I’m getting really angry with 343i and the way they’re handling this situation - their flat-out REFUSAL to engage with the community hands-on style (like the stellar forum presence by the original creators of this franchise) is one thing; but to just adopt a complete blanket silence over the horrid issues plaguing matchmaking and hope it goes away is just so PERPLEXING and seriously - damning for 343 in the eyes of Halo fans. It smacks of an all new, all encompassing corporate approach to your ‘intellectual property’ and it stinks.
Even the phony-jolly tone of the bulletin is annoying - acting like it’s all been plain sailing and everything is hunky-dory. “Oh aren’t we so great at making this game and we love you all.” Pfft…
I used to say Crytek were the downright WORST AAA dev out there where community support and management was concerned, but I’ve changed my mind. They now share the top spot in that shameful league with 343i. It’s truly unforgivable to stay silent over these serious problems. Shame on you 343, shame on you.
I’ve now gotten to the point were I actually hope people eventually leave this game in droves, as already appears to be the case if the numbers are anything to go by. I never thought I’d be glad to see players sending out such a big message to this new pretender in control of our Halo, but I am. It’s crazy, but I am. I hope they see in very real terms what they have done, three months down the line. I suspect that’s how long it’ll take. The developer, in all their collective arrogance, will be left with no choice but to have a very serious rethink about the direction they take multiplayer in the next game. Back to the drawing board.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, don’t antagonise your core audience.
Along with Crytek, DICE is also at that spot… But hey give the game a month or two. I still have hope for this game because 343i has to really nail it with the community in order for Halo 4, 5 and 6 to succeed.
It’s their first game after all, by that I mean that they should do it right.
I do have to agree with you that this bulletin was disappointing.
I’ll be honest, when it was announced that Halo 4 was going to be run by 343i and not Bungie, I was quite doubtful of what kind of quality was going to go into the game. However, when I actually got my hands on the game, sat down, and played the campaign for the first time, I was practically struck in awe of the massively visible amounts of hard work that the developers put into it. Once I was finished with that, I went into the multiplayer portion and had a blast. Sure, there were glitches here and there; none were too major (unless you count the one on Complex in the Oddball game type). I thought to myself, ‘Hey, 343i will probably fix this in no time. After all, this is their first Halo, so they’ll probably work hard and fast to let the community know that they truly care about us.’
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. It’s been two weeks after the launch of Halo 4, and most of the glitches are still there, the experience cap has been irritating me almost every day when I play, and 343i won’t even communicate with us. If Bungie was here, they would have already given us some insight as to what’s going on. Even if they couldn’t fix it right away, they would at least have made a post saying, “Don’t worry. We’re working on it. We know how frustrating this is for you, but just hang in there for a little while longer.” Honestly, if 343i would do something like that, I would have a lot more respect and tolerance for them. Instead, covering us with a giant veil of silence makes me feel like they haven’t even looked at the forums to hear our complaints and fix them.
Also, I don’t like the way 343i handled the limited and standard editions of Halo 4 and what perks came with them. I mean, halting everyone who bought the standard edition at SR 70 and letting everyone who bought the limited edition level onward AND unlock all of the eight specializations when they reach SR 50 is a tad bit extreme, don’t you think? In my opinion, I think that letting the limited edition players unlock all of the specializations is good enough. It makes me feel like 343i is running Halo more as a product than a community. I don’t feel that special closeness to the developers like I did with Bungie.
In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve gotten cheated out of sixty dollars of my hard earned money by the restrictions that 343i has put on the Halo 4 multiplayer. I also feel like 343i doesn’t really care about the community, and it makes me sad to see a fantastic game franchise like Halo being handled in this way.
It’s impressive that a game like Halo3 can keep on being so much fun even after Halo4 has come out. I’ve been playing it for a week now and I must admit i havent had this much fun for a while.
I recommend you do too until they polish a bit this turd they have released.
> The best thing Bioware did with the Mass Effect 3 ending was acknowledge that it was Yoink! and dealt with it.
>
> I hope 343i does something like this as well. Not so much the pointless moans people have about it, but more about questions being answered:
>
> - What was the thinking behind having some many of the same armour, just with different decal?
