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AtomConfessions of a Halo 3 beta player
I loved Halo (bought it at launch), and immensely enjoyed Halo 2 (though I was confused by the "ending"). But it was the single player campaigns of these games that roped me in, not the online multiplayer. I'm utterly average in death match style multiplayer. If there are 10 people playing, most of the time I'll finish between 4th-6th place. Of course eventually people have the maps memorized and my ability to get kills drops… like a stone.
See I'm a casual on-line gamer, I enjoy it but don't take it that seriously. I hate wearing the headset (even in team games), unless I'm playing with people I know and like. So when it's chaos out there I'm able to keep up skill wise with (just about) everyone else. But then people practice, and practice, and practice. And then I just suck something awful and I lose interest.
Now all this will hopefully get fixed this time around with the matchmaking system. And I think it might've. I'm sure there were some damn good Halo players fragging their asses off during the beta, and I was always matched up with people that were around the same skill level as me. I think this was honestly my favorite aspect of the beta, it really seemed like a lot of time and energy was spent in making sure the people that play each other are around the same level skill wise.
I'm hoping that with all the factors being taken into consideration for good matches that play routine is included in that formula. Are you playing online everyday? Once a week? Sporadically? This way you have a better chance of getting matched up with people with the same level of dedication to the game as you. To me that might be more important to know, how seriously do the other players take this? I'm just looking to play a few games and have a few laughs, what about you? If I get thrown into a room with someone that watches game footage afterwards I'm not going to have much fun.
I have friends that still play Halo 2 online, constantly. And they've talked at length about the minor balancing issues that will have huge ramifications in the arena, and most of that conversation sails right over my head. I mean I understand what they're saying; it just doesn't affect me at all. It would be like listening to a bunch of NBA players talk about changes to the paint on the rim and how the ball reacts differently now. It may be a big deal to them but not to the guys in a pick-up game down at the park.
So I think Bungie's biggest problem will be trying to satisfy all the different types of fans out there. People that never play multiplayer (maybe don't even have Xbox Live), people like me that play casually and the kinds of people that bought Crackdown just to play a beta test for 3 weeks.
While I'm very excited for Halo 3 to be released this fall, it's because I have great faith in the game's single player campaign. The multiplayer will be nice when I have some friends that want to play, but like most death match style on-line games it won't be the centerpiece of the experience.
2 Responses to “Confessions of a Halo 3 beta player”
June 15th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
The matchmaking wasn’t perfect but in the larger random team battles it was usually reasonably well balanced…while there may have been varying levels of players, there were similar numbers of each level on each team (ie, each team had two 7, 5 and 2 level players). So while there may have been individual players who were delivering the pwnage, they didn’t necessarily dominate the entire game.
Gaming Map
June 15th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
i really liked halo one mp, and hated the sp. halo 2, i loved the sp, couldn’t get into the mp. halo 3 looks like it’s going to be a sp experience for me. even with the ranking system in place, i don’t find myself being grouped with my level often. the matchmaking system is great in theory, but it rarely ever worked in practice. i would see the search parameters open wide mere seconds into the matchmaking process. it would say skill level 8-8, then suddenly it would search for skill levels 1-17, and i’d be in a room with level 12s and 4s. i understand there were fewer players in the beta than there will be come september (btw, why does the banner say november?), but i was not any happier with halo 3’s than i was with halo 2’s. the party system works well. that’s something i like. matchmaking though, it’s great in theory; i’m just hoping it works out to be more effective this time around.