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> > I don’t think the story, as a whole, was poorly received, but rather that a complaint of the story was the induction of the Didact (and Librarian) who had so little introduction yet purported to be such a major piece in the narrative. People who hadn’t read the books, from what I’ve seen and read of their complaints, seem to have felt like he (and she, for that matter) had a weak explanation.
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> As someone who did not read Greg Bear’s trilogy before playing Halo 4, I have to say that for all the problems with the Didact in Halo 4, reliance on extra-game lore to explain him was not one. Lore junkies probably remember that the characters known as Didact and Librarian were first mentioned in the terminals of Halo 3. From that, we were able to learn that they cared about each other, that Didact was against use of the Halo array, and that Librarian wanted to index life in the galaxy in preparation for the Halo firing. We also learn that Didact was involved in the creation of Mendicant Bias, and that he was willing to risk using less efficient means to kill the Flood if it meant preventing firing the array and losing the Librarian. We learn the Librarian seemingly got trapped on Earth, where she deactivated the portal to the Ark to keep the Flood from it. We learn that Didact used Offensive Bias to stop Mendicant Bias and eventually succumbed to firing the rings, lamenting the loss of Librarian and seemingly joining a Forerunner exodus from the galaxy.
I get what you’re saying, but you’re a self-described “lore junkie”. Even if you didn’t read the Forerunner trilogy, you deep-dived into terminals when present and let that soak into your Halo-lovin’ brain. I get that, b/c I was the same way by the time Halo 3 came out. The first two games were fun gameplay, but by 3 I was starting to really try and follow the narrative a bit closer. The terminals provided that for me, but admittedly I was slightly confused and intimidated by the depth of bits of lore being thrown around that I otherwise had no clue about. Librarian? Didact? Mendicant Bias? I read the terminals, but didn’t retain the knowledge of really anything other than the names that were used. I don’t think anyone can argue that there were, are, and will be players who want the story told to them in its entirety through gameplay (campaign, and possibly Spartan Ops, if you’re lucky). Whether that’s the way it should be is a different argument, but I’d venture to guess that many people who complain about Halo games not doing so are the same ones who don’t take the time to find all the hidden terminals or ingest all their added and expansive narrative. Instead, I personally know of many players who are exactly like this, and yet are avid Halo fans from the standpoint of multiplayer. They play through the campaign because they bought the game, or for achievements or commendations or challenges or what-have-you’s, but aren’t buying the game for the richness of the story. In all honesty, it greatly irritates me that there are people who knowingly buy a game for MP instead of campaign and aren’t interested in being invested in a story enough to do any extra work beyond playing gameplay, yet will be the first to complain about the story, length of it, or the characters involved. Still, it happens, and like it or not, those same players are the ones that have and hopefully will grow Halo sales and active players higher in the future.
Tl;dr: some players, even if they don’t read the books, are interested enough in the story to seek out hidden information (terminals, etc). Others, I’d guesstimate a large number, care just enough about the story to play through the campaign once (twice, if you’re lucky) and to be opinionated about its perceived shortcomings. A Halo games’ perceived success or failure hinges fairly heavily on that same large player base. Further, 343i should be desiring to draw in new players into the lore through the common ground of the campaign gameplay.
But with all of this, it’s just my opinion about how it has been handled and its effects on the Halo culture. I understand exactly what you’re saying, but just don’t fully agree that it’s as simple as “add a hidden thing to explain a prominent thing so they can’t complain”. They can, and have, and I believe will continue to, unless 343i learns how to better tell a compelling story and be creative in how they can further give players story details in intriguing ways.