The following is BS Angel’s response to a person asking for more Regicide, then my response below that with proposed changes to the playlists to make them, in my opinion, better.

bs angel: I’m a big fan of Regicide, too – except when I play against David Ellis and he steals the win from me in the final two seconds of the game!

Try going into Rumble Pit with others who like it (perhaps even people from this thread?). That way you can sway the vote in your favor. 🙂

Why not bring THIS back too? We SORELY need a dedicated Team Objective playlist.

Gametypes in the playlist would be:
• CTF – (Yes, move this into Objective and you will get those people going into the playlist and hey, they might even choose something else…Also, put this in the THIRD slot, so as to give other gametypes a chance of being picked.)
• Team Regicide – It only comes up rarely in BTB and is a pain in the arse in Rumble Pit. For my own sake, I’m making a web series from Halo 4 and NEED that Emblem for mastering Regicide.
• Oddball – It was in Multi-team (which you took away and put into the rotational playlist instead. Bad move, IMO.) On that note, PLEASE bring back a 4 team 3-person per team, multi-team playlist. It is BADLY needed!
• King of the Hill – Yet another great gametype lost to the rotational playlist. Honestly, with these gametypes having commendations attached to them, they should NEVER go away or be put into a playlist where they can only be played for 2 weeks every several months. REALLY BAD MOVE THERE! Plus, you’re further killing the Halo 4 gaming population. Not that hard to see…
• Stockpile – Hey, if a modder cna find the code was already embedded in the game, why not bring this back? Yeah, I know it’s not YOUR creation 343, but it was a GREAT game type.
• Headhunter – Read above for Stockpile. Another GREAT gametype.

Jessica (BS Angel), you folks at 343 can’t be SO against what Bungie created before you as to totally dismiss good gametypes such as those. You need to build off of what they CREATED, instead of tearing it down to rebuild your version of what you think Halo should be.

I truly want you folks to succeed. However, if you can’t see that some of these decisions are HURTING the franchise, then there is a REAL problem.

Playlist management needs to be a PRIORITY post game launch. At times it just feels like you’re experimenting with them, instead of taking a realistic look and approach to what is NEEDED per the community.

I mean these words with kindness, but also with sternness. You HAVE to do better than this. Waiting until the next game to get it right is NOT going to help this game, nor the longevity of the franchise, nor it’s sustainability as a viable profit maker for you and Microsoft.

As caretakers/stewards of Halo, you owe it not just to yourselves and Microsoft, but to US, the fans and CONSUMERS who are the ones who have paid for and stuck with the franchise, many of us for many years.

End Copy/paste…

So yeah, I know I won’t be on their Christmas Card list for posts like these. But that isn’t my goal. I’m not a yes-man who sticks so far up 343’s butt that I know what they had for breakfast. My goal is to help keep Halo 4 alive and vibrant. To make it not just a successful game during launches of new games, but a SUSTAINABLE success. That will not happen if 343 doesn’t take ownership of their mistakes and fixes them NOW, not wait until the next game…

-Sal

I made the following reply on Waypoint’s forums in response to another person lamenting about Dominion being gone/put into the rotational playlist. I felt it needed to be shared here on the blog as well.

Gamer Freak, I feel your pain. I had to bust my arse to finish this before it was removed.

I’m trying to do the same thing in King of the Hill before it goes away from the rotational playlist.

I honestly do not get why 343 has made some of the changes to the playlist that they have made.

No way playlists that have commendations attached to them should be removed from matchmaking.

If anything, move Dominion into BTB and make it an 8v8 gametype now. It needs to stay in permanent rotation, not temporary.

Same can be said for King of the Hill, Oddball, Regicide. Those should be incorporated into a Team Objective. AND put CTF in there as well. This will consolidate those playlist, but keep them ALL ACTIVE. Why Objective wentto 6v6 then completely away is beyond me.

343 made a good game in Halo 4, but not great. and with this total mismanagement of playlists, they are only wrecking the game’s population even further.

Take Team Slayer for instance. It used to have a population of about 50% of whatever BTB was running. It stayed like that for the LONGEST time. Then all of the sudden, when 343 made the Majestic map pack mandatory for that playlist, it dropped to 10% of BTB and has stayed there.

Why is it so HARD for 343 to see this? They need to eject Majestic from being mandatory in Team Slayer and make an ALL DLC playlist. Doing that would bring more back to regular Team Slayer as well as give a playlist to those who DID buy the DLC. Also, in doing so, those people still chasing achievements in DLC map packs WILL have that chance, instead of a RARE opportunity happening in matchmaking.

I honestly won’t blame any gamer at this point if they boost achievements. It was already a bit hard before, when the DLC playlists where temporary. Now that they are gone, it’s VERY hard.

So yeah, getting back on point, I COMPLETELY understand your frustration with Dominion being gone, or thrown into a rotational playlist.

What does that say for 343 when THEY made that gametype?

I really hope for the next game, they take a LONG hard REALISTIC look at matchmaking. It’s the bread and butter of the game. And unfortunately that bread has gone stale…