When I first got Halo Infinite’s multiplayer, the first thing I did was go to the “customization” tab. I was so excited to create my own spartan, or at least see what I’d have to do to get the pieces I wanted, etc.
I was greeted with something not just disappointingly barren, but almost hostile in its approach to extract real money from me. There are almost no options at all. I happen to already be a huge Halo fan, so I still play with friends sometimes. But it’s a sorry state, and it makes me sad to think how many new players will share this experience as their first impression with Halo, and leave to play other more player friendly multiplayer games instead.
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yeah the MK VII is really lacking in customization options.
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I’m not disagreeing that the base customization is extremely sparse, but as a self proclaimed “huge Halo fan” has customization ever been the point for playing the game?
Infinite allows an open point of entry for new players to experience its gameplay loop by being FTP. If people didn’t care for the core gameplay loop, customization wasn’t gonna keep them around.
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IN halo 3 it was all the combinations and the logos… and the colors… are you saying that if a developer just suddenly decides to remove features that were in previous games is okay???
That’s like selling a book without some pages just because it’s been on the shelf for so long and you need to rip out pages to justify a lower price…
Here’s what I think this analysis fails to recognize:
As I said it was literally the first thing I did when I turned on the game. Maybe that’s not something you care about as a Halo fan, but it is for me, and a lot of others. I was excited to make “my spartan”, and the developers even knew this and marketed it. This isn’t a trait endemic to Halo of course- it is an important trait for a lot of fans of a lot of games and/or franchises. There are many studies done exploring the link between avatar customization and player engagement. Research into this has been purposefully implemented in all kinds of games, including free to play games- many of which offer more opening options than this one. It is now something which many people in the ftp market often explicitly regard in their enjoyment of a game.
So maybe new players from the demographic you mentioned will like the gameplay loop, but other games with combat loops they enjoy are competing for their attention and hardrive space- other games which can constantly engage them in other ways which transcend beyond the combat loop- something Bungie had successfully figured out back and Halo 3 with their progression/customization system, (which was then refined in Halo Reach, and has since inspired similar but monetized models in other successful games). Even when put up to the standards of the ftp demographic you’ve mentioned (blatantly being treated as “the ftp market”, Halo Infinite is still abysmal in some of the things those players have come to expect.
Halo Infinites multiplayer falls short for Halo fans, and it falls short for FTP shooter fans, because the user-end wasn’t made for any of them, but was made for maximized margins of pure profit.
No, that’s not at all what I’m saying. What I’m saying is most (if not nearly all) people who play Halo MP do so BECAUSE it’s Halo MP. Customization has always been the icing, not the cake, and while the concept has always been present in some fashion or another comprehensive customization options have been available in less than half the franchise prior to Infinite’s release. Again, the icing, not the cake.
Does that mean I think its fine as is? No, hence my agreeing that the starter options are sparse. But at the end of the day people are getting a free Halo MP game, which has never been done before, and people who stick around will more likely do so for the gameplay, not the customization. You could have the greatest customization suite in the market, for free and immediately available, but if ths game isn’t fun to play people aren’t going to make keep playing just for ths fashion.
technically speaking when you paid for previous halo games you paid for the campaign not the multi, though you could argue your paying for both ,but what are we paying for now?
Is there an FTP title that offers all gameplay free of paywalls, AND a deep, readily available customization suite at no additional charge?
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I think the current state of customization is fine and 343i is good to just rest in their laurels here, I do not. My issue is the assertion that customization has ever been the primary draw of a Halo player. You went right into customization because as a Halo fan it’s what you’ve come to expect. People familiar w/the FTP market model will likely be right at home with basic color pallets, additional stuff tied to a paid campaign, a premium marketplace, and content in a battlepass. What they’ll likely be turned off by is how anemic tbs bsttlepass is by way of unlocks, but other than that Infinite is fairly industry standard.
The reality is that the only people really being rubbed raw are the ones who are making a point of the lack of customization being more of a “removed” feature, and placing a lot more prominence on said feature than there ever really was to drive that point home. In a handful of previous, full-priced Halo games ww have indeed gotten more, but its never been the focus for the core playerbase.
In previous games it was a complet package, Infinite is two separate SKU’s. It’s campaign carries a charge, it’s MP does not. You could ignore the campaign entirely and still have unfettered access to all gameplay elements of the MP. Point of fact if this forum and other sources of online feedback are any indication several people did just that, canceling their pre-orders when it was announced that both co-op and forge were to be considerably delayed.
So in effect, for MP, you’re paying nothing unless you opt in to its pass or premium microtransactions.
Is there an FTP title that offers all gameplay free of paywalls, AND a deep, readily available customization suite at no additional charge?
If people have to work for the customization options, that’s still a massive improvement than only being able to pay for them. Most ftp shooters give you the ability to unlock customization options as part of the gameplay- again, following the example set by games like Halo Reach, but with monetized versions of that system, where a player can earn in-game currency for unlocking items, gain items through challenge completion, or some other similar system and/or combination (ie, “grinding”).
People familiar w/the FTP market model will likely be right at home with basic color pallets, additional stuff tied to a paid campaign, a premium marketplace, and content in a battlepass. What they’ll likely be turned off by is how anemic tbs bsttlepass is by way of unlocks, but other than that Infinite is fairly industry standard.
Not when there’s no reasonable way to unlock more options and/or in-game currency by simply playing the game. That’s a huge element which is missing here but is present in most popular FTP models. Obviously this is related but also extends beyond the meager battle pass stuff. And it’s a shame because having enticements like that are an important part of keeping servers populated- a big part of WHY a game would go FTP in the first place.
The reality is that…
The reality is that the player base has been steadily declining as expected, we can’t say for sure how this will shake out in relation to post-release projections, but here’s some stuff we know for sure: there’s lot’s of new players who are still playing, many of them are complaining though and may not stay long, and there are new players that started and left already. My point is that if any of them went to the customization options first, that definitely left a bad first impression with this game’s user end because it’s not designed in a player-friendly way. This affected some players, lost some audience, and will continue to put players off and limit the game from reaching it’s potential heights of player count longevity as long as it exists in its current form.