Something that is being Ignored

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Hello,
Now due to the much hate toward the new saga that 343i launched, there is one thing that I think is fundamentally being ignored. Halo 5 is a game that MUST sell. It needs to compete in the market with other shooters. Now back in the day when Halo was the supposed flagship game of Microsoft, it was pretty unique on its own, other shooters were usually vastly different from it, there are other games such as DOOM which are similar to Halo but lack some of Halo’s key qualities. Also, the fan base was also made up of a lot of veterans that are here today.
These days, there are a lot of independent developers developing similar games to Halo, and with the rise of multi platform gaming systems, Halo has to evolve to compete, much of the old fan base now have Jobs, or don’t have too much time for Halo, and 343i is trying to bring in new and attractive features to usher in some more life into the community, hence forth why we see the games now being rated t for teen. It needs more sales in order for 343i to continue to develop the game, or else it will drop dead. I must agree though, 343i did make some fateful decisions to hinder the success of games such as Halo 4 and 5.

Constructive Criticism, and thoughts are always welcome!

2

Here’s something being ignored as well.

3

So what’s being ignored exactly? It not being the #1 seller? 5 million in sales isn’t great but it’s also not bad, it’s also why Microsoft still sees no need to hinder 343 or replace them.

Please explain the T rating having any effect as well, halo was never a game that even warranted an M rating as it had very little gore and almost no nudity with very little cursing. You also had quite a bit of the fanbase during CE being teens as well. The rating really doesn’t do anything, a kid will get a game regardless if it’s M or anything else. It never once stopped me, and I know a few others it never stopped either lol.

4

Indeed, it must compete with the market. What is the best way to do that? To offer an experience the other FPS do not offer instead of copying what they’re doing.

5

> 2533274923562209;3:
> So what’s being ignored exactly? It not being the #1 seller? 5 million in sales isn’t great but it’s also not bad, it’s also why Microsoft still sees no need to hinder 343 or replace them.
>
> Please explain the T rating having any effect as well, halo was never a game that even warranted an M rating as it had very little gore and almost no nudity with very little cursing. You also had quite a bit of the fanbase during CE being teens as well. The rating really doesn’t do anything, a kid will get a game regardless if it’s M or anything else. It never once stopped me, and I know a few others it never stopped either lol.

You’re referring to the butt guy from Halo 2 Vista, right?

6

> 2533274991067213;5:
> > 2533274923562209;3:
> > So what’s being ignored exactly? It not being the #1 seller? 5 million in sales isn’t great but it’s also not bad, it’s also why Microsoft still sees no need to hinder 343 or replace them.
> >
> > Please explain the T rating having any effect as well, halo was never a game that even warranted an M rating as it had very little gore and almost no nudity with very little cursing. You also had quite a bit of the fanbase during CE being teens as well. The rating really doesn’t do anything, a kid will get a game regardless if it’s M or anything else. It never once stopped me, and I know a few others it never stopped either lol.
>
>
> You’re referring to the butt guy from Halo 2 Vista, right?

Mainly cortana (especially h4 cortana) is what I’m on about, or even the arbiter in h2 when they stripped his armor and branded him.

7

> 2535460849753261;1:
> Hello,
> Now due to the much hate toward the new saga that 343i launched, there is one thing that I think is fundamentally being ignored. Halo 5 is a game that MUST sell. It needs to compete in the market with other shooters. Now back in the day when Halo was the supposed flagship game of Microsoft, it was pretty unique on its own, other shooters were usually vastly different from it, there are other games such as DOOM which are similar to Halo but lack some of Halo’s key qualities. Also, the fan base was also made up of a lot of veterans that are here today.
> These days, there are a lot of independent developers developing similar games to Halo, and with the rise of multi platform gaming systems, Halo has to evolve to compete, much of the old fan base now have Jobs, or don’t have too much time for Halo, and 343i is trying to bring in new and attractive features to usher in some more life into the community, hence forth why we see the games now being rated t for teen. It needs more sales in order for 343i to continue to develop the game, or else it will drop dead. I must agree though, 343i did make some fateful decisions to hinder the success of games such as Halo 4 and 5.
>
> Constructive Criticism, and thoughts are always welcome!

