Haha yea, still though... as nasty as that sounds, it's up to them how they monetize their own product. I'd rather they take the cosmetic route, but whatever.
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Halo Online modders working to strip micro-transactions, release worldwide
- Thread starter mocoworm
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Haha yea, still though... as nasty as that sounds, it's up to them how they monetize their own product. I'd rather they take the cosmetic route, but whatever.
MrGreencastle
Member
I fully expect new versions and competing versions being released in the future. Especially if there are no customs in final.
I don't know how anyone can defend this. Supporting this is piracy.
Gnome Scat
Member
legacyzero
Banned
Now THIS I can see Microsoft getting pissy over.https://campaign.evolvehq.com/
Check out that flow of cash donations:
And the players on Evolve's own app:
No this takes PLAYERS away from the official version. That version won't even be worth playing now because the size of the community is one of the most important aspects of an online game.
Conkerkid11
Member
snip
MrGreencastle
Member
Why? It's a legitimate service and people are donating money to support the devs. I posted the image to show that people are actually willing to pay money up front to play a shitty modded halo 3 online on PC. I don't look down on tunneling at all, it's been a mainstay method of playing online in the Halo community for over a decade, easy. Even before Xbox Live existed.
J
Jpop
Unconfirmed Member
Isn't this basically piracy and theft?
NullPointer
Member
This is what happens when the word free becomes so abused with marketing double-speak.
Only the free parts of a free-to-play game have released here but its still considered piracy and theft. I don't know the legal basis for any of this, for or against, but it feels a little ironic, and on its face no worse than running an ad-blocker in your web browser.
Only the free parts of a free-to-play game have released here but its still considered piracy and theft. I don't know the legal basis for any of this, for or against, but it feels a little ironic, and on its face no worse than running an ad-blocker in your web browser.
Miles Quaritch
Member
https://campaign.evolvehq.com/
Check out that flow of cash donations:
And the players on Evolve's own app:
Profiteering off others work under the guise of 'restoring justice'?
Seems legit.
Surface of Me
I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.
Yeah, but hey do some mental gymnastics and it isn't! MS owes us Halo on PC! They forced our hand man! I want Halo on PC and I should get what I want!
Yea, it's starting to get weird now.
Conkerkid11
Member
snip
EchoChamber
Member
wow the mental gymnastics in this thread.
It is absolutely worse because these players are not apart of the official community. Whether they planned to purchase the paid add-ons or not they added to the online user base.
MrGreencastle
Member
Wait. We're not talking about the same thing I think. This is Evolve app's website, not the ElDewrito or whatever. Evolve is a tunneling/party service for PC games in the vein of Xbox Connect, XLink Kai, Tunngle, Hamachi, etc. etc.
Chemical Rampancy
Banned
What actually pisses me off now is that a non xbox platform currently has the best playable online version of original trilogy Halo. So now people who bought those platforms for Halo essentially wasted their money.
God damn Microsoft are incompetent.
God damn Microsoft are incompetent.
I can't... I can't even begin to process this line of entitled thought. This all comes down to "I want it, and I'll take it.". You are not playing the game within the intent that it was made. Halo Online is a service. Circumventing the service to play the game, is an extreme grey area. Wrapping yourself is righteousness makes you look worse.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Did you really just use the term "xbox-720" unironically? Really?
This entire situation is extremely gross. Even removing the dev team's logo. Ugh...
Compsiox
Banned
It wasnt for US release anyway.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
Piracy didn't stop them from releasing the first two Halo games on PC.
Scully Scully Scoo
Member
i wish there was a master gaming ethics thread so people can take their moral superiority crap in there and leave other threads alone
this is looking promising, i will give it a go in few days
this is looking promising, i will give it a go in few days
I think people are little confused here, evolve is a tunnelling service that emulates a lan connection, think Xbox Connect or similar services that were used for online play for the original Halo release.
Evolve has absolutely zero connection to the mod team (ElDorito or whatever), which has enabled the lan code in the Halo Online game.
Moral super---?? You know devs are on gaf right? I hope the mods are watching this thread.
Miles Quaritch
Member
So, to be clear, you're admitting to playing a pirated game right now and you don't care who knows it?
Huh...
Miles Quaritch
Member
So that's to keep the old Halo PC games online? CE and 2?
My mistake if that's the case. Wasn't inmeditaely clear that's what it was for.
By this logic every console exclusive from every company should be released on PC. Since they're not, these companies have obviously decided that console sales/subscription services/brand image are more important than PC port sales.
