Why is 343i dropping playlists?

[M7cah]

My favorite part about Halo: Reach was all of the playlists it offered. I could play some good old Team Slayer for a while to pass some time, then play some Team Snipers to improve my sniping skills, then I could jump into a game of Action Sack or Grifball and play Halo Ball or Dino Blasters to screw around and admire the creativity of this game, and if I wanted to get competitive I could join some of my buddies and play MLG for a bit. In Halo: Reach there was literally nothing you couldn't do with it's countless playlists and custom games/forge that it had. While I love Halo 4, I just feel like it didn't meet my expectations, the forge maps aren't even close to being as big as Forge World was... you can't build a decent race track anymore (there's not even a race game type) or a "Pillar of Autumn" replica because there simply isn't enough space, and without regular infection you can't create games like Cops n Robbers, Fat Kid, Hot Pursuit, Jenga Tower, Jaws, Teacher and the many other game types... you can't play these games with "Flood mode," it just isn't possible. Halo 4 is superior when it comes to graphics and audio, but that's just about it in my opinion... Halo 3 had the most competitive online and the best campaign, Halo 2 had the best maps, and Halo: Reach had the most variety and the best custom games and forge. 343i can you please bring back Team Snipers and Free For All? Can you please release a decent forge map that has enough space to build something? Can you add more gametypes? And can you please bring a Classic Slayer option so I can put in traditional weapon spawns "without" it showing everyone on the map where the weapon respawned at, (I'm a little tired of all of these perks, ordanance drops and other features, I just need a break from it all)? I don't know if the forge you released was an attempt to make it harder to build maps and gametyes in order to make us players buy more DLC and map packs and focus more on your online servers (which I already play matchmaking or "Infinity" more than I play customs) but I really miss the creativity that the Halo franchise used to have, these are simply speculations and I'm not accusing you guys (343i) of any of thism I just feel like Halo 4 has so much potential, but lacks creativity and the "fun" factor. I love 343i by the way and other than Bungie, wouldn't want any other company to make the series. You guys rock!

[Twisted Oracle]

343 Industries is rotating playlist to see how many people will play a certain gametype before they release the finished playlist product sometime in 2013

 

It may seem like a inconvienince right now but it will pay off later

[l Xenoes l]

They said before they even released the game that they would be rotating game types in the playlist to see how the population varies for each playlist. They still have Team Dubs, Griffball and MLG to add. They've already said yes to the first to but, they don't know about MLG yet. Plus Extraction has yet to be added as a stand alone playlist. They want to have a perfect list set that everyone will like so they need a little time. I for one am very bored with the lack of fun game types.

[SatanicBagels]

It's hard to fully understand the way 343 industries is trying to do things (most likely because it's incredibly stupid -- sorry super fanboys) but your best bet is to just be patient. The intelligent thing to do would be to introduce Team Snipers and Grifball full time then Rotate a few others. Since 343i's goal is not to water down the populations with too many playlists may I recommend to them combining Oddball, CTF, and KoTH into one Team Objective playlists. I think that would solve the problem.

 

Of course nobody will be completely satisfied. They're just trying to do their best... and aside from a few little pointers they're doing a damn good job of it.

[Sova]

Yeah, they are basically experimenting to see what the strongest playlists are each week and then will finalize it all in the new year. Sadly, I think this has upset a lot of people because you have fun with a playlist then its gone for awhile. Patience is key I guess. What I worry is that they'll finalize their playlist next year and update it once and be done with it so they can work on Halo 5...sadly this is how the gaming industry is working right now. Always working towards the next product.

 

View Halo 4 matchmaking from release to the upcoming update as their version of a Beta...basically we are all guinea pigs right now who are somehow working out the kinks for 343i. It's up to them to decide what works and what doesn't. Hopefully they'll get it right. If they don't...well, I'm off to Fifa.

[Mr. X]

I hope what you say is true Sova (that there will be a permaned "final playlist"). But still I dare to question their strategy, since many people become bored with the same few gametypes and move on to another game instead of waiting. Also it is one of the things which make the game look terribly unfinished (now I almost believe that they absolutely HAD to get the game exactly on November 6th out). Instead of this they could have given us the "complete playlist" and then gradually taken out the gamemodes with a small population instead of the other way around. This shouldn't feel like a friggin beta...

 

What was great about Reach was the variety, so the sudden lack of BTB CTF, One Flag, Griffball, Forge-Map Matchmaking, even Coop Campaign in MM (wtf?) is really disappointing.

[D-38 Boss]

They are trying something new with cycling playlists.