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[Syriel]

That was cleverly deceptive marketing for an intended reason to do with the games message. It was cleverly edited, but nothing they showed wasn't in the game. As mentioned in the video, all of this promotional material never actually happens or exists in the game.

Also for future reference check out this vid before commenting on MGS2 again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-2YuPGYabw

That is not true of the original MGS 2 trailers. Sequences where you only play as Raiden were shown with Snake.

I've not played the game yet, so I can't call you an idiot for not seeing clear distinctions between this marketing campaign and what actually exists in the game. Maybe I'm the idiot. I'm drawing my conclusions based on the article.

Remember the Halo Reach campaign with live ads that featured other spartans? Those scenes never existed in the game, but at least they weren't fabricated from stardust. IThere was potential for that stuff to have happened at some point in the fiction of this universe. The shit we've been shown for Halo 5 however, doesn't even happen in extended made up fan fiction. It's just...... *PURE* fluff. At this point, is there even a remote possibility the campaign is as interesting as we've been led to believe? I've skipped all the campaign footage of late so all I've actually seen is that bullshit hallway demo from E3, which looked more boring than COD. Frankie confirmed it was just a cinematic sequence for demo/co-op/polish purposes.

I'd have rather just seen a trailer, personally. That demo killed my hype and it's not been back since. Well, it's obviously there to some extent (thanks Bungie!) Enough to have me pre-load the thing.

The most recent live action TV ad, linked in the article in the OP, is true to the game, at least from Locke's point-of-view, at a certain point in the story.

That's part of the issue with a dual narrative. Just because the player/reader/viewer knows things doesn't mean the individual characters know those things.

Sorry for being vague, trying to avoid even a hint of a spoiler.

 

[sora87]

Wow, didn't expect this from the IGN xbox crew. Good on them I guess.

 

[CloudyTuba]

He's right though. The ads give us the idea of some grand conspiracy, hunting Master Chief, and a story told from multiple perspectives. It would be a reasonable expectation that at least some of it is in the game. None of it is.

Well that sucks. I was looking forward to that. I expect ads to be a bit deceptive and even take a bunch of liberties for effect, but not to blatantly make an entire plotline up.

 

[TheSpoonyBard]

This is an example of misleading advertising, tbh I didn't really care that much in the end as most story trailers I tend to take with a grain of salt.

How is this misleading? This is literally a cutscene from the game (mild spoilers).

 

[neogaffer1]

not really...

This posts and others honestly sounds like Defense force 101.

Last time I played Halo was on the original Xbox. For someone coming back into the series, or for just new players who were intrigued by the ad of Master Chief being the villain, and themes of betrayal and different points of view highlighted, for the game to hardly touch on those issues is disingenuous. Now, would I be mad at that? I doubt it, just trade it back in and get on with gaming as usual. Besides the click bait article though, seems like a reasonable complaint.

that's the thing though, they haven't really pushed the idea that he's a villian at all in recent stuff. the closest you get is that one ad where Locke/Chief is wounded and the other walks up to them, but even that just tied into the first season of Hunt the Truth, where he is seen as a villian because of ONI propoganda, but that entire piece of media only exists to give background to what ONI is as an organization, and resolves itself by the end of the season. most of his complaints stem from "this trailer isn't exactly like the game," which is just a dumb complaint because most games have trailers that don't line up with the finished product in a very clear way. if you look at the most recent stuff, it portrays the conflict as oni telling locke "chief is no longer under our control, we're telling the public he's dead so you can go grab him before he does anything that might hurt us"

 

[PhineasRed]

Lying? A developer that has gone out of their way to interact with listen to its fan base, be upfront with the games features, and let people see and play a huge portion of the final product prior to release? What aspect of this game, technical or gameplay wise was not openly discussed ahead of time?

All of a sudden the same sort of live action trailers that we have seen for years, trailers that show the game world and set the overall tone for a game, need to show scenes that are in the game or they are dishonest? I can't even believe that the reveal trailer was even mentioned in this context.

