343i maybe you should change Halo's lead writer?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Note to Moderators/Monitors only: I am aware that “calling out people” is against the forum rules, so I will not name this staff member, just the department of 343i that needs to be improved. I am only critiquing this department of 343i for the sake of improving Halo 5: Guardians story. I am not doing this to be mean, or to offend the specific department, I have nothing against them and I am sure they are great people, I am simply saying this for constructive criticism and so that Halo 5 can be the best game it can be. I will now discuss why I feel the current lead writer (who I will not name) is not beneficial to Halo 5’s lore. If you feel this breaks the waypoint guidelines, then all the forums complaining about sprint (these people critique the multiplayer department), graphics (these people critique the graphics department), or anything else break the guidelines too. Just like them, I am complaining about a specific department in 343i that I want improved. I have the freedom to do so. If you lock my thread for complaining, then you should lock every other thread on this forum for complaining as well. Please do not single me out, it’s not good justice. Thank you, and please understand I mean no harm or offence to the lead writer department of 343i, and simply want to express my feelings so that 343i can improve Halo 5 constructively.

My actual Thread (Opening Post):
Hi 343i, and anyone reading.

I am sure that the current lead writer is a great guy, and I mean nothing personal against him. However, based on the work he has displayed to us this far in the Halo franchize, he is not a very good writer for Halo.

Halo has stood out as an FPS from other games that it competes with (such as Battlefield or Call of Duty) thanks to its of it’s great campaigns, and beautiful stories.
Now Call of Duty seems to be trying to step up it’s talent in the writing department, if Halo wishes to compete it needs to be able to tell the best story that it can possibly tell.

Halo 1-3 had beautiful stories both engaging, with compelling heroes and villains. In Halo 2 we got a closer look at the Covenant and could tell that they are not two demensonal villains, and seeing things through the Arbiter’s perspective we could understand their motives.

Halo 4 had an even better story (not written by 343i’s current lead writer, it was written by Chris Schlerf, the former lead writer). It featured all the elements of a good story. It had a good plot (the plot was engaging the lore was expanded), good characters (chief and cortana were developed even more), good emotion (the scenes with chief and cortana were very emotional), and a good moral (there was a deep lesson to be learned from the story, it delved into the concept of Man vs Machine, and what it means to be a human). Halo 4 had a fantastic story and in my personal opinion surpassed the stories of the previous Halo games. However the story in Halo 4’s campaign was written by Chris Schlerf, and he has left 343i unfortunately. Halo 5: Guardians will not have a writer who has proven himself worthy with the Halo series (unlike Chris Schlerf who has proven himself worthy) instead it will have a writer who has proven himself to be unworthy several times (Unfortunately the current and new lead writer department for Halo has proven to be unworthy several times).

One of the current lead writer’s errors was Spartan Ops. The characters Spartan Ops I feel were very generic, boring, and undeveloped. The cast of Team Majestic was not very well executed. In previous Halo games such as Halo ODST, Halo Reach had better characters (these two games were team centric stories). The overall plot of Spartan Ops was mediocre as well. Spartan Ops was also completely devoid of emotion as well as possessing a moral. Chris Schlerf’s Halo 4 campaign was superior in every way to the current lead writer’s spartan ops.

Another one of the current lead writer’s errors is Halo Escalation. The comic series started off by being written by Chris Schlerf, and it was quite good. After issue 6 or so, Schlerf stopped writing the mini series and left 343i. When 34i3’s new (now current) lead writer took over the quality dropped significantly. I could make a new forum about why the new lead writer department’s writing in Halo escalation is bad, but I would rather you read it for your self to find out why.

Chris Schlerf is a good writer for Halo, The current lead writer is a not so good writer for Halo. Chris is gone, and we are stuck with the current lead writer, we either need someone else or for the current lead writer department to drastically improve. 343i, please hear my plea, a brand new writer would give Halo 5 a better chance to have a good story than using the current lead writer (who has already proven himself to be a not so good writer for Halo two times now). Once again, I am sure that the current lead writer department is a great man (men?), and maybe even a decent comic book writer (seeing as it was his previous position), but he is not a good Halo writer, and he is not good for the franchise.

To end this off,
Halo stands out from most FPS games because it has such a fantastic story. Call of Duty, Battlefield, and many other FPS games have terrible stories and writing in comparison to Halo. However Call of Duty has recently been stepping it’s story department up by hiring famous writers like David S. Goyer to write for Black Ops 2. If Halo wishes to compete with Call of Duty, it needs to step it up in the writing department as well.

