Why'd they ruin Halo 2?

[Hefty Lefty]

Stupid Xbox Live.
If any of you play Halo 2 on Xbox Live, you'll notice that a vast majority of Ranked matches are unplayable unless you download two new maps. First of all, the maps, I've heard, suck. And second, they cost $4.00! I mean, I know that's not very much, but none of the other 12 or so maps cost anything!
My opinion is Bungie is trying to get everyone of that server system for when Halo 3 comes out. But A - Halo 3 isn't coming out for a while and B - I still wanna play Halo 2!
There is a little message at the bottom of the screen sometimes that says "Major changes have been done to some maps, requiring you to download them again. I don't know if this is an old meesage or if it actually works and lets you play Ranked matches. If someone has done that, let me know.
Why'd they ruin Halo 2?:smallfurious:

[Emperor Ing]

Squeeze whatever life remains on Halo 2 (there is a lot of life left) and there are thousands of players who would bite the new maps in spite of Halo 3 and Halo Wars coming out.

[Ranis]

Dude, umm......download the new freaking maps? If you really wanted to play the way you wanted, you would shell out the *gasp* $4.00 and get yourself the new maps.

The reason you gotta have them is because they're in the rotation for random selection in the ranked modes of play. Normally they'd be left out for a while....but.....oh yeah. They have. They gave everyone an appropriate amount of time to get the new maps before putting them in Ranked matches. So whose fault is this, really?

--

Do custom games. Oh yeah, I bet you can't, because everyone is playing the new maps on them. Sounds like you need to do some upgradin'.

[Ronsian]

Woah, Ranis, he has a right to be mad. How would you feel if your house cost $300,000. Great for awhile, but after awhile they say, "Ok, ya got a few weeks to pay $30,000 in addition to your bills so we can install new pipes you might not want." I sure as heck wouldn't pay an extra $4 for two maps, unless they were the best maps I'd ever seen.

[Gungnir]

But then also imagine that you had been living in that house so long that you where planning on moving to a new one in a few months anyways, so you refuse to pay, and stay with an old friend (PS2 maybe?) until you move into your new place.

[BanjoTheClown]

They did not ruin Halo2. Wtf?

[Logic]

Stupid Xbox Live.
If any of you play Halo 2 on Xbox Live, you'll notice that a vast majority of Ranked matches are unplayable unless you download two new maps. First of all, the maps, I've heard, suck. And second, they cost $4.00! I mean, I know that's not very much, but none of the other 12 or so maps cost anything!
My opinion is Bungie is trying to get everyone of that server system for when Halo 3 comes out. But A - Halo 3 isn't coming out for a while and B - I still wanna play Halo 2!
There is a little message at the bottom of the screen sometimes that says "Major changes have been done to some maps, requiring you to download them again. I don't know if this is an old meesage or if it actually works and lets you play Ranked matches. If someone has done that, let me know.
Why'd they ruin Halo 2?:smallfurious:
Solution: Don't play ranked matches.

(Emphasis mine in bolded maroon.)

[Ranis]

Woah, Ranis, he has a right to be mad. How would you feel if your house cost $300,000. Great for awhile, but after awhile they say, "Ok, ya got a few weeks to pay $30,000 in addition to your bills so we can install new pipes you might not want." I sure as heck wouldn't pay an extra $4 for two maps, unless they were the best maps I'd ever seen.

This isn't $30,000. This is FOUR DOLLARS. If he wants it bad enough, he'll get them. If not, then he shouldn't be complaining about it.

[Ronsian]

Are the maps REALLY that different? Most games would release that stuff for free. For somebody who bought the game for $40, X-box live for another $10 a month, $4 seems repetitive. Seems to me that ranked is a major part of the game, so you more or less have to get it.

[FireSpark]

Are the maps REALLY that different? Most games would release that stuff for free. For somebody who bought the game for $40, X-box live for another $10 a month, $4 seems repetitive. Seems to me that ranked is a major part of the game, so you more or less have to get it.

Of course this all boils down to the fact that Microsoft is attempting to establish a profitable online market. To do so, you have to go through certain steps.
Step 1: Create a consistent online audience. They did this successfully with games like HALO, Black Hawk Down, MechAssualt, etc.
Step 2: Ease the audience into purchasing (what the consumer perceives as) must have products. This they did by offering most of their earlier additional content for free, with a few items requiring a small fee. Such as with the first major expansion of MechAssualt (in which most mechs and maps were free, but the game types that everybody was clamouring for were offered at a price.), as well as HALO 2 (in which the first map pack was offered for sale, then eventually for free. Establishing that most people will pay-to-play now, rather than wait to play for free later.)
Step 3: Make paying for additional content the norm, and free content an occasional thing. Now with the 360 out, and the Mircosoft game making machine firing up to new heights, we'll be seeing step 3 come to fruition. Any of you with 360s and live accounts have probably already noticed this beginning to happen.

So there you have it, that's what is really going on (albeit in a very overly simplified manner). Why, some of you may ask? Why are they doing this? Because Microsoft is a business, that's why. They're in it for the money, whether we like it that way or not.

