• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo |OT9| One Final Effort Is All That Remains

senador

Banned
I've heard this reasoning and critique from a lot of people. It's not just an opinion, its an opinion a lot of people who enjoy ranks have.

Add in the population of Arena and the frequency of people comparing their rank in reach with each other to when we had Halo 3/2 ranks and I think a safe conclusion was the system sucked.

I think getting a group of people who played a lot of arena and ranked halo 3/2 and asking them which system was better... I think the answer would be obvious.

Not saying to return to the system, but 343 needs to see what worked, what was flawed, and adjust accordingly.

Unfortunately, despite the big media blowout, ranks are still in the dark. Wheres the MP vidoc? I'm assuming its coming after the Promethean Weapon Dubstep video?

I personally like Arena and would welcome a revised 2nd version of it in 4. I wasn't defending Arena in my post though. Its pretty shitty to say something like "oh well since I never went back and was misinformed it just goes to show you that it was shit. FACT". That is simply bullshit.
 
Are we talking about Arena? That rating system made no sense. I've seen people with the exact same rating as me get put in medium-level Silver and I got in Bronze.
You can do it in the store however the only reserve cards I noticed were for the standard edition game.

Oh... hi there... enjoy last Saturday?
Go Carolina
 

Karl2177

Member
At a basic level 1-50 is flawed. On the same level Arena is leagues better.

The actual implementation of the systems is what set them apart. Arena was not implemented properly, whereas 1-50 was implemented properly. Just take a look at the most competitive game on the market and look how it does competitive matching. Guess what? It looks a lot like Arena, but in a properly implemented form.
 
I'm in the same boat as heckfu. Arena is boring. Also it ranks you against your team so you are encouraged to steal kills and hog weapons.

This is why I never cared for Arena, especially at first. Too much emphasis on playing like a selfish nerd instead of like a team.

I like the idea of rank being associated with your wins/losses, but if you go 34-3 you shouldn't drop as much in rank as someone who went 3-43 on the same team if you lost. For a win though, everyone should rank up the same.
 
Does anyone know how the game comes packed in with the Limited Edition Console bundle? Or has anyone purchased a similar console bundle in the past and can remember how the standard edition of the game came packaged.

Basically what Im getting at is that I want to purchase the Limited Edition Console but would like to have the Collector's Edition of the game itself. If it comes in a normal retail box with a standard bar code I can just return it but something is telling me its not going to be that easy.

And then finally does anyone know what dlc codes come in the LE Console Bundle because it they are the same that is found in the limited edition I might just go with the regular version. Any help would be appreciated as Ive been trying to find these answers for quite a while now.
 

Amazing Mic

Neo Member
Are we talking about Arena? That rating system made no sense. I've seen people with the exact same rating as me get put in medium-level Silver and I got in Bronze.

...on the other hand, 2 years later your average player still doesn't know how Arena works.

...man


At a basic level 1-50 is flawed. On the same level Arena is leagues better.

The actual implementation of the systems is what set them apart. Arena was not implemented properly, whereas 1-50 was implemented properly. Just take a look at the most competitive game on the market and look how it does competitive matching. Guess what? It looks a lot like Arena, but in a properly implemented form.

Agree with this. Have to force feed it.
 
Does anyone know how the game comes packed in with the Limited Edition Console bundle? Or has anyone purchased a similar console bundle in the past and can remember how the standard edition of the game came packaged.

Basically what Im getting at is that I want to purchase the Limited Edition Console but would like to have the Collector's Edition of the game itself. If it comes in a normal retail box with a standard bar code I can just return it but something is telling me its not going to be that easy.

Unfortunately, the game should come in a black case that has a "Not For Resale" notice on the packaging. That's how my Reach Console was, at least.

edit: Found an unboxing video of the Gears Console and the game is in a green case. But I'm sure it still has "Not for Resale" on it.
 

Karl2177

Member

I wouldn't even bother man. I could give an in-depth post about how TrueSkill works, and 95% of the regular HaloGAF posters will still continue to bitch about how it is broken without providing a better alternative. And given how close knit TrueSkill is to Arena is why I say this.
 
Yea, it comes down to the fact that Arena wasn't fun. There was too much focus on your performance over a series of games rather than focusing on doing well in the moment. Even if the 1-50 ranking was flawed, you had your number right there, and each game you tried to get that number up and keep it from going down. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one.
 

Amazing Mic

Neo Member
Don't act surprised, its not as if the game itself conveys any of Arena's intricacies to the player. You can't expect the average player to read online about how your ranking system works.

Your average player, sure... a poster on here, yeah, I'm a bit surprised.

