Azraeus sez:
In truth, your article is one of the most well thought out MLG articles I’ve ever read (for very bad examples, type mlg into the bungie forums search bar and start reading anywhere).

And Tortacular points out:
You want to split Team Hardcore? There’s 6000 people in the list now. That would be about as productive as splitting Team Objective into two which hasn’t worked particularly well.

Now the most annoying part about Pro Gamers is…they complain a lot. case and point? well…you’re reading this article aren’t you…heh *cough* anyway. Azraeus is extremely correct in saying that there are a lot of hate-filled ‘mlg’ threads spewed all over the bungie forums; kids basically saying things like “BUNGIE SUX IM BOYCOTTING HALO NOW” etc, etc, etc. These losers do not represent us, but sadly, they exist, and it’s very sad to see happen because it definitely ‘sets the movement back’ if you know what I mean. Anyway – reason I’m saying that is to say this; the most ‘dedicated’ pro gamers practice/scrim in private, custom games, chosing not to rely on Bungie’s matchmaking system, hence: a weak 6,000 players on Team Hardcore. Why? Although Bungie was very gracious and kind to give us Team Hardcore, it’s exactly that…Team Hardcore, not MLG standard rules. While I myself play lots of Hardcore anyway, there are more ‘dedicated’ pro’s who refuse to play HC because it doesn’t follow MLG’s gametypes to the letter.

Sound crazy? Of course it is. It’s impossible to please 100% of the people 100% of the time, but I must give credit that Bungie listens to it’s fanbase alllll the time and they always do a hell of a job trying to please everyone anyway. Just in case you’re still confused, here’s an example: in Team HC – objective based weapons always bonk out 1 hit kills (the oddball, flag, bomb, etc) while in MLG rules, the objective power has been toned down so standing 1 hit melees do not produce instant kills. This might not sound like a lot, but have you ever played Team HC Oddball, and the ball carrier is laughing at you from inside the bubble shield? The only thing that can stop that is a shotgun…and even still you need to time it juuuust right.

Please note: I am also not saying that I dislike Team HC for Bungie’s differentiation from MLG gametypes…to each his own, and in the end Bungie decides what they will and won’t release. I’m just explaining why the # of players is so low.

So yeah, I’ll admit, splitting Team HC into objective and slayer is pretty weak – to make a long story short (too late) it should read: in a perfect world if MLG gametypes and Team HC were exactly the same to the T and people scrimmed in MM rather than custom games, then yes…splitting them would be much more effective!

Heh, and your h1 pistol counter argument? yeah, i got nothin there :p I’ll just be wavin that flag till the day i die i guess

I’m not going to address the whole pistol arguement if you want to talk about weapon balance. C’mon now… ;)

You want to split Team Hardcore? There’s 6000 people in the list now. That would be about as productive as splitting Team Objective into two which hasn’t worked particularly well.

I agree with the rocket splash damage issue, it’s annoying to get rocket’d from point blank range and watch the other guy walk away, I assume that’s a side-effect of them killing the splash damage on it (which I agree with for the H3 world).

I don’t really see a problem with the sniper rifle. Yeah, shots don’t seem to register sometimes but here’s the thing… even if you’re looking at “saved films”, it’s just game data using the same connection. So if it looks like you made the shot in-game, thats how it will look in film. It could look very different on another player’s game data. To me it’s more reliable than the H2 sniper because host isn’t so prevelant.

The melee system can be frustrating, but no more so than H2 when either the host was running rampant or I was getting button combo’d.

I can appreciate your passion for the “Pro” style of gaming, but it’s Bungie’s job to cater to their entire fanbase, not just a vocal minority. By and large I like everything about H3. My only complaints revolve around spawn points and the lack of assault/one-flag in BTB.

If not made ‘unbalanced’ then i certainly think that armor/equipment permutations with benefits would be an excellent idea, and would add to the strategy involved in the game. When i say ‘unbalanced’ I mean that no armor benefit would be too strong – let’s say that Mark V spartan armor let’s you reload a couple frames quicker, while the Hayabusa armor grants you an Overshield. Know what I mean? A balanced collection of armor/equipment could be a great addition to pro gameplay; 2 or 4 man teams figuring out which they would want to use depending on the map or gametype, along with trying to find the best balances with teammates and tricky, tactical combinations.

Definitely a cool idea.

It wouldn’t need to be as extensive as CoD because you wouldn’t want to change the game dynamic that much, but it could be interesting.

Food for thought, anyway.