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> People need to start understanding that psychologically, a feel of magic EXACTLY like how Halo 2 and Halo 3’s glory days felt, is not possible. We can get something close, such as the aurora of feelings everybody felt in anticipation for MCC, but the full-fledged love affair is not repeatable.
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> Why? A simple psychological principle.
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> In the Halo 2 and Halo 3 days, Halo was still carving its name out and creating the identity it has. We were still growing as a community and the game itself was growing. However, now that the industry has evolved and changed, with biases and agendas of companies and fans alike shifting, the perfect combination of elements and atmospheres that created the “magic” of Halo in the first place is gone.
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> We can have an amazing game, and we can have great times. Halo can still thrive.
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> But can we feel as good as we did back then? Technically speaking, no. The closest we can get it by playing custom games in MCC. But the perfect saturation of aspects is something not just gone from Halo, but gone from games. Halo is not the main problem, the game industry is, and we’re paying the price for it.
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> We have been upset with Halo’s direction since Halo: Reach not only just because of the undesirable additions of some gameplay mechanics, but because we as humans are always hungry for more magic, and sometimes, unfortunately, it just dies off. 9 years was still a great length of time for a game to remain fresh and exciting. It pains me to say this, but Halo is out of the honeymoon phase, that’s all it is. Even Call of Duty is starting to lose a lot of the market dominance it once had. Time goes on, things change. My perspective is that of unbridled realism, so take it however you want. Some will see the logic, some will be offended and blindly defend Halo as the King of Gaming, but my point will still stand. I wish Halo was still the King.
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> Principally, nothing is as powerful as the euphoria of something new. Nostalgia comes close, but that’s it.
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> Halo can be great, it can even be the best. But it can’t be like before. That’s just the reality.
i believe counterstike, super smash brothers melee, old franchises making a comeback like killer instinct and speedrunning would like to have a word with you. i completely disagree, the reasoning you employ to make your opinions absolute are a bit naive.
i’m part of the smash community and we were very dormant for about 4-5 years. you are correct to say that an experience comes to an end, however you seem to gloss over the idea of an experience being revived, speedrunning was very quiet for about 5-6 years and now it has been bigger than ever for the past 4-5 years. smash has also been bigger than ever for the past 3 years.
i feel better than ever when i play smash melee or speedrun old games from the ps1, ps2, n64, snes, xbox or gamecube.
you’re correct about the magic, however you’re incorrect about it being only available through a new or fresh experience. some people are not the same, i played over 10,000 custom games in halo 3 many of which were the same gametype and map. across all my accounts i’ve played over 8000 games or more through matchmaking or custom games in halo 1 - halo reach (yes reach). fresh and exciting was never my reason to play halo, smash or speedrun.
my reasons and the reasons of me, my group of friends (which was a large group of about 20-30), the other communities i played in / with and the people i always found in matchmaking (because new zealand and australia has quite an enclosed community, it isn’t small though) were because…
- there were people to interact with
- a game those people found enjoyable
- people to play and interact against
- a means to create connections or rivalries
- platforms, systems or a style of game which garnered attention
- some form of goal, objective or group to attain or be amongst
- a challenge
for all the people i talked to their reason for continuing to play (this was back when halo was alive) could be put into those categories, not because it was fresh or exciting.
at the end of the day all those people i knew who did invest a lot of the time in the game stopped playing because they couldn’t find an experience they enjoy.
all the people i played with (my group of friends, the new zealand competitive community adversity gaming, the australian competitive community acl, the nz/oz BTB, doubles, swat, grifball, snipers and custom games scenes) an amount that numbered over 600 (when you have over 600 good players who all play over 3000 games in a year there’s quite a lot of interaction) nearly all of them still talk on facebook, forums or skype and still have an interest in the game but no platform and therefore no community to play with or against. hence why an experience can be revived and stay strong for another era, its all to do with whether an experience can garner the attention and dedication (aka keep player retention) of the people who became part of these communities and make newer people want to become more involved to allow for growth and stability.
chess and sports never seem to go away because they’re stable, retain the players who become attached and maintain the experience and attention for new players (interactions) to become involved. gaming will never be that consistent in the near future, though that doesn’t rule out the possibility for a return to a dedicated regularly playing fanbase…there are so many examples that say otherwise.
