Just as a heads up, this Thread isnt about bungie vs 343 or about casual halo vs Modern Halo.
Some issues im going to adress havent been discussed at or all or not enough, however there will be some issues which will have likely been discussed a lot.
Since this Thread is probably going to be rather Long i will do my best to seperate all off my issues into the fitting Sections.
Oh and English is my second language, i will try my best and will likely keep correcting my text after positing it.
The 2 Sections will be 343 and Halo 5
343
343 seems to have a problem properly communicating with the Community and by that i am not talking about a lack of communication but a strong disconnect between to who the communication is directed towards. While there have been cases in which the Community got what the communication they were hoping for, those cases were sadly to far and between of each other.
So… who was all the Communication directed towards if not to the Community ? The Press. Now, before anyone tries to lecture me about the importance off Press for a company, i am very well aware of that. My Point however lies in the fact that over the last few years the gaming industry in all aspects (consumer, publisher and Developer) has changed and i am certain that if 343 doesnt step up their game in terms of communicating, will end up going through the same troubles that other companys such as Bungie are currently experiencing.
Please keep in mind that i am fully aware that the Gaming industry is the only entertainment Industry in which the consumer is expecting so much Communication from the Developers and i can only imagine how frustrating and frightening it can be as a Dev in such a rough enviroment, however i would like to explain that from my Consumer point of view that i dont see games on an equal level as movies and such but as sport teams, so my investment comes from an entirely different point of view and im certain that most other people see studios and games the same way without ever noticing it themself.
What frustrates me the most is that 343 is directly under the Control of Microsoft and therefore doesnt have to keep shareholders happy (PLEASE correct me if im wrong) and even though they dont have to do so, most of their communication is directed to the press in such a way that it seems like they are pleasing some form of overlords, instead of the community. While there are other games in the industry which are in way worse situations but are still doing a better job then 343 is. Just to be clear im really not expecting the impossible, other companies have already proven that interacting with communtys without the middle man (the press) is something that can be done. Im also not saying that there is 0 communication, but simply to little.
Oh and just stop expecting the playerbase to not fact check statements, Gabe Newell had interviews years ago where he pointed out that there is no point in giving wrong informations and expecting no one to check it (Im talking about the case where 343 stated that zooming in has no effect on the weapons in Halo 5) Little things such as these simply insult my intelligence and others while also hurting the trust between consumer and developers.
I would also like to adress the case where a dev called Halo fans entitled. Believe it or not but a big majority of my friends who are Xbox owners just own the console for the Flagship IP that is Halo, so in short people go out of their way to purchase a console that was worth 500 bucks (at launch) just to be a part of this community. Thats all i wanna say about this case.
Then there are cases where Issues are aknowledged but are never adressed and worked on, to this day we still cant stack req card sells in the game and we never got an explanation to why that is. Which for me simply leaves the taste in my mouth that its designed to be frustrating so people just gamble more.
Now lets get to the marketing, i think it goes without saying that such a case like halo 5 in terms of marketing cant happen again, Microsoft did a smart move to remove a lot of the videos because they knew that they were misleading and that keeping them up would bring them problems. It also caused me to never purchase future halo titles without watching reviews of the game from independed content creators again.
Halo 5
Halo 5 biggest issue is thats its treated like an Live service game without beeing one. You cant update a competetive game every month in suttle ways and expect people to re learn things such as weapon balances, weapon placing, map redesigns and much more. While an update from time to time is a good thing, its important not to overdo it.
Now lets get to the second biggest issue Halo 5 has. The UI, im not sure why so little work was put in it and so many backwards decisions have been made, but the UI is after the gameplay the second most important thing of a game simply because in between playing i will spend all of my time in the UI, its also the only way to really interact with the community as a player outside of the gameplay.
Constant game mode rotations and the lack of game modes at launch killed almost all casual sub communitys which existed in Halo. What 343 has to understand is that most people dont give a game more then 2 or 3 chances. So when a Halo game launches with less game modes then the original title it simply crushes the communitys.
In the last few weeks it has been clear in which direction the EU will be heading, Lootboxes are already declared gambling in 3 countrys and more will follow. So far i fully agree about the decisions which have been made, it doesnt mather how unintrusive Devs think lootboxes are. They entice children to gamble and since im a big brother who enjoys playing and buying video games with and for my younger ones my stand is clear, keep them out or it will be the last push that is needed for me to leave the Halo and xbox community for good.