easily. Kids didnt know this. They would have really bad accounts and wonder why they barely ranked up. They would have been better off to make a new account! Also, playing in a part of 3 or 4 slowed you down also. If you wanted to rank up, you had to play solo or with 1 other person only. H2 wasnt like that! So no, the reason to NOT have the 1-50 ranking system is not that... Unless nobody thought of this? I don't really see that I am smarter than the engineer's or high level coders of the system. It isn't that hard to figure out.
Halo didn't get popular because it piggy-backed off of what other games did. Halo was it's own game, in a class of it's own! Halo was a huge hit.. Now its getting smoked by CoD and other games. Halo IS NOT CoD, so why pretend?
I guarantee if you make Halo 5 just like Halo 2/3 (but fix the algo to limit derankers/boosters) but keep the smooth internet gameplay of Reach and graphics. Keep the 1-50, keep MLG, Take out the stupid DMR, jetpack, armor lock.. Everything you did in Reach and 4 basically take it out.. The credit thing is fine, to unlock emblems and helmets or and stuff.. But you NEED the 1-50 ranking system to keep the gamers playing it like a crack addict! I give reach credit on its better graphics and smoother internet connection, the lag wasnt that bad really. Halo 3 (BR, TS, MLG, 1-50 ranks), with Halo 2 ranking system, with Reach graphics and internet connection, and also Reach credit system (keeping 1-50 ranks).
I mean I think H3 would be cool once I got my 50 if I also could have more to do.. I got my 50, have played 1k games on my 50.. There is nothing else to do lol. The competitive part is addictive and fun still, but if we also had credits and could unlock additional emblems and armor, or change the gun colors/skin, scope colors, ect.. It would allow us to still have "HALO" and the competition addiction of 1-50 ranking, but throw in our own flavor of customization. We could pimp out our guys.. Maybe have stuff you can only unlock if you are a 50, as a reward.. Right now I am playing to keep my 50 and get my 5 star general.
I can't tell you how many true avid Halo players that hate Reach and 4, and are truly disappointed We don't want to see Halo die. WE ARE HALO! I understand going down different avenues to appeal to other gamers and their interests, but you can't remove the key ingredients to what make halo halo! You can't put square wheels on a car..
When people ask me why I love Halo, my only answer is "Because it's Halo!". It isn't something they would understand until they play it themselves.
Why would I play this game, the "new halo", for 6+ months...? To unlock some shoulder pads or helmets and credits? To play with kids who aren't on me skill level? At the end of that, what do I have to show? Nothing! What do I have to show in Halo 3 (and 2 before it shut down)? That I was a level 50 and played hundreds and thousands of games on my 50s! What did that tell others? That I was GOOD! I am not claiming or boasting that I am the best, because I am not! But to get a 50 and play on it a thousand games later and still have my 50, does mean that you are good.
It isn't fair to put kids who are terrible or never played, on a team with a person who is a 50. It isn't fair to him to get really bad teamattes. It also isnt fair to have a group of 50s play together and the other team is generally made up of level 20s or 30s. They will get destroyed, and nobody likes to lose, especially when it's unfair. If I was to play basketball and kept getting Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant on the other team, I would get upset too because that just isnt fair. That is what is happening with Reach and 4, you get good kids mixed in with bad kids.
To me.. a 50 is, control, concise, teamwork. Working together, knowing when the weapons respawn to the second to control them, to control the map, to work together, team BR, communicate. It was called TEAM SLAYER after all, not superman run out and die over and over. We timed with overshield came up, sniper, rockets, invisibility, all came back up.. We said "rockets will be up in 12 seconds, we need to move over there and wait for them".. My team would keep high ground and post up in ideal spots to ensure we got them! All of that strategy and teamwork is gone now... The "chess" aspect of Halo is gone!
To ME, Halo was a First Person Shooter version of Chess. Strategy! Most players didn't understand this, and just ran out in the middle and shot like crazy. Those, to me, are the kids who like Reach and Halo 4.
We miss the strategy, the setups, controlling when weapons respawn, the NEED for teamwork.
If we don't have a rank, we don't put our try-hard pants on! Who cares if you lose, it's not like your going to lose your 50 because it isn't ranked! It is like playing a basketball game without keeping score!
Of course there are going to be people who like the game. Everyone has their own opinion.. but as a voice, from all of the TRUE Halo addicts who play it because of what Halo truly is... We miss Halo and are truly upset and fear Halo, as we know it, is now dead and will never return. This is the only reason I play the 360.
Now, I expect this thread to be removed. Mostly because I voiced my opinion, which as an American I believe that we have freedom of speech. However, this speech is probably going to be censored by mods/admins here because it is the truth and goes against what 343 wants to hear.
As a business, you need to hear what your people want. You can't blindly toss products out and say here, this is what you get. You appeal to your audience! Now you appealed to those "other" people for Reach and 4, please don't leave us Halo die hards out to dry. We played Halo 2 till the server shut down, and we are STILL playing Halo 3 to this day because we don't like Reach or 4! I feel we are the true members of Halo, and it is a shame to forget about us!
You need to know, we are upset with what Halo has became.
I made a Facebook page, and am gathering votes from Halo fans. So voice your opinion! If we get enough votes, maybe we can prove to 343 what the real fans want! If we wanted CoD we would play CoD!
Share your vote:
https://www.facebook.com/Halo4Review
We would like to share the results of the voting with 343.