The hate is justified:

  • Lack of maps
  • Lack of variation in maps
  • Lack of game modes
  • Lack of variation of game modes
  • Lack of playlists
  • And overall lack of support for Arena in general.Halo 5 would sell if people enjoyed playing it. Why would someone choose a game like Halo with the things I listed are true? People can go play COD or some other shooter, which may be the same thing every year, but people keep buying it because it is the same every year. So many people enjoyed MW2, that when MW3, codenamed MW2.5, came out it was the best selling game for many years. The same goes with Halo 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. They were slight variations in the formula, but it was enough to keep the game fresh and recognizable. After Halo 3, the series started failing because of an identity crisis. People complained about Halo Reach and Halo 4 being too COD-esque. Only social playlists, strong focus on progression systems, and much more. There is a reason why these games had such a drop off in their player bases.

It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell your game to a new audience, but you CANNOT abandon your current audience. These were the problems with Reach and 4. They pushed away the veterans in search of bringing in new people. Halo 5 over compensated for pushing away the veterans and actually pushed away/segregated the causal player base. If every Halo game after 3 was more similar to Halo CE-3, then Halo would still be up on top for Xbox. Since Reach failed to retain their current audience and it gave games like COD such an advantage in the marketplace.

The problems that are currently pledging the Halo franchise is the lack of inspiration to make a game packed full of content. They rather release content when they want to. Forge being delayed to December was a big problem for Halo 5. Even since the release of Forge, we have not seen any Forge Arena 4v4 maps being implemented into the playlists. If it isn’t Warzone DLC, 343 doesn’t seem to care. By looking at Halo 2, Halo 3, and even Halo Reach, the main focus for those games were 4v4 playlists. 343 needs to look at what made Halo so great and start with that. 4v4 is where to start. More map variety, more game modes and variants, more playlists, and also more social playlists. This would greatly increase the retention of the game and people would be more likely to get their friends to play it. Halo 2 and Halo 3 sold so well because of word of mouth. If you don’t have people who want their friends to play with them on Halo, then the game has to rely on advertising, which is very costly for a small return in investment.

There is a limit to what people are willing to accept from a franchise. By changing a game too much, they start alienating parts of their fanbase. These people won’t come back. If you alienate 50% of your fanbase, then you have to make sure that you gain 50% back from new players. The problem with 343 is that they didn’t make up for the lose in players with their changes to their game(s). There is a reason why most companies want to retain their audiences as much as possible because they are more likely to continue buying your products. If you don’t and try to gain new audiences, the problem with this is, How much of that new audience will stay? When you have Halo flip-flopping from a Competitive shooter in Halo 2/3 to a casual shooter in Reach/4, then back to a competitive shooter in 5, how much audience retention do you expect to have.

Honestly 343 is continuing to dig the whole that Bungie left them in. Reach was a terrible excuse for a Halo game, and 343 didn’t want to fix the franchise. Now they are trying by overcompensating, and it is hurting the franchise just as much. As I said above. Focusing on the 4v4 content of the game is the most important because that is where most of the audiences plays.

Just my 2¢. I don’t want to see Halo fail, but it is traveling fast down this road. They need to do something by October with 4v4, otherwise they will lose more and more of their community over the next year to other franchises that do provide players with as much content as possible.

