Wait . . . . . . . . . you’re supposed to like playing video games ???
I thought you were supposed to just complete a list of tasks to learn how to grow up better?
That is why I played Animal Crossing and paid off my house as fast as I could!
Satire is satirical of course.
Technically, games have always used this structure. Think Titan Quest. You do a fun thing, and then you get a +1 Mace that shoots lightning. You do fun thing, fun thing gets rewarded, you do more fun things and get rewarded more. It’s popularization in competitive online multiplayer happened around Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty 4 was the first major competitive online game that allowed players to create loadouts.
In order to create loadouts, you need to rank up, and you rank up via performance. When you do better, you rank faster, and you unlock weapons, attachments and perks faster too. In essence, you do the fun thing, and then you get rewarded for doing the fun thing.
Halo, except for a dark time it’s history that’s best left forgotten, doesn’t have loadouts. So, the reward structure is cosmetics. It started with armor, then moved to armor + weapon skins + nameplates/emblems to where we are now.
But the key thing you’re leaving out, is that people play to be rewarded because the game is fun to begin with. I play Halo MCC because it is fun and getting rewarded for the fun + performance makes me want to have more fun to access more fun rewards. When games are bad or have issues, players are less willing to play them and get the rewards. I myself purchased the Battle Pass using Microsoft Reward Points, but the bugs and issues on PC made me stop playing Halo Infinite entirely. While unlocking rewards is fun, getting shot around corners or not having a red reticle is not.
Humans are creatures driven by rewards. You do your job because you get rewarded, not because you necessarily like it. You do your chores around the house so you can reward yourself with more free time. Video games tapped into that to keep playing for longer, and it worked.
I think that shift happened in Halo 3. There were armors tied to specific unchanging challenges. This not only gave something for people to grind for (especially Recon and Hayabusa) but allowed them to show off. No Halo since then has had a good armor unlock system. Reach and 4 were a time grind so your armors never really showed skill, just time, 5 was the worst with just randomness to it but at least we got Helioskrill from a challenge, and now Infinite with no good way to brag using armor because its either you paid for it or FOMO maid you grind easy but tedious and long challenges. Its sad really and i miss how Halo 3 did armor, truly the best system.
I’m not a goal oriented person, so achievements and such bore me and I never do them on purpose. I get achievements, but that is just the consquence and coincidence of playing a lot. I just play. I don’t practice, I don’t try to get good, I don’t do anything but play in the most silly, non-strategic, chaotic way I can. That’s what is fun to me. Learning all the details of how to play, how weapons work at their most intricate level, learning industry terms about how shooter games are made, tuning weapons, etc., etc. blah dee frickin’ blah. I don’t care.
Jump in and blow stuff up.
thing is I do rather enjoy the campaign but being a live game means it’s locked off to online play only on xbox digital rendering it useless down the line when servers potentially do not support that. Uninstalled months ago and wont be buying anything Halo again. That’s the power such a ridiculous move by 343 and MS has meant for someone that would gladly sing this game’s praises despite it’s shortcomings
Instead I tell people at every opportunity how they shouldn’t buy Infinite and clearly I’m not the only one doing this. I only hang around these forums to wholeheartedly agree with anyone justifiably slagging on the laughable state of the once formidable Halo franchise thanks to such huge incompetency or just sheer self destruction. A shame because I do love Halo
343 at this point are a joke
The shift happened sometime by the end of the 2000s, after the global financial crisis.
There was a noticeable drop in quality with everything (from food to electronics and services - everything!) while prices were going up, and continue to go up, to this day. Add inflation into the mix - more currency into circulation, prices going up and… salaries don’t follow.
The balance between pouring one’s soul into a videogame and going after profit has been disrupted. Profit has always been the top priority for videogame companies but now it’s the ultimate obsession, and dissatisfied employees can only care up to a point.
But there’s another reason… something else that happened specifically to the videogame industry. The broader audience. People from a greater variety of demographics who previously wouldn’t look at videogames are now playing them on many available platforms. Mobile gaming and social networks helped immensely to introduce them to games because people would already be on the platform (i.e. on the smartphone or the social network) so why wouldn’t they try a game while being there, right?
Thus, videogame companies have now a much bigger potential audience to satisfy (in which there are plenty of special nagging snowflakes) and many more wallets to attract and so they are very quick to poop on the loyal fanbase of the genre, because… moooney! They will even use political correctness in their arsenal to manipulate and satisfy the audiences in their pursuit of profit. As long as they keep attracting new sales, the company will be happy, even if most of those buyers abandon the game in the process. And a good portion of them may stay around for a while and spend ridiculous money in the store for useless virtual cosmetics… so apparently companies can now get huge profits even in exchange for mediocrity.