Solution:
I feel that perhaps if Joe Staten, who has been hired by Microsoft should take place as 343i’s lead writer, so he can give Halo 5: Guardians’ campaign a wonderful story. Joe Staten gave the original Halo Trilogy a fantastic story, and now that he is back with Microsoft, him transfering over to 343i would be easy. Another alternative, would be to get Chris Schlerf back as lead writer, as he gave Halo 4 a beautiful story full of emotion. A story so good, that articles were written about his work. Either way, 343i, please ensure that Halo 5: Guardians tells a fantastic story, with emotion, and a good moral at the end. Just like Halo 4 did.

Update:
In response to thoughts that it is too late to change things, such as…

"Its sad that you think that the story can be changed now, it shows that you have no idea how much time and effort are needed to change anything now."

I realize it is too late for Halo 5’s writing department to be changed, but if Halo 5’s story isn’t good, that will have been the third time the Lead Writer department has messed up. If Halo 5’s story is less than decent, Halo 6 needs a new lead writer.

I would have more faith in Halo 5 Guardians story if it was going to be written by the same guy who wrote Halo 4 (Chris Schlerf who did a fantastic job), but the current lead writing department isn’t doing such a great job so far.

Fortunately, Joseph Staten (Bungie’s lead writer during the Halo Trilogy I believe) has returned to Microsoft, so there is a CHANCE (not necessarily likely) that he could return to Halo and be Halo 6’s lead writer. This is the best case scenario.

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Its sad that you think that the story can be changed now, it shows that you have no idea how much time and effort are needed to change anything now. To be honest I’m really looking forward to the story. Halo 4’s story was a change from the basic “Destroy the ring, save the universe” and I liked it very much.

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> 2533274814635636;2:
> Its sad that you think that the story can be changed now, it shows that you have no idea how much time and effort are needed to change anything now. To be honest I’m really looking forward to the story. Halo 4’s story was a change from the basic “Destroy the ring, save the universe” and I liked it very much.

perhaps it is too late, but maybe for Halo 6. If the current lead writer pulls of Halo 5 with a decent story. I will have alot more faith in the lead writer department. But so far the lead writer has shown not so good work so far…

I also liked Halo 4’s story. It was beautiful. But if you read my OP carefully, Halo 5’s current lead writer is different from Halo 4’s lead writer (Chris Schlerf, who I think did a fantastic job of writing Halo 4).

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I understand why you’re worried OP but I would be very careful without knowing the internal background.

From what I know Schlerf wrote the H4 plot and I’m also disappointed that he left the team… but we don’t know in what way all the writers contributed.

SpaOps and Escalation are indicators however I think Reed deserves at least a chance.
And honestly there’s no way around that - there must be a reason why he’s in charge.
If H5 underdelivers (there’s still a talented narrative team) the studio heads must react.

But asking for him to be removed is just not very respectful. You can talk about the product and what exactly makes you unhappy to bring your point accross.

5

One of the writers of Halo 5 was a writer of BioShock Infinite, and I actually liked Spops on the whole minus Palmer. Wasn’t perfect but wasn’t abysmal, it was serviceable. If the narrative team he has now can pull back his less than stellar aspects as a writer I’d say Halo 5 will be quite good. I m of course nervous. Initiation was just dumb.

Also he wrote the terminals.

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Don’t like it don’t buy it. Fans always think they know more then the dev are are far more experienced in game design and think there the professionals with the degrees and training. Just stop.

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> 2533274793332039;4:
> I understand why you’re worried OP but I would be very careful without knowing the internal background.
>
> From what I know Schlerf wrote the H4 plot and I’m also disappointed that he left the team… but we don’t know in what way all the writers contributed.
>
> SpaOps and Escalation are indicators however I think Reed deserves at least a chance.
> And honestly there’s no way around that - there must be a reason why he’s in charge.
> If H5 underdelivers (there’s still a talented narrative team) the studio heads must react.
>
> But asking for him to be removed is just not very respectful. You can talk about the product and what exactly makes you unhappy to bring your point accross.

I think he’s being perfectly respectful. There is no intended personal malice, they just want the game to be better, and general consensus is that’s more likely without Reed.

This is the writer that killed off Black Team for no particular reason. Except for perhaps the mind process of ‘important characters being killed off raises the stakes!’

And I’m sorry, but his biggest crime is still “I’m not going to mess around this time. I’m gonna kill you chief, definitely. No monologuing. Oh, what’s that? You have the index? Feel free to move around Halo’s control room. I won’t stop you. Don’t mind me, it’s cool.”