8

> 2533274801019054;7:
> > 2535460849753261;1:
> > Hello,
> > Now due to the much hate toward the new saga that 343i launched, there is one thing that I think is fundamentally being ignored. Halo 5 is a game that MUST sell. It needs to compete in the market with other shooters. Now back in the day when Halo was the supposed flagship game of Microsoft, it was pretty unique on its own, other shooters were usually vastly different from it, there are other games such as DOOM which are similar to Halo but lack some of Halo’s key qualities. Also, the fan base was also made up of a lot of veterans that are here today.
> > These days, there are a lot of independent developers developing similar games to Halo, and with the rise of multi platform gaming systems, Halo has to evolve to compete, much of the old fan base now have Jobs, or don’t have too much time for Halo, and 343i is trying to bring in new and attractive features to usher in some more life into the community, hence forth why we see the games now being rated t for teen. It needs more sales in order for 343i to continue to develop the game, or else it will drop dead. I must agree though, 343i did make some fateful decisions to hinder the success of games such as Halo 4 and 5.
> >
> > Constructive Criticism, and thoughts are always welcome!
>
>
> The hate is justified:
>
> - Lack of maps
> - Lack of variation in maps
> - Lack of game modes
> - Lack of variation of game modes
> - Lack of playlists
> - And overall lack of support for Arena in general.
> Halo 5 would sell if people enjoyed playing it. Why would someone choose a game like Halo with the things I listed are true? People can go play COD or some other shooter, which may be the same thing every year, but people keep buying it because it is the same every year. So many people enjoyed MW2, that when MW3, codenamed MW2.5, came out it was the best selling game for many years. The same goes with Halo 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. They were slight variations in the formula, but it was enough to keep the game fresh and recognizable. After Halo 3, the series started failing because of an identity crisis. People complained about Halo Reach and Halo 4 being too COD-esque. Only social playlists, strong focus on progression systems, and much more. There is a reason why these games had such a drop off in their player bases.
>
> It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell your game to a new audience, but you CANNOT abandon your current audience. These were the problems with Reach and 4. They pushed away the veterans in search of bringing in new people. Halo 5 over compensated for pushing away the veterans and actually pushed away/segregated the causal player base. If every Halo game after 3 was more similar to Halo CE-3, then Halo would still be up on top for Xbox. Since Reach failed to retain their current audience and it gave games like COD such an advantage in the marketplace.
>
> The problems that are currently pledging the Halo franchise is the lack of inspiration to make a game packed full of content. They rather release content when they want to. Forge being delayed to December was a big problem for Halo 5. Even since the release of Forge, we have not seen any Forge Arena 4v4 maps being implemented into the playlists. If it isn’t Warzone DLC, 343 doesn’t seem to care. By looking at Halo 2, Halo 3, and even Halo Reach, the main focus for those games were 4v4 playlists. 343 needs to look at what made Halo so great and start with that. 4v4 is where to start. More map variety, more game modes and variants, more playlists, and also more social playlists. This would greatly increase the retention of the game and people would be more likely to get their friends to play it. Halo 2 and Halo 3 sold so well because of word of mouth. If you don’t have people who want their friends to play with them on Halo, then the game has to rely on advertising, which is very costly for a small return in investment.
>
> There is a limit to what people are willing to accept from a franchise. By changing a game too much, they start alienating parts of their fanbase. These people won’t come back. If you alienate 50% of your fanbase, then you have to make sure that you gain 50% back from new players. The problem with 343 is that they didn’t make up for the lose in players with their changes to their game(s). There is a reason why most companies want to retain their audiences as much as possible because they are more likely to continue buying your products. If you don’t and try to gain new audiences, the problem with this is, How much of that new audience will stay? When you have Halo flip-flopping from a Competitive shooter in Halo 2/3 to a casual shooter in Reach/4, then back to a competitive shooter in 5, how much audience retention do you expect to have.
>
> Honestly 343 is continuing to dig the whole that Bungie left them in. Reach was a terrible excuse for a Halo game, and 343 didn’t want to fix the franchise. Now they are trying by overcompensating, and it is hurting the franchise just as much. As I said above. Focusing on the 4v4 content of the game is the most important because that is where most of the audiences plays.
>
> Just my 2¢. I don’t want to see Halo fail, but it is traveling fast down this road. They need to do something by October with 4v4, otherwise they will lose more and more of their community over the next year to other franchises that do provide players with as much content as possible.

