Why Halo 4 isn't Popular

[ForgeMonitor]

I'll try to explain this simply. 9/10 of all Halo players do not like competitive games. They say they left because of no CSR, and that's partly true, but it's deeper than that. Let's face it: Halo 4 is an easy game. With personal ordnance, pocket shotguns, default sprint, load-outs, and ridiculous aim assist, it rewards those who aren't good at the game. The analogy of a handicapped Spartan from the GDC presentation comes to mind. You might think that noobs would like an easier game, but that's not the case. I have discovered a fascinating contradiction, something I like to call "Snoob's Paradox". It states that making a game easier to play actually makes it more difficult in the long run. Let me explain: in a difficult game, the pros are few and the noobs are many. The non-pros struggle with the game and never really feel the urge to become better. But in an easy-to-play game, there are many pros and the noobs actually succeed at the game. They are still noobs in that they don't want to get better, but then again, they don't need to! The result is that everybody plays better all the time. Faster kill times means more kills which means more deaths, bringing even more frustration. And though they are now skilled, they are still noobs; they never worked to be good at the game and were never attached and committed to it, and so they leave, just like that. That is how Halo 4's population went from 400,000 to 40,000 in three months. And it goes beyond casual play.

Walshy said in an interview that

[ForgeMonitor]

*Walshy said in an interview that one of the things that makes a game competitive is a high skill gap--fewer higher skilled pros. There's a point at which the pros are not so pro. In addition to this, the reliable, constant state of competitive play was destroyed by personal ordnance, unbalanced armor abilities, primary and secondary weapons with too long of range, and unskillful aim-assisted weapons.

So please, 343i: make Halo more difficult; it will benefit players of all skill levels. Tell me what you think of my ideas, and comment your own opinions.

[Halogeek99]

Biggest difference is hit scan + no drop out of aim + weapon lethality. Add all these things up plus mix in some assholeness like camosniping/camo-crouch-tactics you'll soon have the real good players being owned just as bad by average players. They cant remove hit scan, but they could've thought about all cheapness of loadouts. And why they removed bloom (it was a PERFECT substitute for spread in the hit scan environment!) and upped the deadliness so much is beyond me really. And hold on - from what i heard, theyre actually on their way making it WORSE with the coming weapon 'balancing'. Btw I just read on Waypoint theres going to be a Slayer Pro option in TS/BTS from next week. Wow! Now thats REALLY going to please all camo camp homos out there. Way to go 343. ****ing MORONS. Would you kindly sack these ******** Microsoft?

[Zandril]

I believe it's because many players think that Matchmaking is unbalanced. Plus, that f**king Boltshot.

[umirin]

Why havent the boltshot been take out if the game yet? why 343? 

Btw edit the oversheild must be buffed...

[BaconShelf]

They can't remove the weapon completely

[Maximum Clutch]

They can't remove the weapon completely

Yes they can.

[Dustycloudzzz]

I personally stopped playing multiplayer because they strayed too much from what Halo was, and made the game for the casual "COD" crowd. They cater to the "ADD" crowd. The kids that can't enjoy a game without instant and constant gratification (racking up kills every 4 seconds). I dont understand what they were thinking at all. Not only with the retarded loadout thing, but the armor as well...... WTF is up with the armor. I guess a child, at first glance would think it looked "cool", but i think it looks ridiculous. Absolute s***. 343 tried to make Halo their "own". But truth be told, it isn't theirs and never was. Stay true to the Bungie Halo and the players that have been loyal to the franchise will keep coming back for more.

[BaconShelf]

And that would involve retuning every weapon and map to work with the new play style. The enemies in campaign and spartan ops would have to be recoded. Wether it can physically be done or not, it is way too much work for a simple TU, it is not feasible.

 

Removing a core feature such as weapon or vehicle (for example) would require a lot more work than just removing it. Everything is tuned to work in the sandbox.

[umirin]

They can't remove the weapon completely

Lol ofc they can. they don need to remove it completly just from matchmaking. 

And the oversheild must be buffed.

[Victory Element]

This is actually a very reasonable and unique argument that I have yet to see. 343I set out to create a more fast paced battlefield with their new features. A lot of new weapon dynamics were implemented in order to narrow the advantage between a regular player and one with a power weapon. This has taken away much of the value of acquiring a power weapon and players are able to counter it immediately from the spawn. Having more creativity and customization seemed to be a positive change, but it eventually backfired on 343i. As the op said, the noobs are easily able to ruin the success of a skilled player by taking advantage of what they have been given.

[ForgeMonitor]

Also, there would be hundreds of thousands of people playing BTB if it weren't for load-outs. I can create a single load-out that DESTROYS Big Team in one fell swoop:

DMR--stultifies map movement

Plasma Pistol--renders vehicles less powerful

Plasma Grenades (2!)--renders vehicles useless

Active Camo--causes bad objective camping

Apparently they're adding Slayer Pro into BTB. hopefully this will eliminate most of the threats, but the DMR remains...

[Ivesy]

Slayer pro should be a good addition to things, its always fun on rumble pit.  Although a few games on infinity slayer yesterday always ended up as normal rather than pro, which was a shame.

[Alan Davanço]

Simply because the multiplayer is bad! In an attempt to attract new players have changed the gameplay too much and did not please the old players and these were the majority!

 

[Slayer25]

I agree that Halo 4 is really very easy, but very good and hardcore games like Gears of War 3 aren't so popular anymore.