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> 2533274859281060;6:
> Don’t like it don’t buy it. Fans always think they know more then the dev are are far more experienced in game design and think there the professionals with the degrees and training. Just stop.

I just want the game to be the best game it can be.

If you feel that way go post that on all the threads complaing about sprint, or art style, or whatever. I have just the much right to give constructive criticism as they do.

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> 2533274827167643;7:
> > 2533274793332039;4:
> > I understand why you’re worried OP but I would be very careful without knowing the internal background.
> >
> > From what I know Schlerf wrote the H4 plot and I’m also disappointed that he left the team… but we don’t know in what way all the writers contributed.
> >
> > SpaOps and Escalation are indicators however I think Reed deserves at least a chance.
> > And honestly there’s no way around that - there must be a reason why he’s in charge.
> > If H5 underdelivers (there’s still a talented narrative team) the studio heads must react.
> >
> > But asking for him to be removed is just not very respectful. You can talk about the product and what exactly makes you unhappy to bring your point accross.
>
>
> I think he’s being perfectly respectful. There is no intended personal malice, they just want the game to be better, and general consensus is that’s more likely without Reed.
>
> This is the writer that killed off Black Team for no particular reason. Except for perhaps the mind process of ‘important characters being killed off raises the stakes!’
>
> And I’m sorry, but his biggest crime is still “I’m not going to mess around this time. I’m gonna kill you chief, definitely. No monologuing. Oh, what’s that? You have the index? Feel free to move around Halo’s control room. I won’t stop you. Don’t mind me, it’s cool.”

I nearly wet myself laughing at the last part of that post.

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> 2533274831961512;9:
> > 2533274827167643;7:
> > > 2533274793332039;4:
> > > I understand why you’re worried OP but I would be very careful without knowing the internal background.
> > >
> > > From what I know Schlerf wrote the H4 plot and I’m also disappointed that he left the team… but we don’t know in what way all the writers contributed.
> > >
> > > SpaOps and Escalation are indicators however I think Reed deserves at least a chance.
> > > And honestly there’s no way around that - there must be a reason why he’s in charge.
> > > If H5 underdelivers (there’s still a talented narrative team) the studio heads must react.
> > >
> > > But asking for him to be removed is just not very respectful. You can talk about the product and what exactly makes you unhappy to bring your point accross.
> >
> >
> >
> > I think he’s being perfectly respectful. There is no intended personal malice, they just want the game to be better, and general consensus is that’s more likely without Reed.
> >
> > This is the writer that killed off Black Team for no particular reason. Except for perhaps the mind process of ‘important characters being killed off raises the stakes!’
> >
> > And I’m sorry, but his biggest crime is still “I’m not going to mess around this time. I’m gonna kill you chief, definitely. No monologuing. Oh, what’s that? You have the index? Feel free to move around Halo’s control room. I won’t stop you. Don’t mind me, it’s cool.”
>
>
> I nearly wet myself laughing at the last part of that post.

Wet yourself? It doesn’t sound that erotic to me O.o

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> 2533274952179659;10:
> > 2533274831961512;9:
> > > 2533274827167643;7:
> > > > 2533274793332039;4:
> > > > I understand why you’re worried OP but I would be very careful without knowing the internal background.
> > > >
> > > > From what I know Schlerf wrote the H4 plot and I’m also disappointed that he left the team… but we don’t know in what way all the writers contributed.
> > > >
> > > > SpaOps and Escalation are indicators however I think Reed deserves at least a chance.
> > > > And honestly there’s no way around that - there must be a reason why he’s in charge.
> > > > If H5 underdelivers (there’s still a talented narrative team) the studio heads must react.
> > > >
> > > > But asking for him to be removed is just not very respectful. You can talk about the product and what exactly makes you unhappy to bring your point accross.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I think he’s being perfectly respectful. There is no intended personal malice, they just want the game to be better, and general consensus is that’s more likely without Reed.
> > >
> > > This is the writer that killed off Black Team for no particular reason. Except for perhaps the mind process of ‘important characters being killed off raises the stakes!’
> > >
> > > And I’m sorry, but his biggest crime is still “I’m not going to mess around this time. I’m gonna kill you chief, definitely. No monologuing. Oh, what’s that? You have the index? Feel free to move around Halo’s control room. I won’t stop you. Don’t mind me, it’s cool.”
> >
> >
> >
> > I nearly wet myself laughing at the last part of that post.
>
>
> Wet yourself? It doesn’t sound that erotic to me O.o

I’m pretty sure Benti mean’t urinate rather than… yeah. You know, the phrase “Pee myself laughing”

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> 2533274832788623;11:
> > 2533274952179659;10:
> > > 2533274831961512;9:
> > > I nearly wet myself laughing at the last part of that post.
> >
> >
> > Wet yourself? It doesn’t sound that erotic to me O.o
>
>
> I’m pretty sure Benti mean’t urinate rather than… yeah. You know, the phrase “Pee myself laughing”

Well sure, but this is Benti we’re talking about.