Reach was far from a terrible Halo, I mean sure the Armor lock was annoying as -bad word- but still it’s NOWHERE as CoD-like as 343 Halo, did Reach destroy the franchise? No, it merely dented it, then 4 came along and smashed it to bits, MCC came along and ground it into dust, then Halo 5 came a long and incinerated the whole damn thing. I have quite a few Halo vets on my firends list and we play frequently and even when Reach launched we all agreed that Reach was the pinnacle of Halo not because of it’s simplicity, but it’s diversity as a Halo game. Yes Reach started the trend of AA’s in Halo, but overall it was the only Halo game with balanced AA’s, except for armor lock, whic was more of a troll than ability. As for sprint, well that’s a feature that’s been in games since Super Mario Bros. in the 1980’s. All I’m trying to say, Reach isn’t even close to as bad as people make it out to be. Halo 5 is practically dead while Reach to this day is the most populated Halo game, if all the hate on Reach is real, why is it still thriving?

9

> 2535442956515589;8:
> > 2533274801019054;7:
> > > 2535460849753261;1:
> > >
>
>
> Reach was far from a terrible Halo, I mean sure the Armor lock was annoying as -bad word- but still it’s NOWHERE as CoD-like as 343 Halo, did Reach destroy the franchise? No, it merely dented it, then 4 came along and smashed it to bits, MCC came along and ground it into dust, then Halo 5 came a long and incinerated the whole damn thing. I have quite a few Halo vets on my firends list and we play frequently and even when Reach launched we all agreed that Reach was the pinnacle of Halo not because of it’s simplicity, but it’s diversity as a Halo game. Yes Reach started the trend of AA’s in Halo, but overall it was the only Halo game with balanced AA’s, except for armor lock, whic was more of a troll than ability. As for sprint, well that’s a feature that’s been in games since Super Mario Bros. in the 1980’s. All I’m trying to say, Reach isn’t even close to as bad as people make it out to be. Halo 5 is practically dead while Reach to this day is the most populated Halo game, if all the hate on Reach is real, why is it still thriving?

AA’s were not a problem if they were pickups. No one would have complained about Armor Lock if it was limited to 1 per map. The problem is that Halo turned into giving players whatever they wanted from the start without having to work for it, just like COD. Sprint’s problem in Halo is that maps had to be made larger because it would be too easy for people to travel across small maps like Warlock, Lockout, Guardian, etc. It broke the Halo CE-3 gameplay style of what was established in the Halo franchise. Sprint is not necessary. Halo worked completely great without it. Nowadays people want it because it unifies the experience with other games like BF, COD, etc. Sprint is in those games, so to keep that experience, they added it to Halo and kept it.

As for Reach, it contains more content than Halo 5. There are more playlists, more maps, more game modes, more variants, etc. on Halo Reach. Easy to understand why more people are playing it.

10

> 2533274801019054;9:
> > 2535442956515589;8:
> > > 2533274801019054;7:
> > > > 2535460849753261;1:
> > > >
> >
> >
> > Reach was far from a terrible Halo, I mean sure the Armor lock was annoying as -bad word- but still it’s NOWHERE as CoD-like as 343 Halo, did Reach destroy the franchise? No, it merely dented it, then 4 came along and smashed it to bits, MCC came along and ground it into dust, then Halo 5 came a long and incinerated the whole damn thing. I have quite a few Halo vets on my firends list and we play frequently and even when Reach launched we all agreed that Reach was the pinnacle of Halo not because of it’s simplicity, but it’s diversity as a Halo game. Yes Reach started the trend of AA’s in Halo, but overall it was the only Halo game with balanced AA’s, except for armor lock, whic was more of a troll than ability. As for sprint, well that’s a feature that’s been in games since Super Mario Bros. in the 1980’s. All I’m trying to say, Reach isn’t even close to as bad as people make it out to be. Halo 5 is practically dead while Reach to this day is the most populated Halo game, if all the hate on Reach is real, why is it still thriving?
>
>
> AA’s were not a problem if they were pickups. No one would have complained about Armor Lock if it was limited to 1 per map. The problem is that Halo turned into giving players whatever they wanted from the start without having to work for it, just like COD. Sprint’s problem in Halo is that maps had to be made larger because it would be too easy for people to travel across small maps like Warlock, Lockout, Guardian, etc. It broke the Halo CE-3 gameplay style of what was established in the Halo franchise. Sprint is not necessary. Halo worked completely great without it. Nowadays people want it because it unifies the experience with other games like BF, COD, etc. Sprint is in those games, so to keep that experience, they added it to Halo and kept it.
>
> As for Reach, it contains more content than Halo 5. There are more playlists, more maps, more game modes, more variants, etc. on Halo Reach. Easy to understand why more people are playing it.