What many people - even in these forums - don’t seem to get, is that a popular game (thanks to Bungie) like Halo, can be inferior in every imaginable way compared to its predecessors, but it will still generate more profit than the better games because of broader audience, aggressive micro-transactions and marketing and…
…because people have low standards. I mean, look at the Steam reviews for this game. Currently at 70%+ positive. Does it take so little for some people to give their vote? Personally I wouldn’t ever give my positive vote while they are butchering the game and disrespecting the fans. I would of course easily give it if HI was as good as the games we’ve already loved and brought new good stuff to the table. Which it did… such as awesome sprint, ledge grabbing and abilities… but at the same time it ruined many other things.
I’m asking - what’s the incentive for the company to respect this game and its fans? Hey - it’s profitable. That’s the end of the story. No incentive. Let’s complain all we want about lack of collisions etc. but as long as people vote with their money and good reviews, no one will seriously care about such details (even if collectively they used to define Halo). Sad times.
This is why I stopped playing. I realized i was hopping on only to earn cosmetics, out of fear I’d miss ones I liked.
But whats the point of having cosmetics I like if I dont feel an actual urge to play the game?
I think the issue came when it became never ending…. To 100% a game was great as it provided a beginning middle and end wrapped with a sense of accomplishment and closure.
If the game was good enough you would extend the life with a leader board or online mode; halo2/3… nowadays games aren’t good they just abuse your flaws to keep you playing.
I’m afraid the gaming industry has been hijacked.
so…what about all the good games that are fun?
I can think of many (oddly enough a good number made by nintendo or slightly smaller studioes)
That was back when developers put real effort into games making sure the game itself was awesome. Now it’s hey as long as we sell high margin cosmetics in our game it’s good enough. 
Some of 4’s armor were tied to commendations (100 assassinations stuff like that). Still not as specific as H3’s but I see what you mean.
Yeah and the problem there was
Yeah i really miss H3 armor unlocks.
May not be for recon, but I don’t recall most the others being particularly hard.
I still enjoy playing this game. Not for the achievements or weekly rewards. It’s just fun to play with my friends and family.
I really liked Halo 4’s armor unlock system.
For the most part it could be done in any mode or playlist, and was just about doing stuff you’d otherwise be trying to do. Plus the lack of a “time limit” to unlock it made getting it a casual, long-term experience.
I was very happy to show of my Contoured SHRD arms, for getting 15 perfections in MM.
While i’m sure the crash had a big influence, I find western AAA gaming taken a massive turn around the start of the xbox one era. Mobile gamings gambling mechanics and low effort content, as well as big games like League of Legends making big money on free to play and a skin economy, how Counterstrike did it with skin gambling in 2013, or what EA and Ubisoft were doing, shifted how AAA companies delivered the experience.
By all means there are still games that are honest like the 360 era, but many games since 2013/14 have majorly tanked critically due to greed and incompetence at a rate unseen before that shift. AAA Games from 2009-2012 were still solid in quality and more straightforward; less/no drip-feeding, mtx, eternal beta, unfinished or unpolished, lootbox etc type stuff. Worst outcome around then was unfair priced dlc or skins, at least seemingly unfair of that era, would be very fair using today as a litmus test.
Otherwise you nailed it in one. A good example of using political correctness to manipulate for profit is scrubbing blood, swearing and open social features from their games as it isn’t ‘child friendly or inclusive’ so they can do everything in their power to acquire a G, PG or T rating to push gambling on 12 year olds. The irony of businesses that would happily warp and harm a young generation of people for profit with no remorse playing the moral superiority card.
I remember when communities support one another and people generally became good friends online as they played together in the days of Quake.
But I have to accept that those days will probably never come back.
I guess my goal is clips
Funny stuff, good plays, glitches, etc. I just play to collect personal content.
I totally agree with everything you wrote. The matter is somewhat more complex than the couple of reasons that I presented, and you filled in some important gaps (although all that stuff is closely linked together).
And meanwhile all these teens are playing a game where they shoot to kill whatever’s moving. 
But no, blood is bad bad bad. However, being addicted to paying absurd amounts of money in “micro” transactions, is good. Ironically, ESRB and PEGI don’t seem to deal with that stuff, unless a game is literally simulated gambling. If it were up to me, any games with micro-transactions or a lot of DLC, would be classified as 18+
At least Halo is an FPS and we can still play it without buying anything from its store. Other genres weren’t so lucky… such as Fighting games - paying hundreds and thousands to have the full game and the entire character set…
Pretty much. Now there’s not even a global chat anymore. There’s no profit to be made in there. So screw your socializing. A store and “micro” transactions now matter the most.
MOst people i play with legit do not care about anything other than playing because we enjoy the game. A lot of what the talk on here and reddit is unrelatable to my experiance. I’m Playing Halo, not barbie dress adventure