It's no grand secret that Destiny's Cryptarch, the apparently colourblind fuddy-duddy in charge of decrypting (read: ruining) everyone's Engrams, has only recently stepped into the world of fairness after a tyrannical reign of demotion. Although this is a situation unique to Destiny (and its terrible loot system), the reform seen in the patch behind the changes to the Cryptarch speaks to a much broader issue: Players should be rewarded for playing and mastering a multiplayer game. Of course, the applications for this concept are limited for a game as comparably linear as Halo 5. 343 isn't exactly going to dawn their RPG caps and start handing out weapons and armor, after all. However, there are still rewards to be had. Throwing additional cosmetic items - weapon and Spartan and vehicle skins, emblems or logos, etc. - to the players who are constantly topping boards in multiplayer and continue to come back to the game is an excellent way to compensate true veterans and fanatics.
A freelance games writer, you say? Typically battling his current RPG addiction and ceaseless perfectionism? A fan of horror but too big a sissy to play for more than a couple of hours? Spends far too much time on JRPGs and gets way too angry with card games?
Well that doesn't sound anything like me.
