When 343 took over, there was, I think, a very conscious effort on their part to communicate in the developer-community bonhomie style which Bungie had become cherished by so many for. The "We're just getting started <3" and "Thanks for playing our game, you're
awesome" platitudes are pure Bungie echolalia and an attempt at personable warmth at a sprawling mass market. All fine when the transition was occurring and people didn't know what to expect. Now it seems as though they forward face the community with a forced smile while an MS exec presses a tazer to the back of their neck. The game has changed and I don't think 343 can pull off the matey Bungie atmosphere when it's so nakedly corporate on so many issues.
Why is updating playlists a zero-sum game? If they update Halo 3 they can't do 4? Halo 4's playlists have probably seen more updates in eleven months than Halo 3 did in three years. To be candid, Halo 4 is a rapidly sinking ship in terms of the total amount of folks remaining compared to how many purchased it; Halo 3 is going to shoot into the top ten of the xbl charts by virtue of being a free game. Now would be the time to let a single Halo 4 playlist update slide in favour of updating an admittedly old Halo game, but one which will bring fresh exposure to the franchise as a whole. It should be seen as an opportunity to secure new business for the future. You think kids won't put up with no sprint in your focus tests? Wait until they're playing Team Rockets on a map as vast as Valhalla, getting a kill every three minutes or spawning with a weapon that has an effective range of 10 feet on Last Resort. Or playing Duels. That shit should've been tidied up to have given a better representation of the Halo brand to newcomers.
A Halo 3/Reach update wouldn't have even occurred to people had Frankie not promised them, which is fine, Frankie's heart was no doubt in the right place when he said that. But it has made people consider the fact that 343 was created to serve a single franchise. A whole studio with a singular focus. It just would've been really nice if they could have done these updates despite the fact they aren't of immediate capital profit. It's those sorts of gestures that really show a community love and justify the <3's.
But the rules have changed. Frankie said that he's "Old and farty and remember
how excited and optimistic folks used to be about this hobby" (http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=45592516&postcount=8852). Well, equally, Halo fans are old and farty and remember when a player didn't have an advantage over another just because they paid more money to your studio at launch. They are old and farty and remember when legacy features of the game like campaign theatre and firefight weren't just hacked off like a dead limb in favour of, respectively, nothing at all and a mode which one had to be a member of MS's premium subscription service to even access. They remember when they could customise whether they could sprint in the game or not. Most importantly, they remember when this hobby was this hobby: Halo. Not a template upon which to layer current market trending gameplay tropes in a broad swipe at an even bigger pie than the one you've already got. Don't misunderstand; I remember when Turok 64 was 70 quid in Toys R Us and offered a piffling amount of content in comparison to most games now which retail for less. I know production costs are higher now than they've ever been. In many ways, all the pre-release and pre-order DLC shit for Halo 4 was justifiable. But when it starts to affect the base game; when rocket launchers fall at your feet out of luck; when you can stare through walls; when you put our super soldier in a wheelchair because accessibility means easier, easier means more people can play it and when more people can play it, more people give you money, you sacrifice what made the game so special in the first place. Halogaf may have become more sneering and suspicious but it's a mirror reflection of an industry turned cynical staring right back at them.