As many of you know already, the last update came and went. What was lost was the ability to consistently play on content that you paid premium price for. This has already been argued back and forth in the last few weeks, and I don’t wish to contribute more to that since nothing more is to be gained. But one thing that still irks me is the lack of transparency during the whole fiasco.
News of this update came in the form of a small mentioning buried by embedded videos demonstrating new gameplay footage of Halo 4. Most people probably missed it. Hell, the amount of people who frequent these forums is quite small to begin with, even this small number had to be warned of this update by others. It all happened so suddenly, and now we are left with having to stomach through constant Forge World variants and Heavies before we encounter Reaches best maps, that is if they are to appear at all. I have encountered dozens of randoms all complaining about this, and all of them are mad that they had no warning about it.
Why was there no real discussion here? I understand that as developers it is your decision as to how to handle your games, but traditionally speaking, Bungie has always exchanged words with us before they made a choice. Some kind of poll or developer chat would have helped a lot regarding this. Perhaps doing so would have brought something like a DLC ALL STARS kind of playlist into fruition, as to better quell some of this unrest in some of us. Anything would have been preferable to how they handled it. We live in an age of social media and ease of communication, yet it seems like 343 has made themselves completely unapproachable, I can’t find emails or anything to voice my concerns. Very frustrating.
I understand that Halo 4 is around the corner, and this was supposedly done with that in mind. Apparently, having more options “spreads us thin”, and the only way to rectify that is to alienate paying customers. I just wish they would have spoke with us. I never see any 343 posts here at all, and I doubt they are very approachable in any other regard. This whole thing has impacted and adjusted my expectations for Halo 4.
Welcome to the new way of handling games, Brother. Where developers don’t communicate with their audiences. Given the recent events here, I won’t be buying Halo 4 at all now.
> Welcome to the new way of handling games, Brother. Where developers don’t communicate with their audiences. Given the recent events here, I won’t be buying Halo 4 at all now.
I’ll still pre-order Halo 4. But yes, you have a point. There was little to no communication with the community with this.
I’m not stating my personnal opinion about this update here, but there are some things you should consider: it works both ways.
Maybe 343i would be more enclined to “discuss” with the “community” if the “community” wasn’t whinning about every single thing they dislike/don’t understand.
And this goes also for community itself; the countless sterile threads about TU and people’s reaction about events like the CC Contest show it pretty well, unfortunately:/
Youre all smoking crack. 343i is one of the most engaged and community oriented developers in existence. You know most devs dont even have a -Yoink- forums or anything? They even hired (for actual real money!) a community manager, FROM the community. You dont know the meaning of what its like for a game developer to not bother engaging with the community. You wouldnt even be here, because there wouldnt be a here.
Dont cry because they dont post here all the damn time, they only do so when appropriate, and theyre sort of busy currently. But frankie posts over on gaf ALL the time. Do you know how many people there are in this community, they cant talk to us all individually.
With regard to the DLC situation, its like this. The DLC lists were low population and got cut once, and there was a huge outcry so they brought it back. And it still had a low pop but they still left it for like a year. So dont tell me they dont listen or care. Now is the time that the reach playlists are winding down, and stuff needs to be cut starting with the ghost town lists, including squad DLC.
And they know the lack of DLC coming up is an issue for us, thats why they are pre-selling access to the first NINE halo 4 maps with every LE purchase before the game is even out, to alleviate this problem. It should also be a nice money spinner, so its win-win. So dont tell me they dont listen and respond.
> Youre all smoking crack. 343i is one of the most engaged and community oriented developers in existence. You know most devs dont even have a Yoink! forums or anything? They even hired (for actual real money!) a community manager, FROM the community. You dont know the meaning of what its like for a game developer to not bother engaging with the community. You wouldnt even be here, because there wouldnt be a here.
>
> Dont cry because they dont post here all the damn time, they only do so when appropriate, and theyre sort of busy currently. But frankie posts over on gaf ALL the time. Do you know how many people there are in this community, they cant talk to us all individually.
>
> With regard to the DLC situation, its like this. The DLC lists were low population and got cut once, and there was a huge outcry so they brought it back. And it still had a low pop but they still left it for like a year. So dont tell me they dont listen or care. Now is the time that the reach playlists are winding down, and stuff needs to be cut starting with the ghost town lists, including squad DLC.
>
> And they know the lack of DLC coming up is an issue for us, thats why they are pre-selling access to the first NINE halo 4 maps with every LE purchase before the game is even out, to alleviate this problem. It should also be a nice money spinner, so its win-win. So dont tell me they dont listen and respond.
I gotta agree with this.
I played Halo as my primary game. When I went looking for a website for Relic’s SPESS MAHREENS game, I found only a publisher supported website that was so clunky to use and underpopulated that it was as good as dead.
Other games, even Gears, fail in the same size, scope, features and support compared to what Bungie had and what 343 is gearing up for.
> Youre all smoking crack. 343i is one of the most engaged and community oriented developers in existence. You know most devs dont even have a Yoink! forums or anything? They even hired (for actual real money!) a community manager, FROM the community. You dont know the meaning of what its like for a game developer to not bother engaging with the community. You wouldnt even be here, because there wouldnt be a here.
