I thought a lot about this and tried to make it easy to understand so try to keep up…
1 - Great, simple, not necessarily original game is launched. lets call it game A
2 - a small community of gamers is formed around this game. the community shows great respect and admiration, even some gratitude torwards the developers. this newborn community really enjoys the game, help the developers with useful feedback and tips about what they would like to see in a possible sequel. this is the best type of community any developer would love to have for their franchise.
3 - the sequel to game A, game B is announced. the developers here have 2 choices :
3a: innovate and try to make something that would attract more public, but also stick to the core fans while trying to fit the market’s tendencies or…
3b: upgrade the features present in game A, to please mainly the core community.
Please note that 3a is what we can say halo’s been through,always changing and including new features while 3b is more similar to Call of Duty (i.e. Modern warfare 3 looks like a map pack for Modern warfare 2)
Let’s say that the developers choose option 3a.
4 - the community, once united and strong, is now divided into 2 major groups: the traditional and the revolutionary.
the traditional is composed mainly by the core, somewhat competitive players while the revolutionary is more open-minded to the new changes. Here the revolutionaries are the minority.
as the developers start to announce the game’s new features, the traditionals get more sceptical and the revolutionary more excited. Here the community is hardly enjoyable at all, filled the haters and threads full of complains and -Yoinking!-.
5 - Game B is launched and is a great success. some traditionals end up by enjoying the changes, others get used to it and some just quit everything. the revolutionary are satisfied and so are the rookies, newcomers that started playing from the sequel.
But the most important is: the true fans belived in the developers and those who did not at least gave it a try and probably enjoyed it.
Okay so you might wonder what could possibly go wrong.
the answer is very simple :
Imagine the process I just mentioned being repeated once. Now twice. three times. With the community growing after every game that is released.With the market’s standards changing every year.
Well you must agree that the community in general gets tired. The traditionals are now getting just through being taken away from their comfort zone everytime a new sequel is announced. the competitive players just struggling to survive in an age where the big companies are forcing the developers to get their games a mainly social MP and a more trendy style, just to attract new public and sell more copies.
And this is where we find ourselves right now. What is happening with the Halo community is only natural, that’s why I think it is about time people stop hating and think :
Remember all the time you spent Hating everything 343i’s been working their -Yoinks!- to do? Was it worth it ?
I’d like to say more but i’m just too tired.
Good Night.