I wish Halo multiplayer still revolved around my busy schedule

Games Halo Infinite
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To try to be concise, I love Halo, and I really wanted to jump into the Tenrai special event, but had family commitments that severely limited my game time this month. As a slightly older millennial, I do not have as much free time as I used to. And because Tenrai and game modes like Fiesta are only available during specific windows, I was totally denied a chance to experience the game like I wanted to when it unexpectedly released multiplayer early. Getting multiplayer early was a wonderful surprise that turned sour for me really fast due to the limited window for Tenrai and Fiesta not aligning with my personal schedule. I worry that the same thing will happen in the future if Tenrai is always limited to two-week windows. For those of us with limited opportunities to binge game, missing out is really depressing. Especially if we already planned our limited free time in December around Halo Infinite, and now know that Tenrai and Fiesta won’t even be available at all in December. I was motivated to share this feedback after realizing how long it would be before I could potentially take advantage of the Battle Pass I bought. After paying for the Battle Pass, the realization that I won’t be enjoying Tenrai/Fiesta for all of December feels almost like a scam, to the point that it feels hurtful on a personal level even if I know that was not the developer’s intent.

I hope the folks at 343 can appreciate how depressing this feels, and do something for working adults to experience everything Halo Infinite multiplayer has to offer in a way that revolves around our busy schedules, rather than us all being at the mercy of time-limited event schedules that feel arbitrary and may or may not align with our busy lives.

I hope this feedback is both helpful and respectful. Possibly future event windows will last much longer, alleviating part of this concern and frustration. My preferred solution would be to leave all season-specific content up for the entire season, so that busy players can still fully progress through events if they choose.

I also hope this feedback was not too redundant. Others have raised concerns about multiplayer content and the time it takes to progress, but I had not seen anyone emphasize what is for me the central point: I am busy. I do not actually need to progress quickly. Slow progression is fine too. I just need to be able to progress whenever I am free to game, however frequent or infrequent those gaming sessions might be. I need Halo Infinite to always fit my schedule. This is the classic reason that, before streaming became ubiquitous, video games were stealing millennial attention-share from cable tv. Now it feels like we are reverting back to something that should have died with the aughts and cable tv: home entertainment that requires the consumer to tune in at a certain time in order to enjoy the product. I understand that this level of emphasis on time-limited features is a way that many types of games incentivize those with excess amounts of free time to habitually play or spend. But this is a big step backwards from what I expect from Halo and other great games, which never alienated me by being incompatible with my schedule before.

Finally, thank you to everyone at 343 studios for putting so much work already into this game. The unfortunately small amount I have played so far was excellent, and my desire to experience everything when I can is a testament to so many things you are doing right. Thank you for what promises to be a truly great Halo gaming experience.

Sincerely,

A Halo fan since 2001

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I understand frustrations with how the event was implemented, but with such limited time you’re almost guaranteed to fall behind on cosmetic grinds regardless. At least the only unlockables in game are either cosmetic or cosmetic related, the event included.

But yea, they could probably afford to be a little more generous with the time limit and schedule restrictions on events.

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Completely agree and feel your pain. I’ve been playing Halo since I was a kid and now in my early 30s, this arbitrary time limit just makes the game stressful instead of fun. You really nailed it with the comment about video games vs TV. That’s so true. Used to be I preferred games because they worked on MY schedule. Now I’m finding the opposite where video games either take way too long to load or have too much pointless go here, do this, open world nonsense or multiplayer games have these ridiculous timed events. I find myself gravitating more to streaming media because it’s always ready on my schedule and can easily pause and pick up right where I left off.
The funny thing is, I have so much more “disposable” income now than I ever did as a kid playing video games. If they really want me to spend money on this game, it needs to fit my schedule so I actually feel like it’s worth the investment.

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I had similar issues, I was visiting family for the holiday so I only got to play a few hours of fiesta. There is good news; you wouldn’t think so with the attitude most everyone is having on the forums, but the event will return and you’ll be able to continue your progress.

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This is the first season pass I’ve ever bought on any game because I love playing Halo. I had some extra time this weekend due to the holiday in the US and started grinding through the weekly challenges to try to get the cool armor color. However, after spending more than 8 hours going through the weekly challenges the final ultimate challenge popped up and it was a ridiculous challenge that would probably take me another 8 hours to accomplish. I raged quit because it’s insane how slow of a grind it is to unlock stuff in this game. My world does not revolve around this game (nor any game) I only have about an 1-2 hours per night due to a busy schedule and would like to see some progress in that time. If not, I really have no reason to play multiplayer.

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@BlueDevistator Oh, I know. And that is great. But what still bums me out is, first, that it won’t be there in December when I planned on setting aside the most time for Halo. And second, because when I looked it up, they said that Tenrai would appear a total of six times during season 1, which ends in May. If it will have six appearances total between January and May, that suggests painfully short windows, like this first one, which may or may not align with my best opportunities for binging.