The Real Problem with Halo 5

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Tensions are incredibly high right now within the community, and it seems we’re on the verge of bloody conflict from what I’m reading. Many may know I’m the first in line to harshly criticize 343’s decisions, but at the same time I think we need to give credit where it’s due.

I’ve read the newest update, and one of the first things they address is many of the complaints about UI, modes, maps, etc. I’d like to acknowledge that they appear to AT LEAST hear our outcry, which is far more than they’ve done in the past. I also want to applaud Tom French and the Forge Team, which is the only reason I still own Halo 5 at the moment. While it may not be perfect, Forge is fantastic in its possibilities even with as many missing pieces as it has. While I believe it’s important to mercilessly spank 343/MSoft for releasing an incomplete husk of a game, I also think it’s important to encourage them when they DO listen to us, however rare that may be.

What I think most issues in Halo 5 stem from is executives who are out of touch with not only the Halo community, but gaming in general. While 343 is responsible for many of Halo’s current shortcomings, I belive they were also pushed by Microsoft to “modernize” the game and use “The Power of the Cloud” ™, focus entirely on making it the most competitive Halo ever, and release unfinished to meet fiscal goals for the holiday season.

What we were left with is a game tuned only for super sweaty Arena modes influenced by the “Pro Team”, who used Halo 5 as a scapegoat to make MLG: The Videogame rather than a full Halo package, and now artists and programmers are having to pay for the decisions of those above them, playing catch-up in forced monthly intervals.

Something needs to happen in the upper management of 343; It’s abundantly clear whoever’s in charge has no idea what they’re doing, whether that be Frank O’Conner and his incessant trolling, Bonnie Ross and her “Lucas-like control of the license”, or Phil Spencer the mighty saviour of Xbox himself.

Halo 5 is in an abysmal state with few signs of getting better anytime soon, but people need to stop laying all the blame squarely on the shoulders of the devs that kill themselves daily to do what they can. Remember, not all dumb decisions were 343’s fault.

TL;DR - 343 is ridiculously incompetent, but their upper management is even worse. Cut em’ a bit of slack.

2

Frankie is awesome.
Bonnie is who you constantly see up on the stage telling the people what to do.

3

> 2533274832335336;1:
> Tensions are incredibly high right now within the community, and it seems we’re on the verge of bloody conflict from what I’m reading. Many may know I’m the first in line to harshly criticize 343’s decisions, but at the same time I think we need to give credit where it’s due.
>
> I’ve read the newest update, and one of the first things they address is many of the complaints about UI, modes, maps, etc. I’d like to acknowledge that they appear to AT LEAST hear our outcry, which is far more than they’ve done in the past. I also want to applaud Tom French and the Forge Team, which is the only reason I still own Halo 5 at the moment. While it may not be perfect, Forge is fantastic in its possibilities even with as many missing pieces as it has. While I believe it’s important to mercilessly spank 343/MSoft for releasing an incomplete husk of a game, I also think it’s important to encourage them when they DO listen to us, however rare that may be.
>
> What I think most issues in Halo 5 stem from is executives who are out of touch with not only the Halo community, but gaming in general. While 343 is responsible for many of Halo’s current shortcomings, I belive they were also pushed by Microsoft to “modernize” the game and use “The Power of the Cloud” ™, focus entirely on making it the most competitive Halo ever, and release unfinished to meet fiscal goals for the holiday season.
>
> What we were left with is a game tuned only for super sweaty Arena modes influenced by the “Pro Team”, who used Halo 5 as a scapegoat to make MLG: The Videogame rather than a full Halo package, and now artists and programmers are having to pay for the decisions of those above them, playing catch-up in forced monthly intervals.
>
> Something needs to happen in the upper management of 343; It’s abundantly clear whoever’s in charge has no idea what they’re doing, whether that be Frank O’Conner and his incessant trolling, Bonnie Ross and her “Lucas-like control of the license”, or Phil Spencer the mighty saviour of Xbox himself.
>
> Halo 5 is in an abysmal state with few signs of getting better anytime soon, but people need to stop laying all the blame squarely on the shoulders of the devs that kill themselves daily to do what they can. Remember, not all dumb decisions were 343’s fault.
>
> TL;DR - 343 is ridiculously incompetent, but their upper management is even worse. Cut em’ a bit of slack.

Halo 5 is fine as is. You can nit pick everything, but overall the game is fun. More fun than halo has been in a while. It’s a success with a few oddities that aren’t perfect.

4

the real problem is no 1-50 ranking system

5

Slack, much like respect is earned. I personally don’t feel they have earned either. Others might think differently but I know many people feel the same way I do.

Why should 343 be held at a different standard than other professions? If anyone follows football, there was a coach this past season that was fired after his team lost the first game of the season. One game. Coaches are not given any slack if their teams performance is questionable (even coaches who have succeeded in the past). This is just one small example. Most people with jobs face serious consequences if they repeatedly fail. Why are we supposed to constantly forgive 343 regardless of their performance?