Eh. On one hand, I feel bad for Saber getting screwed over by people not paying for their product. On the other hand, the last Halo game I bought felt like theft, so I can't feel too bad for 343/Microsoft losing money because of this.
Conkerkid11
Member
Didn't know there was a rule against this until seeing the GoT thread in OT.
Editing all of my posts.
Please forgive me mods. I just got back.
So to be clear, you are implying that people who play this modified release of a unreleased region locked free2play game are pirates?
I don't have skin in the game either way, but yourself along with rest of the moral super police in this thread are equally on some high horse. 'Neither group is being objective, and the only thing your side of the argument is doing is shitting up a perfectly interesting thread.
If you play a f2p online-only game off of that game's servers then yes, you are pirating it. I don't see how anyone can think otherwise.
Conkerkid11
Member
Halo: Online doesn't have any servers yet.
Halo: Online doesn't have any servers yet.
The modders are enabling a feature which doesn't exist. Based on what you're saying, reviving dead online games through custom servers is also pirating. And there was a massive thread about this last week where GAF agreed that we have a right to create custom servers for games without live servers.
Heck just releasing Halo 3 they would get a load of money.
They would still have MCC collection exclusively on Xbox One.
But but but ... It's in Russia so it doesn't count! Or something like that, based on the convoluted pro-piracy argument here.
Their loss.
I know I won't buy an Xbox One (or PS4) ever again so if MS want my money they know what to do. I don't think anyone is expecting Sony to make a move but Microsoft have promised yet again first-party games on Windows 10. Not sure how PC ports could hurt their brand image though, must be some console warrior BS.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/22/windows-10-xbox/
Nothing in the MS portfolio aside from Gears holds my interest but I'll be keeping an eye on this, anything that can make the PC platform stronger is a plus in my book and I believe supporting Windows 10 (through their store) can only mean massive profit. The big IPs that are on Xbox appeal to PC gamers as well.
No one would expect anything from Microsoft if only they were not the ones promising and never delivering.
PC gamers have been despising Microsoft for a long time and this scorn has been well earned. Up to them to show they want to strenghten Windows 10.
I don't mind supporting them obviously but if they think they can stuck me in their Xbox ecosystem they can go fuck right off.
PC or nothing for me.
MrGreencastle
Member
It's to play any game that has LAN capability over the internet, not just Halo. Halo just happens to be what people are using the service for right now in growing numbers, too. The service has a limit, so the owners of the application allow you to "donate" a minimum of $5 to "skip" the server wait-list that is automatically enabled when the service as a whole reaches a certain number of concurrent users. It virtualizes a local, system link-style environment, just over the web - and makes doing so relatively trivial and adds the interface of "parties" etc to make it easier to understand for non-technical people. Basically the same way people played Halo CE online back in the pre-Xbox Live days.
Of All Trades
Member
How did Microsoft force your hand? Do you have a doctor's note saying if you don't play Halo then you will contract ebola?
Conkerkid11
Member
You can't buy stuff from them game if you lived outside of RU anyways. Its a Russian only game.
Don't get me wrong I see where its a very very thin line, but unless we move to russia we have no way of giving them our money and the stuff we would have to pay for are removed in this version so we are playing it how we only could if we played the RU version since we wouldn't have the option of payment. . Now if the game came to the states then it would be a clear cut case, but here it's a bit tricky.
As I understand it, the software was freely available on the official website. As I understand it, the "modders" have simply reversed engineered dll calls in order to enable dormant code from Halo3 which was included in said freely available release.
I am not a lawyer nor I am not a software engineer, however from my point of understanding I would not call this piracy.
NullPointer
Member
If that community finds that the for-profit elements of the game in the Russian version compelling that option exists. This project (and again, I don't know the legality of it) doesn't use the Halo Online servers, won't get official updates, and doesn't have the pay-to-win elements so its not piracy of the service.
The client, which runs on a user's system, has been disassociated from its official servers and its premium elements and made available for tinkering. If that's enough to destroy the model this game was going to run with, that seems like an inherent risk in taking that approach, not some evil being done to it.
But I may be biased in that I don't see how an audience holds any responsibility to protect a company's business model.
Acting like we are some sanctimonious ethics cops doesn't change what this is. If you want to discuss the actual merits and details of this, go to reddit.
That makes it worse.
Of All Trades
Member
How did Microsoft force you to engage in piracy? I assume that since you used the word "forced" that you may have a specific condition that requires playing Halo to address. Medical issues would be one such reason.
So if the company's business model is selling the game for $60 the audience can just go ahead and steal it in your opinion?
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