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July 17, 2005

In Response

First off, thanks to everyone who responded (both in the forum and on my blog) in having to do with my last entry on cheaters/XBL/matchmaking. After reading through all of your comments I decided to further clarify my view with another post.

First off all, I think Halo 2's matchmaking is an incredible feat in terms of multiplayer gaming and probably the best designed system I have seen yet. After reading your comments I got the impression that most of you thought I hated it and I don't. The server browsers that were the staple of any PC based shooter were a horrendous waste of time and only served to match you up with other great gamers if you could devote those 'gobs of time' I was talking about to sift through the hundreds of available servers. I am no longer a PC gamer (I have been converted by the potent gospel of the Mac :) ) but was while in high school and could set aside that time to hop from server to server while purposefully neglecting my homework. Now that I am finished with college and a busy professional, Halo 2's approach of matching you by similar skill level and connection speed is marvelous and I have taken full advantage of being able to get myself into a playable (barely noticeable lag, similarly skilled opponents) experience.

The whole crux of my last essay, if you could even call it that; perhaps 'rant' is more appropriate, is failed expectations and I can hardly blame Bungie for that. Anyone who has been a member of a regularly meeting LAN can attest to the fact that we were all under the impression that we were going to have the same multiplayer experiences we had with Halo: Combat Evolved but without having to lug our televisions anywhere. I was regaled with their promises of a virtual couch with perfectly matched games with other anonymous players everywhere.

I imagined a world where one could enter thousands of separate games and in each one would be a myriad of civil, polite and skilled Master Chief from the HBO forums who, whether he or she won or lost, would have some kind words to say after the game was over. In retrospect I can see my expectations being both warranted and completely unrealistic. On one hand my introduction to the Halo community outside of my weekly LAN was HBO and from my first post everyone there was incredibly wonderful and supportive; I felt a shared camaraderie with these other folks who obsessed over a game and their passion for meeting in person to play it. (In my opinion I think the reason why the HBO community is so strong is because we had to meet in order to play with one another and couldn't rely on the internets to connect us.) On the other hand Halo's massive fan base assured me that not everyone would be so kind, especially when that whole anonymity variable is added to the mixture. (For more on what I think of expectations read this. More formal essays and my design work here.)

I do have a couple of suggestions for Halo 3 so I'll go right ahead and share my opinion. Keep matchmaking but split it in two, keeping the numbered ranking part for those people who really like having a number applied to their skill level. The other part of matchmaking would be unranked but a little more functional than the paltry 'training' playlists. This new half of matchmaking would have filters where you could specify what game you were looking to play. You could tell it whether you only wanted to play team games, or only CTF or only games in a particular map or only with a particular weapon. That way if I have an extra hour in my night I know that I could immediately be put in a game of CTF shotguns in Turf. Also it would be great to have keywords to apply to your gamertag such as HBO, HIH or other little meta-tags that could match you up with other members of your community in a matchmaking setting without having to schedule it on a forum. From a programming standpoint these are absolutely doable (though I do understand this would increase the time spent on the waiting screen since there are more variables the game would have to sort out) and could make the unranked part of XBL a little more robust.

Halo 2 is a masterpiece and matchmaking is incredible but with any game experience there are only things that can be discovered after a lot of playtesting and feedback. A lot of the features that were built in to the game seemed like a really good idea but didn't work out, in terms of my opinion, to be that successful. Part of what makes Bungie the best game developer on the planet is that they push themselves to make something great and not something mediocre. Hopefully in the next incarnation of Master Chief's adventure they can further refine the monumental steps they took in changing the way people experience multiplayer shooters.

On a side note I'd be fascinated to hear from you other community members whether or not Halo 2 is 'better' than Halo 1. There, of course, are no right or wrong answers; only subjective opinions but I think it would be fascinating to discuss nonetheless. In my humble opinion I like Halo better for no other reason than nostalgia over some favorite game types. Nothing is more sublime than CTF Damnation or CTF Single Flag Shotguns in Chill Out. There are some incredible new weapons and levels in Halo 2 but nothing can hold a candle to the simplicity of pistol duels or the raw up-close power of the original shotgun. In fact, I would have been happy if Halo 2 had the exact same graphics and same weapons with just some extra vehicles and a whole new single player campaign. What do you guys think?

