: I do believe that most people who's opinion is worth an extended
: consideration hold that Armour Lock was far from fine in a competitive
: environment. Bungie followed quite an MLG-esque approach - strip it down,
: concentrate it - they had seen players do this on their own and to this
: day MLG and 343i still do the same thing (Team Throwdown).

I agree with the Armor Lock bit (even though, as someone who personally feels is quite good at the game, I feel like Armor Lock simply delays the inevitable and only guarantees their death while guaranteeing me an easy kill, but yes, Armor Lock does impede the play). Bungie also had an MLG playlist in prior games that was also ranked, and even Reach had MLG. Arena was a bust. I don't take Team Throwdown seriously. Also, MLG has thrown Halo aside, starting with Reach, and I'd be surprised if they're in any big hurry to want to adopt H4 back in.

: There is nothing to disagree with: what I said was fact. Bungie published a
: distribution of high skill ranks as part of a presentation on their
: multiplayer systems a few years ago which showed this to be the case. In
: fact, at every milestone there was player bleedout.

Say what? Sorry if I'm mistaken. Maybe I saw this and didn't know? Is there some way I could see it? Because seriously that fascinates the hell out of me and I'd love to check it out.

: With only one significant milestone left (who is going to give a blam about
: their Waypoint-only badge turning silver or gold?) there will be more
: uniform loss across the ranks as people stop caring, but I believe there
: will be noticeable drop-out at 50 as people will want to preserve that
: rank. If that rank atrophies on its own, people will only stop caring all
: the sooner.

Wait what? I thought you could see the rank in-game. You're telling me I have to go to Waypoint on my 360 or comp to even see my rank? Well then. 343 figured out the best way to make competitive play worthless and meaningless if that's the case, or am I misunderstanding? :P