Will MLG live on in Halo 4? Updated.
Will MLG live on in Halo 4? Updated.
Original stupid prediction:
I predict there will not be a MLG playlist for Halo 4 MM within the first three months after release. Perhaps never.
New Updated Prediction: (Go big or stay home.)
I predict there will not be a Major League Gaming (MLG) playlist for Halo 4 MM. Ever.
Don't confuse this as a statement against those who like the current or past MLG MM settings. I fully expect there will be some kind of more ultra competitive settings and playlists someday in Halo 4.
I base my first comment on my perception MLG company has been dilerately distancing itself from the Halo community. The Halo Council (THC) website is subject verboten on MLG forums. Members of THC seem to be jaded members of MLG. THC members have the appearance of being civil for the sake of hedging for a potential MLG come back. I think the fallout will get worse. Strangely the THC site has been DDos attacked for about a week now. Could this be Starcraft II nerds?
It's all adding up to bad blood and a feeling I have that MLG company is so bottom dollar they won't support the more expensive Halo competitions.
So, do you think those three little letters will come back to Halo or will Halo 4 competition be picked up by other interests?
Don't get too serious folks. This is a discussion piece during the lull in Halo 4 news.
Well, what MLG did do is they standardized the competitive community. Before that, people had multiple variants of "competitive" settings. There's a niche there to fill, and 343's been doing too much courting of MLG or at least opinion-gleaning to get them out completely. The MLG brand might be imploding or at least pulling out of Halo, but those settings, I assume, will live on in a playlist and would get tested and updated as such.
i agree with this fully. 343i has been working with MLG for Halo 4. MLG has definitely at certain unknown points contributed input and feedback to 343i regarding their game. 343i wants Halo 4 to be picked up by a competitive league this is very apparent. The evidence is too strong to think that there won't be a MLG playlist. I also think it's safe to say that Killa KC and the rest of the MLG refs and Forgers will have a final version of the game months before release. I would like to think that they'll have MLG settings ready for public use within the first 2 weeks of release, but saying there won't be a MLG playlist within the first 3 months is a little far fetched in my opinion at least... only time will tell
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343i has been exceedingly open and friendly with MLG company. When MLG was threatening to cut REACH from Columbus, 343i stepped in and gave them free Anniversary map pack licenses. This, a huge volunteer upswelling and a large Halo attendance had the appearance of success. MLG subsequently cut MLG from Anaheim. how is that for a kick in the face. 343i was silent.
Killa KC no longer works on testing Halo maps and settings. I have heard he was 'promoted' but to what? No replacement mentioned either.
343i certainly wants Halo 4 to be a competitive title. I noticed that it wasn't MLG company who was courted since E3. It's been the Halo Pros. 343i has continually highlighted the Pros' videos on Halo 4 including game play and game synopsis.
As far as I know Halo is not on the circuit for this year.
Personally, the way I'd look it at is that Halo was in danger of being booted from the competitive arena until 343 stepped in and gave them some better maps to play in the Anniversary Map Pack.
Just name the playlist "Team Hardcore" and be done with it.
I'm guessing there will be a MLG-style playlist on day one.
Correct me if I am wrong, but, doesn't it take a while for a "mlg" playlist to get put onto the options due to testing and tweeking? I thought it took a couple of months for Reach as well, but then again I do not follow MLG specifically.
So I'll have to re-think my OP and make an adjustment to my prediction.
Sorry for my mistake.
I think a lot of us are also operating under the assumption that, because they certainly seem to be taking input, there'd be a competitive playlist, called MLG or "Ankle Spank the Bathtub" or whatever it would be called close to, if not on, release.
New Updated Prediction: (Go big or stay home.)
I predict there will not be a Major League Gaming (MLG) playlist for Halo 4 MM. Ever.
Eh. That seems like more of an enditement on the MLG brand than anything. Would you extend that prediction to a "Hardcore" or "Competitive" playlist?
I fully expect some kind of discrete skill based playlist to come into play at launch or soon thereafter.
I hope 343i isn't pressured into creating a defacto skilled playlist for 3 months. Halo 4 is shaping up to be quite different in some respects and I believe they would be doing a disservice to their own game if it is fielded with anything more than their new vision. Having played this new vision may show little change, if any, is required to attract competition and audiences.
I continue to believe Halo will not be a commercial success using the old 4v4 small map formulae. I believe a larger more casual audience is required to nail continued success. I think that will include 6v6 to even 8v8 using medium to large maps with vehicles and more flash bang.
