Developer appreciation post

This one goes out to all the people working on the new Halo game. I'm sure some of you are here on the forums. You may not openly show yourselves but you're here.

As a Halo fan and fellow developer (tho not from the game industry) I just wanna say I appreciate you and everything you do. The late hours at the office, the early mornings and the weekends.
All of you programmers, designers, analysts, testers, team leads, project managers, administrators, system engineers, network engineers, web developers, juniors, seniors, architects and even the guys from management.

All of you, I know how hard you're working to get this game out to us, the fans. I know what you're going through.

I know there are days when you don't feel like doing anything. I know there are days where you're sitting at your desk at 1 pm, sleepy after lunch, with a few Visual Studio tabs open and you're secretly looking up cat pictures on Reddit, trying to look like you're doing actual work stuff. You're sitting there wondering about "What kind of excuse for not coming to work tomorrow would my boss believe?".

I know there are other days where you wake up at 6 am and you start writing code in your head in the car to work because you finally figured out that thing you've been trying to solve since last Tuesday. I know there are days where you can't come up with anything until 4 pm and then the code surge hits you, so you stay in the office until 8 pm and after a while your social life becomes a faint memory and your friends give you flack for never hanging out with them.

I know you analysts draw diagrams and flow charts just to have nobody even take a look at them because by the time you're done half the features and architecture have already changed. You constantly listen to conflicting ideas from various departments and everyone expects you to put it all together, just for most devs to only glance at that document you've painstakingly been working on for a whole week.

I know you system support guys don't get enough respect because you don't fix someone's "Outlook Disconnected" problem the minute they walk into your office. People make fun of you because you ask them to "open a ticket" whenever they run into you on the way to the bathroom and start telling you their little problems. You just want to take a piss and some guys is talking about how he can't connect 8 USB devices to his laptop at once.

I know you sit at meetings day in and day out, listening to people repeat the same thing five times and wonder "What's the point? I'm already behind on this thing I'm working on and here I'm wasting time listening to stuff that I can't even do anything about."

And you testers, I know what you're going through. Everyone outside the studio thinks you have the best job ever. "You play video games all day and you get paid for it". Yeah, in theory. In practice you do the most tedious and boring things all day, filling out bug report forms. And then the devs resent you for returning the bug report they thought they closed back to them.

I know how hard you work and I thank you for it, because what you do will give joy and entertainment to me and countless others one day. When it all comes together and people get their hands on it and enjoy it, all the hard work will pay off.
So know that I and many others appreciate you immensely, even though we don't say it as often as we should.

Thank you! And have a great weekend.

Today OP was a pretty cool guy. I know we give 343i a lot of flak but it's just because we care, this franchise is something special and when it comes down to it they're the ones keeping it going. At the end of the day it's actual people working years just to give us a game they hope we'll like and when things don't go as planned I hope they're able to brush off the pure negativity and just look at the constructive criticism and improve for next time. Even with all its flaws I believe H5 was the best arena shooter in 2015 and will most likely keep that title until Infinite, can't wait.

Fully Skully wrote:

I know we give 343i a lot of flak but it's just because we care

Sure, but sometimes you gotta give them some love as well. Exactly because we care.

l Masko l wrote:

eviltedi wrote:

Fully Skully wrote:

I have bought every Halo game to date with the exception of HW2, because I don't like RTS games. I love Halo and I hate what it's become, and most of us provide relevant feedback without hate. I appreciate the devs work very hard, and if they make a Halo game I like they'll get supported.

I bought it despite not liking RTS games.
Ended up enjoying the campaign.

I loved Halo Wars 2 campaign,i hope we get Halo Wars 3 in the future to complete the story about S.O.F. and Red Team.

l Masko l wrote:

Fully Skully wrote:

I know we give 343i a lot of flak but it's just because we care

Sure, but sometimes you gotta give them some love as well. Exactly because we care.

I always try give credit where it's due

It's a bit of a quagmire. It's possible to respect and appreciate the work put into even games that aren't particularly great or received very well. Halo 4 and 5 have been, to me, serious declines for this series. I've been largely pessimistic about the 343i Era accordingly. That doesn't devalue the work put in by the devs in my mind, but it does speak to the direction and general ideas that have been pushed through to the final products. The mechanical, creative and revenue decisions are made at a level much higher than that of any particular developer who may've come to 343i amidst a field of other options simply for the love of the Halo franchise.

It's the movers and shakers higher up the totem pole that should be the lightning rods for the constructive criticism on the forums here (understanding that much of it isn't put forward very constructively). Any given 343i employee doesn't deserve to hop on the forums and feel personally attacked for the failings of Halo 4 and 5, or for news that casts Infinite in a poor light. But as a whole, these criticisms are hugely important to keep an eye on for 343. There's no price tag on the sort of consumer research the feedback on these forums represents, and although we don't by any stretch of the imagination represent the whole player base for the series, we are generally passionate for the Halo games, and might have perspectives well worth keeping an eye on.

So, yeah, much appreciation to those working hard on Infinite right now! Especially if they're here, navigating the minefield of often very vitriolic and sometimes unfair criticism. I'd just implore them to please not discount all the criticism they see here just because a lot of it is put forward in an unhelpful way.

l Masko l wrote:

Superman Kenobi wrote:

I'm known to criticize the Halo 5 campaign back and forth, but I try to do it in a civil way.
Also, some people sometimes forget that there are those working on the game that agree with the criticism, but can't do anything about it. Because, as you said, the managerial decisions being made "above their pay grade".

We have a saying at work: if everyone just listened to me, I'd solve all the world's problems. Essentially meaning those at the bottom often have many great ideas, but have no way to put them into practice due to managerial oversight. Of course management has the birds eye view and is trying to steer the ship. Sometimes the rower thinks if they paddle in one direction, they will make the ship run better, but management sees a rock across the bay they want to avoid.

The analogy isn't perfect, but I try to remember that there is often a reason why things are done a certain way, and I'm not the one with all the facts. That doesn't mean management is always right, but they're usually working with more information than me. Then you have to consider the fact that while 343 management is steering the ship, Microsoft is on the phone telling them what to do some or most of the time, even if management doesn't want to do it that way.

I think that it is difficult task for anyone to resume the work of original creators,be it in Movies,Games etc.At least not without some backlash from fans of the original.Imo 343 did a lot of good stuff with continuation of Halo series.They remastered old games,made Halo Wars 2 and put a lot of new lore into Halo Universe.For me Halo 4 and 5 had great graphics,performance,sound effects and pretty good music and story.The one thing i wished they have done better in Halo 4 and 5 is gameplay and enemy design.