6

> 2533274813764898;5:
> Slack, much like respect is earned. I personally don’t feel they have earned either. Others might think differently but I know many people feel the same way I do.
>
> Why should 343 be held at a different standard than other professions? If anyone follows football, there was a coach this past season that was fired after his team lost the first game of the season. One game. Coaches are not given any slack if their teams performance is questionable (even coaches who have succeeded in the past). This is just one small example. Most people with jobs face serious consequences if they repeatedly fail. Why are we supposed to constantly forgive 343 regardless of their performance?

This is LITERALLY the exact thing I said in my post, if you’d bothered to read it. The “coaches” of Halo 5 need to get trounced, not the small guys doing their job.

Plus, Microsoft has more than proven how greedy and out-of-touch they’ve become since the day they announced the DRM-Box One, so I’m sure they’re about half responsible as well.

7

> 2533274849645270;3:
> > 2533274832335336;1:
> >
>
>
> Halo 5 is fine as is. You can nit pick everything, but overall the game is fun. More fun than halo has been in a while. It’s a success with a few oddities that aren’t perfect.

That’s being a bit generous. Yes, it’s fun to an extent, but it’s missing a plethora of features that increased the longevity of previous Halo games on top of having many unnecessary new features that many don’t like and never asked for.

8

> 2533274832335336;6:
> > 2533274813764898;5:
> > Slack, much like respect is earned. I personally don’t feel they have earned either. Others might think differently but I know many people feel the same way I do.
> >
> > Why should 343 be held at a different standard than other professions? If anyone follows football, there was a coach this past season that was fired after his team lost the first game of the season. One game. Coaches are not given any slack if their teams performance is questionable (even coaches who have succeeded in the past). This is just one small example. Most people with jobs face serious consequences if they repeatedly fail. Why are we supposed to constantly forgive 343 regardless of their performance?
>
>
> This is LITERALLY the exact thing I said in my post, if you’d bothered to read it. The “coaches” of Halo 5 need to get trounced, not the small guys doing their job.
>
> Plus, Microsoft has more than proven how greedy and out-of-touch they’ve become since the day they announced the DRM-Box One, so I’m sure they’re about half responsible as well.

Don’t worry I read it all and agreed. It just sparked my own little similar rant and I just wanted to vent.

9

> 2533274953693601;2:
> Frankie is awesome.
> Bonnie is who you constantly see up on the stage telling the people what to do.

True. I feel she is largely responsible for the “modernization” aspects. I dunno, she gives off this aura of “My Way or the Highway”, and I was extremely uneasy when I heard that she’d literally requested to be the George Lucas of Halo.

She seems so focused on selling Halo as a brand and doesn’t seem to give a -Yoink- about what Halo was. But hey, that’s none of my business… (sips tea)

10

It’s money, guys. As long as people are willing to pay more for dlc than the actual game, pre ordering games MONTHS before it’s even released, if we just simply keep giving them money, they’ll keep on shipping out more and more incomplete titles. Even mortal kombat has micro transactions now. It’s pathetic.

11

Excuse the format but this is a bit of an issue

12

So sick of people blaming every -Yoinking!- thing on competitive players. Especially when it’s just flat out irrelevant.

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> 2533274819302824;12:
> So sick of people blaming every -Yoinking!- thing on competitive players. Especially when it’s just flat out irrelevant.

I’m not “blaming every ‘yoinking’ thing on competitive players”, but saying they had no influence on how Halo 5 turned out would just be naive. 343 misinterpreted people’s outcry for balance as wanting Halo to be hardcore-centric, and either Microsoft inserted this “Pro Team” to sway competitive players or 343 did it themselves.

The “Pro Team” is responsible for the crap aiming and crap maps, made even crappier by 343’s desire to change everything that made Halo unique. Everything they did was in service to competitive Arena, to the point that they didn’t even balance the game for anything else and have to do it now post-launch.

Hardcore players got their game, but amazingly no one else did.

14

No one likes the new aiming, and I can assure you this game is far from what the hardcore players want.

Keep using that scapegoat though.

15

Only give credit when it’s due. Until 343 delivers, credit is not due. Learn from the past.

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> 2533274832335336;9:
> > 2533274953693601;2:
> > Frankie is awesome.
> > Bonnie is who you constantly see up on the stage telling the people what to do.
>
>
> True. I feel she is largely responsible for the “modernization” aspects. I dunno, she gives off this aura of “My Way or the Highway”, and I was extremely uneasy when I heard that she’d literally requested to be the George Lucas of Halo.
>
> She seems so focused on selling Halo as a brand and doesn’t seem to give a -Yoink- about what Halo was. But hey, that’s none of my business… (sips tea)

Halo was once an already sold brand. Only after Bungie and 343 warped and confused customers as to what Halo was with Halo Reach, and continue to worsen the issue with Halo 4 and now Halo 5, was there ever a need to sell the Halo brand all over again.

Frankie is just as bad as Bonnie. They both speak of great things, only for the customer base to find later that many of the great things mentioned were merely empty words.

17

> 2533274819302824;14:
> No one likes the new aiming, and I can assure you this game is far from what the hardcore players want.
>
> Keep using that scapegoat though.

Look, I’m just calling it like it is. I already said I’m not blaming anyone but 343/Microsoft, but regardless of how it actually turned out there’s no doubt competitive gameplay was their top priority with this game.