The employees are probably pretty bummed with a lot of the feedback when it relates to something they were passionate about and did for appropriate reasons. Particularly disheartening to read how painfully aware they are of the negative feedback and harsh comments that offer nothing constructive. I just think this is important for people to read. You can see they care and a lot of reasoning as to why decisions were made that have ultimately upset some users. It comes from a good place, of course they want to make the best game possible.
I canât reply to every person yelling at me/343 here so want to just share a few final things to take or leave as you see fit. When we have some updates to share Iâll be back.
First, Iâm going to stress again that I 100% understand and generally agree with the frustrations most are expressing even if I donât agree with the attacks and ways in which some choose to express those feelings. Call me a shill, a liar, corp speak, etc. as you want, but Iâve never lied to this community and never will. And Iâm not saying myself are 343 are a âvictimâ in any way - thatâs yet another narrative some folks here have chosen to apply. Itâs my job to come in here, listen, franky take it on the chin, and despite personally being very put off by the way in which many are expressing themselves, still ensure that we are advocating for players internally. We do that regardless of it being positive or negative and always will.
As for Slayer itself - weâre still having discussions around feasibility. Yes this is absolutely a hot topic and something the team is aware of. We would love to have modes and experiences that meet player expectations vs. the backlash situation weâre in today. I donât believe anyone at 343 thought not having Slayer was a âgood idea.â
I donât personally agree we âoweâ folks a detailed dissertation on âwhat 343 has been doing the last 6 yearsâ or âwho ever thought this was a good ideaâ, etc⌠We have had people working their -Yoink!- off for years to try and deliver the best Halo game they can amidst very challenging circumstances. But, I will try to at least provide some context for those who are interested.
The launch playlists were setup as they were to take a measured approach. We have UI limitations with the game right now in the way and number of playlists that are exposed. We have complex and not-ideal progression and challenge systems intertwined in playlists and modes that are not necessarily trivial to de-couple and change. (yes the entire challenge/progression system needs a lot of work - something the team is acutely aware of and prioritizing).
The teamâs plans for a Slayer playlist, I think, are more robust than what might âsufficeâ for an interim solution. I love the ideas and some of the variants theyâre working on - those all require tuning and most importantly - testing. QA is a huge dependency and itâs a critical part of the development pipeline that has been running nonstop for months to launch this game.
We are re-evaluating what it would take to potentially just start with a âvanilla Slayerâ playlist as a shorter term addition until the more robust offering is ready. I think the main hurdle that needs to be addressed and may require more time than is feasible before the holiday break is the knock on effect to challenges and needing to also re-assess âquick playâ and what that becomes. Historically, a Slayer only playlist and an Objective only playlist has always resulted in the Obj playlist quickly becoming unhealthy - but maybe we inevitably have no choice but to go down that route until more robust systems are available (note I am not a MP or systems designer).
Itâs just not quite as trivial as âpushing a button.â And at the scale and complexity of this game - any and every change could have monumental impact in a negative way without extensive testing. Triaging these feedback issues and finding âwhat CAN we do nowâ is what the team is already doing and will continue doing. Everything has to be tested. Everything has downstream dependencies and knock on effects. And, weâre 4 days from a global launch with holidays right after.
As far as the notion of this all being a ploy to force challenge swaps - it just isnât. I donât expect everyone to believe that, but while we may not agree with the playlist selections and approach, Iâm just going to say again âmaking players have no control and have to use swapsâ has never once been a thing Iâve heard. Ever. And again, we know this entire challenge system is not ideal and while Iâm glad theyâve been able to make some interim tweaks to progression pace and remove some of the more frustrating RNG challenges, there is absolutely more work to be done and this is not the ideal vision the Live team has in mind. (though, more challenge tweaks are coming with the playlist update, details to come soon) I did not really enjoy having to grind through 20+ games of Quick Play to hopefully get Oddball so I could hopefully win 3 times to complete a challenge. Or, , having to get 10 Ravager kills. Is this weekâs Ultimate Reward of just an emblem really worth the grind? Thereâs a lot of work to do - we are all in agreement there. A few more changes are coming this month and I hope we can start to lay out more robust plans after the break.
Not everyone likes that Infinite is a F2P game and thus has a new business model based on monetization of customization. I understand where youâre coming from, especially with a 20 year established franchise with a longstanding legacy. F2P has been a huge boost to growing the player base and weâve seen a huge amount of new players entering the franchise for the first time ever. But this is a business - the servers you play on cost money to operate. The studio that develops and maintains the game costs money. Battlepass and premium customization is the model for this game today. Is there room to continue assessing the overall economy and value for players? Absolutely and thatâs also an area the team is constantly monitoring and learning. The creation of cosmetics and the battlepass have absolutely nothing to do with something like a playlist. That content was created ages ago, is static, and wasnât done âinstead of playlists.â Was it a priority to make sure that this game could in fact generate revenue? Of course.
Iâm starting to ramble here but the main TLDR is, for what itâs worth, weâre going to do what we can as soon as we can. If things today do not meet your expectations then Iâm sorry youâve been disappointed. Iâm confident this game will continue to get better and better and all of these issues are fixable. I also realize that some players are just going to not play anymore - maybe they come back, maybe they donât. I also know - and want to be very up front and honest - that the pace at which bigger changes are brought to bear will absolutely not be as fast as many want. We have some problems, for sure, but Iâm really proud of the foundation the team was able to deliver.
Everyoneâs entitled to their opinion. Itâs your prerogative to play or not play. Iâd rather have people who are so passionate theyâre yelling at us than nobody caring at all. But I just ask that people please take a breath here, understand there are human beings behind this who put years of their lives into just trying to make the best experiences they can, and do not rush to judge or assume youâve got it all figured out.
And with that, I fully expect to be blasted from here out, but hopefully for some, this post helps provide a bit more context. Have a great weekend everyone.