A friend and I were lucky enough and had the pleasure of being able to spend a full day at 343 about a month ago. We got a chance to meet many of the developers and check out the new studio. It helped to give me a much better perspective and appreciation for the team. Reading these forums gets pretty frustrating at times. Players come on here, more often than not, to complain about the franchise and games. 343 is ****ing this up, 343 games are ****. Why doesn't 343 just copy and past X into Y. I have been enjoying Halo 5. 343 started with a vision in Halo 4 as a newly formed team. In Halo 5, they listened to feedback from the community about Halo 4, but they also stuck to their vision. I believe the game and the franchise is all the better for it. It makes me sad reading so many negative comments and pointless posts on here though. 343 is a collection of people. People with families, wants, desires, and most of all, feelings. They put so much time and effort into these games 3 years of development and hard work at the minimum went into Halo 5. Passion, hard work, long nights, tears, frustration, joy, laughs. A collection of people working together towards one vision. I don't believe you have to love Halo 5 or agree with ever design choice, but understand that they are people that read and hear you, the community. They work hard to give this game everything they can. The arena multiplayer is some of the best and most balanced competitive skill based games available now, with more social experiences on the way. Warzone, while it has it's flaws, is the most ambitious Halo mode yet. It takes sooooo many resources to run 24 players, vehicles, A.I. different weapons that don't despawn right away, armors, weapon skins, and huge maps! Like, I'm not a computer programmer, but I have a basic understanding of how it works, and seriously, Warzone is a pretty impressive feat that can only improve from here. They have also given us a huge and expanded forge mode. On top of all of it, they are continuously adding in more and expanding the game through free updates... EVERY MONTH! There is more content in Halo 5, with more coming for the next several months. I'm proud of what the team has made and I support it. I just hope some of you can take a little time and step back. Think about how or what you're posting. Is it constructive feedback? Is it lashing out because a feature you enjoyed was axed? Are you conveying it in a positive manner that the team could take into consideration and add in? Or are you whining while kicking and screaming?



Edit, My day there:

I have a friend that was granted a make-a-wish, and he invited me on a trip of a lifetime. We spent three days in Seattle and then went to 343 for a day. When we went, we arrived around 10 in the morning on January 20th. BSangel was our point of contact for the studio and she showed us around. So we checked in at the front desk and we got to check out the Master Chief statue that Bravo showed in the community update last month. After that, she gave us a briefing of what we were going to do for the day and gave us a small tour. The offices were still coming together since they had just shifted studios. We walked down to the studios cafeteria, there is a wall with every employee on it. They take mugshots, so my friend and I got our own mugshots taken. It was rad. They had a replica assault rifle or DMR we could use. I obviously went for the classic Halo 3 Chief look with the assault rifle. My friend used the DMR for the precision look. They then took us up to the forge team where we sat down and they showed us some awesome features. They take constant community feedback and are always watching what is created and how they can use that to improve forge. They have a lot of fun just coming with crazy ideas and they also want to really try and open up the sandbox for players. They let my friend brainstorm an idea for a new forge item, we are waiting to hear if it is going to make it in or not. We had a few ideas, so not sure what will happen. From there, they took us down stairs to a trophy room of sorts. It wasn't set up yet, but they are taking a lot of the drops from the live action commercials and shows and putting them on display. We got to check them out, try on some props and ask a lot of questions! For lunch we were able to sit down with the writers and holders of the canon and ask them questions and BS about the Halo universe. Suffice to say, Orbital Dog Shock Troopers need to be a thing. Flohnson and Florge, flood resurrected fan favorites also need to happen hahaha! After lunch, we checked out the new in studio studio for livestreaming and video production. I'm really excited to see what comes out of there. Then the took us to a play lab, where we played with the team and got to test out the January update and see all the reqs that launched last month. I got to play next to Strongside which was pretty rad! It was a riot and I forgot how great a huge LAN party could be, what better way then with a 24 player LAN with the developers! At the end of the day, we went back to chat with the forge team some more. I don't know what all I can say, because a few things are what the really want to do but can't make any promises, but know that all the teams there do hear you! They are constantly working on ways to improve the game for every one. It just takes time. They can't just whip it together. It's a process. They have lost sleep and have worked hard to keep adding in great features and bringing back fan favorites!



TL;DR:

Developers are people, 343 does hear you. The trip my friend and I had was a blast.