Personally I’m still more entertained by the amount of people responding positively to the OP that keep burying the lede. Dude played for nearly 90 hours in under 2 weeks and is complaining of a lack of stuff to do. Even if someone is playing for the completionist grind, this is player burnout plain and simple. The largest open-world titles on the market would become repetitive and laborious after thay amount of play in that short a window.
1 Like
I disagree with some of the arguments you’ve made, and agree with others. I think there’s validity to playing a game just for fun, but I also think the existing progression system can get in the way of that. And, I think there’s room to make it better.
Regardless, the tone in which one makes an argument will overshadow their point. Telling people they have undiagnosed OCD or that they “need help” because they want a better progression system, or talking down to them (e.g., “kiddo”) simply because they disagree with you, won’t win them over.
3 Likes
I’m inclined to agree with you.
It’s burnout projected onto a popular controversy.
1 Like
I was actually having a light discussion about this earlier with one of my friends. We’ve both been grinding ranked a lot(almost Onyx!) and we’re both approaching lvl 40 on the pass. There’s definitely room for improvement on the battle pass and the current store set up. One of the things we thought of was what happens after 100 on the pass? Besides the gameplay, there’s really no reason for others to keep going unless they continue to grind the ranked playlist. We had the thought of once you progress past 100 on the current battle pass each level earns you in game credit that can be applied to store purchases (capping out at enough for the battle pass plus $10 of in game credit [about a $20 value]). For those that play the game a lot, they are rewarded for their time and are able to acquire some of the loot that would otherwise be tucked away behind a pay wall or re-up on the battle pass. With the length of this first season it would allow just about everyone to earn enough credits to re-up for the next battle pass. The hardcore players can keep going on that same rotation as seasons progress, it allows newer players to go for that same rotation, but it doesn’t take away from earning the rewards from previous passes. While a step in the right direction is a start, it is not a fix to a broken and predatory system. There needs to be communication given to the community outlining what direction they will be taking with progression and the in game store, and soon, I’ve already heard people starting to refer to all of this as the end of 343i and the start of 34-EA.
The problem is that i am #TOLDYOUSOGANG.
I said before release that this system would not keep active players occupied. And of course loads of plebeians disagree’d and called me an idiot etc.
Well here we are. Its almost like no-life neckbeards know a thing or two about gaming…
No the fact of the matter is IF they designed the system properly then i could have grinded another 50 hours ontop of that and not felt like i needed to write a post about it.
Its not about the 90 hours. Its about completing your weeklies and having literally NO incentive to play otherwise.
Until they implemented more exp yesterday i was desperately logging in everyday to try and have fun only to play like 5 matches and log out because its a worthless waste of time.
I said before this released. GIVE ME A REASON TO SINK MY LIFE INTO THE GAME.
What did we get? A system that actively incentives you to stop spending time on the game after like 2 days of weeklies.
I dont want to take a break.
I want a system that doesnt actively incentivise you to stop playing the game.
1 Like
I feel the same incentive to play with or without challenges, personally. I didn’t need challenges to play literally thousands of matches of Halo 2 back in the OG Xbox Live days. Didn’t need challenges to play thousands of matches of Halo 3 on the 360. A challenge might get me to play just a little bit longer than I otherwise would have, (oh I’m just a couple of kills away from completing this challenge, I can play one or two more matches to get that done) but I’m not gonna suddenly lose my desire to play until new ones drop if I finish all the weeklies. I play until I don’t feel like playing anymore.
2 Likes
So why do you even play video games at all if you only care about challenges and customization unlocks? The game itself is the reason to keep playing. It’s absurd to me that people think that there should be some kind of extra incentive beyond the fact that the game is enjoyable and engaging to play. Gameplay is the reward. It’s why you play the game in the first place, is it not? It’s not as if customization unlocks make you stronger, or do anything beyond having a “cool” Spartan to stare at in the menus. Trust me, nobody but you cares what your Spartan looks like, and you barely even get to see it because the game is in first person.
Remember when video games were about the game?
3 Likes
So it couldn’t possibly be the lack of playlists, or less than ideal amount of content, missing modes, broken saved customs, or gameplay issues (no ff in social, no collision, etc), buggy theatre and missing forge, unstable servers, low tick rate servers, crashing on pc, etc?
1 Like
Because there IS fun to be had playing games.
The problem is when you reach the 30 hour mark and realise you have experienced EVERYTHING the game has to offer 3 times over. You want to play more but its a literal waste of time for NOTHING in return.
I know you casual gamers arent going to be able to wrap your heads around this yet but you actually need to reward players in order for them to stick around long term.
YOU wont be here in 1 year if they keep handling the game like this. And thats what im getting at.
You might not realise it yet because you dont have your whole life to throw into video games but i Do. And im telling you from 100 hours of gametime in the future that YOU will run into the same problems as im running into now.
In roughly 3 weeks you’ll come to the exact same realisations as me unless 343 pulls a miracle between here and then.
At which point im still going to be #ToldYouSoGang.
Obviously those things dont help.
But i can look past those when my time is being respected.
As it stands, my time would be better spent in World of Warcraft retail.
Only my true nerds will understand that reference.
