Halo 4 may not be seeing more than around 100K per average for now but there are many reasons for this and even more to support that the franchise IS FINE.
With the current population, these are the different reasons:
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Pretty much the biggest one, On the 13th Black ops 2 came out, its kinda no suprise people would buy the 5th version of the same game since 2007. Not to mention as a multiplatform game, which console just happens to milk the most out of this audience? Microsoft has a big content deal with Activision…
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People all have lives to live, we are not all 12 year olds who can just go home on a weekday after school and ignore our homework and doe this, we have lives (those who contribute to soceity anyways).
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Casuals have as much of a voice as competive players, we don’t all want MLG crap. All people playing halo have peferrences, campaign, war games, spartan ops, forge etc. We all have en equal voice, would you all want MLG -Yoinks!- deciding how we play? No I want to decide that for myself. We have these base modes anyone can handle because it has varity.
So how about the condition of Halo 4 itself? I would say its mostly good but yes there are problems with some of the game. I would say the DMR needs a slight nerf in ROF or slight increase in bloom, just to make it not as viable in close range as it is right now, its made for mid-long range it should be working there not have as easy a time as it is right now. Infinity slayer does feel like mario kart at times too but if they removed the snipers and launchers from personal ordiance and made them the classic both teams must fight for them with some other base weaponry coming in around the map like the older halos, that works. Anyone getting a needler, SAW, shotgun, sword, hammer, scattershot, concussion rifle, sticky denoator, or railgun from personal ordiance is fine. The close range power weapons and these explosives are capable of one hit kills but they are vastly limited (railgun and SD by their one shot per clip). They are all powerful but still not enough to actually dominate everything. Plus the random spawns should be random in 2 ways I think 1. In which weapons are spawned and 2. power weapons have fixed spots at which they spawn but the exact weapon catagory and weapon from that catagory differs each time, it won’t always be the rocket laucher, sometimes it may be the or fuel rod. Theres a lot of ways they can make this work.
Also remember a few other games that had some “disaster” in recent times?
Skyrim- last year was plauged with bugs and game breaking glitches. PS3 has still not even gained the first DLC. PC players were fine. Bethesda knew of these problems yet released the game anyways. Guess what though, they fixed most problems and still look for new ones to fix.
Mass Effect 3- This year fans of this series were so outraged at EA and Bioware because of the lackluster orginal ending which voided all choices made over 3 long games only to give a color coded ending, almost like the writers and programmers said, “Screw this, we are not making a whole complation pathway for an ending.” If they did, they would not even needed to make the extendend ending which changed some stuff.
Plus not all great games have a massive community. Ever hear of Team Fortress 2? I see only around 50K playing at most times, yet this game still gets supported and fixes problems. Valve is a small company in terms of the game world mainly surviving off games they sell on their platform and anyone who buys hats in this game. Yet they are still able to support their players in so many ways desipte being so small.
Remember the game breaking glitches in MW2? The negative XP hack, carepackage glitch, people going under the maps and never getting killed? IW tried patching these things but another one only rose up to make things worse. Better to patch a game than just shove off another copy the next year.
What I am saying is a company like Valve despite being small addresses issues, a bigger compnay with tons o money like Activision as a publisher, does not give one F###, so many lackluster games and so many problems. I’ve played Black ops 2, I still have no motivation to get back into COD.
Bungie did much of the same stuff 343 is doing now, they swapped playlists out every couple of weeks and had some weekend only ones. 343 may not have the best stuff out right now and may not be doing the best but keep in mind:
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They are working their butts off to address these issues, no game is perfect at least be glad they are trying to make it better, if you are too annoyed with no “trueskill” system or whatever else, suck it up, just because its only displayed on the PC does not mean you should go crying like a baby over it. Good things take time. We will get the update notes on the bulletin each week.
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They will rotate the playlists, understand they wanted to put their new stuff out first, if anything I could bet that there will be a regular team slayer (loadout enabled) with infinity slayer later on. If something is not as popular they will remove it, they will put it out as needed. Think about how bungie made new playlists for the DLC or SWAT.
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At least they respond to our cries, Halo would not have been given to 343 if they did not care for it as much as they did, like Valve at least they are trying to get it up to pace, if some overused perk or weapon etc is in black ops, you think anyone at Treyarch or Activision would want to give 2 F###s over it? No they would not, they are too busy counting their money.
I want the DMR fixed a bit, I want a regular playlist with loadouts, scoring for campaign and spartan ops, and a limited lives option for spartan ops but I’ve got to make due with other things for now. At least we are getting updates, the Spartan Op content will at least get us over for a while. There are commendations and some armor to earn only in this mode and I find it as a good arcade mode, see how few times I can die or try it with a different loadout like stealth the whole thing. I am only playing CTF, Dominion, and Flood for now, they are fun.
Oh and 1 last thing, remember the outrage and protest against Mass Effect 3’s orginal ending? If a bunch of pissed off fans could get a new ending in their game, we can at least get updates to ours. 343 updated reach, they can do it to halo 4. COD is the main cause. 343 is listening, they have both short and long term goals for updates, everything you love will come in time.
Just have common sense people, 343 even said they would support the game constantly beyond launch. I don’t know about you but I’m glad to have a game supported for more than 1 year before the same the same thing is released a year later with no further support afterwards.
We have voices, we the fans make up halo, without us, halo dies. If you are concerned then tell 343. If they listen to fix glitches, they will handle this stuff later on. They are only so many people but they will handle it. I can see new playlists in the future, its not what we want right now but we will get it. Have patience its a good thing. Play of leave, you choice. I’m staying cause though I want some stuff or changes, I look past that to enjoy the game. For those who stay see you in my BR sights.