Well I like sprint because it prolongs battles, I like the longer fights, it makes the game more tense.

11

> 2535442956515589;10:
> > 2533274801019054;9:
> > > 2535442956515589;8:
> > > > 2533274801019054;7:
> > > > > 2535460849753261;1:
> > > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Reach was far from a terrible Halo, I mean sure the Armor lock was annoying as -bad word- but still it’s NOWHERE as CoD-like as 343 Halo, did Reach destroy the franchise? No, it merely dented it, then 4 came along and smashed it to bits, MCC came along and ground it into dust, then Halo 5 came a long and incinerated the whole damn thing. I have quite a few Halo vets on my firends list and we play frequently and even when Reach launched we all agreed that Reach was the pinnacle of Halo not because of it’s simplicity, but it’s diversity as a Halo game. Yes Reach started the trend of AA’s in Halo, but overall it was the only Halo game with balanced AA’s, except for armor lock, whic was more of a troll than ability. As for sprint, well that’s a feature that’s been in games since Super Mario Bros. in the 1980’s. All I’m trying to say, Reach isn’t even close to as bad as people make it out to be. Halo 5 is practically dead while Reach to this day is the most populated Halo game, if all the hate on Reach is real, why is it still thriving?
> >
> >
> > AA’s were not a problem if they were pickups. No one would have complained about Armor Lock if it was limited to 1 per map. The problem is that Halo turned into giving players whatever they wanted from the start without having to work for it, just like COD. Sprint’s problem in Halo is that maps had to be made larger because it would be too easy for people to travel across small maps like Warlock, Lockout, Guardian, etc. It broke the Halo CE-3 gameplay style of what was established in the Halo franchise. Sprint is not necessary. Halo worked completely great without it. Nowadays people want it because it unifies the experience with other games like BF, COD, etc. Sprint is in those games, so to keep that experience, they added it to Halo and kept it.
> >
> > As for Reach, it contains more content than Halo 5. There are more playlists, more maps, more game modes, more variants, etc. on Halo Reach. Easy to understand why more people are playing it.
>
>
> Well I like sprint because it prolongs battles, I like the longer fights, it makes the game more tense.

I don’t see how it prolongs battles, but prolonging death sure. I don’t see the correlation between sprinting and gunfights, so please elaborate your opinion.

12

> 2533274923562209;3:
> So what’s being ignored exactly? It not being the #1 seller? 5 million in sales isn’t great but it’s also not bad.

Let’s put it another way; “The worst selling Halo ever”.

A franchise that dominated Xbox Live at number #1 for 6 years (2004-2010) over the lifespan of a mere two games, now is struggling to get on on the top 10.

13

I regret buying halo 5 and an Xbox one.

Halo 5 doesn’t have what I like about halo as it evolved I loved armour abilities and other utility. Sure it wasn’t best separation between what should be a fully rechargeable ability, power up, or limited use armour abilities. But they just straight out scrapped it for their thruster pack which out of all the abilities was my least favorate and doesn’t have the downward thrust that it used to have and it was the only reason I ever used it. Armour abilities created multiple play styles I’d use based around the abilities and in any giving match I’d use around 2-6 different play styles in one match. Now I use 1-2 and it’s not very creative. I get bored of the game after 1 game. The only reason i still play is because the game is in my library.

I only got an Xbox one for halo 5 and No Mans Sky which at the time I ordered my console Xbox was still advertising it on games for Xbox one if I knew at the time I may have avoided getting halo 5 all together.

