Unpopular opinion: opening up Halo Infinite as a platform for additional highly-skilled creators who may monetize their creations is good for consumers/players

Games Halo Infinite
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42

If any part of forge is monetized, it’s going to literally kill this game. How do you not get that op?

That makes 0 sense. I’m not saying your dumb I just don’t understand how that is not a doorstop into what OP has described as forge+.

At this point I don’t see how this isn’t another “Push into the future of halo”

Hey guys remember when coatings we’re going to help offer thousands of unique ways to customize your Spartan?

Oh, or how about the fact that there “Definitely going to be something for you elite lovers”

Or my favorite, “Making Halo free to play is bringing it easier access to all, making halo more fun.” Then we got still ongoing rampant cheating, and a bigger divide between PC/console players?

Please tell me more about how revolutionizing halos forge package and map access is something that’s going to build the game more?

Denying maps, content, and ultimately fun.

You are asking that everyone pay to access maps PER MAP because that’s the only way to compensate EVERY builder.

Prefabs THE SAME WAY.

Forge, map access, game mode access, prefab access ANYTHING relating to PLAYING THE GAME should not be monetized.

What COULD be monetized is player created armor, patterns, and materials to customize our Spartans armor and custom Coatings. 343 can still make coatings and coatings can still be a thing. But make the first option a custom slot.

Armor developed works like tennogen in Warframe, player curated, not super expensive but still a little chunk of change.

This can also be said for Other species like Elites and Brutes.

But now you’re also talking about external access. If you own a home server, why should I have to pay for access in? I’m hosting. And if I’m renting one why am I paying 343 and extra 8 to host FOR THEM.

You’re comparing the work we do in halo to a job?? It’s born out of love. It’s…

This is useless. You’re playing a devil’s advocate and for what? Everyone here is against the idea, you’re a man in a mountain that’s slowly becoming a raft at sea.

Why debate for this? What’s your true end game here dude?

People don’t create maps because they want to get paid, if they did the first thought would be to go into graphic design or start studying for that road.

We don’t create game modes for money, but for fun.

My team and I meet once a month because of work. Once. So the maps I’m going to design are intending for us to be in them for long periods of time. I plan to release them to everyone.

Why would I charge people for the same thing I sought? Camaraderie.

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43

So you want them to be able to outsource us and provide free labor but make it look like it’s our idea?

What’s next, you’re gonna’ tell me you want Blockchain support, too?

Do you have any idea how putting this in a free to play game is outright predatory? Come ON OP, this is utterly ridiculous. Why must everything make money? Can things simply not exist?

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44

…Isn’t that the point of the often overpriced store, Battle Passes, and locking every other customization piece behind microtransactions or FOMO events? To make money to support the other content?

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No.
They’ve broken too many promises already.
And if the community caves and accepts monetization now, forge will never be free again.
Shame too, forge looks great, and i love hearing about the community forgers possibly making some coin.
But 343 has broken too many promises already, and further attempts to monetize halo should not happen.
I mean, if infinite launched how it should have, was a top 5 played game, theyd have wiggle room.
This is just another cash grab for a failed game.
And this post reminds me of a post when infinite launched, about halo nft’s.

46

OP is the kind of person that will literally always find more ways to hustle. It’s not great.

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47

Ah, so you’re saying there could exist a path for non-343-made content made by users who could accept compensation for their original work. Good to know!

Call it what you want. The purpose of a dedicated host could be a multitude of things. Doesn’t matter the hardware or if you host it yourself. I find it more accessible to let someone else handle the technical stuff, hence I would rent instead of self-host.

The maps from forge are accessible to everyone is because the components of forge are 343’s property. Every rearrangement of anything made from forge belongs to 343, not the creator/designer. Every forge map benefits 343 because they can commandeer (this is my guess, anyways) anything made in forge because it belongs to them and it engages people more within an ecosystem that only benefits 343/Microsoft.

Forge as a creation tool, though it is going to be its best iteration yet, will have limits. Can you import a model from maya? Photograph the night sky and make a new skybox? Can you rig and animate new models and cutscenes? Can you add custom recorded voice acting and sound effects? Can you create new weapon models (though the scripting is super cool) to add utterly new and unique materials to the game? Add a custom MP spartan voice?

Keep forge as you expect it to be. Do the things within that sandbox.

Real wholly new materials, objects, etc could be part of a marketplace to fill content voids, storytelling, far and above and beyond what forge can do.

Personally, I wanted to know what the specific worries and criticisms were of “monetized forge”. This makes sense. It’s been done in other places to the detriment of the game and it’s playerbase.

I also want to point out, if those fears were addressed there could be economic forces that give fans of the game more good things than bad.

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48

F2P ruins every AAA game it touches! As someone who used to invest so many hours into Asphalt 8 before finally quitting that trainwreck of a game for good in 2019 (after Gameloft locked me out of my account forever), I am now practically done with F2P. I did not retire from mobile gaming and switch to Halo just to see it go F2P!

