If you were in charge of 343 Industries, what would you do to change Halo?

One more thing to add, social playlist should not have disbanding lobbies. That way we can make friends, develop rivalries and stay in the lobbies where we're having fun. Also, let me talk to the other team during those breaks.

Consider the following: Halo Infinites SOCIAL playlists have more strict SBMM then Halo 2/3's RANKED playlists did

Honestly, my biggest gripe is just having games with outcomes that feel so predetermined. Lately been encountering a lot of matches of just stomp or be stomped when I hop online in social playlists like Super Fiesta and Husky Raid

Max's philosophy on matchmaking is so, so good. Fun-factor trumps everything. I sincerely hope 343 is paying attention to this

Halo 3 ranked MM was super transparent. It would show you what level range it was searching for in real time, based on how long it was searching it would start with a variance of 1, and climb every couple of seconds until the variance was 10.

Love that you’re still bringing attention and talking about this! Keep it up Mint, hopefully 343 starts to understand where the community is coming from and are able to make change based on that

I remember playing a match of halo 3 ranked and I was paired up with a person way above my skill level. While I lost it was a neat experience seeing the strategies high level players used in a time before KZfaq strat videos really existed. I was able to message the person and they jumped into customs with me, and were happy to show me some tricks. In infinite I don’t see much variation in play styles with the people I’m paired with.

I'm sorry Mint, but A DISCUSSION/INTERVIEW is not an actual update. I'd probably change this to "Skill-based MM Designer Talks About SBMM Today" or something. I was hoping that 343 ACTUALLY changed something.

You hit the Nail on the head. Hopefully they'll listen. They've been making a lot of good moves lately, hopefully a SBMM fix will be added to their Arsenal.

My favorite games are the ones where I have to outperform the systems expectations to win, the evenly matched games- Those are the games where I learn and improve the most (which is my favorite thing about competitive games in general) That being said, After maybe 3 of those games in a row I get tired and by the 5th game I will be consistently underperforming as a result. I don't love getting stomped, I prefer to always feel like I have a chance to win but I'd rather get stomped every once in a while if it means I get the occasional game where I can relax and chill- Incidentally under Halo Infinites current matchmaking I am ranked Plat 3 and will play *Ranked* to relax as, for me, every single game I play in ranked is easy and relaxing and chill. This is clearly backwards, I shouldn't be playing Social to sweat and Ranked to chill but I absolutely am

i miss the 1 to 50 system it gave you something to work towards

Ive just been going through all the old Halos, can't wait for Infinite to be fixed and running well with firefight

The fact that we can watch MintBlitz brutally dunk on the enemy team and still see that his team is losing in the scoreboard really shows the issue here. If you are better than average, than you should win most of your games. the SBMM tries to make it 50% no matter how good you are.

I still cant get over the insane gameplay on each video. It's just ludicrous how skilled you are at Halo!

Please keep bringing awareness to this! All I play is social however can’t find a game most of the time. When I do, my team is horrible and the other team destroys us. Then once the game is over the average MMR is 1800. You could also make a video on how bad the bug ticket system is on halo waypoint. I’ve had 20+ tickets open for 1.5 years now. Including the issues where I can’t find any matches in 1 hour of searching. The only response I get is “we have given your feedback to the development team for consideration”

Good video Mint and it’s great to see Max’s thoughts. I’ve personally stopped playing Halo Infinite until changes to the SBMM happen. I know you have to play the KZfaq game but the title is very misleading. I expect the first 5s of this video were disappointing to a lot of people.

Ranked matchmaking is great right now, love how the games are always winnable and close. if I want loose sbmm I’ll go play social playlists We really just need social features to make the game more enjoyable and community driven

Husky Raid shouldn’t feel like the most hyper-competitive mode in Halo history. I’ve nearly given up on the playlist and it has been my favourite chill location since Halo 4!

The most fun I've honestly had in Halo Infinite was infection, because SBMM was disabled and getting first place was fair game. There's nothing worse than losing a game not because the enemy team is better than you, but because your teammates are so mentally crippled that they weigh you down. If 343 isn't going to adjust SBMM, then they should at least remove it from the more casual gamemodes where having SBMM makes little sense, like husky raid, fiesta, and social slayer.

