DLC > Free Update.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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I’ve noticed a lot of people have been praising halo 5 for its free updates. These people don’t seem to realize its just a marketing ploy, games have had “free updates” for years but they call it what it is patches. When halo did DLC we got 4-5 maps a pack for around $20. So by then end of it we got 16-20 new fresh maps. By then end of halo 5s “free updates” we will have 16 maps. Most arena maps will be remixes, 8 of them will be warzone maps and 4 of those will be assault maps, and by then end we will get over 1000 new reqs. (You can not count forge, BTB maps, gamemodes, because those should have been in at launch.)

The reason why 343 keeps making so many remixes and keep using the same assets for warzone and adding so many reqs, Is because they take less time and less money to make then 4 new maps. Now if the maps were truly free I would have less problem with them. (I would still rather have 4 fresh maps but that’s just me.) The problem is the community pays for the maps as a whole. The reason why there are so many reqs and the just keep adding more on to more and they are random is to entice users to buy gold packs.

Yes, you do not have to buy gold packs no one makes you do it, but they try to make you to want to do it. Many people get annoyed when they spend 300 hours to get 1 item from a req pack and they still don’t get it so they drop $30 on a few packs. There’s also the people who have the money and say screw it and spend $200-$300 on gold packs (more then you might think do this.). Last there are the types of players who buy 1 or 2 packs every now and then. (It’s like this you meet a pretty girl (or guy) so you buy her flowers or you take her out to coffee, to entice her to want to go out with you.) While with DLC people will be less likely to drop $20 then to drop $3 every now and then.

When you add this all together. 343 does less work for more money. They are getting away with it because its “free”. Just because something is free doesn’t make it better. (Wouldn’t you be annoying if you ordered a hamburger and all you got was a bun and meat? wheres the rest of it? “Oh don’t worry we will bring that out to you sometime in the next 30 mins” NO, I want my whole Hamburger, NOW! “hey man don’t complain its free, You will get the rest when they finish it.” )

Its almost like 343 knew halo 5 would not sell well and that’s why they went with "“free updates”/warzone/req packs. 343 strategy for doing less work for more money is only going to get worse. (In the future everything will be forge made.)

I hope I got my point across well enough. When I thought of this post last night I was half asleep and what I wanted to post was much more detailed, but I cut it down to this because I couldn’t remember most of it.

Edit: I knew I didn’t word this well enough. Everyone seems to be missing the point. The problem with the “free updates” is that all they really are, are just glorified patches. Because of this 343 can add as little or as much they want in one of the patches, and no one can say anything bad about it because there “free updates”. These free updates are only hurting halo in the long run. They are getting away with doing less work and getting more money. “(In the future everything will be forge made.)” This wasn’t a joke.

Its like this “If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will just jump out, but if you put a frog in cold water and turn up the heat slowly it will stay in it until it dies.”. I could see Halo 6 launch with 6 maps and the 12 forge maps, and have all of its “free updates” be 1 forge map and 1 legit map. After that in halo 7 they could launch with nothing but forge made maps.

This is something I keep saying " I miss when game developers made games that people would want to play instead of making games they feel will make the most money, this is how great games die." The reason why they made halo 5 how the did is because they thought it would make them the most money. This will only continue and get worse. Look at how bad the campaign was. Its clear they care little about a story that Bungie started and ended. The campaign reminded me of Call of Duty in a way because each level takes place in a whole new zone. at that point the story just started to blur and I just didn’t care anymore.

343 isn’t going to take halo any where but down. These people who keep defending 343s halo and saying crap like “Stop complaining” or “stop being an entitled brat”. Are only helping them take it down. I don’t know who can save halo, my only bet is Certain Affinity. Even then I just don’t know.

What I do know is we cant just sit back and let them destroy halo and turn it into a generic FPS. Doing nothing or crying “LEAVE 343 ALONE!” Ins’t going to help.

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Corrections: Usually 3 maps, for $10.

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Also, you numbers are wrong because we know that original maps are being released as of next update

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> 2533274840624875;3:
> Also, you numbers are wrong because we know that original maps are being released as of next update

“Most arena maps will be remixes.” I know the next maps are going to be original but most will be remixes.

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Especially when the free updates don’t add new content and just finish an unfinished game

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If the DLC in Halo 5 actually cost money, the community would be split and the population would suffer even more because not everyone would buy it. Just saying.

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I can totally agree with what your saying, I feel like honestly with Reach & H4 I was punished by supporting 343 BC there was so many people that felt that all the DLC map packs should’ve been free, so they didn’t buy them & I was left only getting to play those maps in a specific playlist until it was phased out. This often left me frustrated because a lot of the DLC maps were great but I could never get matched with people that had them so I was stuck playing Swordbase or Haven until I got tired of playing them for the 10,000th time.