Posted by Jon at July 17, 2005 09:07 PM

Comments

"I do have a couple of suggestions for Halo 3 so I'll go right ahead and share my opinion. Keep matchmaking but split it in two, keeping the numbered ranking part for those people who really like having a number applied to their skill level. The other part of matchmaking would be unranked but a little more functional than the paltry 'training' playlists. This new half of matchmaking would have filters where you could specify what game you were looking to play."

There would be less games played and lotsa of sitting in the wait screen, why do u think u play people from other continents? Peolple want to play right then and there, who's gonna sit and wait 10+ mins to play? Halo is a too fast paced game for ppl to wait. Imagine kicking butt at a game, your all fired up....then BLAM you wait, and wait, and wait to be matched up in the game you want to play. Or you just lost a game by 2 points or something really close, would u honestly want to spend time sitting there or would you rather pop back in another game? Come on now, you do seem smarter then that. Yes I said wait too many times, but that's exactly what your suggestions will do.


peace out

Posted by: sumHALOfan at July 18, 2005 05:41 AM

Great!

Chekc my site out 2 at teamconquest.tk

Posted by: Chuck (KingChuck) at July 18, 2005 08:30 AM

"There would be less games played and lotsa of sitting in the wait screen, why do u think u play people from other continents? Peolple want to play right then and there, who's gonna sit and wait 10+ mins to play? Halo is a too fast paced game for ppl to wait. Imagine kicking butt at a game, your all fired up....then BLAM you wait, and wait, and wait to be matched up in the game you want to play."

Oh, so not at all like sitting for five minutes while it finds a match to dump you in, and ending up in a 4v4 CTF where three people drop from your team in the first minute because they don't want that particular map/gametype?

If people are willing to join dozens of games and drop from them until they find the one they want, I think they'll be willing to wait a couple of minutes for it to compile a list of people interested in similar matches. And it'll mean more njoyment for EVERYONE.

Posted by: Int21h at July 18, 2005 08:58 AM

I dont have Xbox Live so I dont know about the pains you have suffered due to Matchmaking and foul-mouthed teens but I do relate to what you said about Halo 1. The simplness of the levels and the game play was incredible and a joy to play.
One thing I miss about Halo 1 (and I have a feeling I will be alone on this one) is the health bar. Say Im strange but I liked the fact that you could die when falling from astronomical heights. I liked the angst of running for a health pack wondering if I was going to make it in time. I liked the challenge of getting to new heights wondering if it was going to cost me a suicide. When I ride a banchee up to the cliffs on Coagulation and I set up a sniping post up there I dont worry about whether I slip off the the wrong part of the rock and slide down. What has it cost me? Not that much.
So yeah - that was the joy of Halo 1. They took things away that werent broken. They too added things that were Phenomenal. Dual weilding, I love it even though I never use it. I love grenades more. Boarding, There is nothing cooler than that. The lock on with the rocket launcher, what a great concept even though it makes the rocket launcher too powerful in my opinion I love that you can do that.
So thought I would give my two cents.

Posted by: XBOXMOXIE at July 18, 2005 10:38 AM

I don't think you'd have to wait THAT long. Remember, Halo 2 has a higher number of online players than any other game. The meta keywords could apply to, for example, just "Warlock," or, "1 flag CTF Snipers Containment/Elongation/Ascension." If you're in a rush and you just want to play on your favorite map, Warlock, and don't care WHAT you play, then you just enter Warlock and you get popped into a game. If you have time and are willing to wait in order to play a gametype on either of your 3 favorite maps, then make your filter words more specific. It'd be kinda like Google, except your searching for games! I like that idea. And remember, you can still go to normal matchmaking if you don't want to do this. And to prevent everyone on Live from only playing the filtered matchmaking, Bungie should just hide ranks. Or at least instead of specific ranks, show a range of levels, like for example, if you are a level 21, instead of showing 21 as your level, show a range like "17-23." That way, people won't obsess over their rank, not know what their certain level is, and if they want a higher range, they should just play more without worrying about their level is.

