: I'd say when it works, it's good however, it certainly has its downsides.

: What I get annoyed at is my lack of choice in the matter - sometimes I don't
: want to JIP and I'd rather start a match from scratch (especially in the
: larger playlists like BTB).

: If I'm not bothered if I JIP or not, I then want to join a game that at least
: has over half the game remaining - I've joined grifball matches at 3/4-0
: before and then the match lasts another minute and suddenly you're back
: out.

: Lastly, I think JIP on forge-maps should be disabled as the connection takes
: far far longer than a standard map (my connection is decent, for the UK).
: Matches on the lockout-style map for SWAT can have me at black screen for
: a minute or so, with the game deciding whether or not to update the scores
: or generate the lighting. This time addition somewhat defeats the
: objective of joining a match more quickly.

: Overall - I don't mind JIP as a concept but I think there's a fair few
: refinements to be made.

I dislike JiP:
1) The host selection and ongoing match connection suffers. Just throwing more people into the mix later into a match can cause the connection to go sour. A match which is fine for the first 5 minuites can get extremely laggy just because someone joins. This next bit is just speculation but I seriously think that JiP requires a more flexible matchmaking - I dont think matchmaking is able to work as 'well' when the games have to be flexible in terms of when people join.

2) Takes away from that arena feeling - I no longer hear people trashtalk or look at stats and think "I want to beat this guy", every game is very impersonal, the people I start off against are probably not the people I will finish against. Even if you are not competitive, its nice to be able to judge a player and assess how he plays in order to think about how you will play against him. In Halo 4 its hard to keep track of the guy who is dangerous with a sniper when actually halfway through a game someone else could enter the game and be dangerous.

3) No quit penalty means games are regularly lopsided. Having a player or two down on either team seems to be the norm. This has always been a problem but its a problem now for different reasons.

4) I hate ending up in games which are almost done.