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> 2533274817747391;5:
> Especially when the free updates don’t add new content and just finish an unfinished game

It is literally adding new content. How can it possibly not be new content unless it was already in the game. Some people are just something else

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> 2533274850519091;6:
> If the DLC in Halo 5 actually cost money, the community would be split and the population would suffer even more because not everyone would buy it. Just saying.

Yeah, That’s the Major problem with DLC. That’s something that’s always annoyed me about it, but the quality of the content suffers from theses “free updates”.

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> 2533274850519091;6:
> If the DLC in Halo 5 actually cost money, the community would be split and the population would suffer even more because not everyone would buy it. Just saying.

Right because games have been doing it for years and had no adverse effects on the community. Really shows how weak and small halo’s is if dlc can ruin its population. Paid content works in every other game just fine, as did halo in the past.

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Actually, this way is far better because EVERYONE gets the DLC and it is FREE. Shout out to 343 for their commitment to support the game with monthly updates.

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I would be grateful for a free hamburger. I was raised to not be a whiny brat.

on the topic of dlc, I do prefer “fresh” maps. I would totally side with you if every remix was like the empire/Eden duo, but they aren’t. Maps packs DO split the player base. Whether that has a personal affect on your gameplay is not the point. It happens to some, not all. I have friends who can’t really afford to put in some $ for dlc and I’m always stuck playing the base maps when I play with them. With halo 5 I can play all of the content with my friends who would not purchase beyond the base content.

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> 2533274808210415;2:
> Corrections: Usually 3 maps, for $10.

past halo map packs in previous halos in the UK ahve been about £15. I much prefer the monthly updates to paying £15 for 3 maps with no other content lol

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I think I finally figured out the main issue about people’s complaints for DLC. They are living in this fantasy world that video games should be the way games were 10 yrs ago before DLC. However since the 360 came out, most disc based games cost $60. When in reality to get the full game with all the new maps it’s roughly $110. Now here is my question, do you get enjoyment out of a game you paid $60 for without the extra content? Would you pay $110 for a game if it had all the additional stuff day one like you clamor for?

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I much prefer the current model. If it was paid we’d be like destiny having to pay extra for features we should have had at launch. Tell me would you have paid $40 just to get btb as it is and all the maps and req they have added since launch as they are? I wouldnt.

Dlc should be just for expanded campaign and cosmetics. I like there not being a dlc divide among the community.

Free monthly updates >>>>>dlc

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I like free monthly updates way better than paid DLC. Say what you wish about what ‘counts’ and doesn’t based on what ‘should have been there at launch’. I’m not saying there aren’t things I wish were there since the beginning, I’m certainly not saying Halo 5 is perfect, but I way prefer the way they’re doing this to past halo games. In your analogy, I would HAPPILY sit with a bun on my plate for 30 minutes while I wait for my burger if it meant I didn’t have to pay for it. No question in my mind there. I’m grateful that in time, Halo 5 will have plenty of maps, new game modes, and consistent support, and I won’t have to shell out an extra 40 or 50 bucks for it on top of the 60 I already paid. I love it.

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for the love of…

Do you know why they are doing this? IT’S BECAUSE EVERYONE GETS THE CONTENT, AND THERE ISN’T A PAYWALL TO THE REST OF IT. Seriously, is it cool to complain about the dumbest things these days? Not to mention HAVE YOU SEEN HALO 4??? That is the alternate, and look at how well that went out. A stale piece of bread is pretty much what it is. They released a bunch of gamemodes and maps on the fly, then they release dlc that no one cares about. Then they just ditch the game entirely, making little change to the game whatsoever.

How about you try to make a game and see how well it goes for you?

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Let’s not forget that the newly released, limited run, vehicle req packs are real world money only. No req points at all for $5.99. This makes Warzone even more ambiguous to P2W status as well as goes completely against what 343 said earlier in that everyone would have access to reqs.

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I wish they would just charge more for the game and give us good quality maps, not forge and remixes.

I doubt it will ever change, honestly.

Still loving halo 5.

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> 2533274854386801;19:
> I wish they would just charge more for the game and give us good quality maps, not forge and remixes.
>
> I doubt it will ever change, honestly.
>
> Still loving halo 5.

This game was barely worth $60 to begin with. Lack of options and modes present in previous games, much weaker campaign (probably the weakest in my opinion), and boasting map selection when many are just small design and flow tweaks as well as forge maps and they are all split and locked to certain game modes. Mechanically it plays well, but I just don’t see the value here, especially since the free content updates haven’t brought much to the MP dynamic as a whole, rather the forging community is being relied on for all arena maps now while 343 tries to squeeze every last dollar out warzone. It is mainly a new arena map remix combined with a plethora of warzone weapons and armor.