This sort of stuff is embarrassing. Calling out shit behavior is one thing, but this is a manufactured controversy.

 

[Astral Dog]

Character motivations are portrayed differently in the commercials than how it plays out in the game.


But thats very common, Marketing 101, remember Gears of War? Its not the first game to do this and it wont be the last.

 

[shoreu]

not really...

This posts and others honestly sounds like Defense force 101.

Last time I played Halo was on the original Xbox. For someone coming back into the series, or for just new players who were intrigued by the ad of Master Chief being the villain, and themes of betrayal and different points of view highlighted, for the game to hardly touch on those issues is disingenuous. Now, would I be mad at that? I doubt it, just trade it back in and get on with gaming as usual. Besides the click bait article though, seems like a reasonable complaint.

That was ONI fooling you. It was deliberate and you find out about the truth via the campaign.

 

[PooBone]

That is not true of the original MGS 2 trailers. Sequences where you only play as Raiden were shown with Snake.



The most recent live action TV ad, linked in the article in the OP, is true to the game, at least from Locke's point-of-view, at a certain point in the story.

That's part of the issue with a dual narrative. Just because the player/reader/viewer knows things doesn't mean the individual characters know those things.

Sorry for being vague, trying to avoid even a hint of a spoiler.

I greatly appreciate it.

EDIT: 30 minutes to go

 

[Northeastmonk]

The Halo 5 reveal was MC in the desert with the thought of giant sized battles taking place. Months later it's all on Locke and then we see them together on the cover.

It's taken a weird direction.

 

[PooBone]

The Halo 5 reveal was MC in the desert with the thought of giant sized battles taking place. Months later it's all on Locke and then we see them together on the cover.

It's taken a weird direction.

Still totally there, by the sound of it.

 

[TalonJH]

I'll start by saying i'm more a PS guy but Halo and Gears are the reason I also love MS consoles. They really are great games. That being said, Team XBox at IGN have been really hard on Halo's SP today. I wonder if it really is that bad. I still have to see it for myself. I wasn't a huge fan of Halo 5's story but I was mostly because I wanted them to move on from the covenant.

I don't have a problem the the ads as long as it does tell a "okay" story.

He look like a broke ass Ice-T

That is Ice-T.

 

[Fantomex]

The Day People Hated on Halo

He look like a broke ass Ice-T

 

[SolarMystic]

I just saw this article. I guess it's a good thing I was on a media blackout! Everything will be a surprise to me!

 

[gabbra49]

Destiny was worse. Bungie shipped that garbage knowing full well how bad it was. Go read Jason schreirs article on kotaku. That's REALgames journalism.

 

[Azar]

Don't take too much stock in reviews.

I have long-time hardcore Halo fans telling me it's the best Halo campaign to date.

I'm very anxious to get my hands on it as a longtime Halo fan to find out for myself.

Reviewers, especially with Halo, tend to not know what Halo fans truly want.

It is most definitely not. It's better than Halo 4's campaign, though.

 

[SRTtoZ]

I like Ryan but he reminds me of a real life XBL avatar.

 

[ForsakenLotus]

There is a difference between showing content that ultimately isn't in a game and purposefully misrepresenting the themes and potential narrative arcs to expect in the game. The latter to me is far, far worse.

 

[TheOddOne]

that's the thing though, they haven't really pushed the idea that he's a villian at all in recent stuff. the closest you get is that one ad where Locke/Chief is wounded and the other walks up to them, but even that just tied into the first season of Hunt the Truth, where he is seen as a villian because of ONI propoganda, but that entire piece of media only exists to give background to what ONI is as an organization, and resolves itself by the end of the season. most of his complaints stem from "this trailer isn't exactly like the game," which is just a dumb complaint because most games have trailers that don't line up with the finished product in a very clear way. if you look at the most recent stuff, it portrays the conflict as oni telling locke "chief is no longer under our control, we're telling the public he's dead so you can go grab him before he does anything that might hurt us"

ONI directly talks to Locke in this trailer.

