Yes, but RC master
mirrors my thoughts.
Although, I don't care about the white text, doesn't affect me.
Tuna noooooooo!
Eh, I can see what they're saying but I think secondary weapons and the white text fulfil largely different roles.
The secondary weapon icon does not really give the player
needed information besides simply having a secondary weapon. You cannot see the ammo for it so you'd have to switch to it to check but then you are simply clarifying what frankie had said. The players know they have a scondary and they know what it is or else they press Y to find out.
The white text is definitely a different beast and one that makes me believe is entirely 343's intention to draw attention to gameplay facets without
actually drawing attention away. In one of Bravo's latest videos he mentions how getting an assassination with the flag earns 3x as much as a normal kill. That +30 is going to be an incentive to someone in order to run the flag. For other objective modes where people feel as though they have no reason to carry the objective, I see the white text (much as I see the flagnum) as a way, not necessarily encourage players to go for the objective but rather, to benefit the players that do.
The white text is the reward that needs to be seen by players (even for a split second that they will barely notice). This isn't a new concept in Halo. In Reach, what happens when you kill someone while holding the oddball? You get that sick medal pop up. You just killed the flag carrier? Boom. Medal. They don't really encourage players to do those things because you won't know about it until you get it. Those things ust benefit the player's perception of fun. The game has seen you do this amazing feat and you feel great.
Do I think the white text + medal + steitzer combo is
too much feedback for these things? I kind of do but then again I'm willing to bet when I personally play the game, I'd just enjoy them. I am going to be studying the level of concentration gamers/non-gamers have in the coming few months and I might just run some tests on various UI elements in games. Initially, I believe the case to be that players will see the text but it won't be taking any cognitive effort to notice it. I think 343 aren't trying to flood the senses but instead they are just throwing out all this info so that at least one piece of that vital information goes to the player. I'm positive there are situations where you simply don't notice some waypoint has been on screen in some game. Sure, how often are you playng a flag game only to realise your flag has been stolen seemingly under your nose because you just completely missed it?
I dunno. I think there is a very clear difference between the roles of UI elements such as the weapons/grenades and the live gameplay feed, medals and white text. I can't really think of an important enough reason to keep the secondary weapon icons especially if they'd only confuse players because of the large overlaps in visual similarities. If they had an older sandbox, of course I think they could have kept it but even then, its purpose would not be really realised by players.