Posted by: Jimmy at July 18, 2005 10:48 AM

First off, I'd just like to simply say "Thank You" to Jon for saying what needed to be said in regards to cheating in Halo 2 Matchmaking. Sadly, I'm sure that everyone at one point in time has had to deal with Spartan's and/or Elite's performing Matrix-style jumping on Warlock, and needless to say, it's just not fun. I mean, I like complaining as much as the next guy, but when your "rant" turned into a list of ideas, i was actually shocked that I (or Bungie for that matter) hadn't thought of certain things earlier!

Now, I will admit, the first time I got modded it was during a game of CTF Warlock, and as soon as i figured out what the other team was doing I was SLIGHTLY amused... I thought to myself, 'Wow, running at light speed and jumping to hights that make superjumping seem like child's play? cool!' Then of course, I realized that this wasn't a custom game; the fact that I had just been hacked against was going to affect my rank - and I became angry. And I have STILL been angry in regards to cheating since that game, and every other game where Warthogs Fly, Sniper Bullet's magically find their way instantly to my Cerebrum, and everyone on the opposing team acts like Keanu Reeves (in amazing movie-like stunts, and then sounding/acting like retards when we finally ask them as to why they feel they need to cheat in order to win).

I guess the real issue is this: Cheating is Never going to go away. Ever. It's sad to think about, but true nonetheless. Everytime Bungie works their asses off to create a new patch or autoupdate, some bunch of no-talent clowns is going to be working just as hard somewhere else to develop new ways to get AROUND those new updates.

But! That doesn't mean that people have to suffer because of it! I think Jon is absolutely 100% dead on with his idea of making a new place on Halo 2 Matchmaking just where people could come and mess around with their modded xbox's. Naturally, I respect Bungie Greatly for their hard-working and current attempts to keep Cheaters out of Matchmaking - but as long as Xbox LIVE is creating and sending out 2 Month Free Trial cards by the masses, these people are just going to keep coming back for more. I feel that if Bungie combined the current structure of Xbox LIVE with the structure of XBC (Xbox Connect), then the problem of cheating just might slip away. I used to be an avid Red Alert 2 Player, and I remember how fun it would be to search for games to play in where people had altered the game so that the British Sniper could pop guys off from practically halfway across the map, and that the once innocent Cows had become Weapons of Mass Destruction. If we could just simply search for people on Halo 2 playing in custom games where Anyone (not just people on your friends list) could come in, then the Modders just might finally have someplace to call their own, other than their Mother's Basement.

If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea and you want an idea that sounds more Down to Earth, I seriously think that Bungie should have a long, detailed chat with the people at Xbox LIVE making 2 Month Free trial cards. Rather than banning someone's gamertag after they've been proven a cheater in matchmaking, why not simply write down the person's Name, Address, etc in a 'little black book' of banning? Then, the next time they try to change their gamertag from ImadirtyHacker1 to ImadirtyHacker2 using a 2 month free trial card, the people at Xbox LIVE will raise the red flag when they see it's just the same guy trying to simply 'step around' the inconvenient ban that has been placed upon him. If something like that happened, I believe that Cheaters would seriously think twice before going into a game to screw with people's heads.

Anyway, I just realized that I originally wanted this post to respond to the question of "Is Halo 1 better than Halo 2?" but instead, my good friend ADD came by and encouraged me to write juuuust a little bit about how I felt about Cheating. Super. So Enough about cheating, what do I think about the difference between "The original and the Sequel". I remember when I first snagged Halo 2 right after Midnight Madness at my local EB store, brought it home and enjoyed the love for about 48 hours straight. Then I realized: this game is horribly different from the one we all fell in love with...is it still the same?

Well, the short answer is NO. They are not the same. But I've been playing Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE for a loooong time, so just the other night, I decided to hop on XBC with Halo 1 in hand and try to give it a serious compare/contrast, and what I realized was this - some changes were good, some were bad, some were necessary, and some were entirely unecessary.