As per usual, Certain Affinity are the biggest hope for Halo to make a true comeback

I'd love to see this implemented in Halo Infinite. My wife and I can hardly play together because we have such different skill levels that matches can be unenjoyable when we play together. I'd enjoy if social playlists were just that: social

He is absolutely correct on everything he stated. Games are meant to be FUN. Not another job after we get home from our main job Even the big time sweats dont wanna be doing that 24/7. Nobody does. Thank goodness he spoke out because it really needs to be said by people with connections in the industry and talked about

One of the key differences I noted was the "playlist specific ranking" this is probably one of the biggest changes! If I go into husky raid and get super lucky and destroyed the enemy team, then switched to a playlist I am not so good at, I shouldn't be ranked on my performance in the husky raid playlist....

Nobody can argue this because those games were actually fun

I’ve always found playing against good players made me better. So it wasn’t a big deal to play against better players…but anymore it is every single round I get to play crazy hard opponents.

The music and kill synchronizing at 6:47 is nasty

Great vid Mint. Recently each match I get my ping just wobbles I get lag, connection issues etc and Its just unberable best part is that its only in infinite cuz in r6, war thunder, and every other game that I play I just dont have that problem and I have no idea what can I even do now since a month ago it was pretty rare to find a match in wich that happened.

Has Max ever discussed his actual algorithm? I love the concept of some good, some bad - but was wondering how you actually do that? If you have a really good player - where do you find the opponents that give them their turn at being stomped? Or even harder. What if you have 2 or 3 really good players in a squad? When do they get their turn? And what do you do if four high level players form a whole team? How did he make it work for them? They need to invite him to GDC to do a presentation of how he pulled this off...

I'm absolutely agree. What do you think about classic server browser like from Quake, Unreal, or every multiplayer game before Matchmaking had been developed?

Thanks, Mint!!! Glad you put this out there!!!

your gameplay is what I think I look like when I get a double kill

Hey Mint, could you mention in the next vid that MCC is on sale for only $10? The more people that know the better, plus it’s just insane that you can get six games for half the price of an uncustomizable kit that you’ll unequip after a week

Can i just say, damn that sniping was miraculous

What version of Last Resort/ Zanzibar are you playing in your clip? Do you have a Waypoint link Please. Cheers

Im so glad you are still fighting for this, the matchmaking is insane and I honestly believe if my partner didnt also play my account (we are very different level of skill) I would hate almost every game.

Does anyone else miss H5’s Warzone mode? I kinda like the setup of it all

This is a topic that I’m not sure if it’s been discussed before, but in BTB whenever teammates leave, there are no AI Spartans that fill those empty spots, I can’t tell you how many games that 3-4 teammates would quit, only for those spots to be empty until minutes later where a random queued player gets thrown in. Often times in a CTF gamemode that’s the difference between a flag cap or not, purely because of the number of teammates available to push or defend. On a second note, id love a cross platform switch just like in MCC so i can only ever match against controller vs MnK as well as pc vs console, and to be able to turn off the ability of joining a match that’s presently in progress

Good stuff by Hoberman. I wish I could try to play a certain way to get my challenges done instead of feeling like I have to play meta in all moments to pull my weight.

So glad Max has a leading role in Arc Raiders

1:20 halo 4 soundtrack is goated i miss this theme

I don’t think I’ll play halo infinite regularly till SBMM is fixed and probably other shooters as well that this applies to. I miss being able to enjoy my shooters win or lose every single match played shouldn’t feel l’m playing esports that’s what ranked should be for. Thanks for your videos as always mint (:

Bro baited us 😭

I'm glad this is starting to get visibility, but lately I've been having a very rough time playing bc i switched to play mostly ranked due to exaggerated sweat in casuals but since last week I'm getting matches with over 6k ping sometimes, I don't know why this happens but I haven't been able to have an enjoyable experience in halo in a while :/

What’s that red skin and helmet in the thumbnail called?

I have always been a casual laid back player however I've gotten more competitive since the master chief armor came out as now I want to rank up quickly to get it

I was literally about to go to bed and then saw this video. guess I'm staying up for another 7 minutes

2:30 "you have to play better than your average just to win the game and that's exhausting". Here lies the crux of the debate. Even though it's a social mode and winning shouldn't matter, you still want the dopamine of rush of winning the game, so you're playing to win and are stressing over the outcome. It's your attitude that makes the game sweaty first and foremost, SBMM is a secondary factor.

I remember being a veteran of Halo 2, Halo 3 gave me a special nameplate with the Halo 2 logo That way everytime I was on matchmaking people knew I was an OG

Ok unrelated question but how do you practice sniper skills? I’ve been playing for years and still feel like I’m terrible with snipers in general. Any tips would be appreciated!

