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| My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh Dukez | |
| Posted By: Ducain <ducain@gmail.com> | Date: 3/25/06 8:29 p.m. |
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I'm writing this first sentence last, because I want to tell you that: 1. This is freaking long, so read at your own risk.
That being said, please take a large grain of salt, swallow it now, and then proceed. ******************************************** It's now what, 1 year and nearly 5 months since the release of Halo 2? I haven't been around the community long enough to know how things turned out after the release of Halo 1, but I can say for sure that we've passed mid-life for this game, and we're well on our way 'over the hill'. In every piece of the online community, which I daresay comprises the bulk of the die-hard Halo fans, interest is waning, except in places where the focus is Halo 2's online XBL component. I probably think too much about things like this, but hey, that's me. Recently, I've been wondering about the lifespan of games, what draws people back, and though I know that smarter brains than mine struggle with things like this every day, especially people in the game industry where longevity means income, I have a couple of thoughts. Online co-op and big speedbumps... Many of you may completely disagree, but I believe that other than the XBL segment of Halo 2, the game is now nothing more than a speedbump on the gaming highway. Amazing and stunning as the online game is, I'm still thinking that somehow the campaign got the short end of the stick during development time, and now it's showing. Say what you want, the true test of the quality of the campaign game is the replay value. When all is said and done, how many people are popping that game disk in and playing the story time and time again? With Halo 1, it just seemed different to me, though some of the old-timers may (and probably will) say that I'm just not seeing it. Maybe the interest in Halo 1's campaign game was about the same 1.5 years into it as it is now with Halo 2. Maybe, but I don't think so. If anyone would be playing the campaign game over and over, it would probably be the guys over at my little shop of horrors, but I can tell you that even there, the interest (at least in the campaign) has come down to a slow simmer. Perhaps Halo 2 was meant to be basically an online shoot-em-up, and (if you are even willing to believe that's the case) I guess that what gets me is that guys like me weren't wanting the game for that at all. I can remember talking with a few people many moons ago during the dark ages of pre-Halo 2 release, and being so jazzed because we thought Halo 2 would include an online XBL co-op. NOTICE: I'm FULLY aware that Bungie never promised it, and that no one lied or otherwise contractually let us down. We're cool, right? That being said, the lack of this one feature has single handedly cut short the life of the campaign game so far as replayability goes, and it saddens me, at least as much as anything relating to a video game can. I can envision loads of people getting together online to runthrough the maps, do speedruns, cool cooperative stunts, or just plain gameplay fun. Back before Halo 2, for many months, my brother and I would get together every Thursday evening and play through Halo 1 campaign on co-op for 3 or 4 hours. I don't know how many times we played that game through on legendary, but MAN it was a bunch, and you know what? It was fun. I can't tell you how much I looked forward to Halo 2 for no other reason than being able to get together with people I know online and have the same sort of fun that my brother and I had with Halo 1. As it is now, unless you like all MP all the time, you're sorta out of luck. I know I speak for many people (by no means the majority I realize) when I say that the MP component was not our main concern. We wanted more of Halo. Sure the LAN parties are great, and MP is certainly a blast, but what brought many of us here at HBO back to the game over and over and (etc) was the fantastic campaign, and the great story behind it. When I first started visiting here, I saw thread after thread discussing the story, the campaign game, and various other things relating to it. Because of the game turned out, we have a whole legion of new 'fans' that have but one contribution to the community: BOOM. head...shot. What I mean is that many of the active online fans are here for XBL, and probably not much else. As for me, I'd love to be able to fire up XBL, call up one of you guys and run through a few maps on co-op. To me that is infinitely more fun that online competition. Maybe I'm just a lone soldier here. I just know that with my limited business sense, I can see a HUGE opportunity missed, because LONG after the shrill cursing headshot boys have gone, guys like me would still be logging on time after time to play co-op. I guess I should be thankful that the feature was left out, because I'd be spending MUCH more time online that I do now. I'm not sure how or when to wrap this up, so I guess that a pretty good indication that I should shaddap. I guess I've just had this stirring about for some time, and felt like sharing it. Let me wind up with this: PERSONAL NOTE TO BUNGIE: I hope that whatever is coming up, that you guys are allowed to truly take your time and hit it out of the park. Forgive me if you guys think that Halo 2 was a complete masterpiece and you think I'm just criticizing. I hope you can see that I'm not. You guys sucked us in. You created a game and a story that we love. All I want is for you to keep going, and to make the next installment a game that we'll be playing and talking about years after its release. Believe it or not, I STILL play the Halo 1 campaign game on a fairly regular basis. If online co-op were available for Halo 1 tomorrow, I'd be all over it - no kidding at all. I just hope you guys will stop to see just how much the fans would completely LOVE that feature, and I truly hope it doesn't hit the cutting room floor this time around. **************************** Sorry for the novel guys, but I don't do this that often. Now, go get a cup of coffee (or other soothing substance) and thank the Lords of Cobol that you're doing what you're doing instead of wasting away your life playing Halo 2 campaign with the Duke day after day. Cheers. JH
