Just imagine back in 2002 you (most likely your parents) spent $300 on a new console that came with a launch game that’s got a buggy and short campaign and had a “free multiplayer” that sold you $20-25 (adjusting for inflation) digital armors every two weeks.
Did you have your own credit card when you were 11 and played Halo Combat Evolved for the first time? Try picturing back in the day asking your folks for their credit card number to buy $20 worth of goods online and only online. Again every two weeks.
The progression system is broke. The content didn’t dry up, it was never there. Try and compare the amount of maps and modes from Halo 1-5 to Infinite. 343 claims the system in place is to cover the costs of servers? I’m pretty sure more people played Halo 3 on Xbox Live than are currently playing Halo Infinite and the servers worked fine for a mere 60 dollars a game.
Now here we are almost in 2022 and gamers everywhere are somehow required to type their credit card number into this game (and many others) to get anything of value and in some cases need a credit card to win the game. Sure you can just not pay it. Speak with our wallets as we’ve all heard. I just don’t think folks truly know how big whales are. They are literally the largest animal known that’s ever existed…
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I’d be like “HOLY HELL I CAN PLAY AGAINST MY FRIENDS THROUGH THE INTERNET???” and would proceed to fail out of junior high.
Of course, when XBL did become a thing in 2004, I couldn’t play right away because I had to pay for an XBL subscription, and was living on trials for a minute before I actually got a part time job. In fact, XBL yearly subscription cost $50 which is $70 in today’s money, so if people are buying $70 worth of armor for the year, it balances out, since there is no charge for playing online currently.
Don’t equate the early 2000s gaming environment to today, it’s a non-sequitor.
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I mean kids probably did fail out of junior high and high school playing Halo, and many other games.
You can pay the same amount (or less) for just the Xbox Game Pass and get a library of games and not even pay or play Halo. (Still got to buy that campaign if you don’t have game pass)
Heck to get all current items in the shop right now, it cost $35 dollars. And in two weeks that’ll be another $35 dollars for some other armor and other trinket/paint. So we’re already at $70 in a month to what you’re saying was a year. I also have to get that battle pass to get unlock anything remotely good. But yeah it’s a free game.
And why would I not equate the “gaming environment”? (Not sure what gaming environment means.) Do you mean like the economics or how we go about playing games? I know early 2000s gaming model is different. We didn’t have cellphones… Let’s compare Halo Reach to Infinite though. That was just 10 years ago. Yet every person playing the new Halo say this is the best Halo they’ve played in a while because it reminds them of the earliest Halo’s released.
Still it seems folks still crave this early 2000s gaming environment we’re describing when developers and publishers are making millions on remakes, remasters, classic servers, etc.
IDK what your trying to argue in favor of. However I can shed some light on some developments in the industry.
first if a person fails out of school cause of video game addiction that isn’t necessarily the fault of the developers. play responsibly.
Second the economics and business models do matter. These change over time with changes to how business set themselves up. Most in the stock market are always looking to grow because they need to constantly grow the stock. Software licensing introduced a new concept. Why pay once for a product and then have to go through the trouble of remaking it year after year to just sell once? Why not just give them a license and then have them pay perpetually year after year just to use said product. Software as a service began. Mobile games introduced the same with free games that had microtransactions.
Valve and a few freemium games proved it could work on AAA games. through out the last 10 years this system caught on and almost every game in time has added these aspects. Halo added them in Halo 5 guardians with the REQ system.
This is also matched with a much different change in the development end called Agile development method. It stresses a flexible product plan, and making a working prototype then iterating over it with shareholders and customers to get it just right. it is used in almost every piece of software made not just gaming. Most notably it was invented by Microsoft themselves and pushed by them as well, if I remember correctly.
This obviously has been abused by publishers to push games out early since they can always patch later. On top of that many gaming engines are getting really old, so if they want to continue to advance AAA they need to make new engines or get them to work with modern software. This requires alot of work that it seems most companies do not want take the time and money to do properly. Halo has always been played on a custom engine. the one they made for infinite is called slipspace rumor has it they had a lot of issues getting it to work.
So the differences in Reach and gaming 10 years ago (in regards to most AAA devs) is alot. As long as software as a service and gaming as a service is the goal of most of these companies you will NEVER see the old model be used the way it use to. The profits to be made from even small games with microtransactions is far greater than even the biggest sellers from back in the day. Valve themselves use microtransactions in all of their multiplayer games, and pretty much continues to exist because of that and steam(making 1.1 billion on that alone). MS/343, EA, Bethesda, Activision/blizzard, riot games, ect.
Most people I would say want games that feel like the old ones are better mainly because the old ones were tighter designed and had less bugs. Many also had cool and imaginative stories/art. As you also pointed out they cost less back then. Most customers always want stuff to cost less money. Most of all they were fun and people want to recapture that. Movies right now are in the same boat, most movies and video games are more corporate interest now than entertainment. I would say halo Infinite does a pretty good job. the story is adding to the lore in new creative ways, the design is tight and has minimal bugs(by modern standards). only real big this is the monetization is still a bit intrusive and made people ticked.
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My apologies if my point didn’t cross over. I guess the point I’m trying to make is the system in place to buy digital cosmetics seems a bit steep, if not almost greedy. Heaven forbid they for some reason swapped to loot boxes it just be akin to gambling without getting any real currency or physical product. I do remember buying a few digital hats on Team Fortress 2 before it was F2P. However that was like $.50 and a $1 for a noticeable look. (I also only brought up the quip about failing school in response to another post. Of course that’s not the developers fault.)
You’re probably right when you mentioned companies never using the old “pay and play model” again when they see how much they can make on service based games. But just because they want to sell a game as a service, doesn’t mean we as consumers shouldn’t have certain protections as well. Especially if they are marketed towards younger audiences (or gamers who know better).
At least we know 343 is listening to their gamer base and are changing things slowly one day at a time. Hope you and all who are reading this are having fun playing the game and have a great holiday and good new year.
yeah we need to have protections in place. There have been already alot of lawsuits over these practices, particularly in games with loot boxes aimed at kids.
I hope they can refine the system to not be so crappy and have at least a few armors from achievements or regular progression.
I’m just frustrated that alot of the game is really good and its being overlooked because of the monetization.
The game needs some armors to be unlockable without microtransactions. They also need to slash those store prices. Those are way to high.
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