- BosssVos
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- Exalted Heroic Member
I have been thinking of this since watching Bungie's most recent ViDoc. HERE.
We are all die hard Halo fans here. But....are we really Halo fans or are we Bungie fans?
I think we are more Bungie fans than Halo and here is why.
Bungie started something that game makers have yet to fully replicate.
- Easy party play with friends.
Some will counter that it's the competitive balance that brings back the halo fans but I would counter that the truly self anointed competitive players are really a very small vocal minority compared to the majority of players that are playing Halo daily. This is evident when you look at player that are good here that basically just clean house every game in matchmaking 9 out of 10 games.
I don't want to stray too far from the point though.
Party play was mastered by Bungie in Halo 2 and has still not been fully replicated. CoD has tried but fails with people being able to jump in games mid way through or you searching with your party only to be matched in a game that is midway through where your down big numbers. I'm not bashing on CoD as I believe it is a fantastic series and has an equal but far less cohesive community as Halo.
Halo's community is only what it is because of what Bungie has made. Can anyone say "Stats"?
My next point is how Bungie uses their website to showcase stats and promote community discussions. They are the first and still only game maker to make all of your online stats not only available on their website but they went out of their way to also make the stats available via the API for developers such as Firestream at HaloCharts.com, who want to take those stats and do even more with them.
My last point: I challenge anyone to point me toward a console game developer that provides even half as much support AFTER launch for as long as Bungie does?
It is unheard of in the console game industry to do what Bungie has done. Halo 2 and 3 both had 3 year life spans. That is 2 more years than any of the 6 CoDs that came out during that same time period.
Bungie is constantly tweaking maps, matchmaking playlist etc.
Lets not even get into discussing the forge because that just isn't fair to the rest of the industry.
So....having said all that, I'm going to have to really hate their next project to not make it my game of choice. Yes, we will all buy Halo 4 because we are just going to do it. Microsoft has been given control of a championship team so they will win with our favor in the short term. But the better question is...will you buy Halo 5? Will Halo 4 give you what Bungie has given us in the past.
I don't know about you, but I like teams that have the right people in place to succeed. A good front office is what puts champions on the floor. Bungie has that so I am sure their next venture will be something epic.
[Edited on 08.08.2011 1:48 PM PDT]