 

[Alienous]

I don't understand how people are OK with this.

I was more interested in Halo 5 because of the marketing than any prior game in the series, and it would seem a lot of that is fluff. Using the story that thought people would want to see to sell a different one. It's been the driving force of a lot of the marketing. It goes beyond exaggerating story elements into the realm of creating exciting ones for the marketing that are divorced from the game the marketing is trying to sell.

 

[sirap]

This was my take on Halo 5 as well. What a massive disappointed, I was legitimately looking forward to seeing the conflict between Chief and Locke :/

Didn't help that they made Locke such an uninteresting character too.

 

[Industrialist]

Don't take too much stock in reviews.

I have long-time hardcore Halo fans telling me it's the best Halo campaign to date.

Sure, if you want a critical and unbiased analysis of something, always ask a long-time hardcore fan of the franchise. They almost never work on a rating system that is either 0/10 or 10/10 with nothing in between.

I don't understand how people are OK with this.

It's not about people being "OK" with it. It's about "What the hell do you expect anyone to do about it?"

What do we do if we're NOT "OK" with it? Take the game back to the store/refuse to buy it/demand a digital refund? Start a toothless and worthless petition? Fire Tweets at Spencer until he apologises? Boycott 343?

Plus, how many people did the advertising actually sell the game to? I'd reckon that the people who are up in arms about it were going to buy the game anyway, so what's the issue? Ain't no moms out there going "Ooh! I might buy Halo 5 for Jimmy for Christmas because STORY BEAT X looks like it will happen."

Every other advert you see on TV will be lying to you one way or another. It's been happening for YEARS without anyone complaining. Hell, some of the ads for PS2 games back in the day were nothing but absolute horseshit and bullshots. This is just another thing for gamers to get their panties in a bunch about because it's way easier to do that than to actually sit down with a controller in hand and play a game of some sort.

 

[Halabane]

Is lying no longer lying when it's done frequently enough that it becomes the expected behaviour? If so I need to start telling more lies.

Yes and No.

 

[Forkball]

You probably don't even get to play as Halo.

 

[ArjanN]

I'm not sure what is expected here. I haven't played H5 but not REALLY being about locke vs chief seemed obvious from the jump, they don't want to spoil the other stuff.

I don't think we're talking about an intentional deception on the level of say, MGS2 where they literally were showing footage with the wrong character to fuck with the playerbase, so who cares? (and MGS2 was brilliant).

Pretty much. Yeah, it's misdirection, but essentially done so they can show stuff without actually spoiling everything.

 

[TheSlySoul]

To be fair, all video games ads lie. Assassin's Creed only quoted 9/10 reviews on thiers. I would not be surprised if they used Bullshots in ads.
Edit: Not that I am saying it is right. It will not stop unless people stop buying AAA games.

 

[Alienous]

It's not about people being "OK" with it. It's about "What the hell do you expect anyone to do about it?"

What do we do if we're NOT "OK" with it? Take the game back to the store/refuse to buy it/demand a digital refund? Start a toothless and worthless petition? Fire Tweets at Spencer until he apologises? Boycott 343?

Plus, how many people did the advertising actually sell the game to? I'd reckon that the people who are up in arms about it were going to buy the game anyway, so what's the issue? Ain't no moms out there going "Ooh! I might buy Halo 5 for Jimmy for Christmas because STORY BEAT X looks like it will happen."

Every other advert you see on TV will be lying to you one way or another. It's been happening for YEARS without anyone complaining. Hell, some of the ads for PS2 games back in the day were nothing but absolute horseshit and bullshots. This is just another thing for gamers to get their panties in a bunch about because it's way easier to do that than to actually sit down with a controller in hand and play a game of some sort.

