Cynical skeptic said:
So if I released a game built entirely around eating your own shit, and it became so massively successful that every game copied my brilliant "innovations" in coprophagia, you would happily eat your own shit while defending my game against anyone who points out that dogs have been eating their own shit for centuries and it was generally discouraged?
I am, of course, talking about regenerating health and auto-aim. Two of the linchpins in the halo formula. See, ever since online games existed, people made aimbots and invulnerabilty/regeneration hacks. These aren't what I'm talking about when I say other games beat halo to regenerating health, auto-aim, and everything else the captive LIVE demographics claim it did first. But being forced to rely on the game's built in assistance measures does not make a better game, it just makes an easier game. But most people can't really tell the difference, so MASSIVE SUCCESS.
If you remember, it took a while for non-halo games to "get" that halo's success was based upon auto-aim. Killzone, for instance, was a pretty massive flop both times because the developers didn't get the auto-aim right.
The fact every game followed suit isn't really a valid claim either. "Holy shit, easy games are making money. That must mean easy games are awesome!" The reality its just more proof people are cretinous dipshits who will, literally, buy anything.
That is a massive exaggeration, all it is doing is changing the pacing in an fps to make it compatible for online play. If everyone was a super hero solider online with a million hit points and guns that only the top end people could earn then it is almost impossible for new players to get involved. That's the problem with old fps's, they are just not compatible for new generation playing multiplayer. That is where auto aim and health regeneration come in
Auto aim for consoles is necessary for any console fps, while I think that a controller is much more comfortable to play with and more fun, I will agree that a mouse is more accurate. However, if you play online with any fps, not just Halo but say COD4. Go online and you will die a fair amount and because everyone has the same assistance it balances out the game. It doesn't make a game any easier or unfair and it fixes the problem of the controller being less accurate
Auto health is also necessary because going back to any point and walking a distance for you to live longer takes more time than just dying. This makes the game much more fast paced rather then trekking back and forward to health point. Besides, it's not like it's instant and everyone has it so it's not making the game any easier (like if one person had the ability and everyone else had to go back and get health)
Even if they weren't there, it wouldn't make it any harder, just more frustrating for new players.
You can say it made it more shit but people liked it, bought it and it became the new fps standard. You can't measure something like this so you can say it's shit but it doesn't matter, the old style is too old fashioned for the console fps generation. Maybe it will come around again but only if the market determine it
Plus Killzone flopped because it was boring, grey and quite possibly the dullest fps mankind has ever made
