Bungie to split from Microsoft

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Bungie to split from Microsoft

Postby Wynn on Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:44 am

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-05BungieEvolvesPR.mspx

Microsoft still owns the Halo franchise. Microsoft still owns a chunk of Bungie. Microsoft will still be the publisher for Bungie games. But now Bungie has a little more freedom to pursue whatever they wish, and possibly make more $.
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Postby Wynn on Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:45 am

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Postby Monster on Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:56 pm

Maybe the next Halo developer will give people what they want (a custom games browser) instead of shoving matchmaking down their throats. Can you believe that they actually admitted they didn't provide a custom browser so that people would be forced to play matchmaking?

First of all, there are usually around 500,000 people playing. Somehow other games have working online play without that many players, but I guess Bungie's broke ass matchup service can't work without half a million people playing (the CoD 4 beta had no problem setting up games, and it was much quicker than Halo... and you actually got to stay on a server until the host quit, so you got to keep playing with the same people and not have to wait after every game).

Secondly, if everyone wanted to play custom games instead of matchmaking, then they would be making their customers happy by providing the browser! It's a pretty simple concept.

So as you can see, I'm not exactly heartbroken by this news.
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Postby Wynn on Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:20 pm

Valid complaints for social matches. For ranked matches, I agree with what Bungie has created.
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Postby Monster on Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:11 pm

Yeah, exactly. Another major complaint I have with social matches is that you still lose experience if you leave a game. Twice last night I had my teammate leave before the match started in a 2v2 game, and so I was forced to play 1v2 for a whole match. It's incredibly lame having to play 1v2 VIP.
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Postby Wynn on Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:26 am

Yeah, but it's lamer to have your teammates quit every single time when they start losing. If there was no penalty, it'd happen all the time.
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Postby Monster on Tue Oct 09, 2007 12:31 pm

Well if they used traditional servers like very other game in the world then that wouldn't be much of a problem either, because someone else would join in their place.
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Postby Wynn on Tue Oct 09, 2007 1:42 pm

They would need to remove earning XP for social games for that to work, in my opinion. But you'd still end up with lots of people quitting early. Nobody wants to join an existing game where their team is losing either, so you'd see them quit immediately.
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Postby Monster on Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:06 pm

Except the difference is that after that game, there would be a new game with the same people. And you would have a chance to win again. Playing with all new people every game sucks. You might get trounced in one game and you never have a chance to come back in the next game because it will be with all new people. Sometimes you join a great group and have a fun time, but nobody parties up and you never play with them again. In other games, I sometimes develop personal rivalries with other players and I make it my mission to beat them.

Also, I don't see why they'd have to remove XP in social games if they used traditional servers. CoD4 uses traditional servers and they have XP in that game (and it's implemented in a much better, more tangible and more entertaining way).

Basically what it boils down to is that this game is much, much better when playing with friends. HINT.
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Postby Wynn on Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:41 pm

That's true, it is more fun to play with hints. But if you can choose your opponents, you can more easily game the system.
Searching for custom games would be the biggest improvement, in my opinion.
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Postby Monster on Wed Oct 10, 2007 9:26 am

Here's Microsoft's dumbass reply to the custom games browser complaint:

http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=11455

Either they're really stupid or just bullshitting (my money's on bullshitting). Seriously, how hard would it be to implement a server browser with a ping? I could search for games with a low ping (and other basic things, like specific map templates and specific gametypes). Servers show up. I look at the different gametypes. I highlight a server that is using a custom gametype, and it displays everything that's different from the default about that gametype, and the description. Let's say someone is playing Stealth Scuds. I see the description, and in the stats box I see that it's Always Cloaked, Rockets Only, Infinite Ammo, 50% Gravity (as these are the only things different from the default). I decide to join, and by joining, I join the host's party. I also am able to jump right into a game in progress like every other FPS ever made (unless the host decides to turn that off).

It's pretty simple. It's like they've never seen another FPS and it boggles their mind to think about a server list.

Here's what one guy said in the custom game search bitching thread:

I might be impossible to add to the game but I still want it. Here is what the options should be:

Base Gametype (CTF, TS, etc)
Edited Gametype (Yes, No)
Base Map: (Last Resort, etc)
Forged: (Yes, No)
Min Players; (1-16)
Max Players: (1-16)


Makes perfect sense to me, and would not be "impossible" to implement. That's just BS.
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Postby Wynn on Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:01 pm

I agree, it sounds like he is answering a completely different question. He was answering why you can't search for specific game variants, but as you say you can just search for the basic game types and have it display the variants in a details section.
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