How to make Halo skirmish playable again
Since the good ol’ days of Team Fortress Classic my favorite kinds of online gaming are objective-based. Whether it’s capturing a flag or a base, I find it more satisfying to win as a team than having a deadly 8-year-old on my side. The skirmish mode on Halo 2, as you might expect, once consumed most of my Xbox Live time. Lately, though, it’s not as fun.
The cause: Masterbunjee.
Of course, blaming him/her for the problem is like attributing global warming to the Hummer. But that gas-guzzler isn’t helping, is it? The real problem is quitters: People who are teamed up with you on a match but quit during the game when the team is loosing. Since the launch of the game this problem has only gotten progressively worse. And of all the game modes, I believe skirmish has suffered the most.
When I decided to write this I realized I needed a picture to go with the piece. So I went to my Xbox with a camera to see if I could take a snap of a player list with quitters on it. That didn’t prove difficult. We had quitters on all three games.
The problem is obvious and it is clearly hurting Halo 2. What can be done? Not much at this point, but maybe Halo 3 can be spared the same fate before it goes gold.
Here’s my solution for Bungie: Separate those players that have a dropped connection from those that quit by manually leaving the game or by disconnecting their Xbox. Assign a worse category to the ones that quit when their team is full and be more forgiving to the ones that quit when one or more team members are missing. Then tag the bastards after enough offenses.
What can be done to them once tagged? Reprimand them? Ban them? No. Just match them together.
When tagged quitters go into matchmaking, just assign them to games with other quitters. The same principle can be applied to others, like teammate killers or superjumpers (I know it’s technically legal, but come on).
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bungie is already working on something like this, but in case they aren’t I hope this helps. One less group of assholes to deal with on Xbox Live should be an improvement.
Now, does anybody have any ideas on how to hunt down racist 12-year-olds?
UPDATE (8.4.07)
Here’s an interesting counterpoint from FuckBungie.Net.
POSTED ON 08.01.07
under Gaming, Rants
Listen as mp3
Oh man. I am a Team Skirmish player. I was once a Big Team Battle person (as well as 6 on 6). Objective games are where its at, unfortunately you are so correct on the Halo 2 quitters. Sad thing is, lately me and my brother have become part of the problem
BUT.. I have an excuse. Teammates that do not communicate and/or are idiots. If our team is losing, whatever, that happens. But if one of my teammates is taking a minute out of a round to try and super jump, but keeps messing up, so every time I see his screen he is just crouching than bouncing over and over.. I quit.
Still, I like the tagging solution. I am sure Halo 3 will have less of this with the 360’s system of being able to leave feedback with specific reasons why (ie Player Quit Early), I believe this effects how many times you would get matched up with those players.
For now though, it does completley suck, not enough to stop me from playing Skirmish, but.. still sucks. Good post.
Comment by PacoDG — August 2, 2007 @ 9:52 am
At first, I was totally one sided, agreeing entirely with Edu. Then I read the counterpoint, now I’m not so sure. You see, I’ve been in the position he describes where I just keep re-spawning exactly in the same place, or in the middle of a battle for what seems an infinity, and I get pissed, and want to quit. But, I take it like a man, and keep playing. Other times, my teammates decide to start killing each other and well.. at that point I pretty much always quit. So it’s not so black and white here. I kinda understand his angle. Also, I do believe you should be able to choose exactly what gametype you want to play (you can only play capture the flag so many times before quitting entirely) Can Bungie fix this??? Hell no, it’s to complicated. We can always play Gears…then go back to Halo cuz’ were so fucking frustrated with that guy who’s hosting the game and has this really unfair advantage…the get a Wii and forget about Halo entirely…MGS4 anyone…
Comment by Last Dojo — August 6, 2007 @ 1:19 am
Feel sorry for the frustrations all of this causes on all of you. Me N/A. ña ha!
Comment by Vanessa — August 14, 2007 @ 10:40 am