Smiled at the sight of Mig. (Gaming)

by Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316) , Detroit, Tuesday, October 25, 2022, 04:54 (760 days ago) @ Kermit

Dude, I've got to cut this down a bit, it's just too big a wall.

One thing kind of left out is how entitled and cynical the gaming community has become.

Fed up with corporate greed infesting everything and having a negative effect. Things like microtransactions, battle passes, the entire F2P model, Loot Boxes, etc were all the result of publishers trying to get as much money as possible, and the games have suffered for it. Video games are uniquely vulnerable to these kinds of predatory monetization schemes.

There was always bitching and moaning.

Nothing like this. Because the games were still good. They had problems, but they were fun. If you had watched the "kvetching" section of the video, you would have seen where they were called out for charging $20 for a helmet from Reach. Or $7 dollars just to make your armor red.

Honestly, it's become harder to just love something. In other words, it's harder to just be a fan.

Absolutely, but blaming other fans for not bending over and taking it isn't good for anyone. And while the publishers are certainly to blame for anything related to monetization, it's 343's fault that the story and gameplay are bad (at least the art is good now, that's something I guess).

Bungie made it easy by delivering great games. They weren't perfect [snip] the criticism more or less died without oxygen.

Yes, the games WERE great. That's why all the criticisms were drowned out by overwhelming positivity.

Bungie innovated like hell at a time when there was much room for it. The Beatles could not have been the Beatles if they did not exist in their time and place. Same with Halo. And it's not like Halo was getting bigger. The business was changing, and the last few Bungie Halo games did not meet expectations--there was a drop off.

What? Halo was getting bigger every release, in spite of increased competition, until the formula changed. We will never know how successful a true Halo would be these days, because they absolutely refuse to make one.

Let me take this analogy further. Halo-era Bungie had something akin to the Beatles in attitude. Bungie didn't exist in response to the fans, but for themselves and what they liked and what they wanted to make.

But you're missing a key element. There was little publisher interference. Outside of the launch day, Microsoft wasn't dictating the design of the games to Bungie. Nowadays, that's different.

There's nothing wrong with hiring fans...

That wasn't the problem, the problem was "We hired people who hated Halo".

I've changed. I can't invest like I used to, but I will play co-op with my long-time co-op buddy Ozy, when I can.

Sure, as long as weren't planning on playing splitscreen...