[Gungnir]

Of course this all boils down to the fact that Microsoft is attempting to establish a profitable online market. To do so, you have to go through certain steps.
Step 1: Create a consistent online audience. They did this successfully with games like HALO, Black Hawk Down, MechAssualt, etc.
Step 2: Ease the audience into purchasing (what the consumer perceives as) must have products. This they did by offering most of their earlier additional content for free, with a few items requiring a small fee. Such as with the first major expansion of MechAssualt (in which most mechs and maps were free, but the game types that everybody was clamouring for were offered at a price.), as well as HALO 2 (in which the first map pack was offered for sale, then eventually for free. Establishing that most people will pay-to-play now, rather than wait to play for free later.)
Step 3: Make paying for additional content the norm, and free content an occasional thing. Now with the 360 out, and the Mircosoft game making machine firing up to new heights, we'll be seeing step 3 come to fruition. Any of you with 360s and live accounts have probably already noticed this beginning to happen.

So there you have it, that's what is really going on (albeit in a very overly simplified manner). Why, some of you may ask? Why are they doing this? Because Microsoft is a business, that's why. They're in it for the money, whether we like it that way or not.

I'll boil this down for the lazy. Because noone is buying Halo 2 anymore (at least not new, perhaps used) they produce new material for purchase, so they aren't just flushing money down the hole.

And they can't just not make new maps; then people would get bored and not play anymore, losing money on the subscription front.

[FireSpark]

I'll boil this down for the lazy. Because noone is buying Halo 2 anymore (at least not new, perhaps used) they produce new material for purchase, so they aren't just flushing money down the hole.

And they can't just not make new maps; then people would get bored and not play anymore, losing money on the subscription front.

You should calim "Translator for the Chronically Lazy" as your official profession.


...or something. :smallconfused:

[Gales]

More importantly for me, why did they ruin Halo 2 for PC by making it Vista -only? It doesn't even use DX10, and I bet that there' still more gamers with XP than Vista...

[blackout]

That's a major question, WHY NOT PUT HALO 2 FOR PC ON XP!?

[Gales]

Probably they tried to show off their cool DX10 and even cooler Vista. Too bad they forgot to do anything with these two... :/

(Tau kicks ass by the way)

[blackout]

(YER DAMN RIGHT TAU KICK ASS! *head thrashing to heavy rock music as Tau soldiers kill Space Marines*)

And yeah, that's probably it.

[swordmaster2000]

Of course this all boils down to the fact that Microsoft is attempting to establish a profitable online market. To do so, you have to go through certain steps.
Step 1: Create a consistent online audience. They did this successfully with games like HALO, Black Hawk Down, MechAssualt, etc.
Step 2: Ease the audience into purchasing (what the consumer perceives as) must have products. This they did by offering most of their earlier additional content for free, with a few items requiring a small fee. Such as with the first major expansion of MechAssualt (in which most mechs and maps were free, but the game types that everybody was clamouring for were offered at a price.), as well as HALO 2 (in which the first map pack was offered for sale, then eventually for free. Establishing that most people will pay-to-play now, rather than wait to play for free later.)
Step 3: Make paying for additional content the norm, and free content an occasional thing. Now with the 360 out, and the Mircosoft game making machine firing up to new heights, we'll be seeing step 3 come to fruition. Any of you with 360s and live accounts have probably already noticed this beginning to happen.

So there you have it, that's what is really going on (albeit in a very overly simplified manner). Why, some of you may ask? Why are they doing this? Because Microsoft is a business, that's why. They're in it for the money, whether we like it that way or not.

lol! this sounds suprisingly like the rise of Stalin in Soviet Russia!:smalleek:

[Setra]

lol! this sounds suprisingly like the rise of Stalin in Soviet Russia!:smalleek:
In Soviry Russia...

Halo 2 plays you!

I realize that was silly, but I had to :smalltongue:

[Logic]

More importantly for me, why did they ruin Halo 2 for PC by making it Vista -only? It doesn't even use DX10, and I bet that there' still more gamers with XP than Vista...

They wan't you to buy Vista. As far as MS is concerned, XP is about to be obsolete, or already is. They released a new product, so they don't want to continue to support an old one if they don't have to. Making Halo 2 Vista only definately made some switch over to Vista sooner than they would have if they had made if for XP.

[Gungnir]

Unfortunately, from everything I've heard, it seems like a version of Vista that people actually enjoy using is a few years coming.

You'd think they would just not release it until it was actually, y'know, good. Save a lot of money on tech support. Of course, there's always that possibility that Halo 2 will just magically fix everything that's wrong with Vista, by the Power of Awesome And the Blessing of Bungie. Look what Halo 1 did for the Xbox.

[beholder]

what are the new maps like? any good?

[Maldraugedhen]

In order for something to be ruined, it has to have been good at some point in time.

So, in the event that it actually was ruined: well, you had a good run. Play some offline matches against some realworld buds with similar map taste. Or, don't play ranked matches. Play for something resembling fun, for example--rank is far from everything.

If it wasn't good to begin with: why you are slamming your head futilely against the brick wall of enjoyment of a crappy piece of software is puzzling to every single supporter of classical conditioning. Pick up something else you enjoy.

[Tussy the Druid]

In Soviry Russia...

Halo 2 plays you!

I realize that was silly, but I had to :smalltongue:

Well that made me laugh pretty hard.

[The Evil Thing]

Halo 2 is Vista-exclusive because it was originally intended to launch at the same time as Vista and thus give those who were both die-hard Halo fans and die-hard PC fans a reason to buy the shiny new OS.

About a month or two before the Vista release date MS realised (I suppose) that it was a bit naff to have a 3 year old console port as their flagship release for Vista so the game was 'delayed' slightly so the release dates didn't coincide.

Silly Microsoft.