They have a forum for the community, and they have a community manager. That does not mean they could not improve upon the transparency of their game management decisions. (I would also contend that a number of development studios, particularly those closer to the independent level, do take better advantage of the various social media platforms, but that is beside the point.) A number of players have raised a number of reasonable questions in regards to the recent matchmaking changes: If the update aimed to cull sparse playlists, why does Super Slayer remain with its struggling population while BTB Anniversary’s 4-digit population could not save it?; if the update aimed to reduce playlist redundancy, why did they merge BTB Anniversary into BTB yet decide against merging Super Slayer back into Team Slayer?; If the update aimed to remedy population issues that will arise upon Halo 4’s release, why did they institute it 3 months prior to the launch date? These are all valid questions. They may all have equally valid answers, but we cannot know with any certainty because neither 343 nor their community manager has offered any answer.
If I have missed official explanations on these types of questions along the way, correct me.
We can’t really complain that they are gone, no one ever played in the noble/defiant playlist.
However removing anniversary BTB doesn’t make any sense since more people played that than anniversary slayer playlist…
A singular all DLC playlist with varied gametypes would be welcome imo.
> We can’t really complain that they are gone, no one ever played in the noble/defiant playlist.
nobody eh? It was the first playlist I would kick off my reach nights in. I played a lot of Squad dlc.
I play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every week and on the bioware forums the developers are changing and listening to the fans more than 343 has with the recent updates. If a company like bioware running a co-op multiplayer can give feedback and talk with the masses and make weekly balance changes and updates I see no reason why 343 can’t have a representative to do so and fix things as well.
> > We can’t really complain that they are gone, no one ever played in the noble/defiant playlist.
>
> nobody eh? It was the first playlist I would kick off my reach nights in. I played a lot of Squad dlc.
>
> I play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every week and on the bioware forums the developers are changing and listening to the fans more than 343 has with the recent updates. If a company like bioware running a co-op multiplayer can give feedback and talk with the masses and make weekly balance changes and updates I see no reason why 343 can’t have a representative to do so and fix things as well.
>
> just saying.
Bioware isn’t trying to release a game. By the way guys, they said there’s gonna be more updates for Reach after Halo 4 launches. They most likely had to rush this one out due to Halo 4’s approach. I have a feeling more gametypes are gonna be changed or added to playlists post-Halo 4.
> > We can’t really complain that they are gone, no one ever played in the noble/defiant playlist.
>
> nobody eh? It was the first playlist I would kick off my reach nights in. I played a lot of Squad dlc.
>
> I play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every week and on the bioware forums the developers are changing and listening to the fans more than 343 has with the recent updates. If a company like bioware running a co-op multiplayer can give feedback and talk with the masses and make weekly balance changes and updates I see no reason why 343 can’t have a representative to do so and fix things as well.
>
> just saying.
That playlist had the lowest numbers of any except maybe action sack. YOU may have played this playlist a bit but as a whole not many did.
Difference being post development for bioware and 343 is about to release a game.
I think I could live with a lack of communication if more of 343’s Matchmaking-related decisions made any sense. But so far, that really hasn’t been the case. Hope they do better with Halo 4, but I’m not optimistic right now. I’m predicting a release week mess.
Why they don’t have official polls that are the same between Waypoint and in-game lobbies is beyond me?
A simple piece of coding for when online while campaign loads, spartan ops downloads, finding a multiplayer game or right here on official polls in their own forum.
All automatically collated and spread out to in-game as well as on these forums. Seems like a no brainer if you ask me.
> Youre all smoking crack. 343i is one of the most engaged and community oriented developers in existence. You know most devs dont even have a Yoink! forums or anything? They even hired (for actual real money!) a community manager, FROM the community. You dont know the meaning of what its like for a game developer to not bother engaging with the community. You wouldnt even be here, because there wouldnt be a here.
>
> Dont cry because they dont post here all the damn time, they only do so when appropriate, and theyre sort of busy currently. But frankie posts over on gaf ALL the time. Do you know how many people there are in this community, they cant talk to us all individually.
>
> With regard to the DLC situation, its like this. The DLC lists were low population and got cut once, and there was a huge outcry so they brought it back. And it still had a low pop but they still left it for like a year. So dont tell me they dont listen or care. Now is the time that the reach playlists are winding down, and stuff needs to be cut starting with the ghost town lists, including squad DLC.
>
> And they know the lack of DLC coming up is an issue for us, thats why they are pre-selling access to the first NINE halo 4 maps with every LE purchase before the game is even out, to alleviate this problem. It should also be a nice money spinner, so its win-win. So dont tell me they dont listen and respond.
Objection! They removed more than low populated playlists. They removed what THEY wanted to keep their own creations. Super Slayer, etc. No reason for Anniv BTB or FF doubles to go.
> If the update aimed to cull sparse playlists, why does Super Slayer remain with its struggling population while BTB Anniversary’s 4-digit population could not save it?; if the update aimed to reduce playlist redundancy, why did they merge BTB Anniversary into BTB yet decide against merging Super Slayer back into Team Slayer?;
Things like this make it look like they are trying to kill Bungie’s version of Reach so they can promote their own.
That may not be true
(but a lot of people perceive it that way, and with no communication, perception becomes reality.)
> We can’t really complain that they are gone, no one ever played in the noble/defiant playlist.
I’m a nobody who played it A LOT.
Many of us attended the midnight release and had the game from Day 1, and bought all of the DLC that day it came out. Instead of being rewarded for paying extra, we don’t even get what we paid for?
Even if the low numbers argument is accurate, so what? The number of people who pay for first class seats on an airplane, or VIP seats at a show are smaller in number too, but they deserve the perks they paid for.
I’m the biggest fool of all. I bought both the DLCs on Monday the day before they cut the list. I paid $20 for content I never even got to use. And good luck on getting MS point refunds.