First off, if you've been playing Halo 2 for a long time and suddenly decide to take a trip through the past and take a walk in the Old school Master chief's shoes, prepare to be aggrivated. I went into Campaign mode and it suddenly felt like the Chief's armor had suddenly gotten 9000lbs heavier. I hit A to jump, and I had to check at least 2 or 3 times to make sure he was even jumping at all. I guess what I'm saying is this: Movement in Halo 2 is far better than what we had all been used to in Halo 1. Jumps in 2 are higher, movement is quicker, and it doesn't feel like you're running through an open field of mashed potatoes.

Anyhoo, moving on. Weapons. Now, keep in mind that this is only 1 guys opinion, if you want to post to this and say that I suck, sure, go ahead, that's what this is for. Of course, everyone was dissapointed when we found out that the nastyness of the 3-head-shot pistol was not making its way to Halo 2, but I think when comparing Halo 1's pistol to Halo 2's Battle Rifle, the Battle Rifle takes the cake. They both get the job done, but somehow I feel that the Halo 2 Battle Rifle takes more skill and has more options (like giving cover fire, etc) than the simple Bang, Bang, Bang, Dead Pistol of Halo 1. Dual wielding in Halo 2 was such a great feature added to the game, I say it's a hands down contest that 2 guns on your screen is more fun than one. However, if there's 1 gun we can all agree got the shaft from H1 to H2, it's the Shotgun. When I was playing Campaign mode in H1, my jaw was hanging in awe when i found out I was doing severe amounts of damage with the shotgun from such far distances, Unlike in H2 where you need to practically stick the barrel up your enemies nose in hopes of getting any sort of work done. Now, something else that I discovered I truly missed from Halo 1 - whatever happened to the stun feature on the Covie Assault Rifle? That was the most fun thing, EVER. Period. Nothing brought a smile to my face more than knowing that even though my enemy in H1 had an almighty pistol, I was going to bring him down with a barrage of stun-gun fire followed by a quick bash to the brain. Thinking about it now, Bungie must've taken that feature out bc of Dual Wielding (just imagine the power of the stun gun x2), but still, it was indeed dissapointing finding out that the stun feature was not carried over to H2.

Next up, Grenades. I threw a grenade in H1 for the first time in months, and felt like I had magically turned into Randy Johnson. I whipped that sucker so hard, it was practically a line-drive-frag grenade. Why was this changed for Halo 2? Understandably some people think it's "cheap" to be able to throw a frag from one end of Hang Em High to the other, but doens't it take skill to know where to aim your cursor for the toss anyway?

Melee's. Why oh why, did Bungie change the Melee's from H1 to H2. Why? In Halo 1, if you swung your weapon, and there was some unlucky sucker standing in front of you, he got socked, and he deserved it. How many times have you tried to 'lock on' and Melee somebody in Halo 2 with your SMG and have it mysteriously hit them, but not? The Melee's never went funky in Halo 1. Also, when you Melee in Halo 1, your Spartan doesn't act like he's Having a Seizure with crazy screen-movement. In H2, melee with the sniper or rocket, or pretty much any gun, and your screen will bounce around and go crazy. In H1, you melee and your Screen stays perfectly in place.

And of course, Finally, the Levels. I'm goint to leave it to everyone else out there to determine which game has better levels, because quite frankly, I like them all. I just wish that Bungie had brought over more levels from H1. Imagine using the Battle Rifle On Damnation, or breaking out the sword on Prisoner.
If Bungie combined the good from H1 and H2 for Halo 3, i think we'd all be set for life.

Posted by: KEIS IRaP3n00bS at July 18, 2005 11:26 AM

I think they should make Halo 2 matchmaking like they did with crimson skies so you can choose which gametype you play and which map and there could be a host that makes the game so you wouldn't have to invite everyone on your friends list and you could play with different people because I like how you can do a custom game but you can only do it with people on your friends list which kinda sucks. I also agree with halo 1 being better because halo 2 doesnt take as much skill as halo 1 did. don't have time to explain but i will some other time.

