Not Marathon Infinity... (Gaming)

by Durandal, Monday, June 11, 2018, 18:46 (2364 days ago) @ Harmanimus

where the narrative is "This thing is bad," rather than "I didn't like this thing." Folks just can't accept that they didn't like something, and instead have to say it sucks

I have expressed my dislike for the direction in both story and art from 343I before, and I have done so after trying both Halo 4 and 5. People are conflating my statements with far more acrimony than I have ever stated. I've made my points on what I think 343I has done poorly, and without restoring to base name calling elsewhere.

That being said I have my issues with D1 and D2. Bungie is swinging towards "grind" and randomness to satisfy the players with more time to devote to the game. Is this the right thing to do for Bungie? I don't know. They think it is, I'll let them experiment and see what happens. Worst case is I stop playing just like I did for Halo.

It is always difficult for any company to sift the wheat from the chaff in online feedback, game companies are worse as they tend to get groups of people with more time to whine online then commodities like refrigerators. In my experience in the automotive world you try to determine if a comment is legitimate, then balance out the feedback with your other quality and performance indicators. It is a delicate balance game and it's easy to get it wrong.

You also need a strong idea of the goal of the program, a strong vision of the theme and feel. I don't think there is a strong vision at Bungie, just because we don't see champions pushing their vision much. At the same time it seems to me that online games in general are living and dying by online "thought leaders" who are different from the general playing community.

It is good to design your game for the top 1% of players? Can you do so while keeping players who don't have the time to invest? Is time the best metric? I will admit not knowing the answer to these questions. All I can say is what works best for me personally. I will give this feedback repeatedly in the hope that the game succeeds and is the most fun for me, and hopefully everyone else. It is not meant in hate, but in good faith.