14

> 2533274962122285;13:
> I regret buying halo 5 and an Xbox one.
>
> Halo 5 doesn’t have what I like about halo as it evolved I loved armour abilities and other utility. Sure it wasn’t best separation between what should be a fully rechargeable ability, power up, or limited use armour abilities. But they just straight out scrapped it for their thruster pack which out of all the abilities was my least favorate and doesn’t have the downward thrust that it used to have and it was the only reason I ever used it. Armour abilities created multiple play styles I’d use based around the abilities and in any giving match I’d use around 2-6 different play styles in one match. Now I use 1-2 and it’s not very creative. I get bored of the game after 1 game. The only reason i still play is because the game is in my library.
>
> I only got an Xbox one for halo 5 and No Mans Sky which at the time I ordered my console Xbox was still advertising it on games for Xbox one if I knew at the time I may have avoided getting halo 5 all together.

^All of this!

15

> 2535460849753261;1:
> Hello,
> Now due to the much hate toward the new saga that 343i launched, there is one thing that I think is fundamentally being ignored. Halo 5 is a game that MUST sell. It needs to compete in the market with other shooters. Now back in the day when Halo was the supposed flagship game of Microsoft, it was pretty unique on its own, other shooters were usually vastly different from it, there are other games such as DOOM which are similar to Halo but lack some of Halo’s key qualities. Also, the fan base was also made up of a lot of veterans that are here today.
> These days, there are a lot of independent developers developing similar games to Halo, and with the rise of multi platform gaming systems, Halo has to evolve to compete, much of the old fan base now have Jobs, or don’t have too much time for Halo, and 343i is trying to bring in new and attractive features to usher in some more life into the community, hence forth why we see the games now being rated t for teen. It needs more sales in order for 343i to continue to develop the game, or else it will drop dead. I must agree though, 343i did make some fateful decisions to hinder the success of games such as Halo 4 and 5.
>
> Constructive Criticism, and thoughts are always welcome!

See this evolution thing is just crap. Halo ce ,h2,and h3 had lasting populations and brought halo into the competitive sense as well. Now it’s all about what can we add to the games to make them better. I laughed when they advertised this game as a step back to what halo used to be. And today’s game population can prove that it’s definitely NOT even close. I hate to bring in a COD reference to this but that game has been nothing but a reskin with new weapons and it’s the most played game and still gets all the pro hype. Then when they tried to go “halo” like with bo3 their fan base fell off too. Basically lesson is if it works,keep it going. If H6 can come out and bring what h2 and h3 brought then halo could live again, but if they keep catering to all these I want this I want that “fans”, then the game will continue in its current state.

