A Fan Feedback Letter to the HCS Team by Vin FTW

[VinFTW]

My 4000+ word fan-feedback letter to 343 and the HCS Team

 

Enjoy the read and don't mind my various exporting processes somehow converting some of my roman numerals out of order/incorrectly numbering them. 

 

Cheers,

Vin FTW

[T0rM3nTeD]

Good read with some good ideas. Hopefully a little bit of it is implemented.

[VinFTW]

Good read with some good ideas. Hopefully a little bit of it is implemented.

Thanks for taking the time to read it! Means a lot and I really hope so too. 

[TheSaltMine]

Honestly, a waste of a day off. You used the word freshman to describe the size of the paper, but it also describes every other aspect as well. This was basically an extended forum post and it read like one.

[VinFTW]

Honestly, a waste of a day off. You used the word freshman to describe the size of the paper, but it also describes every other aspect as well. This was basically an extended forum post and it read like one.

Thanks bud!

[TheSaltMine]

Thanks bud!

Why the neg? You asked what people thought. Do you just want the circle-jerk responses?

[T0rM3nTeD]

Why the neg? You asked what people thought. Do you just want the circle-jerk responses?

I personally negged you for being a dick about it instead of offering constructive criticism or saying why you think it was pointless.

[VinFTW]

Why the neg? You asked what people thought. Do you just want the circle-jerk responses?

 

 

I personally negged you for being a dick about it instead of offering constructive criticism or saying why you think it was pointless.

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts, not a salt mine. 

[NavG123]

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts, not a salt mine. 

Sometimes feedback comes in a big salt brick. It's up to you to break that brick up and sprinkle a little on everything that could use a little salt.

[TheSaltMine]

Fair enough. I am on a mobile device so I am not going to give a long response now. I will do it the next time I actually have a physical keyboard. Also, looking back my comment did seem harsh. My apologies.

[VinFTW]

Sometimes feedback comes in a big salt brick. It's up to you to break that brick up and sprinkle a little on everything that could use a little salt.

I feel like this is too deep for me 

 

Fair enough. I am on a mobile device so I am not going to give a long response now. I will do it the next time I actually have a physical keyboard. Also, looking back my comment did seem harsh. My apologies.

I'm not a good writer, I have NO doubt it's not very well written. 

 

I just really want to hear what you guys think about the actual content in the letter, not so much the writing/format/grammar. 

[GANGSTERDOG]

Honestly, a waste of a day off. You used the word freshman to describe the size of the paper, but it also describes every other aspect as well. This was basically an extended forum post and it read like one.

You didn't mention anything. The man had a point. Especially about twitch and Twitter even tho I didn't know any of the Pros mentioned other than Ogre2

[iEclipseeee]

@@VinFTW I'll give you want you want to hear, not grammar shit. I thought it was very well done on your ideas, I liked how you offered to show how you see it and how 343 sees it. Helps support your point since you acknowledge what 343 feel. I agreed with a lot of your points, and I think it's a good guideline for 343 to follow and try help improve the scene.

 

@@Sal1ent I recommend you read this.

[Skai]

Great post, now I hope they read and integrate your ideas as I personally think they're amazing.  You're not asking for much, we're asking for what we should get from them but don't.

[VinFTW]

You didn't mention anything. The man had a point. Especially about twitch and Twitter even tho I didn't know any of the Pros mentioned other than Ogre2

Which is a testament to my point right? :P

[T0rM3nTeD]

Which is a testament to my point right? :P

I don't know how you're interested in halo enough to find the beyond forum but don't know who Ninja, Snipedown, or Roy are...

[Joseph]

Hey guys,

 

Good read, I agreed with a lot of your points. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

As far as the community section and Beyond is concerned: I had a very productive phone call on Wednesday night with Che (343 Franchise Media Director for those unaware) - the point of the call being (from my end) that both sides have both been working separately, in parallel, to accomplish to same thing, and it didn't particularly make sense to either of us. Instead of being divided I suggested that we combine our efforts, as like I mentioned previously, both camps have the same goal: Grow Halo eSports.

 

The call from that point was extremely productive, and we are working on ways to integrate each-others efforts where it makes sense. 2016 is going to be a huge year for Halo eSports, and anything Beyond can do to assist in making any official Halo eSports initiative successful we are of course willing to do.

[Shekkles]

Hey guys,

 

Good read, I agreed with a lot of your points. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

As far as the community section and Beyond is concerned: I had a very productive phone call on Wednesday night with Che (343 Franchise Media Director for those unaware) - the point of the call being (from my end) that both sides have both been working separately, in parallel, to accomplish to same thing, and it didn't particularly make sense to either of us. Instead of being divided I suggested that we combine our efforts, as like I mentioned previously, both camps have the same goal: Grow Halo eSports.

