By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Mummelmann on 11 April 2015
Edit Thread
Mr Khan said:
Mummelmann said:
"having a friendly in-game environment was more important than being able to plan and coordinate with teammates using voice chat."

That really says a lot, and this is part of the reason why these IP's will never live up to the biggest franchises in more mainstream genres. There are plenty of reasons for all sorts of censorship and/or protection in games but this is taking it too far; there are several other ways of doing it, some which have already been mentioned in this thread.

The key is if you design the game with this in mind. If 343i decided to drop voice chat from Halo 5 at the last minute, the game would be an inferior experience for lacking it. If you build it with the idea that you were never going to have it, however...

Well, we'll see how well it works.


My main gripe with that idea would be that it would appear that they intend to make a multiplayer shooter which makes it difficult to coordinate; which is a key element to most strategies in all shooters with competitive elements. If I play Battlefield on my PC, I can simply write to my squad in the chat when I use my K & M controls but this is not a luxury that console gamers usually have so you would either need to implement a map system which sort of negates the purpose of strategy if it reveals anything significant on the enemy's position or make the game is such a way that the actual competition part of the gameplay has less focus. Either way; it could potentially harm the game's appeal as an online shooter with a possible audience of any size.

To me, it looks like they're trying to sell this game to people who aren't otherwise very interested in online shooters, which is okay for what it is but I think it might end up as something less than it could be if they go this route and I don't think that this is the best demographic for them to aim at.
Options for voice chat, or even a "safe mode" would be better solutions, wouldn't even be hard to develop; the normal and hardcore modes of Battlefield games are quite different from one another but contain all the same base mechanics.

Heck; I think that this is what I'd do as the head of a project like this with some potential; a softer mode for younger players and a more competitive mode.