> - Why did they nerf custom games?
> - Why did they cut out so many beloved game types?
> - Why did they not include the -Yoinking!- Falcon!?!
>
> Things like that they need to answer.
To give you a dissatisfactory anwer: Pressure from Microsoft to get the game out before Black Ops 2. I figure it went something like this: 343 decided to rebuild the game from the ground, found out Rome wasn’t built in a day, were forced by Microsoft to keep their deadline, which resulted in what feels like a Beta version of what could be a brilliant game. What they did get is a shitton of money to hype the flying -Yoink- out of their game, in order to beat Black Ops regardless of what the game turns out like. Of course nobody is going to admit that, so now we have to wait for patches and TU to fix things that should have been fixed before the game came out.
> I hate it when developers dont engage with the community, i mean there is nothing from them even on the forums.
>
> All id like to hear is that some of the problems are in their sights?
>
> Comes across as arrogant to ignore 100+page threads on things like custom games options
bsangel does visit these forums, the rest of the developers use NeoGaf as they found this forum to be over pessimistic and full of hate, those at NeoGaf actually are constructive about their criticism, the same can’t be said for a lot of people here.
Just because they don’t frequently visit this community, doesn’t mean that they aren’t listening to what people want. Those at NeoGaf are also a part of this community, and have the same worries as a lot of the people here.
Also, give it some time. 343i is working on bug fixes, and will likely release a Title Update once they are sure they got as many as they could. The latest Bulletin is proof that they in fact are listening, as the glitched spots in Complex, Ragnarok, and Haven were fixed, and both Haven and Ragnarok have less weight and appear less often.
> > The best thing Bioware did with the Mass Effect 3 ending was acknowledge that it was Yoink! and dealt with it.
>
> As far as I’m concerned, its worse off. The Indoctrination Theory, if proved correct, would of made them seem like gods of storytelling.
I have yet to play ME3 again since the ending debacle…I still have nightmares of that ending!!!
But yea eventually Bioware said something because the bad press they were getting was insane!!! I wish 343 would just say something even if its we are not putting more things in custom game options…then i could be like ok thats that.
the fact that 343 cant even be bothered to reply on their own forums is pretty pathetic.
BUNGIE not always but quite often interacted with their community on issues and even the good things that were said on the forums. Even if it was something small they would at least acknowledge it.
Rather than give their fans some insight to things going on or with issues they stride off to NeoGaf and post there just to miss a bit of name calling and harassment they may get from some of the immature people here.
I honestly don’t think they will bother fixing the many problems with the game as the list is simply too long. I am also shocked at how unfinished this game feels, there are so many bugs in both single player and multiplayer, no campaign theater, the addition of a proper ranking system AFTER launch, No file browser on launch and more.
> > I hate it when developers dont engage with the community, i mean there is nothing from them even on the forums.
> >
> > All id like to hear is that some of the problems are in their sights?
> >
> > Comes across as arrogant to ignore 100+page threads on things like custom games options
>
> bsangel does visit these forums, the rest of the developers use NeoGaf as they found this forum to be over pessimistic and full of hate, those at NeoGaf actually are constructive about their criticism, the same can’t be said for a lot of people here.
>
> Just because they don’t frequently visit this community, doesn’t mean that they aren’t listening to what people want. Those at NeoGaf are also a part of this community, and have the same worries as a lot of the people here.
>
> Also, give it some time. 343i is working on bug fixes, and will likely release a Title Update once they are sure they got as many as they could. The latest Bulletin is proof that they in fact are listening, as the glitched spots in Complex, Ragnarok, and Haven were fixed, and both Haven and Ragnarok have less weight and appear less often.
Its appauling that they treat neogaff like that even though these are the OFFICIAL forums. Grow a pair devs imo.
Anyone here been on the WoW forums, they make this place look like everyones on happy pills. Each class tweak they make is met with an onslaught of abuse, however the “blu posts” from the devs keep coming explaining what they think of the changes etc etc.
Would be amazing for 343 to be interactive with the community using the official means as a medium instead of just using this place as a place to launch marketing jargon.