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Bungie Weekly Update 7/9

G

GhaleonEB

Member
http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=449458

The way we made Halo into a greased slide for novice gamers was user-testing. Lots of user-testing. We brought people in, put them in front of the game and watched them from behind one-way glass. We recorded them, analyzed them, questioned them and then we took all that information, changed the game, and did it all over again.

So that's what I did this week. Adrian got the first version of our training system working and we brought in a bunch of people to try it on. I'm not talking about hardcore Halo fans. We brought in a 40 year old mother who only plays games to make sure they are appropriate for her young children (guess what, Halo isn't) and an 18 year old RPG gamer that doesn't like anything that isn't turn based and a 55 year old City Councilmen who only uses his console to play golf games during the winter. Then we threw them into a free-for-all deathmatch game and see how well our training system worked.

It's painful to watch. You want to go rip the controller from their hands and show them how to play. You want to ask them why in the world they aren't reading the help text for dual-wielding. You want to shake them and force them to use the look stick and the move stick at the same time. But you can't because if they can't figure out how to have fun on their own, then nobody else will either.

Luckily, our tests went really well. We had some rough spots, but the 40 year old mother was gunning folks down with dual-smgs within 20 minutes. The RPG gamer was intentionally giving the enemy his Ghost so he could board them and take it back. The City Councilman decided that leaping down on someone and shotgunning them in the head was better than putting for birdie. We've got a long way to go, but Halo 2 is on track to be as user-friendly as the first one. Next week we put the tutorial in the labs, and since it's only half done, I guess I know what I am doing this weekend...
Click to expand...

Halo brings out the best in us all.
 
S

Sai

Member
A nice, long update... With very few "CENSORED"s! Sai is pleased with the update, and the progress they are making. :)
 
W

WHOAguitarninja

Member
"OOOOooo it doesn't feel gooood, to be a haters....

especially when an eliiiiiiite is coming at you, with eight-eighty one...animaters"

I think it's got a nice tune....

too bad you can't attach audio files to posts...I could make a whole song...
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
Sai said:
0_o... Like what?
Click to expand...

the 40 year old mother was gunning folks down with dual-smgs within 20 minutes. The RPG gamer was intentionally giving the enemy his Ghost so he could board them and take it back. The City Councilman decided that leaping down on someone and shotgunning them in the head was better than putting for birdie.
Click to expand...

Like that :p
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
Sai said:
I dunno. I've got some pretty crazy first-time HALO stories of my own. :D
Click to expand...

I just don't believe they got these people to play. I mean, what kind of feedback are they waiting for with these kind of people?
 
D

Daxter Too

Banned
Littleberu said:
I just don't believe they got these people to play. I mean, what kind of feedback are they waiting for with these kind of people?
Click to expand...


They wanted to see if their ingame tutorials were able to teach even a newb like you how to play Halo 2.
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
Daxter Too said:
They wanted to see if their ingame tutorials were able to teach even a newb like you how to play Halo 2.
Click to expand...

Yeah but they said they helped them. What's the point then. Anyway. These are not the kind of people that would play Halo 2 normally anyway.
 
D

DSN2K

Member
I WANT IT NOW :(

B00006IR20.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
 
D

dorio

Banned
Littleberu said:
Yeah but they said they helped them. What's the point then. Anyway. These are not the kind of people that would play Halo 2 normally anyway.
Click to expand...
He said he wanted to help but couldn't.
 
M

Mr. Lemming

Member
Microsoft (and other software companies) has usability labs where they just watch how people react to the software and how they use it, without any outside influence. It is extremely frustrating to watch someone use a piece of software you made and totally miss the completely obvious interface hints that turn a simple task into torture.
 
S

Sai

Member
DopeyFish said:
881 animations for the elite? wtf.
Click to expand...
Just wanted to place more emphasis on this. Keep in mind everyone that those 881 animations he mentioned are from just one animator. :D

It's kind of crazy You know that the Cananimators have been bustin' their asses for months but when you read stuff like this and see the results(review the E32k4 multiplayer demo, the Elite's smooth transitions from one action to another)... It's just extremely impressive, is all. And we haven't seen anything yet.
 
D

DSN2K

Member
DopeyFish said:
they changed the boxart? because quite honestly, that looks a lot better than the already awesome first boxart.
Click to expand...

this is normal version boxart from whats been said. :)

that silver one is the special edition thing.
 
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