This isn’t a “hate on 343i and Microsoft” thread. I want this to be a look at the past as well as one on the road ahead.
Progress for the sake of progress goes nowhere without purpose. Building bigger buildings just to say “We have built big buildings, and will continue to build big buildings” will result in a bunch of empty buildings. Moving a franchise in a different direction just to move it away from where it was will result in a franchise being moved somewhere that might be undesirable or already occupied (not to say that 343i is doing this with Halo, necessarily).
343i has been taking things in a new direction, and it has made many people upset, to put it lightly. The competitive scheme of gaming is already occupied by many other games that have a different sort of audience. The Halo community is largely a casual audience, or rather, a not hyper-competitive audience. Perhaps 343i is moving this franchise in the wrong direction. Perhaps it didn’t need moving. However, seeing as it is moving, it begs the question: Why? Was it too boring? Too unmarketable? Too stale? Too different? Too casual?
If Halo is changing just to claim that it’s changing, then it is doomed to die. Changing aimlessly has served no game franchise well.
The past games reached a balance that nothing could achieve better than Halo. It may not have been perfect, but in being imperfect, it was perfect. While it is fun to return to that place on occasion, it would not be so good if the franchise, as a whole, returned to exactly the same spot.
If Halo abandoned everything it has changed for the sake of returning to its roots, it would never accomplish anything new. It would remain where it was, never making any difference worth anything.
So, the franchise cannot continue to change with no reason, nor can it sit where is was.
Progress with a purpose is almost always good. If Halo could move in a direction that combines the old and the new, but not for the sake of changing, it could thrive further than it is projected to at this point. It would be new, different, and interesting, while not forsaking everything already laid out by the previous games. Hyper-competitive gameplay is not the best place for the Halo franchise. While Halo 5 was a good game, it could have been far better. If it were envisioned to reach a mutually agreeable place, it could achieve such.
If we aren’t willing to accept change, or we aren’t willing to stand when things have been led too far astray, things cannot change for the better.
That’s all that I have on my mind. If you have a response, feel free to reply. I am capable of intelligent discourse, as well as simple and directionless argument, if you’d rather engage in such.