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| Replies: |
| My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh Dukez | Ducain | 3/25/06 8:29 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | eiii | 3/25/06 8:35 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Urban Reflex | 3/25/06 10:00 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Funkmon | 3/25/06 10:12 p.m. |
| Nostalgia. | Ryan Broxterman | 3/26/06 9:03 a.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Ducain | 3/26/06 9:06 a.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Ryan Broxterman | 3/26/06 9:12 a.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Ducain | 3/26/06 11:38 a.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Louis Wu | 3/26/06 12:03 p.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Ducain | 3/26/06 12:44 p.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Cody Miller | 3/26/06 9:48 a.m. |
| Re: Nostalgia. | Narcogen | 3/26/06 9:03 p.m. |
| interesting read. nice job! *NM* | Zattack89 | 3/25/06 8:55 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Dojorkan | 3/25/06 9:33 p.m. |
| You bring up some good points, but... | Funkmon | 3/25/06 9:54 p.m. |
| Re: You bring up some good points, but... | Ducain | 3/25/06 10:03 p.m. |
| Re: You bring up some good points, but... | Cody Miller | 3/26/06 12:27 a.m. |
| Re: You bring up some good points, but... | Funkmon | 3/26/06 1:10 a.m. |
| Re: You bring up some good points, but... | Narcogen | 3/26/06 9:08 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Urban Reflex | 3/25/06 9:55 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Peptuck | 3/25/06 10:02 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Echoes | 3/25/06 10:07 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Peptuck | 3/25/06 10:22 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Echoes | 3/25/06 10:05 p.m. |
| I agree on all but one point... | DanteThePoet | 3/25/06 10:25 p.m. |
| Not campaign's fault.... | Max Power (aka- dewbe) | 3/25/06 10:35 p.m. |
| Re: Not campaign's fault.... | Slimby | 3/26/06 2:40 a.m. |
| Couldn't agree more! | skavenger_s7 | 3/26/06 7:48 a.m. |
| Re: Not campaign's fault.... | Ryan Broxterman | 3/26/06 9:09 a.m. |
| ? | skavenger_s7 | 3/26/06 9:35 a.m. |
| Re: ? | SumSophisticatedName | 3/26/06 10:25 a.m. |
| Horse armed. Horse planted. | Peptuck | 3/26/06 10:38 a.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Michael M. | 3/25/06 11:18 p.m. |
| Bam- Headshot | Cody Miller | 3/26/06 12:24 a.m. |
| Re: Bam- Headshot | Funkmon | 3/26/06 1:34 a.m. |
| Re: Bam- Headshot | BOLL | 3/26/06 12:24 p.m. |
| I will say this: | Anton P. Nym (aka Steve) | 3/26/06 6:28 a.m. |
| I've been thinking about online co-op lately too.. | [AMS] GreyThor | 3/26/06 10:35 a.m. |
| Few things that would keep me playing.. | c0ld vengeance | 3/26/06 10:57 a.m. |
| Re: Few things that would keep me playing.. | DanteThePoet | 3/26/06 1:11 p.m. |
| Re: Few things that would keep me playing.. | LostRock11 | 3/26/06 1:14 p.m. |
| Melee wars! | c0ld vengeance | 3/26/06 3:10 p.m. |
| Ditto | Funkmon | 3/26/06 9:06 p.m. |
| Re: Few things that would keep me playing.. | gspawn | 3/26/06 2:13 p.m. |
| Re: Aww, u b ma lub! | BOLL | 3/26/06 11:17 a.m. |
| Agreement | KORHAL | 3/26/06 2:39 p.m. |
| Re: Agreement | Louis Wu | 3/26/06 3:57 p.m. |
| Re: Agreement | Count Zero | 3/26/06 4:37 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | The Bandit | 3/26/06 11:20 a.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | synide | 3/26/06 4:40 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | tarehart | 3/26/06 8:38 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | scarab | 3/27/06 7:18 a.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | scarab | 3/27/06 7:30 a.m. |
| I have my doubts | scarab | 3/27/06 7:58 a.m. |
| For the record | LostRock11 | 3/26/06 11:56 a.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Red_Breast | 3/26/06 12:38 p.m. |
| From Abstinence to Absolute Fun | Art_Vandelay | 3/26/06 1:17 p.m. |
| Re: From Abstinence to Absolute Fun | Funkmon | 3/26/06 9:19 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | Dark Helmet | 3/26/06 2:11 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D *NM* | Flawless Hobo | 3/26/06 3:09 p.m. |
| Its not about Online Co-Op | Flawless Hobo | 3/26/06 3:26 p.m. |
| Re: Its not about Online Co-Op | [AMS] GreyThor | 3/26/06 3:33 p.m. |
| Re: Its not about Online Co-Op | SPARTAN-Lord Cloud | 3/26/06 3:36 p.m. |
| Re: Its not about Online Co-Op | Peptuck | 3/26/06 5:29 p.m. |
| Re: Its not about Online Co-Op | Funkmon | 3/26/06 9:24 p.m. |
| Re: Its not about Online Co-Op | Peptuck | 3/26/06 11:09 p.m. |
| ... | Capo Rip | 3/26/06 9:59 p.m. |
| Re: ... | Peptuck | 3/26/06 11:07 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | akhiler | 3/26/06 3:39 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | ubersaurus | 3/26/06 4:21 p.m. |
| Why multiplayer? | spaartan117 | 3/26/06 6:40 p.m. |
| Re: Why multiplayer? | Funkmon | 3/26/06 9:28 p.m. |
| Re: My semi-annual novel...replayability and teh D | controlled chaos | 3/26/06 6:43 p.m. |
| Thanks Ducain! | DavidLG1971 | 3/26/06 8:20 p.m. |
| ...wow. | Octoplasm | 3/26/06 11:30 p.m. |
| Re: ...wow. *NM* | Takoda Register | 3/28/06 3:13 p.m. |
| help me | Takoda Register | 3/28/06 3:13 p.m. |
| Re: ...wow. | DavidLG1971 | 3/30/06 2:32 a.m. |
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