I love interacting with the sandbox and map routes in in infinite. Seeing how I can mix things up to do better. It’s one of my favorite aspects of infinite. That being said, the sbmm mixed with the mindset of certain players/ play styles have always hindered my willingness to actually hop on and play consistently. When I do, I wind up miserable trying to outperform not just the enemy team, but my team and myself. Hoping all this coverage leads to a change in pvp games as a whole. If I’m not getting paid, why are games so stressful?😂 I’ve found myself leaning more and more on pve experiences like warhammer 40k darktide for enjoyment from video games.

Hey Mint, can you please mention that Slyvanus has a major glitch issue near the gravity lift? The glitch happens whenever you sprint or slide on that part or the map. Thanks.

Seeing Reach and 5 clips mixed in is making me miss the many weapons - and some vehicles - that did not survive the transition from 5 to Infinite. Where's our grenade launcher, railgun, fuel rod cannoooooooon?? No gauss weapons at all either - really hope they don't scrap the Cougar for that reason.

I'd like to see some sort of ranking system for people's armor customations. I think some people's armor looks sick and I wanna let em know

I miss when the rankings were calculated per Playlist. My performance in Team Slayer/ Objective is going to be very different from the performance in FFA (this goes for FFA versus FFA shotty snippers)

This title absolutely did its job

i love playing competitive halo when i’m in the mood and have the energy to spare, but its frustrating when games feel competitive 24/7 to the point i can’t even play with my friends as often because they get frustrated n get off

Would love to see some of the changes you're suggesting!

So perfectly well said. Social should be SOCIAL. Ranked should be RANKED. Does that not make sense?!?

I really wish 343 would experiment with the idea of loosening up SBMM in social playlists (both MCC and Infinite) and aligning it to Max's original vision from OG H2/H3. Even just for a few weeks to gather data. If player retention improves then it will be proof that current implementation of SBMM isn't what players want. Plus, it could even be a good opportunity for 343 to set a trend themselves and show to other game devs that you don't need to enforce these "perfect scenarios" in matchmaking.

Mint explained this perfectly, i'm a longtime halo fan but lately I've just been exhausted of infinite. I hopped on Titanfall 2 for the first time in a while, and realized the reason I felt so tired was because of the strict sbmm forcing me to sweat every single time i play the game. Love infinite, but this needs to change.

When I was younger playing H2/H3 online, I didn't even know that SBMM existed. And I think that's when SBMM is at it's best, when players are having fun with the game and don't even know that SBMM is a thing.

The title of the video was misleading. But I'm glad I watched. If 343 actually does what the writer of the article says, THEN it will be big news.

How does he get buttery smooth ping from Australia? I live in SEA and I could count on one hand the games where I had less than 100 ping.

I liked this video, but man the title and thumbnail bamboozled us all😂

Mint Blitz, you nailed it! Spot on. Thanks for posting this.

Nvm thought this was a real update

What is the helmet in the thumbnail

I’m here to sweat, nothing else.

What helmet is that on the left side of the thumbnail?

ONE HIT ODDBALL KILLS!

I think Max is 100% right. I'm not sure that his philosophy would work in very team-based games like LoL or DOTA, but for something like Halo and CoD, it's perfect.

Halo 2s matchmaking was the most fun I've had with SBMM it just worked. Loved the 1-50

It would make the game 100x better if they gave the controls to the player to set the matchmaking settings. If you want it to be more sweaty or more casual

The gaming industry needs to take notes!

MINT you are a scourge on matchmaking!!! RAMPAGE, FRENZY, KILLIONAIRE!! you're walking dread😉

God I hope 343 really listens. They have listened so many other times but the silence on this topic really worries me

I’m a High Diamond/onyx enjoyer that’s been playing halo since 2001-2002. I can confirm although some ranked games in H3 were really sweaty, I also had way more fun because the other modes were more social and enjoyable when I didn’t feel like having a hard time. I played squad battle yesterday, with a search time of :40s or so, ended up waiting 10-15 mins to be told the same: no matches were available in one of the most active playlists. It’s hard to enjoy when I have to play at a 30-40 kills games every game without fail while trying to solo objectives, it makes it very unenjoyable and generally a slog when I load a match and see all brand new players as allies and know I’m going to suffer the whole match.

I mean the community complains about SBMM and then complains about AR starts in the Refueled playlist. So honestly they have no idea what they want. Now it's even sweatier.

