It has now been a few weeks since Halo: Reach was released and it is all I have played since then. I must admit I am not a big time Halo player, typically getting frustrated quickly and trading my game in shortly after finishing the campaign. I just don’t have the skills that others do as I unload a bunch of bullets in someone and they then kill me with a headshot while jumping in the air. This time though I have just accepted the fact that I am a weak player and to relax and have fun.

What Bungie has added this go around is a new addiction to multiplayer gaming with daily and weekly challenges. Each morning I load up the Halo website to see what the challenges are that day and which ones are attainable for me. By adding this dimension Halo players now have a daily “checklist” to do when playing keeping a challenge in front of them. Also by mixing them in with different game modes it makes these people continue to play all modes of the game.

The other day though I got to thinking about these challenges. Yes they are a blast, but can’t they in a sense take away from certain team oriented goals? Just the other day there was a challenge to get 40 melee kills in multiplayer matchmaking (something I didn’t try to get). I am sure there were plenty of players out there going nonstop to get a close quarter kill to get that challenge out of the way. Did it matter to those players if their team won the match they were playing? Did their teammates matter?

When going for these specific goals you end up playing the game completely differently. You may have taken a guy out from a distance normally but instead tried to rush in for your challenge and end up hurting your team. This is when the competing to win becomes secondary to your own personal interests. What does it matter if your team ended up losing, you got your challenge completed! Now I know there are ways to play some of these matches without having a team behind you but I am pretty certain there only would be a very small percentage of players going about it that way.

I am sure other games will try to take this concept and place them into their games. I am not a competitive gamer and am just looking to have fun. Daily challenges add to that fun and I will continue to check them out each day. When out there playing, I will always wonder who is out there for their challenge and who is out there for the team they are on.