Just find the volume of "it sucks there are no ranks", "loose truskill sucks" complaints funny when the Arena Blows Bandwagon rolls in.

Yea, it comes down to the fact that Arena wasn't fun. There was too much focus on your performance over a series of games rather than focusing on doing well in the moment. Even if the 1-50 ranking was flawed, you had your number right there, and each game you tried to get that number up and keep it from going down. Sometimes the simple answer is the right one.

Wow. Your performance over a series of games mattered no more or less than in H3. You could play 1 game of Arena in a given day, not get a numerical rating- that 1 game still counted. The shiny little number was the only significant difference. Look, Arena wasn't perfect. Hell, I stopped playing it. But these arguments are mind boggling.
 
Your average player, sure... a poster on here, yeah, I'm a bit surprised.

Just find the volume of "it sucks there are no ranks", "loose truskill sucks" complaints funny when the "Arena blows" bandwagon rolls in.



Wow. Your performance over a series of games mattered no more or less than in H3. You could play 1 game of Arena in a given day, not get a numerical rating- that 1 game still counted. The shiny little number was the only significant difference. Look, Arena wasn't perfect. Hell, I stopped playing it. But these arguments are mind boggling.

You may want to hold your wows and whats when you post here, it may turn a 180 on you and end in embarassment. Like i said in the post you quoted, im not talking about accuracy of the system, im talking about human response; the psychology of it wasnt there. If you just looked at the arena playlist a mere couple months after release and noticed he population, youd realize something was wong there. It was convoluted; complexity and accuracy doesn't mean shit if you're focused on the wrong variables.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I personally like Arena and would welcome a revised 2nd version of it in 4. I wasn't defending Arena in my post though. Its pretty shitty to say something like "oh well since I never went back and was misinformed it just goes to show you that it was shit. FACT". That is simply bullshit.

Agreed. Make Arena records built into player cards, make the history searchable on Waypoint, make seasons last longer, and push the playlist to the second or third option. All those things would make it better, and I'd definitely play it.
 

Kibbles

Member
So any Packets fans in here? If so, I'm sorry you got screwed.

Anyways, about that Halo.....

Yeah, I mean there are always going to be calls people bitch about but that entire game was just plain ridiculous. The NFL is such a joke.

But uh this Halo 4 video on Wednesday, is this confirmed? Sweet stuff.
 
Hoping Halo 4's matchmaking is tightened up skill wise.

Funny thing is the TrueSkill matching when you toggle on "closest skill match" is actually very very good at matching players based on skill.

The issue so many confuse with TrueSkill is the current pool population when searching for a game. Just as in Frankie's recent comments he used the analogy that higher population is like boats floating on a rising ocean level. I found that the perfect analogy for the matchmaking systems, including skill based matching.

If you search for a game and you're top 2% of players just how many of those players are searching your playlist at that time that match your skill, region/latency and all the other metrics for matchmaking?

There's the real issue, the system is perfectly able to match based on skill but the longer the search goes on it has to widen parameters to simply get you in a game.

I posted on Waypoint about an additional toggle filter for "strict or widen parameters" so by default players would have very similar to Halo3/Reach matchmaking but could force strict matching and wait it out until games/players are found that you want.

Even if a playlist has 5,000 players imagine 2% of that as 100 players matching your skill rank (visible or not). Now take how many are already in a game of 4v4 or 8v8 and also check for region matching. You can see why low population creates this confusion that skill matching is not occurring, although the fact is the system is perfectly capable of matching on skill. It's the player pool at a given time and playlist that is the main issue.

I'm sure Halo 4 will be magnitudes more popular than Reach and we should see the matchmaking systems in full affect.
 

Amazing Mic

Neo Member
You may want to hold your wows and whats when you post here, it may turn a 180 on you and end in embarassment. Like i said in the post you quoted, im not talking about accuracy of the system, im talking about human response; the psychology of it wasnt there. If you just looked at the arena playlist a mere couple months after release and noticed he populartion, youd realize something was wrong there.

So essentially, Arena didn't work because Halo players have the attention spans of a walnut and Halo's developers should address this by gearing future games towards more casual players?

Check.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
So essentially, Arena didn't work because Halo players have the attention spans of a walnut and Halo's developers should address this by gear future games towards more casual players?

Check.
Consumers are consumers. Ultimately it was Bungie's fault they either did not set up Arena properly or adjust it later on. While sometimes players are stupid, it's not a suicide pact by either side--in a modern multiplayer game there's got to be give and take, and refinement.
 
Ridiculous. Give the official refs whatever they want, they need them badly.

