"A House divided"

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand” - Abraham Lincoln, 1856.

What this post will consist of :
• INTRODUCTION
• INTENTION OF THIS POST
•ISSUES - The big picture*, what is wrong ?*
• MAIN POINT**• OUR ROLE -** as a community

INTRODUCTOIN
For far too long have the Halo community have been filled with hatred and anger, all of which flying in the all the wrong directions. Whilst these negative “wipes” have been spewing into all corners of the Halo community, nobody has managed to sit down and really make an effort to collect an collected thought on how to resolve the issues of which Halo is facing. This lack of “success” to achieve unity for all, comes from both the developers and the community, and has for over 5 years, consistently continued to damage Halo as a whole .

INTENTION OF THIS POST
The intention is for us to STOP fighting amongst ourselves as a Community and to start CREATING the future of Halo, in COOPERATION with 343 INDUSTRIES.
This post is intended to promote a new healthy start, a start of a conversation between 343 and The community. A conversation that is for the sake of the future of Halo, and if not this post, hopefully it will get people thinking about our current situation within the Halo universe.

ISSUES
As mentioned in the “introduction”, the Halo community has for far to long been suffering from inside bigotry and “infighting”. Everywhere you look there are issues to be found, The official forums, youtube, reddit, In game and so on, all of these places are there found issues but no solutions, no civilized discussion (and this post might not be any different). We (myself included) have done nothing but straight out -Yoink- about everything that has gone wrong, endless infighting, without solutions.
We have experienced the golden days of Halo (During H2 & 3) but after Halo Reach, Halo 4, HMC and the Halo 5 campaign, The Halo community finds itself in a hole, and it is facing an uphill battle, however it is currently slowly climbing that hill, but caution.

The developers have tried to come up with solutions to this “hill” and how Halo could climb it faster / at a good rate, however they have yet to achieve success. They need help, but in order to get that help, they need to listen to THE COMMUNITY. In order for them to do that, the community have to sit down and get civilized thus having a formal healthy conversation on what needs to be done. In order for this “conversation” to have effect, it needs to be more than “bring back …” or “no whatever…”. We need to have a central way of communicating with the developers, and those places need to stay formal but informative. We (as the community) needs to be in direct contact with the people behind our beloved franchise, if it is to survive .

The information to take from this section is in short :

  • We whine and talk about all the negative things, without providing solutions
  • Halo has lost a good chunk of players, and the developers have tried to revive the golden days with no avail. Thus they need help.

MAIN POINT
The verdict here is “simple” in theory.
The community need to realize that WHINING about what we are unhappy about, will get us nowhere, simply put. The Halo community needs to civilize itself, keep a cool head and then inform 343 Industries about what works and what doesn’t work, what we like and what we don’t like.

MEANWHILE

The developers HAS to get involved actively with the community, in more aspects than just providing more content on a monthly basis. They have to engage actively in communications, with US the community ! (Of course they can not fulfill every wish), they can do more, now and in the future. They need to do this PRE - DURING - POST launch of new titles !

With communication, we could potentially have avoided the “dark” years of Halo or at the very least prevented some of the damage. Things are headed in the right direction already, however for Halo to survive and thrive it is VITAL that these issues between developer and community are resolved and sought after !

OUR ROLE
Our role in this is incredible Vital for the future of Halo. We need to take the steps necessary to promote a healthy conversation with the developers. We need to start the conversation NOW. If we do this, together as developer and community, we CAN create a truly unique experience in the moment and in the future ! This might seem like a big task, that is because IT IS ! We have to do this, no matter how “silly” some bigots might think it is.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” — Ellen Anders.

2

Unfortunately, what you speak of cannot truly happen. No matter how hard any of us try, there will always be contention.

3

You know, that whining that everybody supposedly hates? It is what made Halo 5 better than Halo 4. If nobody complained and criticized the bad changes that Halo 4 did, like ordinance drops and loadouts, then chances are those features would be in Halo 5, further taking the game away from the tried-and-true gameplay of the original games. So, complaining and criticizing has its place, and people should stop appealing to the community to stop said criticisms. It’s what improves games.

Also, that conversation between the developers and the community will never happen if they don’t post on their own -Yoink- website. Seriously, leading up to Halo 5’s launch, Neogaf and Reddit got a lot of developer interaction, but not Waypoint. Why is that? I dunno.