Posted by: Truok at July 18, 2005 11:33 AM

I was reading over KEIS IRaP3n00bS's post and I thought, there's one thing he missed that I miss from H1, and that's using grenades to move stuff. I remember watching a friend of mine spawn in the corner of Hang em High, and with 2 well placed grenades, he had sniper and rockets. Nasty. Now the grenades blow up next to a plasma pistol, and it looks like someone breathed on it. Granted, I love H2, and honestly, I think it's the better game. I actually think it takes more thinking than H1, and teamwork is an absolute MUST. One player can't just come in and dominate a whole team (unless said team is TERRIBLY unorganized). But I do miss grenade tricks. (Oh, and if anyone thinks that hog-jumping is gone, try driving around coag with a friend in a wraith. Good wholesome explosive fun).

Posted by: Doc Platinum at July 18, 2005 11:59 AM

Rematch option!

That's what's missing to keep Halo 2 from feeling like a LAN. How many times do you go to a LAN, play one game and then leave to find another LAN. Doesn't happen. The lack of rematches and the lack of any real communication with the other team other than the postgame smack talk and the ingame proximity smack talk, there's no way to get to know your opponents (another hallmark of LANs). It also encourages the whole anononymity factor which gives birth to racism, sexism and cheating.

Posted by: Epyon at July 18, 2005 12:09 PM

"There are some incredible new weapons and levels in Halo 2 but nothing can hold a candle to the simplicity of pistol duels or the raw up-close power of the original shotgun. In fact, I would have been happy if Halo 2 had the exact same graphics and same weapons with just some extra vehicles and a whole new single player campaign. What do you guys think?"

So what Im hearin is that wanted Halo 1.5 Not Halo 2.

Posted by: Edmund at July 18, 2005 12:48 PM

"I think when comparing Halo 1's pistol to Halo 2's Battle Rifle, the Battle Rifle takes the cake. They both get the job done, but somehow I feel that the Halo 2 Battle Rifle takes more skill"

Flawed. Horribly horribly flawed. With three chances to hit the other player (burst), it takes less skill. With a bigger magazine it takes less skill. With more autoaiming, it takes less skill. With the difference in aiming for the head/body decreased in H2, less skill.

As for the Halo 1.5 comment, yeah, I suppose. I still do. Halo 2 was the deadening of the experience we loved. Lock on rockets piss me off. Destructable vehicles kill warthog launching, and CTF. Waiting for a vehicle to respawn, then having it blown up in seconds sucks.

Posted by: NJDShadow at July 18, 2005 03:27 PM

"There are some incredible new weapons and levels in Halo 2 but nothing can hold a candle to the simplicity of pistol duels or the raw up-close power of the original shotgun. In fact, I would have been happy if Halo 2 had the exact same graphics and same weapons with just some extra vehicles and a whole new single player campaign. What do you guys think?"

Couldn't have put it any better myself. HH TS = Perfect. Damny CTF = Perfect. Halo = Perfect. Many may disagree with me, I understand, but I finally do realize why some people like to play games like Mario on NES and SNES rather than new games - simplicity. THAT is what made Halo so damn special, the fact that it had just the right mount of simplicity, which made the gameplay so much more addictive. It wasn't necessarily about glamour, but rather substance. Halo was the epitome of having to hone your craft - a few weapons to master, maps to know like the palm of your hand and be able to take advantage of every angle/corner. It seems that now, with H2 ... it is more about power and numbers. Powerful weapons, powerful graphics, and as many things going on at once as possible. Still, H2 is a great game IN AND OF ITSELF.

In the end, my friends: Halo will always be better.

aaaahhhhhhhh, glad I got that out ....

Posted by: Ed at July 18, 2005 03:58 PM

Instead of a "range" like you mentioned, you could give the range a label. "Milktoast" = noob, "1337", etc...

Posted by: benheadp2 at July 18, 2005 06:28 PM

The only retort for this opinion is this....Bungie has already answered these pleas before you gave them....

"I imagined a world where one could enter thousands of separate games and in each one would be a myriad of civil, polite and skilled Master Chief from the HBO forums who, whether ..."

