Last reply for the night before I conk out;
Childish? Sorry if thats how it came off. It was meant a response to people somehow assuming they know our game balance far better than we do and that we're obviously making a huge mistake. Both Vince in a tweet, and myself in this thread, have said that we think people should just try it and form their opinions. If it doesn't match up with something you like? Ignore it and move on! Thats totally fine, and expected, since we don't think we're making some magical game from heaven than will appeal to everyone.
Perhaps its not the playercount in games like Halo that you don't like, but the game itself? Would adding more players magically have made Halo a game you love? I'm going to wager it wouldn't, since they do have some "larger" game types. The point is that adding more players to a finely designed game doesn't instantly make it better. Assuming it does is what I'd like to call "armchair game design". If that is offensive or childish to you I apologize, but its not meant to belittle anyone or their liking of large player count games.
Oh, and it wasn't playtesters who told us to do 6v6. It was those guys we have on staff called game designers, after playing thousands of hours with the entire company and taking feedback from everyone. We're all gamers here, and all our opinions are heard and used. Stuff like this isn't unilateral decisions from on high - we all want to be proud of the game we ship and enjoy playing it ourselves.
