Lessons of Halo 2

[tentons]

I noticed that Halo 2 is plastered all over the major news networks. It's had $78 million in preorders! And fans are happy to stand in line for hours to get their copy.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20041109/tc_nm/media_microsoft_halo_dc
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041110/ap_on_hi_te/games_halo_2_fans
http://www.gamedaily.com/xbox/article/?id=7943&game_id=299&source=00001
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=4537

Some of this was a huge marketing budget, no doubt, and the original was a big game. But I personally don't think it was a great game, and there's a lot of momentum from word of mouth.

And why will people stand in line for so long to pay $50 for a game? How do you build that kind of loyalty?

I know there are lessons for us indies here. What can we do, on a smaller scale, to achieve results like these relative to our market(s)?

[BongPig]

Its not entirely about marketing.
Halo had alot of problems, but the core battle mechanics are second to none. Other games have better enviroments, better stories, even better graphics, but dont have the feeling of satisfaction.
Halo is also one of those very rare games where the enemy AI never seems to do anything stupid... never. Unlike other titles where its quite common to see an enemy get caught in a door way, or running against a wall like a headless chicken.
This allows for a level of immersion unlike most games, as youre not constantly reminded that your playing a stupid video game.

In a nutshell.... the game is truely *finished*. Not rushed out the door. Not botched together in the last weeks. Done and dusted. Thats not something happens very often in our buisness.

Im off to buy my copy right now! :)

[tolik]

BongPig - untrue about couple of last sequences. There's already a hundred of angry gamers blaming Halo 2 for not supporting HDTV correctly. Halo 2 just cuts of parts of screen with... HUD.

[BongPig]

Theres nothing wrong with that. Halo2 never claimed to be HDTV ready anyway. It only supports 480p, like most other games. Are you sure youre not talking about widescreen, not HDTV?
It takes more CPU juice to properly support widescreen and HD modes. If your game cant keep up the framerate, then it has to do something.

If that niggle is the biggest issue, I still stand by what I said. Nothing to do with being unfinished. More to do with what the xbox can handle.

[tolik]

Yeah, I know what's the cost of implementing all these things especially in complex 3D games in high res. I just wanted to make a point (and a lesson ;) ) that every game can still piss off specific amount of people.

[BongPig]

So it all becomes about how few people your game pisses off = how successfull it is!?

Hmmmm. Intesesting way to put it, if a bit negative. ;)

Ok, ill rephrase. Halo pisses off a far smaller percentage of its players than just about every other game. Either way. Its still loads better than most of the rest!

[Reactor]

"How do you build that kind of loyalty?"

You get it by getting the media on side. Once you have them, everyone follows.

[princec]

I bet Michal Marcinkowski (Soldat) is making a proportionate amount from his incredibly dedicated following. (Relatively of course!)

Halo 2 is merely Soldat for n00bs :P

Cas :)

[BongPig]

"How do you build that kind of loyalty?"

You get it by getting the media on side. Once you have them, everyone follows.

... and nothing to do with making an excellent game, no?

[Phil Newton]

Bungie did quite a lot of work on their site, and I think posting weekly updates at various Halo message boards was a really smart move. Gave a good sense of community, and that's something money can't really buy.

The first Halo had a very large following, which probably had a lot to do with the Halo 2 hype. Plus Halo was a good game.

[tentons]

So far we've got:

1) build a superior game
2) make sure it's polished and not half-baked
3) have good media coverage
4) build community and communicate often

I read with some interest about one guy who said that Halo 2 is as much about the experience of the game as the game itself. In other words, waiting for hours in line is a part of the experience. That's true fandom!

[KNau]

It also says something about their target market of 18 - 35 year old males. These people seek out information about their favorite games, buy ancillary items like guide books and action figures and spread word of mouth like crazy.

I wonder how many soccer moms would wait in line for hours for the latest Bejeweled incarnation.

[Gmicek]

Halo was significant because it was a great FPS, with excellent controls (something almost unheard of in console FPS's before that time), and had a lot of personality.

It's interesting, at work for the last couple weeks a lot of people have been talking about Halo 2, with a number of people having Halo parties in preparation for the sequel. On monday night the GameStop near our call center stayed open late and started selling it at midnight, we went down and people bought their copies and went over to peoples houses to play. We even met people there and had them come over and play. Around 8am the last person went home.