The sad thing is they are only asking for an increase of 3.3 million per year TOTAL. The highest paid ref gets less than 80k per year. Keep in mind this comes a year after the league lost almost an entire season while players and owners fought over how to divide BILLIONS. Really? You guys can't cough up 3.3 million to protect the billions you were going to war over?

Something something all this reminds me of Spartan IVs. Something something, they both wear helmets.
 

Amazing Mic

Neo Member
Consumers are consumers. Ultimately it was Bungie's fault they either did not set up Arena properly or adjust it later on. While sometimes players are stupid, it's not a suicide pact by either side--in a modern multiplayer game there's got to be give and take, and refinement.

No denying it could have been improved, and I believe it probably would have been if not for the transition.

There are just so many silly circular arguments. Loose truskill is the worst, won't play the playlist that has tight truskill. Arena wasn't fun, complains about camo on Uncaged. Need a larger population for matchmaking to work properly, throws fit over changes that are meant to attract your more typical consumers.

Glad it's not my job to fix it.
 
So essentially, Arena didn't work because Halo players have the attention spans of a walnut and Halo's developers should address this by gear future games towards more casual players?

Check.

Like i said, and ive talked to other good players who felt the same way, arena felt like more of a chore to play. Its not hard to see why. Youre Like the programmer who thinks the numbers are the truth, but im the guy who tells you that truth starts with the subject; the player. 10 to 1 says a vast majority of people like ranking more than arena. Do you want to play a game where less people are having fun? Maybe, maybe.
 

Amazing Mic

Neo Member
Like i said, and ive talked to other good players who felt the same way, arena felt like more of a chore to play. Its not hard to see why. Youre Like the programmer who thinks the numbers are the truth, but im the guy who tells you that truth starts with the subject; the player. 10 to 1 says a vast majority of people like ranking more than arena. Do you want to play a game where less people are having fun? Maybe, maybe.

Get 50 once, keep that general tag forever. A big reason 1-50 is so beloved is as simple as that. I'll take the more accurate ladder method any day- more of a challenge.

If Arena had all the fluff and bling and it was easier to get the rank they wanted (i.e the ceiling was much more easily obtainable)- I'd be shocked if those good players you mentioned had the same opinion. At it's core- I truly believe it has little to do with competitive gameplay for most people.
 
Reach damn...

Just played BTB Heavies on Boneyard against a full team on inheritors, partied up and mics on. My team was a full team of randoms. The game ended 137 to 20.

343, please tell me Halo 4 will properly match players together.
 

Karl2177

Member
Like i said, and ive talked to other good players who felt the same way, arena felt like more of a chore to play. Its not hard to see why. Youre Like the programmer who thinks the numbers are the truth, but im the guy who tells you that truth starts with the subject; the player. 10 to one says people like ranking more than arena. Do you want to play a game where less people are having fun? Maybe, maybe.

I'm gonna implement 1-50 in one playlist and one playlist only. I'm also going to base how fast you rank up based on your K+A/D for the first few months. Also, everything is AR starts with Camo, Jetpack, and Armor Lock loadouts. Enjoy my implementation of your ranking system.

Now do you see that the main faults of Arena were not on how it worked, but how it was placed? What happens if you change it to the following? Division ranking in 5 playlists where you play 5 games to get matched into a division. You can then move up or down in your division until you are at the top or bottom and then move up or down a division based on how you play. Wow, that sounds like it appeals to casual players by giving them progression in 2 places. Wow, that sounds like it appeals to hardcore players by making sure they are at the top of their game to stay at the top. How do we prevent rank lock? Reset the divisions and make you play another game to compare with your previous average and re-evaluate what division you should be placed in.
 

zap

Member
I don't understand how when a friend and I played together every single game in Arena one season, he got gold and I got silver. This was after it became based on win/loss only. Either someone lied when they said it was win/loss or ... it doesn't make sense.
 

Computron

Member
I don't understand how when a friend and I played together every single game in Arena one season, he got gold and I got silver. This was after it became based on win/loss only. Either someone lied when they said it was win/loss or ... it doesn't make sense.

I hate to break this to you, but your friend has been cheating on you...

...with randoms....

Your partner must've felt dissatisfied with your inadequate silver-level dong...-ing skills.

LOL
/jk
 
Yup, each specialization has ten ranks, and at the tenth level of each specialization you unlock a helmet (or a full armor set?).
Fairly certain you unlock the armor mod (perk) at the tenth level.
You all need to play the game from now on until Halo 4 comes out.
No thanks.
No one else bothered by the random weapon drop system?
Read people's PAX impressions. Global Ordnance System is bad.
 
Top Bottom