Below is an old reddit post discussing what we should expect from a ranking system (with a focus on MCC), nevertheless I believe this is the framework 343 needs to return to and build around for Halo 6.
I know people loved Halo 2's ranking system which serves as the current format for ranked playlists. It's a great indicator of skill but it lacks one of the key components needed to understand a challenger you're faced against. The second component I speak of is time.
When you're comparing job applicants for example, you want to know two things about their prior work history. The first being the amount of time spent in the role, and second what was accomplished during the time in the role. This is what I want when looking at a player profile. How long have they been playing the game and what level of skill have they displayed during the time span played. Halo 2 never accomplished this, games like reach and COD abandoned skill and only went with experience. Halo 3 accomplished this by having both a true skill 1-50 and an overall exp for winning games. It allowed me to immediately size up players. Maybe they were newer but really skilled, maybe they were very experienced and had a great feel for maps/gameplay, but lacked the skill to make it to general. I know it received criticism b/c of boosters but how often did you actually see a general in matchmaking that wasn't at least above average? 70-80% of the time they were monsters and the other 20-30% they were still very good. Even if the rare booster got by they would immediately get called out in the plethora of custom games our once great halo community played religiously. The amount of custom games I played (and essentially everyone who was a true halo fan) during the halo 3 days easily pushes into the thousands of hours, constantly meeting new people on a daily basis for years. During those days I never viewed boosting or encountered it as a problem during the halo 3 days.
Ultimately, Halo needs a new ranking system that gives players a sense of both skill and experience. I'm not saying bring back Halo 3 but we need something more than just half a job application... experience matters.
I know people loved Halo 2's ranking system which serves as the current format for ranked playlists. It's a great indicator of skill but it lacks one of the key components needed to understand a challenger you're faced against. The second component I speak of is time.
When you're comparing job applicants for example, you want to know two things about their prior work history. The first being the amount of time spent in the role, and second what was accomplished during the time in the role. This is what I want when looking at a player profile. How long have they been playing the game and what level of skill have they displayed during the time span played. Halo 2 never accomplished this, games like reach and COD abandoned skill and only went with experience. Halo 3 accomplished this by having both a true skill 1-50 and an overall exp for winning games. It allowed me to immediately size up players. Maybe they were newer but really skilled, maybe they were very experienced and had a great feel for maps/gameplay, but lacked the skill to make it to general. I know it received criticism b/c of boosters but how often did you actually see a general in matchmaking that wasn't at least above average? 70-80% of the time they were monsters and the other 20-30% they were still very good. Even if the rare booster got by they would immediately get called out in the plethora of custom games our once great halo community played religiously. The amount of custom games I played (and essentially everyone who was a true halo fan) during the halo 3 days easily pushes into the thousands of hours, constantly meeting new people on a daily basis for years. During those days I never viewed boosting or encountered it as a problem during the halo 3 days.
Ultimately, Halo needs a new ranking system that gives players a sense of both skill and experience. I'm not saying bring back Halo 3 but we need something more than just half a job application... experience matters.