It could mean anything.

13

I’m worried as well, I hope it turns out good.

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<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

They should start by firing Josh Holmes. I don’t want that guy within a mile of anything Halo-related.

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> 2533274913936758;14:
>

Even though his experiences helped shape the magnificent development of Cortana’s rampancy in Halo 4? He isn’t a bad guy and I don’t know why firing people seems to be what this community views as realistic ways to solve problems. But hey, gotta have the scapegoats.

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> 2533274913936758;14:
> They should start by firing Josh Holmes. I don’t want that guy within a mile of anything Halo-related.

What do you have against Josh?

He was behind Cortana’s well-done and emotional descent into rampancy, easily one of the most notable parts of the story.

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[deleted]

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> Even though his experiences helped shape the underwhelming development of Cortana’s rampancy in Halo 4?

> He was behind Cortana’s poorly explained and contrived descent into rampancy, easily one of the only notable parts of the story.

It’s stupid to want to fire him, but you both need better examples.

I can’t play Halo 3 or 4 without feeling like Cortana was utterly neutered (stop) in both. She’s a significantly weaker character because of those games, in 3, relying on MC to save her from Gravemind because of a stupid decision he made at the end of 2 (which made it obvious Cortana was a bad@$$.) In 4, she requires him to do nearly everything.

It’s worsened by the fake emotional stakes. According to Cortana, getting to Halsey would save her, right? That’s mentioned one other time in the game. They even get on Infinity and make zero attempt to repair Cortana. They don’t even talk about it. Sorry girl, apparently Josh Holmes didn’t think you were important enough to try to fix. After all, Darth Vader is going to do…something…to one city we’ve never seen before, and we need that scene at the end of the game so that we can pretend to be better than Bungie. We can’t make an effort to repair you because it would make us look bad and we need to let the player get frustrated by our Prometheans.

Inb4: I didn’t understand something in the game. In a game like Dark Souls or SotC, a game designed to elicit a primal emotional reaction by making an effort not to explain anything, I will accept this criticism. But in a game like Halo 4, where we are encouraged (more than usual, because once again, 343 is totally better than Bungie) to empathize with our heroes by sympathizing with their conflicts, relinquishing information from the viewers is akin to suicide. If they had enough time to put a smiley face on Chief’s butt, I see no reason to believe they can’t explain a bit more about the story they’re trying to tell.

So yeah. Getting Josh Holmes fired is unnecessary, but I’m not gonna stick up for him if he’s to blame for that.

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<mark>This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.</mark>

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

> 2533274907934539;16:
> > 2533274913936758;14:
> > They should start by firing Josh Holmes. I don’t want that guy within a mile of anything Halo-related.
>
>
> What do you have against Josh?
>
> He was behind Cortana’s well-done and emotional descent into rampancy, easily one of the most notable parts of the story.

Everything.

He’s the one who pushed 343 to fundamentally change Halo’s core gameplay and is one of the biggest reasons why the vast majority of Halo players…well, aren’t anymore. He’s also the idiot who thought THIS was a good idea. Alienating the fans is basically his design philosophy.

He’s the cheerleader for the casual, generic, cash-cow direction 343 has taken Halo. And as such, he’s the Halo antichrist as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t care if he’s the reason for the H4 Cortana’s personality. Especially considering he went and killed her off an hour later making the entire venture moot anyways. Plenty of decent writers out there who can design characters without advocating the compromise of the core of the franchise as a side effect. When it comes to cost-benefit ratios, this guy is a lose-lose.

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> 2533274913936758;19:
>

Okay hold up. You say because she died that made her story void? Are you serious right now? Her suffering and Chief having to watch her decay while he couldn’t do anything to save her, ultimately resulting in her death, is the keystone to Chief’s entire arc in the game! It showed him that he could not always be successful that he can lose, and when he does lose, he will lose those closest to him. It gave him a chance to feel something more than detached stoicism for a change.

I mean there’s not liking Halo 4 due to general opinion but then there’s just not paying any attention to what’s happening whatsoever.