Reach Multiplayer Arena Q&A Transcript
If you were to incorporate objective games later, would you be required to keep them in their own playlist(s), or would you be able to use different forms of ranking for each individual game, enabling you to create play-lists that are a mix of slayer and objective?
I can answer this on philosophical terms: if we added an Objective Arena game-type, with a good, robust Rating scheme that didn’t ruin the game-type (“yeah, imma betray you so i get points for carrying the flag, sux2bu”), we would put it in its own playlist so that players can measure their skill specifically in that game-type.
Do you personally think that because of Arena more people will be camping?
I don’t think so, no. The way the Rating formula works, it is important to not throw your life away, but not so important that sitting behind a corner with a shotgun and going 5-0 in a game to 50 means you get a good Rating.
But we’ll see. I’m sure some players will still find this to be optimal.
Will the stats and ratings from the Arena be posted on Bungie.net? And if yes can you specify whether it’s the Beta Arena’s stats and ratings, the actual game[Halo Reach] itself’s stats and ratings or both?
I think these are both a safe bet. We like stats on b.net.
Will the new voting system be restricted in the Arena as there is (currently) a notable lack of Objective games?
Also, have you guys tweaked the Trueskill system as you did for Halo 3 (but obviously in a different way, such as making the system more fluid) or is it left in its original form this time around?
Arena playlist voting options will definitely be different. For example, you might find yourself voting more on the map you want to play than the game-type.
And the way we’re using TrueSkill this time is closer to its original form and intended purpose, which (as I’ve mentioned before) it’s really quite good at.
How far is the skill level between someone in the 99th percentile of Onyx and the 1st percentile of Gold? Would the Onyx player own the Gold player, or would it be very even?
Same goes from players in the same division, IE 1st percentile Gold and 99th percentile gold.
The highest player in Gold and the lowest player in Onyx would be practically identical, existing as neighbours right on the very threshold of the Divisions.
I can’t speak to the difference in players within a Division, though. Besides being different per Division (for example, there might be a wider skill range in Bronze than Silver), I just don’t know our Arena players yet. 🙂
Legit 1200? So what division does that put you in?
It doesn’t. It will make more sense later, but a Rating only tells you how good you did against the people you played against (i.e., your peers.)
You could have a Silver Division player who gets a Day Rating of 1200, or an Onyx Division player who gets a Day Rating of 1200. Both of those players know “ugh… I didn’t play very well* last night. I need to do better.”
Short version:
Division = who your peers are
Rating = how well you played against your peers
*1200 is not very good. 🙁
I know its hard to know what the population might look like in terms of sheer numbers, but do you have a rough target percentage for how many players would be in Onyx, Gold, etc.?
We won’t be comfortable answering that till after the Beta and we’ve seen some real numbers. Sorry. 🙁
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