1 Like
My point is - is it possible that those are the reasons for population trends and not just primarily your weeklies running out? When I was growing up and playing CE/H2/H3, there wasn’t any XP based progression to work towards and I (and millions of others) sunk just gross amounts of time into those games.
To be honest part of your argument doesn’t even make sense. “in 3 weeks time you’ll be in the same position”… The weeklies will have reset 3 times over by then!
This week’s reward absolutely sucks, some stupid badge is not worth my time grinding away on challenges, the Tenrai event is gone and I’m not interested in playing MP until it’s more fleshed out and gotten rid of major problems, so I recon that will be at least 6 months from now lmao
You haven’t experienced everything the game has to offer. That statement demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of gameplay. Halo is an immensely deep and dynamic video game with an essentially infinite number of emergent potential game states. Have you experienced every single engagement or interaction in every single way the game is functionally capable of presenting it? No, you have not, because it’s not possible in a game as dynamic as Halo.
You can play 100 straight matches of the same gametype, on the same map, with the same players, and the moment-to-moment action of every single game will be different. Why would I get sick of the game because I ran out of ways to earn points to unlock non-functional elemnents that don’t affect gameplay in any way? Why have people played decades-old games with nothing new to unlock consistently for years and years without getting sick of them?
Do you want to know what the reward is for playing the game? Playing the game. Winning. The satisfaction of good plays and performance. Engagement/immersion in a high-functioning interactive system.
It’s also ironic that you’re accusing other people of being “casual” gamers when prioritizing non-functional aspects of a video game over gameplay is essentially the thing that defines casual gamers.
3 Likes
Original Post: Click at your discretion
Summary
Small pp energy alert
I would almost give your comment consideration… If i had not been playing Halo since CE.
And not just Halo.
“Fun” lasts for a while. Then it fades. In order to keep players engaged long term you need to give them tangible rewards outside of “You won, good job”…
Ive won so many matches in so many different games, I really couldnt care less. Even ranked. Oh wow i was Diamond in League, I was Cutting Edge Sire Denathrius in WoW. do you want to know how many people care? No one. No one cares what your rank is unless you’re the Ogre Twins and thats how it is in a climate of millions of gamers all trying to prove something. I dont even remember my rank in a lot of games that i used to play… Its inconsequential. Most people dont even believe you if you tell them when you’ve achieved a top 1% ranking.
The VAST majority of the player base is repeatedly calling for better progression/customisation. I’m just One facet of that.
Because IF you are even remotely decent at the game then you’re going to run into these same issues. Which are more than just “No more weeklies”… Running out of weeklies makes it abundantly clear how little there is in this game other than “Play the game”.
When WE were growing up there was exp progression and things to work towards. Halo 3 was filled with unlockable items that incentivised gameplay and a ranking/exp system. There was less so as we go back further towards CE but this is the thing. We are in 2021. Not 2005. Things were different when we were all young surely we can admit that by now.
There are many things that people can fault this game for, you’re right. But This is the fault that I am bringing up. I said it would happen before launch. Here we are.
If you play just to grind challanges then my suggestion is to uninstall it because the game fails hard for you to provide any fun.
If there are challanges I would love to be able to complete all them in one game and ideally so it does not contain stupid stuff like destroy x vehicles get x kills with y weapons etc. I really hope challanges wont get to the level of stupidty like in COD.
WoW isnt bad because of daily challages, but because blizzard killed world pvp and essentialy any need for social interaction or cooperation. It is basically single player game with smarter bots…
1 Like
Yeah, there are plenty of us who have been playing since CE, that doesn’t make you special.
If you need a game to give you “tangible” rewards (I’ll get back to why that’s nonsense in just a minute) then you should strongly consider whether or not your time is best spent playing video games when it’s obvious that gameplay is not your priority.
And as for “tangible” rewards, how is a non-functional customization option that doesn’t affect the game in any way somehow more “tangible” than actively playing the game?
Why are you going on about ranks? Stop arguing with strawmen. I’m talking about the moment-to-moment gameplay action, the thoughts, actions, decisions, etc. that you are making every single second while playing the game. Being engaged in the experience of playing the game. That is the reward, whether you win or lose; those are just things that can be rewarding for players.
But if you’re playing so you can admire how “cool” your Spartan looks on the menu, rather than because the game itself is engaging to play, then why bother playing in the first place. You think other people don’t care about ranks? They really couldn’t possibly care less about what your Spartan looks like, if they even are able to get a good look at it.
The VAST majority of the player base is repeatedly calling for better progression/customisation. I’m just One facet of that.
This is an example of the argumentum ad populum fallacy, and is invalid reasoning by definition.
Because IF you are even remotely decent at the game then you’re going to run into these same issues.
On the contrary, it’s because I’m good at the game, and because I value gameplay so highly that a game as deep and dynamic as Halo will never get old for me, because every single match I will ever play will have novel moments that I have not, nor will I ever experience in the same way again. That’s the hallmark of a high-quality game, and good game design. It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if the game had no customization whatsoever, because it doesn’t affect gameplay in any way. I play video games to play a game and be immersed in the moment-to-moment action, not stare at a screen and admire the contents.
Half of your responses are strawmen, and none of them actually address any of the content in my post. All you’re is making presumptions about me based on your own biases.
2 Likes