[BenevolentImperator]

Yes Halo 4 is a very easy game, I got black ops 2 recently and I was shocked at how difficult the game is in multiplayer, it is 10 times harder then Halo 4. Still, even though this game is easy I would say about 40-45% of the population have a negative kill death ratio or a kill death ratio that is in the same number range like 8300 kill and 8100 deaths and the rest of the population has 1000 or more kills then deaths so about 40% of people who play this game are considered bad players.

 

I would say you need at least 1000 more kills then deaths to be considered a good player.

[Ryu♥Hayabusa]

Or perhaps a lot of old gamers had to stop playing games due to life. There is also the fact that CoD has lag comp which allows bad connections to pwn everyone else, and a large percentage of connections are, in fact, bad. Perhaps your reasons are true, but the game itself is only half of the cause. Outside influence exists.

[ForgeMonitor]

@BenevolentImperator You said Blops II multiplayer was shockingly difficult, but ask yourself this: was it difficult inherently, or was it difficult because it was easier to play?

[TornadoFlame]

Or perhaps a lot of old gamers had to stop playing games due to life. There is also the fact that CoD has lag comp which allows bad connections to pwn everyone else, and a large percentage of connections are, in fact, bad. Perhaps your reasons are true, but the game itself is only half of the cause. Outside influence exists.

if this is true then over 80 percent of halo 4 just got a life. Judging by the halo charts it went from 450k in 1month to a good 20-30k Thats alot of people who decided it was time to have some outside Fun =D now it doesn't give us a total number of how many But According to the xbox activity Fifa mw3 Beat halo 4.

[LordKastle]

Could the content in this topic be more wrong? Speaking about the responses as well. To claim that COD is more difficult than Halo 4 is a blatantly wrong statement. Every weapon in COD is an instant kill. Point, Press, Kill...Next.

 

Its very simple why Halo doesn't have the numbers of its predecessor and it has less to do with violating its own legacy when it comes to gameplay (which is a complete exaggeration). When Halo 3 came out it was the most mainstream shooter on consoles. COD had not caught on yet with the masses and Halo was the #1 mainstream shooter. Today this is no longer the case. Call of Duty has become the mainstream shooter. 

 

The reason why the population isn't as high as it once was is because the masses, not the dedicated gamers, have become attracted to COD's gameplay mechanics. It really doesn't matter what weapon you choose and its just point and press, followed by a kill. It takes very little effort and can be enjoyable from a casual perspective.

 

Halo 4 is no different than the other Halo's when it comes to basic mechanics. What does the DMR feel like when using it? Poke Poke Strafe Poke Poke (no this is not my technique but I am giving an example). It takes a lot more effort per kill than something like COD. The masses (casual gamer) have been conditioned to indulge in the instant kills of COD.

 

Of course there are some serious issues that drove some gamers away. Abuse of invisibility, DMR spamming across the map, etc. The community has lost its integrity and has decided to exploit every vulnerability in the game. Hopefully in the next update with the slight nerfing of the DMR, slight buffing of the BR/AR/LR/Carb and other changes, that the gameplay will be improved.

 

Halo 4 has some great maps. But whats the problem with them? There is no exploration and adventure within the gameplay. People are too busy using the DMR to shoot across the map and limiting movement. That has never been Halo, even in a Big Team map style scenario in the past. 

 

Halo 4 is a much better game than something like Call of Duty. Even with some of its perceived weaknesses, people have become delusional if they think COD is a better game. And if they claim otherwise, then they are likely fans of Call of Duty to begin with and not Halo. COD after World at War became super-casual even though Treyarch consistently puts out the better multiplayer experience over IW from a skill perspective. Halo still has its old-school style FPS vibe.

 

If Halo 4 did not have some of the changes made that it did, such as adding more variability to the weapons, then it would have done even worse from a numbers perspective. If you think gamers would be flocking to Halo 4 if they were forced to use 1 or 2 weapons then you have lost your mind. 343 needs to continue to refine the gameplay, learn from their mistakes, and continue the evolution of Halo. Can't wait for Halo 5 on the new generation of consoles. 

 

P.S.  343, would you add Capture the Flag to Big Team and stop doing everything you can not to like making an objective list for 6 v 6 that doesn't get enough attention.

[TheDerpKing]

I'll try to explain this simply. 9/10 of all Halo players do not like competitive games. They say they left because of no CSR, and that's partly true, but it's deeper than that. Let's face it: Halo 4 is an easy game. With personal ordnance, pocket shotguns, default sprint, load-outs, and ridiculous aim assist, it rewards those who aren't good at the game. The analogy of a handicapped Spartan from the GDC presentation comes to mind. You might think that noobs would like an easier game, but that's not the case. I have discovered a fascinating contradiction, something I like to call "Snoob's Paradox". It states that making a game easier to play actually makes it more difficult in the long run. Let me explain: in a difficult game, the pros are few and the noobs are many. The non-pros struggle with the game and never really feel the urge to become better. But in an easy-to-play game, there are many pros and the noobs actually succeed at the game. They are still noobs in that they don't want to get better, but then again, they don't need to! The result is that everybody plays better all the time. Faster kill times means more kills which means more deaths, bringing even more frustration. And though they are now skilled, they are still noobs; they never worked to be good at the game and were never attached and committed to it, and so they leave, just like that. That is how Halo 4's population went from 400,000 to 40,000 in three months. And it goes beyond casual play.

Walshy said in an interview that

Halo 4 is popular and 1/2 of halo players do like to be competitive

[TornadoFlame]

Halo 4 is popular and 1/2 of halo players do like to be competitive

http://halocharts.com/2012/chart/totalpopulation/all

 

Is this what you consider popular sir?

[Sp4rkFloW]

Well, its HALO. And it will always be HALO. Just under a new developer.