Lets take a step back for a minute and address the toxicity within the community. I myself have been overtly critical of 343i and absolutely guilty of being toxic towards them - (Deserved and Undeserved).
A LOT of us have fond memory’s of HALO 1-REACH.
Some of us stayed through 4 & 5.
While others are just returning to the series with Infinite.
I can really only speak from myself when I say I thoroughly enjoy Infinite’s gameplay loop. It’s really the closet game to the series roots 343i has developed so far.
Unfortunately that’s exactly the problem. The series hasn’t been even remotely near its roots in 10 years. This being a true return to form came with BIG expectations and all the while 343i hyped these expectations to the moon.
I think the reality is we expected A LOT more.
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We expected a fully fleshed out open world.
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We expected Networking & Synchronization to be flawless.
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We expected a Live Service Game to be full of content.
Heavy on this, Bungie released the first map pack within 3 months of release. This included 3 new maps and the game not being live service. it’s taking longer for a live service game to pump out content then a legacy pay to play game.
- We expected EVENTS to be these new and ground breaking technologies and games but instead FIESTA goes orange every once in awhile. The event’s just aren’t fun. It really shouldn’t feel like a chore to participate.
This just barely scratches the surface.
On launch IT WAS CLEAR. The people wanted to play HALO.
We’ve been wanting HALO to succeed for 10 years.
Sure, the game had issues,. But we were almost universally all willing to look past all of that for quick, substantial and timely updates.
That never came.
WE waited for BTB to be fixed.
WE waited for any sign of actual content to come with Season 1.
WE watched as 343i proclaimed to do better in the winter then went radio silent on us MULTIPLE times.
Overall what it all boils down to is expectation.
I’m glad we will start getting updates on the things to come I’m just worried it’s not enough.
When you say the words LIVE SERVICE. The expectation is Fortnite/APEX levels of support. I do think 343i has dropped the ball and dropped it hard it’s really the question of can we get back on track.