16

> 2533274801019054;7:
> > 2535460849753261;1:
> > Hello,
> > Now due to the much hate toward the new saga that 343i launched, there is one thing that I think is fundamentally being ignored. Halo 5 is a game that MUST sell. It needs to compete in the market with other shooters. Now back in the day when Halo was the supposed flagship game of Microsoft, it was pretty unique on its own, other shooters were usually vastly different from it, there are other games such as DOOM which are similar to Halo but lack some of Halo’s key qualities. Also, the fan base was also made up of a lot of veterans that are here today.
> > These days, there are a lot of independent developers developing similar games to Halo, and with the rise of multi platform gaming systems, Halo has to evolve to compete, much of the old fan base now have Jobs, or don’t have too much time for Halo, and 343i is trying to bring in new and attractive features to usher in some more life into the community, hence forth why we see the games now being rated t for teen. It needs more sales in order for 343i to continue to develop the game, or else it will drop dead. I must agree though, 343i did make some fateful decisions to hinder the success of games such as Halo 4 and 5.
> >
> > Constructive Criticism, and thoughts are always welcome!
>
>
> The hate is justified:
>
> - Lack of maps
> - Lack of variation in maps
> - Lack of game modes
> - Lack of variation of game modes
> - Lack of playlists
> - And overall lack of support for Arena in general.
> Halo 5 would sell if people enjoyed playing it. Why would someone choose a game like Halo with the things I listed are true? People can go play COD or some other shooter, which may be the same thing every year, but people keep buying it because it is the same every year. So many people enjoyed MW2, that when MW3, codenamed MW2.5, came out it was the best selling game for many years. The same goes with Halo 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. They were slight variations in the formula, but it was enough to keep the game fresh and recognizable. After Halo 3, the series started failing because of an identity crisis. People complained about Halo Reach and Halo 4 being too COD-esque. Only social playlists, strong focus on progression systems, and much more. There is a reason why these games had such a drop off in their player bases.
>
> It doesn’t matter if you are trying to sell your game to a new audience, but you CANNOT abandon your current audience. These were the problems with Reach and 4. They pushed away the veterans in search of bringing in new people. Halo 5 over compensated for pushing away the veterans and actually pushed away/segregated the causal player base. If every Halo game after 3 was more similar to Halo CE-3, then Halo would still be up on top for Xbox. Since Reach failed to retain their current audience and it gave games like COD such an advantage in the marketplace.
>
> The problems that are currently pledging the Halo franchise is the lack of inspiration to make a game packed full of content. They rather release content when they want to. Forge being delayed to December was a big problem for Halo 5. Even since the release of Forge, we have not seen any Forge Arena 4v4 maps being implemented into the playlists. If it isn’t Warzone DLC, 343 doesn’t seem to care. By looking at Halo 2, Halo 3, and even Halo Reach, the main focus for those games were 4v4 playlists. 343 needs to look at what made Halo so great and start with that. 4v4 is where to start. More map variety, more game modes and variants, more playlists, and also more social playlists. This would greatly increase the retention of the game and people would be more likely to get their friends to play it. Halo 2 and Halo 3 sold so well because of word of mouth. If you don’t have people who want their friends to play with them on Halo, then the game has to rely on advertising, which is very costly for a small return in investment.
>
> There is a limit to what people are willing to accept from a franchise. By changing a game too much, they start alienating parts of their fanbase. These people won’t come back. If you alienate 50% of your fanbase, then you have to make sure that you gain 50% back from new players. The problem with 343 is that they didn’t make up for the lose in players with their changes to their game(s). There is a reason why most companies want to retain their audiences as much as possible because they are more likely to continue buying your products. If you don’t and try to gain new audiences, the problem with this is, How much of that new audience will stay? When you have Halo flip-flopping from a Competitive shooter in Halo 2/3 to a casual shooter in Reach/4, then back to a competitive shooter in 5, how much audience retention do you expect to have.
>
> Honestly 343 is continuing to dig the whole that Bungie left them in. Reach was a terrible excuse for a Halo game, and 343 didn’t want to fix the franchise. Now they are trying by overcompensating, and it is hurting the franchise just as much. As I said above. Focusing on the 4v4 content of the game is the most important because that is where most of the audiences plays.
>
> Just my 2¢. I don’t want to see Halo fail, but it is traveling fast down this road. They need to do something by October with 4v4, otherwise they will lose more and more of their community over the next year to other franchises that do provide players with as much content as possible.

Your numbered points #2, #3, #4 are the major items that need to be addressed, IMO. I have made a number of posts myself about the lack of gametypes and game modes, especially ones that are proven competitive AND social (1 flag, 2 bomb, oddball, etc.). Some games that are, in my mind, iconic of halo are missing in favor of literally 2 objective gametypes, strongholds and CTF. All the slayer variants are getting boring, and I have absolutely no clue why 343 neglected classic gametypes, even their own game Ricochet, which I enjoyed quite a bit as a social game. Their decision making is absolutely mystifying. Halo 3 had a suite of playlists for social and another suite of playlists for ranked, so EVERYONE could find something they liked, on nearly any given day. WTF would 343 change a thing like that???

17

I think halo 5 is the best it gets, much better than any other fps bc it focuses on skill. I don’t find it repetitive since you get better over time and fight better players and essentially play the game completely different. More maps would be ideal but it’s just one game, it isnt expected to be endless, that’s what halo 6, 7,… is for. I’m sure 343 is making plenty of $ on this, especially with the in game purchases (I’m sure they fool more than enough into buying that crap). It’s unfortunate the game doesn’t have a larger following. Call of duty is likely to blame. People, like many of my friends, didn’t like changing from a game they were good at to one they totally stunk at. Halo takes perseverance, which is what makes it great but makes it less of an overall people pleaser.