It's called a friend's list. With it, you can add an opponent, or teammate, you've had a pleasureable experience with; so in the future, you can play games with them again....thus a functioning online community just like you requested. Next,

"Keep matchmaking but split it in two, keeping the numbered ranking part for those people who really like having a number applied to their skill level. The other part of matchmaking would be unranked but a little more functional than the paltry 'training' playlists."

It's called "creat a party". Using this feature when you get online, you can instantly create any kind of gametype with anykind of weapon choice and play it to your heart's desire....and with the aforementioned friends list, you can have your virtual battlefield filled up with fellow master chiefs interested in the same type of game......but why try to make your dream come true when you can just demand someone else to do it for you right?

As for the halo:ce/halo2 debate....both have their likeable and dislikeable traits. I, personally, like halo 2 better as it has given me something I was not able to receive playing at the lan parties I hosted....competition and a regular dose...for me there's nothing like the feeling of "owning" in a game...and then in the next game i receive the same treatment (legitimately of course). It gives me drive to keep playing to get better....because for me that's where the fun is...the competition...Thanks for your time....lucimo out.
gamertag:lucimo

Posted by: lucimo at July 18, 2005 09:13 PM

Not to get into the matchmaking debate but would it really be that hard to implement a system to join which game you wanted look at what they have created already surely for these clever chaps it wouldn't be to much???
And Halo 1 was a game of class I just feel Halo 2 was made for more commercial reasons than anything else.Back to basics I say.

Posted by: Mordevia at July 18, 2005 11:46 PM

I'm definitely an advocate of Halo 1 over Halo 2. There are noticeable differences in control and feel - most noticably, as mentioned, the Chief's 'weight.' In Halo, the physics system made it feel as though the Chief was skating and for me, everything benefitted from the added weight. Melee attacks not only dished out more damage but had the sound and somehow the force of a crushing blow worthy of a super-soldier.
Something else I have noticed is the scale of the games. This is much more of an intuitive thing, but for me Halo 2 is claustrophobic. I believe this is due to the height of the Chief's normal jump. It appears that my judgement of size within both games was based on the Chief's movements. Such as, an increase of running speed would lead to the rooms feeling smaller as you cross them in shorter time, or the taller jump height causes me to think that the ceiling is lower. This destroys the epic scale and majesty that was a trademark of Halo's level designs. Again, this is purely my opinion.
I also miss the feeling of exhileration you got from getting a triple kill on a loaded warthog using your final rocket as it sped away with your flag. Now, all you have to do is hold the trigger down for half a second and wait for notification of your kills. In my opinion, the adding of a homing feature negates that warm tingly feeling when you hold the once great rocket launcher in your hands.
The speed of the multiplayer gameplay has gone up - it has become run out, die, run out, die. XBOXMOXIE, I back you fully on the health bar issue. No longer is a teammate screaming for evac to a health pack - he just dies. There was no better feeling (maybe except the unguided rockets kills) than being pummelled down to red health when a friendly warthog bursts onto the scene, spewing death in the form of lead. And destructible vehicles and the HAVOK engine - realistic, that's tops - but we're here to have fun. There was always the chance of a last-ditch warthog offensive, you just had to reaquire it from enemy hands or the crater where you "parked" it and go for a ride. These days, when someone controls a map, they can roll around in a tank destroying the vehicles as they respawn.
And the grenade arcs....Don't get me started in the grenade arcs, not to mention their strength. I think the arcs also contributed to the claustrophobia.
Overall, I could have done without HAVOK (and stuck to the "thrown-together" vehicle physics that made Hog Jousting possible), lock-on rockets, dual weilding and "realism" - and just kept the things that made Halo great. Couldn't have said it better, Mordevia - Back to Basics!

Posted by: Kinsman at July 19, 2005 05:13 AM

I have a suggestions for either a Auto Update or Halo 3. It would be nice to have a mode where you have NO hud and no weapon, so then you can make movies and stuff. It would also be nice if they came out with a Content Download with The ATV and other vechiles and weapons they didn't put in the finished product. I mean, having a ATV would be nice, would have a great affect, and would be something new to do stunts with. Also, maybe have like some maps where you actully want us to find Glicthes and stuff to have a little bit more fun. I mean, if we're going to get banned for finding little expliots in maps, then why should we even play on Xbox Live, while several thousand people are modding on Xbox Connect.