As I have said before, Halo going F2P is the worst mistake it has ever made. And to those who still think Halo TRASHfinite will last 10 years, it won’t.

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49

I’m not sure I have a strong opinion on this one way or the other. I can see merit in the idea of supporting some fantastic experiences, but I don’t really want to have to start buying the top maps and custom games. And I definitely don’t want creators to turn to only the most profitable types of creations.

What I do find interesting is how many people posting here haven’t even bothered reading beyond the title and assuming the rest. Not surprising, but interesting.

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50

Of course there could be, in a capacity that doesn’t affect gameplay. That’s my whole thing. Armor, and species armor, as much as I hate to say it. Is circumstantial to gameplay (ie species)

No I get that but the way you posted made it sound like paying for the renting service AND paying for 343s service to allow you to RENT the service elsewhere. Does that make sense

(Stars because I’m not quoting all of that)

Are you now describing an external tool like unreal engine? An asset in its own with its own launcher for both console and Xbox?

If THATS what you mean, A LEGITIMATE dev program, not tool as it’s been cited as in this length; what’s a fair price?

$20? It’s just an engine, an open source engine.

Or maybe 343 would prefer $200 it is a new engine after all?

That’s my biggest worry then. What kind of a chunk is it going to take from modders, or let’s call them “Craftsman” for the sake of our back and forth can we?

Let’s say a craftsman puts in that $200, what’s the actual turn around vs time spent? Say they craft a whole campaign. Get friends to really perfect the voice acting. Leaving your player dialogue as just subtitles.

How long before that investment is worth it? Sure risk reward and so on, but there has to be such an extensive discussion on the parameters of Craftsman/343 trade off, legalities of created items and HOW they belong to the player.

I mean sure you could take the unreal terms and conditions and just paste 343 overtop it all but I mean, there’s a lot still muffed.

:pensive:

I get it. I appreciate that outlook I guess.

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51

It’s simply not a good idea to do with Halo. Fans ultimately want enjoyment out the game and seeing a price tag behind a cool new mode is just gonna push them away from said game.

There’s enough monetization in the game as it is. We do not need to start trying to turn the game into a soulless cash grab.

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52

I agree completely with you on this. It should be out of the pure joy and love for Halo.

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53

For the most part we already do this,
Infinite has a microscopic moding scene,

There is one major downside to allowing community custom creation,
It would require a TON of Data, and Data storage. People making custom content would absolutely flood the creative marketplace. Making it hard to find quality content among the sea of half baked ideas.

This is essentially what Valve does with the game CS:GO.
People model and produce potential content for the skins in that game.

Principally its a cool idea, but valve isn’t exactly profit driven with its side projects.
They have a large body of people who work specifically on that project.

Even with all that man power and Vetting,
They only release 3 Skin cases a year, most of which are selection of low quality generic reused skins.
And maybe 3-2 premium ones.

Given that 343i is MAINLY profit driven, the cost of having a team of people to Vet and select skins submitted would likely out weight any of the profit those skins might bring in. Or, likewise, individual skins would need to be extremely expensive to recoup the cost of introducing them.

Because paying these independent creators would be very very expensive.

Again, I don’t think adding a monetary element to the community is the way to go.

If it was really that important, they should instead spend the money on a professional studio that will guarantee that the work would get done through contracts. Rather than negotiating with Small Freelance independent creators that may abandon the project at any point during development.

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54

that’s a great typo

[BOTTOM TEXT]

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55

There wont be a price tag for a cool new mode. If u want to play a cool new mode hosted on a forge+ server then u are free to do that as long as the author of that server has the lobby set to Open to All Players.

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The Ton of Data argument is insignificant because as long as youre paying for game pass and the forge+ one time fee for dev tools AND your microsoft365 yearly subscription, people will have plenty of cloud drive storage space that they can use for development. If their cloud storage drive gets full, then they can delete stuff or just pay for more cloud storage space

57

1 Question, OP:

How much are you suggesting/willing to pay for a forge map/creation?

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58

i forge for fun. i’m not planning to charge people to join my forge+ lobbies. i don’t make a living by inspiring envy in others and hustling forge maps. i do, for example, want the flexibility to be able to import props i make in maya into my forge maps. we should be able to buy into the dev suite if we are so inclined because we are interested in learning more about the slipspace engine, and what the slipspace engine can teach us about the state of the art.

i’d publish some of my really good maps and content to some official 343 content browser and maybe people will spend between 1 and 5 dollars while viewing my content creator profile to seamlessly and effortlessly integrate that prop or map into their preexisting Halo Infinite installation.

the rest of my content would just be free samples of the really good stuff i put my time & effort into

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59

Bro, no Forge+.

Just stop. Please.

:pray:

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60

If I could pay 200 dollars or whatever to access Sapien+Guerilla for Halo infinite, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

edit: i know lots of other people in the forge community and content creators will too.

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61

also we still have great need of Mark VI mjolnir VR helmets because thats just a really great idea.