What happened to that? I’m not sure when exactly the shift happened, it might have started with Achievements, I’m not sure. But nowadays people only seem to play games when there’s some kind of goal to reach.
In Infinite, that goal is cosmetics. People log in to do their challenges, get the weekly reward, then maybe log in later in the week to get some match XP for their battle pass. But once they’re done the Battle Pass they tap out for the rest of the week. Maybe they don’t even come back for the rest of the season. Maybe they tune in for an event but only long enough to get the event completed.
I feel like when it comes to Multiplayer games it can be really nice to have a bunch of stuff to customize with. But when it’s tied to a progression system, you give players a point when they are “finished” the game, at least until the next season comes out.
There’s a very small portion of the playerbase that are playing ranked or interested in increasing their skill with the game. And those players still hop on regularly. But the players just logging in because they want to play for the sake of fun is so small. Heck it might only be Mint Blitz at this point, most other content creators barely touch Infinite anymore.
Whatever happened to that? People logging into Halo 2, 3, and Reach every day just to enjoy the game? Will Forge bring those players back? Or are they too busy making their seasonal rounds in all the other games right now? Why is does gaming nowadays feel more like a chore, a list of things you need to do each week before you can finally shut it off and relax?
You are right, games used to be played for fun, but the games now are not the games of yesterday. Cosmetics and progression was something that was just tied to the game, it was something that happened as you played, you never really thought about it too much because it was just something that happened, you got to change your armour up, change the colours, and you played the game, and you had fun.
Now with Halo Infinite progression XP is no longer earned from playing how we want, XP is deliberately limited, events are time gated, 343 has specifically designed this game with FOMO in mind, that’s why people feel stressed and irritated about these games., but open your wallet and you can by-pass some of the FOMO, not all of it, but just enough.
Now add to it all the problems that have come along, and putting aside the lack of content, and repetitive content, desync is a killer for most people, you cannot have fun when the desync is so bad.
I would love to jump on and play some Halo for fun, but I can’t, the desync is bad for me, it destroys it. I really like Rumble, but again with desync I get slaughtered. Once again, people having fun is not the priority, but creating an environment of FOMO has taken centre stage. Casinos don’t care if you have fun, they want you addicted, they market it as fun, but let’s be real.
^This. I like to throw around that phrase, “You reap what you sow,” and I feel like its especially fitting when you take this quote in context alongside the OP’s post. Modern game companies dont deserve to have loyal fans because they arent operating a system that makes games that are designed to be enjoyed by the players. MODERN GAMES ARE MADE TO BE WORKED BY THE PLAYERS.
You cant blame the players for the creation of games that prioritize a microtransaction shop over content or player enjoyment of their game. Go look at the Stardew Valley community. Probably one of the most beloved games of the past decade and it was made by 1 guy who wanted to make an enjoyable experience for a player. No microtransactions involved. Fallout: New Vegas has a cult following of players who can go back and play the same story over and over again, because so much detail was put into that game and the choices that a player makes that it became a wealth of content to be discovered in itself. GTA V is perhaps the most successful multiplayer game to ever exist because, even though it has microtransactions, the games online universe was overhauled beyond imagination to create an experience made for the players. They at least recognized the desire for people to want to progress and capitalized on it. They gave their fans what they wanted. 343 likes to pretend that they know what the fans want, while simultaneously ignoring 80% of the feedback that comes their way. Thats also what EA does too, and EA has been voted the worst company in America multiple times over. Thats just what happens when you dont design your games to be enjoyed by players. They design their games to be profitable, not enjoyable. You reap what you sow.
Greed. What else would drive companies or publishers to release unfinished games?
In Halo’s case, they were transparent for the most part and I believe they want to help this game come along, but the wait is long, and to be honest… I know time is short, I just had kind of hoped they would at least delay the game until the core features of Halo were incorporated and the rest of the game, more fleshed out.
I have fun with infinite… and will keep playing it when I can have fun. problem is the grind part of it, I want some things but in order to get them I have to play modes I hate or grind weekly challanges… Like MCC better because I Can just play BTB all day and make progress or play campaign screwing around and make progress.
Fun fact, I would gladly play Infinite if it were fun
I don’t play MCC for achievements or cosmetics, I play it because it has great custom games and fun multiplayer, and I can talk to anybody pre/post lobbies and during games
Also, where’s the pre-game lobbies, where’s the post-game lobby, where’s the talking to people and meeting new people??? Halo 3 was so enjoyable because we could talk to one another. We could trash talk, we could help our teams out, make call outs for objectives. I’d start a game of Halo 3 or Reach and put it down with a new friend. What happened to that? You’d think with this game being worked on during a global pandemic, they would had social features like the older games. But no, it’s just me, myself and I. My friends gave up on this game for now, but the people that still play today, I’d like to talk with them, share some laughs, make some memories.
It’s just not enough to have good gameplay, it has to have things like grind, challenge system and FOMO rewards to compel you to play every day. And devs soon found out that even if the core gameplay was bad, these things can retain a player base.
Here’s the thing about Infinite though: It’s just a lackluster Halo experience anyway.
Content = dried out
Playerbase = died out
Networking = lagged out
Customization = sold out
Campaign = played out
How do you expect anyone to “just play because they like it”?
If anything, those who has made the resolution to say to hell with cosmetics are in a better place right now, since they just don’t bother logging into Infinite anymore.
It’s a part of the reason I don’t have the interest in gaming these days as I used to. Most games these days have no sense of value. Take the first game The Last Of Us. ( IMO ) it was a good game that had a lot of potential making a sequel, etc… and when they designed the next one, again, ( IMO ) it was garbage. A game that never needed to be created that it actually pissed me off that the developer screwed up that bad with T.L.O.U 2, and it was deliberately done because the developer ignored what the fans played the game for in the first place for personal reasons. Just like 343 is doing now…
It’s all a show these days to keep the new unsuspecting players around, and 343 won’t face their core fan base because we know better.
I love completing challenges and earning cosmetics. I also don’t have much time to game these days, so I have fun doing that stuff. Once in a while, my friends and I join Big Team because we love it, but challenges for Big Team don’t seem to exist anymore. (The “play any game” challenges always coincide with “Occupy territoried in Land Grab” and stuff, so that takes care of those.)
That’s a given answer, but it’s a lot more than that.
Microsoft
Poor leadership
An unorganized business that has never been an actual business with full time employees, hiring temp help, outsourcing most of their work, and getting rid of them shortly after words.
The list is huge of what is actually wrong with just 343 as a business. If they can’t get themselves together after a decade, how can a game even be produced proporly?
The game is fun, but it feels incredibly limiting. Playing for fun is something I tend to do on MCC. I regularly host open Halo 2 customs for friends and randoms.
I think down the road, far far down the road, 343 will eventually give players the tools to just play for fun.
They told us this woud be great game. This is B tier on it’s best day. With a team of dedicated, talented developers it could have been much much better. Its pretty much a lost cause but the franchise is probably strong enough for a rebound. UE5 would be a good start.