I only missed the past 6 hours, I feel bad for anyone that misses an entire day of posts. Anywho...
-Someone called out 343 saying that they need to get their act together. I agree. Either there was no marketing team, or they were a bunch of recruits from Microsoft. We had a teaser trailer for 3 months, then a concept art trailer, then nothing for 5 months. Our first gameplay came from an off-screen VHS recorded tape in a barn. Not official channels. The amount of off-screen materials presented throughout was larger than the on-screen materials. Guess where the news was posted? Here. Not Waypoint, their official website. And look what happened because of it: people joined NeoGAF for the sole reason that Frank and Ellis posted here. Do I want them to stop posting here? No, they're nice peeps. I just want them to utilize their own site effectively.
Going back to 343's decisions though, and I mean little to no offense to Jessica, but the weeks that she was gone were some of the better updates. Maybe Frank has a natural talent for bullshitting, or maybe I'm just not a fan of her writing style, but Frank wrote better updates even though there was less actual content in them. Also, when I go to Halo Waypoint, I wanted to look at the most recent Halo 4 news, not Reach Ship themed Forges. What is actual headlines and isn't was awful. We could also look at how they handled pre-order DLC. That was a nightmare if I've ever seen one. There was no official release as to what helmets came with the LE until 3 weeks before launch, at which point LEs were already sold out.
We can look at features that were cut or changed, but in the end we area still asking why. Why was campaign theatre cut? Why is CSR delayed until next year? Why were the familiar enemies redesigned graphically? Why is there no Classic FFA? Why the decision to add perks? Why keep camo as an AA instead of a powerup like Overshield or Speed Boost? Why remove the powerup orbs? Why were button bindings for the sticks overlooked by CA? Why are the books essential reading if you want to understand the basic game story? People are forced to speculate on all of these. The transparency that 343 has doesn't convey confidence or intelligence. It's the opposite.
-Someone said that you can design downwards in a competitive-casual cycle, but not upwards. This is partially true. You can casualize far more than you can compete. But you cannot go in either direction infinitely. A core competitive game can only be casualized so far. That's why my own design philosophy is to design for 2 extremes and give the options to land anywhere in the middle.
-Lastly, I read Havok's latest post about encounters in SpOps. I agree 100%. Enemy introduction has been a clear misstep that 343 made.