Sure. Changing the game, lengthing the encounter times, having silly Armor Abilities, bad representations of bloom, and bad maps has gone well for the game and its sales so far.
Although I think the maps might have to get bigger to accomodate Sprint being standard. That just makes sense.
Maybe it was Forge that failed to deliver a solution for MLG. Very little could be done to non-Forge World maps that didn't increase frame rate problems and the persistent grey of unique constructions was not inspiring.
Lets not forget MLG company was eyeing the overhead costs required for Halo FPS events. Everything that has happened in the last year screams bottom dollar to me. MLG saw chasing Starcraft II as a more lucrative endeavor. I am really going out on a limb here but I think it is reasonable speculation that MLG helped Halo fail on the circuit by reducing support. Not having Halo on the circuit at Anaheim after the popular success at Columbus has to mean something.
I still don't understand sprint. It's used to rush powerups, get back into battle, or run away from battle. And, as you said, along with all AA's, unnecessarily increases kill times. Trim the fat, get rid of sprint, and make smaller maps.
With a decent base movement speed, sprint is unnecessary.
MLG playlist was fine at launch, and then they removed sprint and IMHO the variants got significantly worse.
Do you mean Evade?
Bungie also didn't have let MLG give them any input before Reach or Halo 3. 343i is clearly granting MLG the most access to date in the history of the Halo games. This is why i think there will def be a playlist within the first 3 months, if not even at launch.
Sundance has already tweeted on his twitter that there will be a Halo 4 event at either MLG Dallas or in Early December. Whether its an exhibition event or an actual event is still unknown. This would clearly state that MLG will have some sort of settings ready for this event if not playtested 2 months prior.
Don't forget that development on Halo 4 is suppose to be finished before the end of August if not earlier from what i've heard. Its possible that 343i would grant MLG access to a final build to playtest settings. Possible. This would not be unheard of by the amount of contact MLG and 343i have had as of late.
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I have heard about a Halo 4 exhibition event and I hope it is a sign of good times ahead but I think MLG is just playing their political cards well. Same goes for 343i. Neither company wants to alienate its most competitive players. One side pretends to support Halo, the other pretends to support MLG with both hoping there is a pay off.
I don't think a final build will be ready for MLG in August. The chatter is, going Gold typically happens about seven weeks before release. REACH was Aug 5 and released Sep 14. Halo 3 went gold Aug 29 and released Sep 25. I'm confident MLG will not be getting pre-release copies of Halo 4.
Update:
Just remembered the REACH Beta. Approximately 6 weeks of practical playtime was available for MLG and everyone else. I wonder how the Beta affected things. I remember those days filled with tons of good comments, even from the MLG crowd. I'll have to go read through some of the old comments.
I think if Halo4 has a very good showing at Dallas which I would assume is just an exhibition I can see MLG picking it up. This is provided that the core gameplay is there and the MLG community is more positive for H4. The MLG Halo comminity hated Reach and the game became unsaveable no matter what was done.
As far as the playlist goes I would think that if the community really wants it and they are vocal about it then 343 will work with MLG to put one in.
http://www.onespawn.com/2012/07/24/gamebattles-launches-halo-4-arena-for-the-xbox-360-console/
Questions:
Will a Halo 4 MLG playlist result from it?
Will Halo 4 go on the MLG circuit as a result of it?
Will GB even maintain its Halo viability with MS starting something up of its own?
Will a Halo 4 MLG playlist result from it? Yes, all forged maps will be square and grey with crates moved around from map to map, and oly BR's and 2 nades.
Will Halo 4 go on the MLG circuit as a result of it? Yes, kiddies love their Halo.
Will GB even maintain its Halo viability with MS starting something up of its own? Yes, GB has a life of its own.
I think if MLG is going to support Halo4 they need to do it right from the start. I think there would be alot of interest and with the life span of games being so short they would get the most out of the product.
I agree, especially after the lack of interest from the MLG crowd during Reach.
No dixon, I meant sprint. Sprinting was actually good in MLG, it made things a LOT better for objective games. Also, I liked evade as a power up instead of jetpack (silly having to claw a controller for jetpack to work).
I can play MLG vanilla without AA's except Jetpack, it just sucks.
I never got into MLG in Reach. Even after the update it just felt stale. They tried to hard to make it like H2 and they use custom maps like the Pit and Sanctuary that where downgrades from the originals. How lazy is it to make custom map that have already be done.
You mean Halo Reach? LOL
That's also the problem: the stock maps in Reach are pretty much bad.