I just hope people don't roll over and say "Well, that's ok".

And no, this isn't an everyday case. This is constructing and pushing an ongoing narrative in marketing that misrepresents the narrative of the game. They contradict.

I'm not a Halo fan, but I was interested in picking it up because of the marketing, and the reasonable assumption that it was representative of the story the game (which the marketing was for) would tackle. Hearing that wasn't the case I've looked the story up and surprise surprise it's exactly what I would have otherwise expected to follow Halo 4, and not nearly as interesting as the marketing story.

How many copies of the game did the marketing sell? Not none, I can assure you.

I'm not asking you to do anything. Do nothing. But you're doing the opposite, you're defending this shit by suggesting 'Every other advert' does what Halo 5's marketing campaign did, which isn't the case. evidenced by the fact that we don't have this thread for every other game.

So don't get your panties in a bunch, whatever. But this is bullshit.

 

[Roufianos]

Why wasn't the same article made about MGSV?

 

[Diprosalic]

i don't blame the marketing team, you can't work with the garbage 343i provided. better to just create something new.

 

[BokehKing]

This sort of stuff is embarrassing. Calling out shit behavior is one thing, but this is a manufactured controversy.

So we going to act like after the first dual view commercial came out there was not multiple page threads of people discussing team Locke vs team blue, what could have happened, how did it get to this point, ect ect

But no the game is not like that at all
I want to play the game that the hunt the truth promo and podcasts where supposed to bridge the gap to, not this.....well I won't put spoilers

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

I don't see why this a big deal because this is simply par for the course.

Any ad agency worth their salt is going to have to squeeze a non-existant narrative to create a sense of urgency, mystery and player connection that does not exist in the game. Hunt the Truth is simply born out of that and was little more than a tagline on a whiteboard. How much of the Halo 3 marketing campaigns were representative of anything in the game? None of it.

I think this is just a bigger deal because of how poorly 343 is being accused of handling the story in general.

i don't blame the marketing team, you can't work with the garbage 343i provided. better to just create something new.

This is it in a nutshell.

 

[Auctopus]

This is such clickbait. Mitch Dyer never fails to impress me by how much of a hack he is.

This is the guy who said you couldn't see 1080p until you had at least a 47" TV. His HoTS review was pretty embarassing too.

 

[DudeWithNoName]

I wonder if some will accuse JJ Abrams of "lying" in the commercials when TFA releases.

 

[Tal]

This is just bizarre in the extent of it. Stuff like this happens all the time, sure. Master Chief never "activated his grenade" in Halo 3, for example. But those ads still sold the general gist of "hey the chief is a hero and he's gonna finish the fight!!"

This is just selling a completely different plot from the actual game. And not just in a trailer or two that someone had to hastily cut together, there's been a committed effort to sell Halo 5 as the story of Locke hunting down the traitor Master Chief. It's right on the cover, Locke and Chief staring each other down.

And it's apparently not even for any particular thematic purpose, like MGS2?

 

[TheOddOne]

The game is still very much about team Osiris vs team Blue, but people expected that that dynamic would never change. Which is strange and a weird thing to be hung up about, because it could have gone either way—they could remain enemies or they bond. Wishing it would stay the status quo as presented is a bizarre way to criticize evolving storylines.

Also considering that even the marketing gives away that not everything is as it seems. The whole theme for the marketing was conspiracy, from Hunt The Truth to Live Action trailers.

 

[a.wd]

Haven't yet played the game, but from the snippets that I have seen this is all part of a wider narrative of media, from Ads to podcasts to comics that tell conflicting and overarching narratives in different ways to different people.

But Halo has an EU. You don't need to engage with it to enjoy the game, but I know that in star wars, certain characters that get a 1/2 2nd of screentime will probably have massive stories that I can get into that I want, but it doesn't affect the film I am watching.

