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Halo Infinite
Generally speaking, the vibe surrounding Halo Infinite’s launch has been pretty positive. It’s extremely fun to play, and it was neat that 343 managed to get it out three weeks early. There are lots of issues with progression and playlists and such, but most players appear to be having fun.
Then there’s r/halo.
The Halo subreddit has nearly a million members, and has been focused, consumed really, with the issues Halo Infinite has with monetization, playlists, challenges, progression, pretty much everything outside of gameplay. But it’s not just criticism, as it often veers into insults and personal attacks, even doxing and threats, and now? The mods have decided to lock the subreddit temporarily for “excessive toxicity,” a move that comes in the wake of 343’s exasperated community manager making a very long post there about the state of the game and how brutal some of the “feedback” has been.
Here’s part of the announcement of the subreddit being locked:
“On all sides this has absolutely gone on long enough and spiraled out of control. The amount of toxicity on the sub from both sides has made it impossible for people to have civil discussions, which is what the mod team strives for regardless of opinion. Some users on the sub have even been responsible for doxxing and death threats. We're temporarily putting the sub on lockdown so people can hopefully settle down a bit and we can hit the reset button before launch. At the end of the day this is a video game and this level of vitriol is unwarranted.”
Halo Infinite
The mods say the subreddit will be opened back up tomorrow, and we’ll see if anything changes. Again, I do think this was sparked by the post from community manager ske7ch, who posted a lengthy comment yesterday. Here are some excerpts:
On the situation:
“First, I'm going to stress again that I 100% understand and generally agree with the frustrations most are expressing even if I don't agree with the attacks and ways in which some choose to express those feelings. Call me a shill, a liar, corp speak, etc. as you want, but I've never lied to this community and never will. And I'm not saying myself are 343 are a 'victim' in any way - that's yet another narrative some folks here have chosen to apply. It's my job to come in here, listen, franky take it on the chin, and despite personally being very put off by the way in which many are expressing themselves, still ensure that we are advocating for players internally. We do that regardless of it being positive or negative and always will.”
On what info players are “owed”:
“I don't personally agree we 'owe' folks a detailed dissertation on 'what 343 has been doing the last 6 years' or 'who ever thought this was a good idea', etc.. We have had people working their asses off for years to try and deliver the best Halo game they can amidst very challenging circumstances. But, I will try to at least provide some context for those who are interested.”
An interesting section in which he talks about how he himself can clearly see many of the issues with the current challenge/reward system:
“I did not really enjoy having to grind through 20+ games of Quick Play to hopefully get Oddball so I could hopefully win 3 times to complete a challenge. Or, <shudder>, having to get 10 Ravager kills. Is this week's Ultimate Reward of just an emblem really worth the grind? There's a lot of work to do - we are all in agreement there.”
And on the promised, upcoming Slayer playlist, which will not launch until next year:
“We would love to have modes and experiences that meet player expectations vs. the backlash situation we're in today. I don't believe anyone at 343 thought not having Slayer was a 'good idea.”
It’s a little strange, because he really does emphasize that many of the issues players are complaining about are obvious to everyone, even the team, and that keeps the question open of why they didn’t address some of this earlier, especially with a year delay. But the main issue is how many people are giving feedback, and how nasty things have gotten, with a lot of that spawning out of that particular subreddit itself.
It’s a bad situation all around. I mean, I complain about games all the time and suggest X, Y and Z fixes for issues. But when you start veering into personal attacks on the devs, or suggesting they’re lazy or terrible, or worse, start actively threatening them or revealing their personal information, you have crossed several lines. Constructive criticism is one thing, but lately, things have gone way beyond that with some parts of the Halo community over Infinite multiplayer issues, and it has to stop.
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