The Fall of an Empire
Halo customs was once a great kingdom where halo players could always find a good custom lobby to join. Players who created custom lobbies would find a generous amount of players in their games, and, with a large party size, could enjoy their customs to its full extent.
When I joined in February, there were always plenty of lobbies to join. When I created my own lobbies, I never had trouble filling up my lobbies, and we always had a great time. But to today, times have changed. It's not nearly as easy to create or get into a good custom lobby. I've punched in a few numbers and gathered some statistical data to prove this point.
The Calculations
Average Number of Customs per day
January:.. Friday- 28, ...Saturday- 40, .....Sunday- 31
February: Friday- 62, ...Saturday- 88.25, Sunday- 69.75
March:.... Friday- 45,... Saturday- 50, ......Sunday- 32.2
April: .......Friday- 29.5, Saturday- 30, ......Sunday- 29
Analysis of these numbers portrays a clear message. The Golden Age of Halo Customs is over. Look at us today. There were more available customs back in January, which was the first actual month of Halo Customs. Even though the first week of January had basically no customs, the month's average is still higher than this month.
I punched the numbers for Friday into a Quadratic Regression function in a graphing calculator to find the curve of best fit (y=.75x^2 - 19.25x + 80.5). The graph it showed me suggested that if the numbers continue to decrease at this rate, there will be no more Friday customs by Month 6.26, which is around June 8.
Another method of calculating the decrease is to measure the average rate at which the numbers go down (For Friday, starting from February, the number decreases to, on average, 69 percent each month). It suggests that by June there will be, on average, only 14 friday customs to choose from, and that number will decrease to only one custom by january of next year.
I also calculated using a third method, which is like the second, but more complex. This one anticipates future change in rate of decrease by calculating how the rate has changed so far. The results suggest a darker future- only 9 customs per Friday by June, and only one available custom per Friday as soon as August.
However, because there are only a few numbers as of now, none of these calculations are 100% reliable. But still, numbers never lie.
The Rise of Gold Hosts
Back during the Golden Age in February, most of the custom games were formed by regular players who had some THFE games to play or some maps to test. They would put on a variety of games and maps, and they would often share the leadership, allowing everyone to play what they wanted. Today, all of the populated lobbies are dominated by Gold Hosts. They're those guys with the daily or weekly lobbies, or those "squadrons" or clans that host at regular intervals. They are now the ones who get all the players, leaving the rest of us trying to get by with small lobbies, or just failing completely. They don't share the leadership- they just play through the same list of popular minigames. There are still a few players who try to host the old fashioned way, but they have extreme difficulty getting players, and must host in the mere shadow of the Gold Host giants. Because of this, the smaller lobbies fail and are dying off, while the bigger Gold Host lobbies are doing fine. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
What Can Be Done?
We need more members. And to achieve that, Halo Customs needs to be further promoted, and made known throughout the halo community. The reason February was the best month is probably because that's when halo customs was promoted by THFE. That's how I found out about it. we continue to lose members at a faster rate than we gain them. At our current rate of descent, halo customs will be dust and echoes quite soon.
Another possibility is to add a limit to the number of players that can RSVP to a lobby. Perhaps 15 or 20. This is more than enough to fill up a lobby, even though players often try to avoid a full lobby and like to cap it at twelve or fourteen. Even if the lobby does get too small, players can usually invite friends during the game to boost the population. Without this limit, lobbies such as A J Yusi's or iSpiteful's can get as many as 40+ players RSVP'd. But of course, there's not enough room for all of these players in the game, so many of them don't get to play. If there was a limit, these"wasted players" would have realized that the lobby is full, and would have joined someone else's customs, which would help them out.
But anyway, let me know what you think about these ideas. Do you think halo customs is dying? Are gold hosts and daily lobbies contributing to the destruction of our "economy?"
Halo customs was once a great kingdom where halo players could always find a good custom lobby to join. Players who created custom lobbies would find a generous amount of players in their games, and, with a large party size, could enjoy their customs to its full extent.
When I joined in February, there were always plenty of lobbies to join. When I created my own lobbies, I never had trouble filling up my lobbies, and we always had a great time. But to today, times have changed. It's not nearly as easy to create or get into a good custom lobby. I've punched in a few numbers and gathered some statistical data to prove this point.
The Calculations
Average Number of Customs per day
January:.. Friday- 28, ...Saturday- 40, .....Sunday- 31
February: Friday- 62, ...Saturday- 88.25, Sunday- 69.75
March:.... Friday- 45,... Saturday- 50, ......Sunday- 32.2
April: .......Friday- 29.5, Saturday- 30, ......Sunday- 29
Analysis of these numbers portrays a clear message. The Golden Age of Halo Customs is over. Look at us today. There were more available customs back in January, which was the first actual month of Halo Customs. Even though the first week of January had basically no customs, the month's average is still higher than this month.
I punched the numbers for Friday into a Quadratic Regression function in a graphing calculator to find the curve of best fit (y=.75x^2 - 19.25x + 80.5). The graph it showed me suggested that if the numbers continue to decrease at this rate, there will be no more Friday customs by Month 6.26, which is around June 8.
Another method of calculating the decrease is to measure the average rate at which the numbers go down (For Friday, starting from February, the number decreases to, on average, 69 percent each month). It suggests that by June there will be, on average, only 14 friday customs to choose from, and that number will decrease to only one custom by january of next year.
I also calculated using a third method, which is like the second, but more complex. This one anticipates future change in rate of decrease by calculating how the rate has changed so far. The results suggest a darker future- only 9 customs per Friday by June, and only one available custom per Friday as soon as August.
However, because there are only a few numbers as of now, none of these calculations are 100% reliable. But still, numbers never lie.
The Rise of Gold Hosts
Back during the Golden Age in February, most of the custom games were formed by regular players who had some THFE games to play or some maps to test. They would put on a variety of games and maps, and they would often share the leadership, allowing everyone to play what they wanted. Today, all of the populated lobbies are dominated by Gold Hosts. They're those guys with the daily or weekly lobbies, or those "squadrons" or clans that host at regular intervals. They are now the ones who get all the players, leaving the rest of us trying to get by with small lobbies, or just failing completely. They don't share the leadership- they just play through the same list of popular minigames. There are still a few players who try to host the old fashioned way, but they have extreme difficulty getting players, and must host in the mere shadow of the Gold Host giants. Because of this, the smaller lobbies fail and are dying off, while the bigger Gold Host lobbies are doing fine. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
What Can Be Done?
We need more members. And to achieve that, Halo Customs needs to be further promoted, and made known throughout the halo community. The reason February was the best month is probably because that's when halo customs was promoted by THFE. That's how I found out about it. we continue to lose members at a faster rate than we gain them. At our current rate of descent, halo customs will be dust and echoes quite soon.
Another possibility is to add a limit to the number of players that can RSVP to a lobby. Perhaps 15 or 20. This is more than enough to fill up a lobby, even though players often try to avoid a full lobby and like to cap it at twelve or fourteen. Even if the lobby does get too small, players can usually invite friends during the game to boost the population. Without this limit, lobbies such as A J Yusi's or iSpiteful's can get as many as 40+ players RSVP'd. But of course, there's not enough room for all of these players in the game, so many of them don't get to play. If there was a limit, these"wasted players" would have realized that the lobby is full, and would have joined someone else's customs, which would help them out.
But anyway, let me know what you think about these ideas. Do you think halo customs is dying? Are gold hosts and daily lobbies contributing to the destruction of our "economy?"
