I somehow doubt they'd both drop hints about that, neither are involved in that, especially since both are cryptic and that is already well known. If anyone was gonna tweet about playlists it'd be Bravo. Plus Sundance says he talked to Virgin Gaming, which was specifically stated as one of the obstacles to having Halo 4 on the circuit. It's definitely MLG related if you ask me.
https://twitter.com/MLGSundance/status/301498193617764352 https://twitter.com/GH057ayame/status/301510559570984960 I think they've burned too many bridges with the Halo community for anything to come out of it, most of us moved to THC/AGL now. MLG probably realized that without the Halo kids, they don't really have a community anymore.
Lol, don't pretend people won't come back if they actually get it on the circuit. I agree there's bad blood, but let's be honest: they're big enough that people will come back. Enough pros will come back, and that will bring viewers. Don't get me wrong, they've done themselves no favours if so (not so much in what's happened, I know it wasn't totally their choice, but Sundance hasn't really handled this perfectly...), but if MLG builds it, they will come.
I'm not so sure, the AGL already has a fanbase and THC has the community for it, and people know they aren't going to cater to the masses. I'm not saying people wouldn't go to tournaments, but the actual community there is done, I think.
Agreed. Nothing like dropping Halo to get the Halo players to feel alienated. @Pegasi I meant that their hints were a result of the developments. Whoops.
I don't really follow MLG but why can't they just keep an older Halo game in the circuit? I mean MLG got its popularity from I think Halo 2?
Well for one they need a deal with the publisher, and I don't think MS (or 343, or Bungie when it was their deal) would be keen to do such a deal based on a basically obsolete title. Aside from that, it just wouldn't be feasible. It'd only serve to placate the relatively tiny proportion of the community who still actually want to see Halo 2 on the circuit. Sure Halo 2 and 3 were the games that saw the height of the popularity, but that was when they were the current games. They wouldn't attract anywhere near the necessary numbers right now, since the vast majority don't want to play old games. MLG need access to the strong majority of the Halo community, and they move to the newest game without exception. Hell, Halo 2 isn't even online anymore so it'd be a logistical nightmare. Relying solely on LAN and XBC again? No chance. Halo 3 is the only option since Reach was so unpopular, and the population is pitiful. In short, it wouldn't work. There just isn't the demand for it, despite how vocal the minority that call for it are.
Why would it be a popularity thing. I understand licensing agreements between the companies involved, but we're talking about competitive gaming. Hell, people still play the original Counter Strike and they have competitions in Quake Arena so why does it matter if its the latest game or not? As for as the logistics of using Halo 2, since MLG events are usually held in one location...why wouldn't lan work?
PC gaming is a very different world as far as eSports in concerned. The most fundamental difference when it comes to games like CS, Quake and Starcraft is that the competitive and game and the vanilla game aren't anything like as distinct as with Halo. This goes for both the developer's attitude to game balance etc. and what the community actually does with the game. This division, particularly the resulting minority/majority situation, is MLG Halo's single biggest problem by a huge amount. The vast majority of the Halo community don't really care about MLG as it is, and they definitely won't start caring if the game played at events is 3 titles old. This pretty much rules out growth which MLG Halo needs, especially after a slump in the last couple of years. In fact it ensures a massive decrease even within the existing competitive community, because most of them aren't going to give up LIVE entirely nor abandon the current title. You'd definitely get some presence at events, but it would be relatively tiny, and the standard of play would drop massively. These majorities (both overall, and that within the competitive community) definitely aren't going to move back a whole console. Even though the classic eSports titles are sometimes much older than Halo 2, they don't run in to this same barrier, and they also don't have constant new titles to contend with. Because the practice element is utterly crippled by it, and the entire XBL ecosystem is removed from the game. That's a huge factor in MLG. Popularity shot up with Halo 2 because XBL changed the way the game was played by releasing actual, competitive team play from confines of LANs and making it part of the basic game experience. That is fundamental to PC eSports and has become fundamental to competitive Halo as well.