- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Please don't reply to this thread if you haven't taken the time to read it.
I'm not talking about the game itself, of course not, I'm talking about Search and Load times. And here is why...
I've been wondering for a while now how long I actually spend searching for games and loading maps, all this wasted time before actually getting into a game. So I brought it on myself, at 2am, to conduct an experiment using a stop watch and social slayer. I start the stop watch when I begin searching, and stop it when the countdown hits 1 and I'm in the game. This is what happened:
3 Minutes into my search and I have finally found the 10 players needed for my first game, despite there being 62,000 people in Social Slayer. Timer goes up to 3:51 while Last Resort loads.
After a ten minute game, I'm back searching. This time it takes a surprising 45 seconds to find players, but with the map loading, then getting vetoed, then loading another map, the timer goes up to 5:30
A quick game on The Pit, and I'm back in the lobby. Current Social Slayer population sits at 61,680 yet we seem to be having a hard time finding the 10th player. Timer hits 8:10 and the search restarts. Finally we get our 10 players, Standoff loads and doesn't get vetoed, I feel like quiting, but for the sake of experiment, I pretend I had fun getting that overkill, in the warthog, against the players that weren't moving and stick the game out to the bitter end.
Search time is currently sat at 11:48, Social Slayer population: 61000+, yet I'm still unable to find enough players for my 4th game of the hour. At 12:38 the search restarts itself once again, and finally at 14:09 I'm in a game. Snowbound is a notoriously small map, and the game finishes nice and quickly, which is brilliant as I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms from this wonderful lobby.
42 minutes into my hour, and the Search Clock currently sits at 15:46. 3000 People have left Social Slayer since my Snowbound madness, probably because they starved to death while searching for a game. Miraculously it seems, I'm in a game when my Search Timer hits 17:56.
My local time is now 02:52, but despite how tired I am, and how incredibly bored I am of this playlist, I press on and get my last fun filled game of Team Duals on Snowbound. The timer ends at 19 minutes 51 seconds while I attempt to learn how to Dual Wield again.
Times:
Game 1: 00:03:51.509
Game 2: 00:01:45.879
Game 3: 00:04:40.630
Game 4: 00:03:51.356
Game 5: 00:03:50.569
Game 6: 00:01:51.718
Total Time Spent Wasted: 00:19:51.661
In conclusion, this over dramatised experiment has revealed that 1/3 of the time spent on Halo 3 matchmaking is a complete waste of time. You've also got to note that this was done in Social Slayer, the most popular playlist at the time.
Please for the love of God.. fix this in Reach Bungie?
[Edited on 11.02.2009 7:12 PM PST]