Posted by: SporkFu at July 19, 2005 11:13 AM

"That doesn't mean that people have to suffer because of it! I think Jon is absolutely 100% dead on with his idea of making a new place on Halo 2 Matchmaking just where people could come and mess around with their modded xbox's. Naturally, I respect Bungie Greatly for their hard-working and current attempts to keep Cheaters out of Matchmaking - but as long as Xbox LIVE is creating and sending out 2 Month Free Trial cards by the masses, these people are just going to keep coming back for more. I feel that if Bungie combined the current structure of Xbox LIVE with the structure of XBC (Xbox Connect), then the problem of cheating just might slip away."


No offence, but i think this is totally wrong. Do you really think that people who cheat on Live are doing it because they just want to mess around with their modded boxes? Or do you think they do it because they want to artificially bolster their rank? Just look at the top ranked players on any playlist, and see how many of their games have unreliable data. Do you think they'd rather be in a playlist that's just for modders, or at the top of that leaderboard?

Posted by: The Other Alan at July 19, 2005 07:39 PM

""Keep matchmaking but split it in two, keeping the numbered ranking part for those people who really like having a number applied to their skill level. The other part of matchmaking would be unranked but a little more functional than the paltry 'training' playlists."

It's called "creat a party". Using this feature when you get online, you can instantly create any kind of gametype with anykind of weapon choice and play it to your heart's desire....and with the aforementioned friends list, you can have your virtual battlefield filled up with fellow master chiefs interested in the same type of game......but why try to make your dream come true when you can just demand someone else to do it for you right?"

Your lack of intelligence disturbs me. If my friends aren't on, I can't play the game I want. Unlike you, both my friends and I have lives, and spend time OUTSIDE or AT WORK or AT SCHOOL. Ever here of those?

I want to be able to play WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT; not just when my friends are on, and not just when matchmakings "stars" line up for me.

Posted by: NJDShadow at July 20, 2005 03:10 PM

Well, I think this would be the simple answer(regarding Halo 3): For ranked games there would be matchmaking, for unranked games(aka no cheating to win, etc.) there would be a server browser. You could create those communities you talked of in the browser, then you could go level up in some matchmaking, and then go back and forth until your session ended. I HOPE that there are dedicated server capabilities on the 360(made to work with Halo 3, of course) so that a server session wouldn't be constantly paused by hosts quitting.

To 'TheOtherAlan': You can't simply 'create a party' and expect everyone on your friends list(or clan list) to instantly join and be happy with the gametype and map you pick. The people that boast about 'going outside' and 'having lives' and usually the people that...well, don't.

Posted by: ST at July 20, 2005 04:33 PM

ST, I think your comment was directed at NJDShadow, not TheOtherAlan.
On the topic of 'having lives' (directly related to H1 vs. H2) I thought of another argument for the health bar. In life based games (a really good one at LANs was Boarding Action, No Sheilds, Assault weapons, Team Play) making it to health packs became an important element in every game. It added that extra little bit that pushed the games into immortality - gaining mention at every LAN match after that, such as "I had one health left on 3 lives, and managed to push through 3 of their players to reach the health pack..." and so on and so forth.
And the Assault Rifle! I don't care if it is dynamically identical to the SMG....I want a weapon that can strike fear into the heart of every enemy I come up against, not an automatic pistol that sounds like you're making popcorn... a lot of popcorn. And the melee of the AR was brilliant - simple, yet brutal.
And I back ST on his/her comment on creating parties - even if you organise a time to play with your like-minded friends, odds are that if you 'have a life' (or pay any attention at school) there will be something much more important that will come up at that time (a.k.a Anything).

Posted by: Kinsman at July 24, 2005 12:12 AM

Okay, the first part of my last post was wrong. Apologies NJDShadow, the quote inside a quote threw me off the structure of your post. I'm still pretty sure that The Other Alan wasn't accountable for the 'create a party' comment, though. Anyway, my bad - See ya later.

Posted by: Kinsman at July 24, 2005 12:26 AM