4

I think what everyone needs to get is that some people simply enjoy the game, and others don’t. Too many times do people flip -Yoink- over someone liking the game or not.

That being said, there is a difference between “This part isn’t good, maybe this would work.” and “343 is killing everything I stood for. MS plz murder.” There is also a difference between “I quite enjoy this new mode!” and “This mode just proves that 343 is the -Yoinking!- best and none of you can say -Yoink-.”

5

> 2533274915643658;3:
> You know, that whining that everybody supposedly hates? It is what made Halo 5 better than Halo 4. If nobody complained and criticized the bad changes that Halo 4 did, like ordinance drops and loadouts, then chances are those features would be in Halo 5, further taking the game away from the tried-and-true gameplay of the original games. So, complaining and criticizing has its place, and people should stop appealing to the community to stop said criticisms. It’s what improves games.
>
> Also, that conversation between the developers and the community will never happen if they don’t post on their own -Yoink- website. Seriously, leading up to Halo 5’s launch, Neogaf and Reddit got a lot of developer interaction, but not Waypoint. Why is that? I dunno.

There is a way to politely point out flaws in a game, and it is called constructive criticism. Constructive. Hateful, disrespectful bashes by the community and white knight behavior are both highly deconstructive, and unfortuantely they are what we see most of the time here on the Halo Waypoint forums.

6

> 2533274859620752;5:
> > 2533274915643658;3:
> > You know, that whining that everybody supposedly hates? It is what made Halo 5 better than Halo 4. If nobody complained and criticized the bad changes that Halo 4 did, like ordinance drops and loadouts, then chances are those features would be in Halo 5, further taking the game away from the tried-and-true gameplay of the original games. So, complaining and criticizing has its place, and people should stop appealing to the community to stop said criticisms. It’s what improves games.
> >
> > Also, that conversation between the developers and the community will never happen if they don’t post on their own -Yoink- website. Seriously, leading up to Halo 5’s launch, Neogaf and Reddit got a lot of developer interaction, but not Waypoint. Why is that? I dunno.
>
>
> There is a way to politely point out flaws in a game, and it is called constructive criticism. Constructive. Hateful, disrespectful bashes by the community and white knight behavior are both highly deconstructive, and unfortuantely they are what we see most of the time here on the Halo Waypoint forums.

Indeed, it has come to a critical point In my own opinion. It has got to change if Halo is to not only improve but to further be a noticeable game in the future. Especially these coming years.

7

You’re da real MVP. I agree with your points and I’m sure if I was a 343 employee reading all this I’d be absolutely demoralized and wouldn’t feel like doing anything. Contructive critisism hurts a lot less.

8

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway
343i doesn’t listen, they’ve made too many changes that were not asked for, continue to ignore most of the general feedback.

“I’ve learned to get really good at this - say one thing when I’m thinking about something else, act like I’m listening when I’m not, pretend to be calm and happy when I’m really freaking out. It’s one of the skills you perfect as you get older”
― Lauren Oliver, Delirium

See anyone can get amazing quotes…whether there famous or not but in the end anyone can ‘act’ like there listening but it’s the actions that prove whether 343i have listened or not, it’s pretty clear by the continuous splinter in the community that 343i have not listened or they have chose to ignore what the fans want.

9

I guess I will get to the point, I thought that overall halo 5 was a great game. However I recognize that the campaign story was a little weak. I think that if they flush out the campaign in halo 6 a bit more it would be awesome.

Gameplay wise I think that halo 5 is very well balanced. I get that some people are angry over Spartan charge, I think that the turn radius while sprinting should be low and that would help with this problem.

I have one question for 343, would there be a possibility of Joseph Staten ever coming back to halo campaigns to do some portions?

P.S. I do like all halo games and I haven’t really had a problem with any of them.

10

> 2533274829873463;8:
> “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
> ― Ernest Hemingway
> 343i doesn’t listen, they’ve made too many changes that were not asked for, continue to ignore most of the general feedback.
>
> “I’ve learned to get really good at this - say one thing when I’m thinking about something else, act like I’m listening when I’m not, pretend to be calm and happy when I’m really freaking out. It’s one of the skills you perfect as you get older”
> ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium
>
> See anyone can get amazing quotes…whether there famous or not but in the end anyone can ‘act’ like there listening but it’s the actions that prove whether 343i have listened or not, it’s pretty clear by the continuous splinter in the community that 343i have not listened or they have chose to ignore what the fans want.

