: I've seen a lot of 343i's writing (Nightfall, Escalation, Spartan Ops and the
: Kilo 5 Trilogy's treatment of Halsey) excused with a simple "They're
: just setting the groundwork for awesome stories later." And it
: doesn't work. If you're setting up a story, the setup and foreshadowing
: has to be interesting and fun to read. For a good illustration of how to
: do this, look up Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. Even if it's a cliche
: storm with tons of foreshadowing and Chekov's guns, the execution is
: anything but formulaic.

: Looking at Nightfall, we've been given no reason to believe that the writers
: are doing anything but recycling cliches from monster movies. There's been
: no attempt to make any of the characters likeable, the Hunter worms are
: risible (Look, when I said this , I was joking.) and the technobabble
: is... just...

See, much of what you said is almost entirely subjective. By your experience, it may all be true. By others', especially younger peoples' experience, it's all completely brand new and exciting. By others' like you with different standards, it may all be just acceptable. So, there's no *objective* way to blame 343 for "quality of writing". But one could look at statistics and compare the results of their product to their intentions and goals and targets... were they successful? Only for those for whom they were successful (whether themselves or a segment of the community) :P The hard part is being on the side for which they are not successful. Because it's like losing a love...

So, personally, I'm not fanatically praising it, but I'm not ripping it apart either. I'm enjoying it with hope for the future. If they fail me, then they fail me. Could it be worse? Sure. Could it be better? Yep. But for now, I'm content and patiently hopeful. ;)