It is official, Halo 4's ranking system will not be a duplicate of Halo Reach's, but then what will it be like? Frankie has denounced a 1-50 system like in Halo 3; stating that boosting was rampant and ruined the ranking system once you went above level 45. These admissions may infuse Halo's more dedicated fans to a possible return to the way Halo 2 ranked skill. I for one would be thrilled with a return to this system, but that seems unlikely.
It seems that game developers have gone from simple and effective ranking systems to complex, ineffective, and meaningless ways of measuring skill. In Halo 2 your rank was based solely on your wins and losses, if you won you went up, if you lost you went down. Moreover decent players did not achieve the highest rank, you were good when you reached level 30 and truly great (or a cheater) once you approached the 40s and beyond.
As Bungie progressed into the Halo 3 area they modified their ranking system to incorporate Microsoft's true skill algorithm. The levels were 1-50 still, but now ranking was slightly more complex than just winning and losing. It analyzed your opponents wins and losses and would reward you with more experience if you triumphed over someone who was, "better than you". At the same time you'd lose more experience if you lost when the game felt you should win. Halo 3's ranking process had two major flaws with it though: acquiring a 50 was too easy, and boosting.
Unlike in Halo 2 where any rank 30 and above meant you were good, Halo 3 had plenty of terrible level 50's. Achieving the hardest level in the game should separate you from the majority of other players, but not in Halo 3. Reaching a 50 was the equivalent of attaining Forerunner rank in Halo Reach; if you played long enough you'd get it.
Yet if you did not want to spend time earning a level 50, you could always boost for it. Boosting in Halo 3 entailed playing with an account that had a substantial amount of more losses than wins. The ranking system would then assume whoever was on the boosters team would lose. This would earn players significant rank boosts when they would beat the other team. With a booster you could level up from 1 to 50 in as little as 11 games. The flaws of Halo 3's leveling system far outweighed any benefits it offered, Halo 2's ranking system was vastly superior. But, this did not discourage Bungie from making an even stupider system for Halo Reach.
Halo Reach removed the permanent 1-50 system in favor of a 5 tiered system that would reset every month. This methodology was in place to discourage boosting, but with shoddy game play mechanics from bloom, and a rank reset that activated every month it was an atrocious replacement.
As the Halo series has progressed the ranking systems have gotten worse. They have been increasingly ineffective at separating the good from the bad, and have attempted to inflate the egos of the casual gamers, while punishing the competitive gamers. Halo 4 will not be using Reach's ranking system, but will it use a system truer to Halo 2 or Halo 3 that is not certain.