If 343 didn’t listen, Halo 5 wouldn’t be an arena shooter, they wouldn’t have given us infection, they wouldn’t be working on firefight, and they wouldn’t be actively tuning the game with each update according to the feedback we give them. They can’t simply implement every single thing we suggest here, the game would be a huge disorganized mess if they tried.

11

> 2533274902628105;9:
> I guess I will get to the point, I thought that overall halo 5 was a great game. However I recognize that the campaign story was a little weak. I think that if they flush out the campaign in halo 6 a bit more it would be awesome.
>
> Gameplay wise I think that halo 5 is very well balanced. I get that some people are angry over Spartan charge, I think that the turn radius while sprinting should be low and that would help with this problem.
>
> I have one question for 343, would there be a possibility of Joseph Staten ever coming back to halo campaigns to do some portions?
>
> P.S. I do like all halo games and I haven’t really had a problem with any of them.

I agree with you on this, Halo 5 is by far the most balanced game we have seen in recent years, and it is IMO, very fun to play each game due to the balanced gameplay. I can now use every gun and achieve something with them, perhaps by careful or different means than when I play with the standard BR load out but still it is durable without too much complication.

> 2533274829873463;8:
> “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
> ― Ernest Hemingway
> 343i doesn’t listen, they’ve made too many changes that were not asked for, continue to ignore most of the general feedback.
>
> “I’ve learned to get really good at this - say one thing when I’m thinking about something else, act like I’m listening when I’m not, pretend to be calm and happy when I’m really freaking out. It’s one of the skills you perfect as you get older”
> ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium
>
> See anyone can get amazing quotes…whether there famous or not but in the end anyone can ‘act’ like there listening but it’s the actions that prove whether 343i have listened or not, it’s pretty clear by the continuous splinter in the community that 343i have not listened or they have chose to ignore what the fans want.

Correct 343 did decide to incorporate some features which some players would rather had been left out, and I think that perhaps, when the times comes, these “additions” should be debated for whether or not they should remain in the future.

On another note I sort of disagree with you, I do honestly believe that 343 have taken a step in the right direction by providing us with infection and such

12

What I mostly see are fans of reach getting bashed constantly saying that it is the worst game in the series. Sure 3 is my favorite but, reach will always have a special place in my heart.

Since it is the last halo game where you can play as the Sangheili

13

> 2533274978553590;10:
> > 2533274829873463;8:
> > “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
> > ― Ernest Hemingway
> > 343i doesn’t listen, they’ve made too many changes that were not asked for, continue to ignore most of the general feedback.
> >
> > “I’ve learned to get really good at this - say one thing when I’m thinking about something else, act like I’m listening when I’m not, pretend to be calm and happy when I’m really freaking out. It’s one of the skills you perfect as you get older”
> > ― Lauren Oliver, Delirium
> >
> > See anyone can get amazing quotes…whether there famous or not but in the end anyone can ‘act’ like there listening but it’s the actions that prove whether 343i have listened or not, it’s pretty clear by the continuous splinter in the community that 343i have not listened or they have chose to ignore what the fans want.
>
>
> If 343 didn’t listen, Halo 5 wouldn’t be an arena shooter, they wouldn’t have given us infection, they wouldn’t be working on firefight, and they wouldn’t be actively tuning the game with each update according to the feedback we give them. They can’t simply implement every single thing we suggest here, the game would be a huge disorganized mess if they tried.

Really?, where’s the proper arena modes?, all I see is a twitch shooter, infection?, once again where?, all I see is 343i changing a game mode that fans created then giving players power weapons then calling it their own. (Did this change from Halo 4? no, the only thing they did was change flood models to Spartans, heck they could even have used the Halo 2A flood models but they didn’t)

Actively tuning?, they add random skins to the game, recycle maps that were already free in previous updates then mark them as free dlc…last time I checked nobody asked for forge to be over-run with them in matchmaking to a point where no AAA maps show up in BTB. Can’t implement features that were in previous games with less development time? how is that not possible?, it’s already a disorganised mess like the fact that the radar has been a broken mess since launch and now even the servers are getting worse. As for Firefight…go play Odst and try telling me with a straight face that the Halo 5 plays anything like proper Firefight.

