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Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*
By:Postmortem
Date: 5/17/13 12:55 pm
In Response To: Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy* (Leviathan)

I'm cool on all your other points (except I still don't think the Flood would be as scary without more buildup, and it may discourage players who think the game will be survival horror throughout), I trust your vision for its execution, rather than my interpretation of your descriptions. :P But I feel the need to stop and comment on your remark below.

: If you're playing Halo 5 for your first Halo game, then I don't pity you,
: hah. You don't read Return of the King before the first two! You don't see
: Return of the Jedi before the other two! That said, I don't think the
: Flood here would be that strong, just smart. They'd be less bullet sponges
: and more about surprising you with their movements. It wasn't meant to
: start the game out hard, just with a new enemy.

I agree. To get the full experience, the intended emotional journey, all the games need to be played in order. Hell, at this point if you want the full experience, you pretty much need to read the books as well. I'm the sort of person who goes out of my way to experience things as they were intended to be experience. Can't access Star Trek IV? Well I'm not going to jump ahead to Star Trek V, I'll wait to get my hands on all the films so I can watch them straight through (thanks Dave). I read all my books in order, and try to play all my games in order.
But that's the thing, with the format of our medium, sometimes it's ridiculously hard to go back and find an old game to play through unless it was one of the most popular ones of its time. Anniversary solved this issue for Halo players, but if you think about it, because you can't pick up Halo 2 just browsing through stores (you have to intentionally seek it out), Halo 2 at this point is probably the most underplayed Halo game. And what's going to happen when we jump to a new console, and we hit that point where 360 games stop being sold in stores?

My point is this: Yes, people should be playing through in order, as they should with all media. But it belies a misunderstanding of the medium to assume that games' formats are set up in a way that supports or encourages this. In order for a game to sell, and for a franchise to remain successful, it needs to live off of the sales of the latest game in its series. And if you're streamlining the experience with the intention of catering to old players, new players are going to play it, get frustrated, put the controller down, and go out and tell their friends not to buy it either.

Game marketing is tailored to sell the latest and greatest, and our understanding is that, yes we may be missing out on some story by skipping earlier installments, but we're also doing ourselves a favor by skipping over the games with less developed mechanics and diving right into the more polished experiences that have been tested from year to year. For people who only want gameplay (but maybe would really enjoy the story if they had started from the beginning), they'll only be set on the latest and greatest.

It's really easy to slip into the mindset of designing an experience that builds off of what came before... and stop focusing on everything else. But it's incredibly important to keep all of your audience in mind. All of the people that will be paying you for the game, so you can continue making them. You can't cater to a niche market for a full game, not without incredible risk. Now maybe Halo is a game that's worth taking that risk on... but I personally, as a fan of Halo, find it dismaying to think that someone who has never played Halo before may pick up this theoretical game for the first time, find it frustrating and hard to understand, stop playing, and never try Halo again in their lives. Think of what they'll be missing out on, and how catering to them just a little bit more would better open up the door to an exploration of past games.

Just something to keep in mind. :)

: Never played Dead Space or Starcraft, so I'm unaware of any similarities. I'm
: sure my own ideas with the Flood would make them unique enough, once we
: started to see more of their vehicle hybrids and the faction they evolve
: into later on.

You can't be sure yours would be unique if you're not aware of what you're getting closer/further away from.
You should at least play Starcraft II if you ever find the time for it. It stands really well on its own, it's ridiculously fun to play for an RTS, and I think you'd find yourself surprised by how interesting the fiction is. There's a lot, especially with the Zerg, that I think Halo creators need to be aware of.


Messages In This Thread

Shield and Sword: The GraveyardLeviathan5/15/13 9:11 pm
     This is how it should be.Nikko B2015/15/13 9:24 pm
           TrueZackDark5/15/13 9:43 pm
                 Very true.robofin1175/16/13 12:50 am
     Giggity *NM*ZackDark5/15/13 9:41 pm
     Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Postmortem5/16/13 10:23 pm
           ^Thumbs up, would read again. *NM*ZackDark5/16/13 11:35 pm
           Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*General Vagueness5/17/13 10:16 am
           Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Leviathan5/17/13 12:19 pm
                 Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Postmortem5/17/13 12:55 pm
                       Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Leviathan5/17/13 2:32 pm
                             Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*breitzen5/17/13 6:17 pm
                                   Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Postmortem5/17/13 6:29 pm
                                         Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Leviathan5/17/13 6:32 pm
                                         Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*breitzen5/17/13 7:34 pm
                             Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Mr Daax5/17/13 7:32 pm
                                   Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*Leviathan5/17/13 7:34 pm
                                   Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*breitzen5/17/13 7:40 pm
                             Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*General Vagueness5/18/13 11:54 pm
                       Re: Devil's advocate? I guess? *lengthy*General Vagueness5/18/13 11:28 pm
                 THIS partMacGyver105/17/13 1:37 pm
                       Re: THIS partTDSpiral5/17/13 9:54 pm
     Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardGeneral Vagueness5/16/13 10:25 pm
           Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardPostmortem5/16/13 10:34 pm
                 Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardGeneral Vagueness5/16/13 10:59 pm
                       Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardPostmortem5/16/13 11:17 pm
                             Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardGeneral Vagueness5/17/13 10:19 am
                                   Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardLeviathan5/17/13 11:32 am
           Re: Shield and Sword: The Graveyardscarab5/17/13 8:54 pm
     Re: Shield and Sword: The GraveyardGeneral Vagueness5/16/13 10:31 pm
           Nay!ZackDark5/16/13 11:39 pm

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