: I just think it's easier for people to be critical (constructively or not)
: than praising. And it's easier for critical comments to be actionable than
: for praise - the former provides specifics, but the latter definitely
: encourages continued action and improvements. :)
: But anyway...

It's definitely easier to be critical in a negative way, especially when the thing that you're being critical about is filled with many, many problems. The community nights have pointed interesting things out to me. For example, I'm baffled at how I can play H3 and find games faster than I can in H4 when H4 has a much larger population. It's obnoxious. They couldn't and still can't even get the basics right. Also, try backing out of matchmaking back to a lobby with your friends and watch the UI freak out for decades before it lets you start a new game or pick a new playlist. Try holding the Back button while moving in-game.

Why is it easier to be negatively critical? Because sometimes the negatives are so glaringly in your face on the most basic of levels that it shrouds the good in a mist of failure. H4's mechanics are solid. That's a huge positive. How about getting me into a game some time this decade so I can enjoy those mechanics? These are some of many, many, many examples of how negatives can outweigh positives.

And then there's 343's approach to fixing the negatives. Weapon tuning is my prime example. They seemed to have hit a sweet spot with their mechanics and the correlation to positive feedback. The core mechanics were basically called solid by everywhere and everyone (having read GAF, HBO, and their own forums at Waypoint), give or take a Boltshot and a really overpowered DMR/underpowered Carbine.

So what was their solution? Tweak everything, make automatic weapons way totally overpowered, and completely unbalance the long range weapons even further. It's obnoxious. One, maybe two guns needed tweaking after the Boltshot, but instead of taking the micro approach, they took the macro and changed it all up. Design philosophy bordering on the clueless. So even positive feedback with only one or two actionable items got turned into a "core mechanics except for this and that, huh? Trash it all and change it up. Start over." What?

: Counting down until Halo 5. In spirit at least. Until there's an actual Zero
: time. :P

I'm counting down for amusement purposes.