Disclaimer: I'm new to the forum but have been playing halo since CE. I realize what I will say may have been already said
There's a reason why Halo has fallen behind CoD. There are reasons why it is behind Minecraft statistically on XBL. H2 dominated XBL. What has changed?
I think this all started way back in H2 when Bungie decided to get rid of Clanmatches all-together. That's when things started to go downhill. The catering to casual fish. The environment became too competitive for those that wished to play once a week and still be seen on the same level as the competitive community which made Halo the international success that it used to be.
And starting with H3, we saw the death of competition on this game, with the weird, clunky, unappealing matchmaking ranking system. In this manner, Bungie was acting as a bleeding heart liberal, trying to blur the line and "level" the playing field between the truly skilled and the non-skilled casuals who aren't as invested in the game to begin with. And now with Halo 4, any semblance of a delineation between skill and no skill has been vanquished. We are now all the same, no matter how good any of us are. The current "ranking" system is a complete rip-off of CoD, highlighting how much time is spent playing the game as opposed to how good you actually are. The level goes up to 130 I believe, which is completely arbitrary and shows that 343 made no attempt whatsoever to make it psychologically satisfying in the least
Not to mention the actual playlists. Where is double team? Team Snipers? Where is team hardcore? What is a zombie playlist doing there? That belongs in customs. Team Swat? Belongs in customs. But of course, the crap maps don't really lend themselves to good playlists to begin with.
The noobs and casuals have killed the Halo community and the game as a whole, by whining and complainging that they were not as good as the high levels in H2. The developers caved and caved until you have what you see before you, which is no representation for actual skill whatsoever.
The ranking system is a joke. Their nonsense reason for getting rid of it is even worse; you will have people cheating in this game with or without the ranking system. All you've done at this point is equate a noob with a God, by allowing the noob to play all day and receive the same satisfaction, the same "ranking" as the God.
This is what led to the MLG disconnect. They will never come back. Not directly because of the clan and ranking issue, but indirectly. Its the culture. Its the developers acting as fat cats on wall street, thinking only of profit instead of giving the dedicated community what they need to keep interest in the game. I have no interest in ranking to 130; it is meaningless.
They of course signed with Virgin, and the first tournament is of the same ilk. Play alot and you win. Doesn't matter if you're any good.
I urge 343 to get rid of the flashy armor, the stupid experience points, etc. Bring back a simple, yet appealing, ranking system as seen in H2. Show that you care about the real community, the community that helped make this into an E-sport. Stop catering to noobs. There's no reason not to have Clans or clan matches. If noobs feel as though Clans ostracize them and make the field too competitive, so be it. If they feel its not fair that they can't have a cool rank like the good clans, let them practice more.
But the answer is not to get rid of all these things all-together because of so-called "cheating" or so-called "casuals". Back in my day we called them noobs and that's what they are. I swear, the left-wing liberals ideology has made everyone soft. People don't even T-bag as much anymore. I hate what this has become
/rant