The event stuck out in my mind because it was so cross cultural that I thought I was in some McDonalds comercial. We had white's, blacks, mexicans, and asians at the gathering. Not to mention an interesting mix of personality types. It's just one of those games that a lot of gamers have in common and feel a connection with other players on.

[tentons]

The event stuck out in my mind because it was so cross cultural that I thought I was in some McDonalds comercial. We had white's, blacks, mexicans, and asians at the gathering.
In dark times like the ones we're living in, it's good to know that our profession of choice has something to contribute to the world. It's not "just" entertainment, in that light. Maybe everyone should play more games.

And maybe that's the final lesson of Halo 2: have meaning.

[Fish-Guy]

It's quite difficult nowadays to find a good decent game that you know you can play for hours/days and not just put it down. Sure, there are games released every single day that advertisers throw down our throats, but very few of them are actually anything different or new.

Halo was one of those games that I expected to be the same as eveything else, however after playing for just a couple of levels, I realised it was much more. I think one of the stronger points to the game (despite the great graphics and AI) was the storyline. It's one of those stories that could be adapted into a movie and make it's meeelions at the box office. Maybe they'll do that in the future =) The story just stood out in my mind and made me want to play more and more. I must have spent a couple of days playing the first game through to the end without any sleep =)

Halo 2 went and improved on many aspects of the first game, but has kept itself true to the halo series in the respect of having an amazing story, and fantastic game play. Every game has flaws, however most flaws tend to be more of an individuals personal preference to things as opposed to an actual bug in the code.

We could all take lessons from the two games - Make a great story and a great game with it and you are sure to see success! Don't just rush the game! Despite the massive budget for the Halo games, they were never pressed to rush it in as fast a time as possible. That is probbably why there are no major bugs in it.

[EpicBoy]

Well, the first patch is available via XBox Live as we speak.

I also know a few guys on the Halo 2 team and they tell a story of mad crunching and rushing the game. The last level was completely cut from the game due to deadlines (the story wraps up in a weird way because of it).

The game went from being fully playable (start to end) to gold master in a matter of weeks...

[Escotia]

... and nothing to do with making an excellent game, no?

Correct (although an excellent game may make it easier to get them on side)

Rise of the Robots anyone?

[Jim Buck]

No major bugs? Am I the only one that has seen the massive level-of-detail popping?? Anytime a camera cuts to something closer than it was a moment ago, everything is still in the lower level of detail until a second later - pop! - it turns into the higher-res version. And it happens on almost every camera cut.

[PoV]

I also know a few guys on the Halo 2 team and they tell a story of mad crunching and rushing the game. The last level was completely cut from the game due to deadlines (the story wraps up in a weird way because of it).
I almost cried when I got to the end and was rewarded with that... :confused: :confused: :confused:

So what's next, the "Lessons from Half-Life 2" thread? Lesson 1, Spend 6 years making a game and it'll be awesome. :D. If super long timeline games are a sign of super quality, then Duke Nukem Forever is shaping up to be... heh. But seriously, I'm excited to finally see a finished duke so we can all shutup about it.

[Anthony Flack]

Duke Nukem Forever sounds like Daikatana all over again. They spent so long making it that their tech got out of date, so they had to do a rewrite, which delayed it even more, etc etc.

Disappointed to hear that about Halo 2 and the last level. Not that I should care, because I'm unlikely to play Halo 2. But somehow I do care.

[Reactor]

Lessons learned from Half-Life 2.

It doesn't matter how good your game is, gamers don't appreciate being forced to connect to an online server every time they want to play it.

[EpicBoy]

Once you're authenticated, you don't need to connect anymore. Anytime after that if you ARE connected to the net, it will connect to Steam and check your account. If you aren't connected, it will run in offline mode.

So ... I guess the real lesson from Half-Life 2 is that gamers don't listen. They'd rather make an assumption and run with it.

[C.S.Brewer]

when halo was first shown, back when it was going to be a pc/mac game, it had the best graphics I had ever seen. they also had the best vehicles in an fps that I had ever played. That was a big thing for a lot of people because no other games had really done it so nicely. I was interested to see what they would come up with this time.

I didn't stand in line to buy it(don't have an xbox), but I did play it all day on sunday.

Jim Buck: I noticed the lod popping too, it was distracting to me, but nobody else watching even mentioned it.