Halo 5’s firefight beta was beyond bad, was not remotely challenging and required very little challenge, ruined by the REQ system, that’s another thing…nobody asked for micro-transactions, yet we got it and now Warzone is unbalanced mess and everything is now about farming for REQ’s for armour instead of a skill based system for unlocks like the Vidmasters. The whole micro-transaction system is one the most hated features in the games industry and yet 343i thought this was acceptable so to say that they listened is just depressing to even think that way. Sure some are ok with wasting money and now the general quality of the game has dropped drastically since it was implemented into Halo 5. I would expect this nonsense from games like Minecraft but not from a AAA studio.

Some people are acting like infection is something that “we’re lucky to get”, even though it was a basic feature for so many Halo games that we could already get, a year later none of it matters because there is no off-line mode, no split-screen, which means we get nothing as soon as 343i have server issues or whenever xbox live goes down.

Nobody is asking for them to add every feature ever made in any video game into Halo 5 but adding the basic features a year later after release that have become standard then expect people to be happy is ridiculous.

As for free dlc…you know that 1/2 of the AAA maps dlc is just recycled from content that they previously released, about 3/4 of the actual maps are just forge maps and those were always free to begin with. At least with map packs we at least had some decent maps but instead map control in Halo 5 has got worse.

I could rant about this all day but the ironic part is 343i won’t listen like they did with Halo 4’s feedback, now they’ve expanded upon the worst parts of 4 and put them into Halo 5.

14

I do not “whine” persay; I constructively criticize the decisions made by 343, and then some shill will tell me to stop -Yoinking!-. The problem is that as soon as someone points out what is wrong with the game or 343’s approach, that person will then be jumped on by at least five other players telling the person how great and flawless Halo 5 and 343 are.

15

I do agree with you OP that the halo community needs to come together and 343i needs to have more communication with us. As much as I like that to happen, I have very little faith in both this community and 343i. The community is either to much white knighting (seriously stop defending everything 343 does) or to much nonconstructive feedback.(calm down) The community is very down the hole and 343i has a trust issues and stuff going on behind the scenes. Which I’m not buying halo 6, until I at least see a proper campaign and story line. (Highly doubt it because of a despise person)

I have no hope.
"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment" -space marine Liberian from dawn of war

16

> 2533274882045336;15:
> I do agree with you OP that the halo community needs to come together and 343i needs to have more communication with us. As much as I like that to happen, I have very little faith in both this community and 343i. The community is either to much white knighting (seriously stop defending everything 343 does) or to much nonconstructive feedback.(calm down) The community is very down the hole and 343i has a trust issues and stuff going on behind the scenes. Which I’m not buying halo 6, until I at least see a proper campaign and story line. (Highly doubt it because of a despise person)
>
> I have no hope.
> "Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment" -space marine Liberian from dawn of war

I was not aware that 343i was having problems behind the scenes with their staff but it goes both ways…the fans are having trust issues with 343i too, something in 343i needs to be re-organised by sounds of it.

17

> 2535468790032930;14:
> I do not “whine” persay; I constructively criticize the decisions made by 343, and then some shill will tell me to stop -Yoinking!-. The problem is that as soon as someone points out what is wrong with the game or 343’s approach, that person will then be jumped on by at least five other players telling the person how great and flawless Halo 5 and 343 are.

You are completely correct in your argument. I have also seen this “trend” happen of several occasions. It is, to put it mildly, very hazardous for Halo. No-one in these matters are solely perfect, but it is a problem that one part gets praised to the skies and then that praise ends up drowning the valid points of potential feedback.

18

You cannit satisfy both crowds. That is all.

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> 2533274891802271;18:
> You cannit satisfy both crowds. That is all.

Undoubtedly so, it is a almost certain to be a daunting task. However we all need to chip in and provide an effort in order to come closer to satisfying the players. Previously this task has been handled with both care and not. Some damage is hard to reverse but It is not too late.

20

> 2533274891802271;18:
> You cannit satisfy both crowds. That is all.

Halo used to largely satisfy both crowds. That’s how a divide is possible in the first place.