I feel like, in most every regard, when I speak of halo 5 I am quoting its 'potential'. I've never spoken of any previous halo title in this manner. Its beginning to become discouraging. Why not ship the full, expected game on release? I'm exhausted of strongholds, ctf, and slayer - I know the "gametype gripe" has been echoing among almost all social chasms for quite some time now but, for real, this game-play is getting flat fast. We have been told that more gametypes, more forge objects/FX/scripting functions, more maps, and more fundamental aspects of what makes this Halo - Halo... is still yet to come. They are working and will "soon" release more additional content that will add-to or complete the Halo 5 experience. So I asked myself, attempting to be open-minded and realistic, from a developer standpoint - what would nurture, or be the cause of, the model to progressively release content and features that we previously expected to be fundamental aspects of Halo? I see two answers. A) Funding vs Deadline Expectations 343 could be under pressure from Microsoft to have published by a deadline. 343 could be under a funding cap that limits their ability to pay the necessary staff or buy necessary hardware to fully develop the title before said deadline. B) Strategic Marketing in a "Incremental content releasing" type of method (that is a mouth full) 343 has an agenda for the experience players have of their flagship title. 343 will incrementally release content ranging from maps, gametypes, forge objects and features, and other fundamental functionality of Halo all on the agenda of prolonging the life of this title.(after all, unlike other flagship titles, Halo titles only release every few years rather than every year - so an attempt at this model would make sense to more guarantee their longevity until they can adequately create the next title) What do you think?
I think for the time being, we will be able to do a lot with scripting the current game types, but not enough. If we don't get more game types the forge means almost nothing, and the game will slowly die. The forge community needs mini games to take a break from the sweaty arena matches.
I feel like this is something that may have been a valid topic a couple months ago but it seems a bit . . . let's just say "unnecessary" now. As far as the term potential is concerned, as long as we are talking about something that can and will change than I love the term. How awesome is it that the game that we love is designed to support growth. Do I like that elements of the game were not there at launch, no. Would I have rather waited 3 months longer for a complete game, no. This was the best possible solution. That being said I really don't want to do this when Halo 6 comes out. If they support Forge well enough, maybe we won't need a Halo 6 Forge. I personally would like to see the new Forge carry forward across the next couple Halo titles, with any editor engine rewrites being done, as necessary, as part of the continued free support.