[EpicBoy]

Jim Buck: I noticed the lod popping too, it was distracting to me, but nobody else watching even mentioned it.
I think developers lose sight of what customers really care about sometimes. LOD popping wouldn't even register with most people - the gameplay sucking, however, would.

[Jim Buck]

Yike, my wife even noticed it. I know I look at games through "developers goggles" and see things "normal" people don't, but this popping was soooo bad that I would have to believe it would leak out of my developers goggles onto the floor.

[EpicBoy]

Well, Halo2 is making millions for Bungie/Microsoft so that should give some indication of how important LOD popping is to the majority of gamers...

[Jim Buck]

Well, I haven't and don't plan on returning my copy if that's any indication. :) It was just something that bugged and was surprised it shipped that way. (Our studio would never allow such a bug to ship.)

[PoV]

Yeah, it's very noticble in the cinnematics, often when new models have entered the scene, less so much durring gameplay. A blur, fade, or transition effect between harsh model/camera changing sequeneces would have been a welcome addition.

[vjvj]

There are two factors at work here. The first, as has been stated, is the immense amount of marketing behind the game. Halo has always relied on marketing muscle and Halo 2 is no different.

The second factor IMHO is that Halo is really the only property Xbox fanbois have to rally behind. Not only does this mean Halo 2 has little to compete with on the Xbox shelves (are there really any other must-haves this holiday season?), but this also generates a lot of word of mouth advertising on the forums and whatnot.

This sentiment that it's "because it's a good game" is BS IMHO. It's a solid game with good graphics and excellent AI. While those traits certainly help, there are a lot of fps's out there with good graphics and excellent AI that aren't selling anywhere near as well as Halo 2 is.

[Anthony Flack]

Maybe they're cashing in on the nostalgia of the days when Halo was only available on Xbox, and was in fact the only reason anyone had an xbox.

[Yossarian]

Dont discount that Halo also has the best force feedback since Goldeneye. They are, really, the only two games that I've ever played that really and truly got it right. In other games, it is a distraction, in Halo it actually adds enjoyment.

While maybe a small thing, it just shows the level of polish Halo has, when something small like the force feedback is done absolutley right. Most companies do that last minute just because it has to be there...

XIII was another great shooter on the XBox, and one that I liked, although some may not have enjoyed the cell-shaded aspect. So whats the difference between it an Halo? Most likely a great story, awesome multiplayer, and some of the best vehicle usage in an FPS ever.

[Reactor]

Once you're authenticated, you don't need to connect anymore. Anytime after that if you ARE connected to the net, it will connect to Steam and check your account. If you aren't connected, it will run in offline mode.

So ... I guess the real lesson from Half-Life 2 is that gamers don't listen. They'd rather make an assumption and run with it.


Actually Epicboy, you haven't listened to the hoo-hah surrounding Steam, where guys go 'offline' with Steam and somehow get locked out from playing. Also, let's not get into how many gamers hate Valve (long-time fans also) for not being able to play Half-Life 2, because their computer isn't hooked up to the 'net at all. I could list at least ten other huge complaints against Valve, Steam, and the idea of authenticating software at all (let alone to play a singeplayer game), but hey, this isn't the thread for it, right?

Point is- the thousands upon thousands of gamers hate it enough to return the game they've been waiting six years for. If you don't learn a lesson from that, you shouldn't be making games.

[Anthony Flack]

XIII was another great shooter on the XBox, and one that I liked, although some may not have enjoyed the cell-shaded aspect

Bah. People. Philistines.

I haven't played XIII but I've seen screenshots and I thought they looked wicked cool.

Oh, I like your username there, Yossarian. Good call.

[BongPig]

... there are a lot of fps's out there with good graphics and excellent AI that aren't selling anywhere near as well as Halo 2 is.

Hmmm. Can you name any of them?
In my exeriences, and im a huge FPS fan, they have been god damn terrible for a long long time. Thats why we love Halo/Halo2.
In fact, the last fantastic ( and I really mean fantastic ) FPS was Chronicles or Riddick on the .... wait for it ... Xbox.

The rest? Medal or Honour ( all of them )? Wolfenstien? Men of Valour? Unreal?? The 1million FPS that come out on PC every year? Bloody rubbish.

THATS why Halo2/Halflife do so well. Because they rock compared to everything else that actually exists.

( however, im willing to accept that we all have FPS games *imagined* in our heads that make the above mentioned games look shit. ;) )