Seriously. After all the things 343 has done, and all the things they haven’t responded to despite so much nagging, really…do you think they’re listening to the community?
Personally, I think they’re listening to the things they like to hear, that they know they can do - like the competitive playlist. That’s not hard. But despite all the points people have raised about CSR being invisible being bad, or how the Boltshot is OP, or how the DMR makes all the other guns unbalanced, or how Custom Game options are trash, or how Halo 4’s Forge had so many things taken out, 343 hasn’t responded to just about any of them.
There are some signs that 343i listens to people more than Bungie. Bungie had better public relations, but actually who removed bloom or weakened Armor Lock in Reach? When Halo 3 fanboys said they want “competitive” game without custom loadout or AA or JIP, 343i will bring it to them.
I can see 343i is learning on it’s mistakes (with map pack, forge maps, playlists etc.) so I’m optimistic about incoming TU. However if they’ll not nerf DMR or fix frame rate issues in split screen soon enough, I’ll be pissed.
I think the TU later this month will settle whether they are listening to us or not. It will also settle my decision on whether to stick with the game or move on to another shooter.
Whether or not they have responded to the community’s -Yoinking!- is a lot easier to confirm or reject than whether or not they are listening, but to be completely honest the community is being a little overzealous in exercising their ability to complain on internet forums so I can’t fault 343 with not setting up any text correspondence with their doting followers.
The most important thing to keep in mind though, is that any substantial response is going to require substantial work, and that’s in addition to the schedules they have to keep. The game came out the first week of November ; that’s 3 months and something days up until today. I’d bet my next paycheck that 343 has been pretty busy during that time.
> Not responding is not not listening.
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> Whether or not they have responded to the community’s -Yoinking!- is a lot easier to confirm or reject than whether or not they are listening, but to be completely honest the community is being a little overzealous in exercising their ability to complain on internet forums so I can’t fault 343 with not setting up any text correspondence with their doting followers.
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> The most important thing to keep in mind though, is that any substantial response is going to require substantial work, and that’s in addition to the schedules they have to keep. The game came out the first week of November ; that’s 3 months and something days up until today. I’d bet my next paycheck that 343 has been pretty busy during that time.
They could silence about half of the people who are complaining in a few hours tops. They’d just need to release a statement addressing the biggest concerns that the playerbase has.
The closest we have gotten to this was a statement made by a single person that mistakes have been made. (There may have been a new statement since then but honestly I don’t keep up with the Halo news these days. The multiplayer is just depressingly disappointing.)
However, they have vastly improved upon the Spartan Ops episodes, making them much more fun, varied and so on. My biggest problem with them is how short they are (because sometimes I just want to spend 30 minutes fighting solo against insurmountable odds. I loved fighting off the Covies with Promethean Heavy Weaponry last week but it was over so soon…)
Actually I think they listen to the community to a fault. I am referring to when they took over matchmaking in Reach. They really tried to placate to all the voices on the forums: implementation of a no bloom playlist, 85% bloom playlist, a a non TU playlist, using a poll to help them decide if they would do CEA. Anyone remember the low population count of the Anniversary and no bloom playlists? Weren’t those akin to the so called “stripped down” version that the majority of the minority is calling for? And yes, we are a minority. Not many of us take the time to voice our opinions on these forums.
I say if they had not taken all that valuable time and money to try and make all of us happy we would not be where we are today. Yes, nothing is perfect, but maybe it wouldn’t have been unfinished.
343i is in its infancy, so to speak, they are listening. Maybe we can actually be happy with the changes that are being asked for.
Yes. I assume they can’t read ALL posts, but I’m pretty sure they will certainly have seen all recurring subjects by now.
Though I’m afraid they don’t have the guts to actually do something about it.
The DMR, for example. It is more powerful and versatile than any other starting weapon, yet not once they have told us they are working on it.
Of course a nerf to the DMR is a big deal and it requires thorough playtesting. I don’t care if it takes months to get it perfectly right. But the least they can do is tell us, assure us they are working on it.
Your complaining that they don’t listen because they don’t respond to every complaint? I’d rather they said little to nothing, like they are doing now, but get things fixed than talk the talk but not walk the walk as it were. Just because they aren’t responding to your complaints doesn’t mean they are not doing anything about those complaints. You’ll probably find that they have discussed all the problems the community has highlighted in depth and are working on solutions to them. We’re not a part of the decision making process and so do not need to know everything they are doing.
I mean they are listening in the sense that they are aware of what is being said. Bravo posts on the Halocouncil boards everyday…BUT… there is only so much he or even someone like BSAngel can do. I believe they are listening but that they disagree(besides Bravo) with a lot of what is being said.
To me they have some untouchables. Things they would never admit needed to be changed.
Among those is descoping, sprint, base player traits, CTF changes, weapon despawning.
Those I just believe they will never address because they don’t see any of them as a real problem.
I voted yes because checking the weekly bulletin this week, it looks like there are several very good, and needed, changes coming to matchmaking.
Also, I have seen some of the popular threads in the forums get the 343 stamp on them, so it does seem like they are listening IMO, but only very recently.
However, an in game 1-50 system is one of the hottest topics on the forums, and hopefully they give that serious consideration, which really has not happened to this point.
Yeah, they are. The issue is that everyone has their own opinion on Halo and what should happen with it in the future. They can’t satisfy everyone, so they have to “go dark” on exactly what they are planning. We as gamers really don’t know what it takes to “balance” or really what goes into a process of making a title update or any of that stuff.
They are not going to get on the forums and gives us daily updates on what they are doing. That would only serve to create more problems and more arguing. Posting a weekly update and watching the communities reaction is the best course of action for them. Might as well just read posts/opinions and let the community bicker among themselves.