Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts
|
|
|
||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Frequently Asked Forum Questions | |
|||
|
||||
|
|
|||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| Search Older Posts on This Forum: Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. *SP* | |
| Posted By: Sep7imus [subnova] <Sep7imus@subnova.com> | Date: 12/10/04 8:06 a.m. |
|
I've been thinking about why Halo 2 has not been better received in this community (HBO and Halo fans in general). While it does have some deficiencies and it is not the same as Halo (which means that, inevitably, some people are going to think that it's worse), it strikes me as a very good game. So, whence the vitriol? Obviously, there was a lot of hype around Halo 2. That doesn't seem to me to be a bad thing. It was supposed to be a big game, the sequel to the most popular games on the XBox. It makes sense that Microsoft would advertise it like crazy. Now, the FORM of the advertising - "Earth will never be the same." - THAT strikes me as a bit misleading, since, as many people have said, it suggests that there's gonna be a lot of stuff involving, well, Earth in the game. So, why DIDN'T the advertising focus on something else (Another Halo! Play as an Elite! The Covenant Home City!)? Obviously, Bungie/MS/the-PR-people-at-one-or-both were trying to avoid giving away too much. They wanted stuff to remain secret, to keep people surprised by the game. It seems to me that the philosophy was "don't give away anything beyond the first couple of levels." That resulted in the focus on Earth and the secrecy about the Arbiter et al. So, was that a good idea? I think it was not. While there are certain things that SHOULD be kept secret (plot twists like Audrey, even the existence of High Charity), other things should not be. For instance, I was recently asked by someone how we would have reacted if we had been told a year ago that we would be playing as an Elite. I think that we would have been excited by the prospect. We would have been praising Bungie for being brave enough to show the other side of the conflict and for making such a complex game. We would have been looking forward to it. Instead, it was supposed to be a surprise. Why? It's not a plot twist, really. It's more of a feature. It might have been surprising for some when they played the game, but not as an unexpected twist in the story. Mostly I think people found it surprising in a jarring way, an unexpected twist in how the story is told. Imagine, on the other hand, how you would have felt if you had known that eventually you would get to play as an Elite. You would have been looking forward to it. You would have been so excited when you were dropped onto that research facility on the gas giant to go into battle alongside Elites and Grunts. In fairness to Bungie, we had heard a while ago that we wouldn't just be on Earth (the gas giant atmosphere was discussed quite a while ago). But the relentless focus on saving Earth (which I think was a result of the secrecy about any but the first few levels) definitely gave some people the wrong idea. And the secrecy surrounding the Arbiter made it an uncomofortable, unexpected change instead of a long-awaited feature. Thoughts? -Sep7imus | |
|
| Replies: |
| The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. *SP* | Sep7imus [subnova] | 12/10/04 8:06 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Vorpal Sword | 12/10/04 8:36 a.m. |
| Hmm... | Ducain | 12/10/04 8:54 a.m. |
| Agreed *NM* | Andrew Nagy | 12/10/04 9:42 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Warbow | 12/10/04 9:00 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Captain Spark | 12/10/04 9:08 a.m. |
| I agree *long* | Epyon | 12/10/04 9:11 a.m. |
| Re: I agree *long* | Zaknafein | 12/10/04 11:57 a.m. |
| Re: I agree *long* | Sep7imus [subnova] | 12/10/04 12:22 p.m. |
| Re: I agree *long* | Hikaru-119 | 12/10/04 12:16 p.m. |
| Re: I agree *long* | Epyon | 12/10/04 2:49 p.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Ma1agate | 12/10/04 9:27 a.m. |
| Secrecy=good, Hype=bad | Scanner Darkly | 12/10/04 9:32 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Ross Mills [subnova] | 12/10/04 9:37 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | madcowjim | 12/10/04 9:50 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Lakhesis | 12/10/04 1:40 p.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Sep7imus [subnova] | 12/10/04 1:54 p.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Lakhesis | 12/10/04 3:35 p.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Clefton Twain | 12/10/04 11:07 a.m. |
| Re: The hype didn't hurt Halo 2. The secrecy did. | Eric | 12/10/04 3:51 p.m. |
The HBO Forum Archive is maintained with WebBBS 4.33. |