Players and Game companies look at games very differently. Many of you look at it from a Player's point of view but you need to look at it from a companies PoV and take everything into context. Why has Halo become the Halo it is now, what has led to the decisions made here? What really needs to be addressed with Halo? I think it ultimately comes down to the head people in control of the game making the decisions and why they're making the decisions they are. What is their primary focus? Notice all the changes they are making are very small, maps were rushed out, and everything they have done has not cost much money. They piled on the commendations with insane size goals to complete those commendations and they are one of the things 343 relied on to keep players playing the game longer. Does 343 have Atlas? How much have they really listened to their fans on forge? Are they willing to take risks to make Halo better or is their primary concern budget? Halo is not the same anymore b/c it has been replaced with a different 'engine.' The people behind it are not the same driving force as before.
Fenix, I think most people on this forum have considered the point and questions in your first paragraph, seeing as how they're pretty straightforward. There should really be no difference between what the developers want to implement and what the "players" in general theoretically want; I think that the problem is that there is no actual concensus amongst all players, but players who are new to Halo generally like the game that they started with (makes sense), and players who don't play very much don't see how nuances (to them, but fundamental things to others) of the game can be changed for the worse with AAs as they have them, perks, bloom, and lesser things. What do you mean by "small changes"? Post-release changes, like the weapon adjustments and Forge Island? I think that the most expensive thing for them post-release was Spartan Ops, but it's really just speculation on my part. I don't think that a significant number of people would play a Halo when they have reasons not to because unfinished commendations tipped the scales. Commendations would be a feather. It's fun while it's there, though. Besides, the major sources of money from a player after they buy the game are map packs. If they don't buy those, 343 shoudn't care how long they play it (I googled terms to find if 343 gets any money from Live subscriptions, but it seems that it all goes to Microsoft- I couldn't find a definitive answer in a few minutes.)
To both of you above, I'm fairly certain 343i did what they did for 1 reason. Money. Who is the biggest crowd in the gaming industry (for console gaming.)? The CoD crowd. It's not surprising that 343i would try and get those players into their game. They want to make the most money they can, the quickest way they can. The problem with what they've done, is that they through out the old players in the process. The CoD crowd won't stay with Halo once the next CoD released. So while the CoD players left, the classic Halo players left as well, because there was nothing for them to play. So because 343i tried to go for the largest profit margine, by forgetting about their own players they essentially shot themselves in the foot. There was also an article released recently which I'm sure most of you saw, about how 343i hired people who (in their words) hated Halo. So, people who thought "Meh, Halo is pretty bland, I think it's missing 'x' and would be better with 'y' input." So essentially, the people adding things to the game weren't fans of the game. So we had a bunch of people adding elements to the game to make it feel more like a game they made in the past, and not trying to make a game feel like Halo. I have no idea what 343i's idea behind this was (beside obviously trying to appeal to larger crowds) but it's fairly clear that it did not work in their favour. By hiring a bunch of people who didn't like Halo for what it was, we ended up with them trying to change Halo into something THEY wanted it to be, not something the FANS wanted it to be. How Frank O'Conner, who was community manager for Halo 2 thought this would be an OK thing to do is beyond me, but apparently he did.
No, they didn't. Some have no clue what so ever. Spartan Ops was planned before release and doesn't even count, lol. Forge Island probably took a whole 3 days to make and would cost a whole couple people to design, build, and code(not expensive). Why do you think they didn't charge for it. 3 flat boring islands pretty much copied and pasted, even in the background with a very poor landscape and sky box. Glitches inside island, water you can only go a inch under without dieing... need I say more? I could do a lot better than that. Forge World shows effort, Forge Island shows a quick-fix.
By that logic I guess Bungie did the same thing with Cold Storage, right? SMH. I doubt it. Nerf the DMR, 343. The range is too damn long. Also, get rid of insta-respawn. It's poo.
Been playing Reach tonight. Damn. I thought i hated the transition to that game, loving it now. Sigh. The hitbox just feels like it's in place in that game. Headshot honcho compared to my Halo 4 game as of late.