My only complaint, slayer ranking. There really shouldn’t be a penalty for losing despite being the top on your team, good kda, or playing a game that was 4 v 3 from the start.

18

> 2535405964939778;17:
> - I think halo 5 is the best it gets, much better than any other fps bc it focuses on skill.
> - I don’t find it repetitive since you get better over time and fight better players and essentially play the game completely different.
> - More maps would be ideal but it’s just one game, it isnt expected to be endless,
> - that’s what halo 6, 7,… is for. I’m sure 343 is making plenty of $ on this, especially with the in game purchases (I’m sure they fool more than enough into buying that crap).
> - It’s unfortunate the game doesn’t have a larger following.
> - Call of duty is likely to blame. People, like many of my friends, didn’t like changing from a game they were good at to one they totally stunk at. Halo takes perseverance, which is what makes it great but makes it less of an overall people pleaser.
> - My only complaint, slayer ranking. There really shouldn’t be a penalty for losing despite being the top on your team, good kda, or playing a game that was 4 v 3 from the start.

  • Halo 5 has a compressed skill gap.
  • Playing the same map 4 times in a row against the same skill players who play the exact same way is quite repetitive. There is no variation in maps, game modes or play styles.
  • The game has a lot of maps, but they are segregated into many different playlists and are not compatible with each other.
  • Yes Xbox/343 are making a lot off of microtransactions because they keep releasing new REQ items instead of adding more maps.
  • It doesn’t have a large following because the game is repetitive and stale.
  • COD hardly plays a part in Halo’s failure in retaining their audience. It is more of the decisions to attract COD players.
  • It is a team based game. It requires the team to do well to rank up. Losers shouldn’t be rewarded for losing. This isn’t COD.
19

> 2533274801019054;18:
> > 2535405964939778;17:
> > - I think halo 5 is the best it gets, much better than any other fps bc it focuses on skill.
> > - I don’t find it repetitive since you get better over time and fight better players and essentially play the game completely different.
> > - More maps would be ideal but it’s just one game, it isnt expected to be endless,
> > - that’s what halo 6, 7,… is for. I’m sure 343 is making plenty of $ on this, especially with the in game purchases (I’m sure they fool more than enough into buying that crap).
> > - It’s unfortunate the game doesn’t have a larger following.
> > - Call of duty is likely to blame. People, like many of my friends, didn’t like changing from a game they were good at to one they totally stunk at. Halo takes perseverance, which is what makes it great but makes it less of an overall people pleaser.
> > - My only complaint, slayer ranking. There really shouldn’t be a penalty for losing despite being the top on your team, good kda, or playing a game that was 4 v 3 from the start.
>
>
>
> - Halo 5 has a compressed skill gap.
> - Playing the same map 4 times in a row against the same skill players who play the exact same way is quite repetitive. There is no variation in maps, game modes or play styles.
> - The game has a lot of maps, but they are segregated into many different playlists and are not compatible with each other.
> - Yes Xbox/343 are making a lot off of microtransactions because they keep releasing new REQ items instead of adding more maps.
> - It doesn’t have a large following because the game is repetitive and stale.
> - COD hardly plays a part in Halo’s failure in retaining their audience. It is more of the decisions to attract COD players.
> - It is a team based game. It requires the team to do well to rank up. Losers shouldn’t be rewarded for losing. This isn’t COD.

  1. Agreed?
  2. It’s only one game. And it has tons of modes, new ones featured each week.
  3. True.
  4. I’ve always had to pay for the map updates (halo 2 for example) so I can’t complain. My point was that Halo is far from doomed.
  5. You probably maxed out your skill level, there’s not much fun playing if you’re not improving or ranking higher. But this is true for any game.
  6. I don’t get it. Attract the COD players? You mean attract the people playing COD that aren’t playing Halo? That was my point. From my experience, my friends who liked COD hated Halo because they kept losing.
  7. 50% of games I lose are due to someone with a <0.5 kda. That cannot be improved with better “teamwork”.
20

> 2533274879407634;2:
> Here’s something being ignored as well.

Didn’t even need to click on it to know what it is.