Halo 5 gameplay this vid is cool to see 👀

Hey Mint, long time sub here… I was just wondering if you would ever make weapon tutorials for Infinite? I would be awesome to hear your tips and tricks for weapons in Infinite and how to effectively slay with them. For example I always have a hard time using the S7 Flexfire and Duelist Energy Sword. I always end up dying because of using them in the wrong situations or not understanding how to effectively use them. Please if you see this respond :)

I wholeheartedly agree with everything Max Hoberman said. More recent attempts at skill-based matchmaking never worked for me, and it wasn't until recently that I figured out why. This video hits the nail on the head. Seeing progression as you improve is a good thing, the average quality of player you face should increase as you win games, but in order to create a fun experience there needs to be some leeway within that. Variety is important, if every game becomes a sweat fest then it quickly becomes frustrating and loses and sense of fun. Even in ranked playlists, I'm happy to have the occasional game where I get dumped on by much better players than myself, and equally being involved in games that are less intense. Whether we admit it or not, we all like to bully noobs from time to time.

Just want to be able to speak to the enemy team. Add that 343 👍

I haven't played infinite since last fall, I might get back in if they fix matchmaking and d-sync

They need to go back to the first version of SBMM. The one designed for Halo 2 and 3! It was so good!

Max made the right comments (and the right system). I love Infinite's matchmaking, even sweating at times. Especially when I match with or against you as a test of my own skill but I tone down the sweat to casual when I match a team not exactly hyper lethal. Hell, if I have a match where unfortunately all but one is left for some reason, I'll meme with them. As a Halo 3 vet, it only feels right and that kind of thinking needs to come back, make fun not sweat (all the time)

No triple A dev studio will allow us seperate ranked and social playlists. Its part of their live service model, stuff us all in as few playlists as possible

The theme for Halo Infinite was changing things for the sake of changing things. Even things that didnt need to be changed like forced Red Vs Blue team colors for Team game types. -Classic Game types tweaked -Classic weapons removed -sbmm being way too strict -"more customization" but less customization like armor cores and Coatings. Its like they never heard the Phrase if it aint broke dont fix it.

I had a 101-23 husky raid game the other day and my games haven’t been the same since. Husky raid is literally the only mode I can enjoy at this point casually.

I was wondering why there was no site to tack people's kills now i know.

This was so cathartic to hear, here is hoping something actually comes of it. Doubtful since even now the COD UI is just a HULU like filled mess that the majority rag on....having to scroll horizontally just to see all the game modes is insane. Back in the OG MW2 you could immediately see all the modes listed vertically. Wild how these AAA seem to be regressing in terms of the simple measures of quality with SSBM or the UI/UX experience as a whole. Would be nice though.

1:23 i thought memory was the key

I forgot about Halo 2 years ago.

They way the system is now really does feel like the system gets pissed at you for winning then gives you a bunch of f u matches to put you back in your place.

everything in this video was spot on. The comments talking about continuing lobbies is also a great point I'd love to see implemented.

I've never seen such a feverish desire to turn what used to be such a casual franchise with a competitive twist into a hyper competitive game. This game at its core was always meant to be a casual game and outside entities had to alter the game to their liking for competitive fairness. Turning this game into such a sweatfest is exactly why I never am able to use the full 60 minutes of my Double XP tickets because after three or four games I get tired from trying to to better than I did last match every single time I play this game on top of getting teammates that just learned what an Xbox was against people that play like their in the HCS Finals. Make this game as accessible as it was starting back in 2001 and stop trying to push people to constantly have to perform better. Playing PvP games these days feels like an absolute chore that I have to dedicate time I don't have to in order to just be average. I'm not that prepubescent tween anymore whose only responsibility in life is go to school and make it home. I just want to relax and constantly pitting me against people that make this game their life is insanely frustrating.

Wasn’t expecting H5 gameplay in this, but I’m all for it. I kinda miss warzone

Yea that halo 3 playlist on infinite is an absolute sweatfest. Like if you stomp the other team then the MMR hammer comes crashing down so hard.

Mint, I did it. I broke the SBMM. I went on Tactical Slayer and collected three other people that were cracked. The game couldn't give us opponents good enough to stop the win streak. To the point where it kept giving us DMRs because as host I lose DMR matches more than I win them. And because we had two guys that were God tier with it we still won. I've never won that often in this game.

It’s supposed to be a party game!