 

The call from that point was extremely productive, and we are working on ways to integrate each-others efforts where it makes sense. 2016 is going to be a huge year for Halo eSports, and anything Beyond can do to assist in making any official Halo eSports initiative successful, we are of course willing to do.

 

This is fantastic news!

[Quinny___]

Good read, well done.

 

I always thought having weekly matches on the Halo twitch would make sense. It would be so easy for 343 to do, they have a pro team sitting in their studies.

 

Tell them flick on the stream, play against the community/current pro's for 2-3 hours boom, its only 2-3 hours out of their whole week presumably 40 hours+ but to the Halo community we have interaction with pro's with a quality stream and chance to play with/against them.

[Batchford]

Hey guys,

 

Good read, I agreed with a lot of your points. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

As far as the community section and Beyond is concerned: I had a very productive phone call on Wednesday night with Che (343 Franchise Media Director for those unaware) - the point of the call being (from my end) that both sides have both been working separately, in parallel, to accomplish to same thing, and it didn't particularly make sense to either of us. Instead of being divided I suggested that we combine our efforts, as like I mentioned previously, both camps have the same goal: Grow Halo eSports.

 

The call from that point was extremely productive, and we are working on ways to integrate each-others efforts where it makes sense. 2016 is going to be a huge year for Halo eSports, and anything Beyond can do to assist in making any official Halo eSports initiative successful we are of course willing to do.

 

This is amazing to hear.

 

Rhys told me you have been on the grind on the website side of things. If what you say is true, then he is 100% correct. Nice job to you and Cyren for expanding this website.

[mediabrute]

Hey guys,

 

Good read, I agreed with a lot of your points. Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

 

As far as the community section and Beyond is concerned: I had a very productive phone call on Wednesday night with Che (343 Franchise Media Director for those unaware) - the point of the call being (from my end) that both sides have both been working separately, in parallel, to accomplish to same thing, and it didn't particularly make sense to either of us. Instead of being divided I suggested that we combine our efforts, as like I mentioned previously, both camps have the same goal: Grow Halo eSports.

 

The call from that point was extremely productive, and we are working on ways to integrate each-others efforts where it makes sense. 2016 is going to be a huge year for Halo eSports, and anything Beyond can do to assist in making any official Halo eSports initiative successful we are of course willing to do.

[Joseph]

This is amazing to hear.

 

Rhys told me you have been on the grind on the website side of things. If what you say is true, then he is 100% correct. Nice job to you and Cyren for expanding this website.

 

We have a couple of big developments in the pipeline as always. There will be more to come soon (next week) that the community will enjoy. 

[El Vortex]

We have a couple of big developments in the pipeline as always. There will be more to come soon (next week) that the community will enjoy. 

Good to see that the soon is  gone.

[Joseph]

Good to see that the soon is  gone.

 

A Soon never dies, it is just missing in action.

[Apoll0]

That was all good, all little scatterbrained at times but this is a forum, not CNN so who cares??

I especially liked the comments about stream downtime and caster choice.  Anybody who has watched a stream lately has seen the 'Viewer count' plummet in the time it takes between matches when its just a blue screen showing "Next match in....." and the same 4 videos on a loop.  And one caster should always be paired with one analyst and a "Sideline" reporter.  Look at the way that NFL games are covered. Including downtime, halftime updates with noteable replays from other games, etc.

 

I would add some more details to that:

 

-Fix spectator mode!!!! Being able to see the outlines of the other players is nice and all, but spectator mode has some awful "Aiming lag" (not sure what else to call it).  It makes it look like nobody is hitting anything and that its amateur-hour out there.  You don't get that "Holy shit he never misses" feeling that you should when watching some of these guys play. Edit: case in point.  watching an HCS stream lately and the guy (dont remember who, sorry) being shown was getting perfect kills probably every 2 to 3 kills.  Everybody in the stream was commenting on how if it wasn't for the medals, it would look like the player was dogshit because it looked like he was always missing.

 

-Integrate tournament vids and twitch streams into Halo 5 itself.  You should be able to watch a video while searching for games.  It should NOT auto-play, because that could be annoying AF, but should be available during matchmaking.

 

-Announce HCS related items in the daily message that pops up when you play H5, and update that message more regularly.

 

-Create a 'Sportscenter' type broadcast weekly that you can then link to on the Xbox dashboard itself.  Not in game, not in the Halo Channel, but on the dashboard.  Hire Rooster Teeth or Kotaku or somebody that is already established as a quality internet-media company to help you with production, even if you use your own talent.

 

-Part of having good viewership is keeping people's mind on the game.  That is, attracting people to play halo 5.  Most people are not like us on Beyond, we aren't scouring the internet to find out when the next update is and shit like that.  When an update comes out for games (Halo 5 especially, but really this could apply to any Xbox game) announce it on the dashboard! with patch notes.  I know that the goal of monthly updates to halo is to keep drawing people back to the game, but if they dont know that new content has dropped in the first place...........

 

and... That's all I got for now.