I know that Chief and Locke are being manoeuvred around, and we aren't seeing the full story and that ONI is creating false narratives for whatever reason, but I don't think that 343 is lying to us in using that to create mystery and engagement.

 

[Newtype-001]

I said this in the review thread as well but this is all so weird.

 

[VinFTW]

Sure, if you want a critical and unbiased analysis of something, always ask a long-time hardcore fan of the franchise. They almost never work on a rating system that is either 0/10 or 10/10 with nothing in between.



It's not about people being "OK" with it. It's about "What the hell do you expect anyone to do about it?"

What do we do if we're NOT "OK" with it? Take the game back to the store/refuse to buy it/demand a digital refund? Start a toothless and worthless petition? Fire Tweets at Spencer until he apologises? Boycott 343?

Plus, how many people did the advertising actually sell the game to? I'd reckon that the people who are up in arms about it were going to buy the game anyway, so what's the issue? Ain't no moms out there going "Ooh! I might buy Halo 5 for Jimmy for Christmas because STORY BEAT X looks like it will happen."

Every other advert you see on TV will be lying to you one way or another. It's been happening for YEARS without anyone complaining. Hell, some of the ads for PS2 games back in the day were nothing but absolute horseshit and bullshots. This is just another thing for gamers to get their panties in a bunch about because it's way easier to do that than to actually sit down with a controller in hand and play a game of some sort.

On mobile so I'm not gonna erase all of this. To respond to your point to me, the people I ask are critical of the franchise.

They don't just like it because they're fans. But hey, thanks for assuming I'm an idiot and I'd only ask fanboys for their "biased" opinion of the game!

 

[Z3M0G]

Huh... that's true... watching the video, none of that stuff that

Spoiler

they have used to market the game never actually happens in the game

...

 

[Give War A Chance]

It's always a great time to be on GAF when a big exclusive releases.

Seems like this happens more and more lately, and it's just becoming a "thing." Seems like just lying about something like this would be illegal, but I guess it's not false advertisement or the like.

It really kind of reminds me of Chappie. That movie... nothing like the trailers they showed in the theaters...

 

[ArjanN]

Meh, lying would be if they said there are 10 levels and there are actually 5, or if they said there is a multiplayer mode and there acutally isn't.

This seems way more like the type of misdirection well-made movie trailers use to not give away most of the story in the marketing material.

 

[Give War A Chance]

Meh, lying would be if they said there are 10 levels and there are actually 5, or if they said there is a multiplayer mode and there acutally isn't.

This seems way more like the type of misdirection well-made movie trailers use to not give away most of the story in the marketing material.

I'm sure you could understand why people might be a little upset with misdirection when they're buying something though, yes?

Also, I feel like most movies have just given up on misdirection in trailers and have just moved on to spoiling everything.

 

[Signet Son]

It was clever and GOOD advertising. It's not a lie. To me the Locke and Chief ad showed the deception of ONI and how Chief was being framed which went perfectly with the HUNTtheTRUTH series. It's not lying. The IGN article reads like a tabloid. I honestly dont really care for Mitch and his opinion, but he's entitled to it. I'm just happy that Halo 5 is fire and majority of players seem to feel the same way.

 

[nekkid]

Is there the slightest chance that many people in this thread, and the author of the article, are reading waaaay too much into this?

"Lied"...lol, please.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I'm not the tiniest bit surprised to see this desperate hunt for hits on the day of the game's release. I won't dare read this for fear of spoilers, but based on some early posts it seems as if people are saying that Halo 5's marketing played up the "hunt the Chief" aspect a lot more than what's actually represented in the game, and as such they believe the marketing lied.

Actually, it really doesn't work that way at all, and this isn't even just limited to videogame marketing. A lot of times a marketing campaign will build up a specific aspect more so than it might be represented in the actual finished product, just to help build up the excitement. I take it a hunt for the Master Chief and Blue Team occurs, but it doesn't end up being much of a prolonged hunt once other bits of information come to light. I don't have much of a problem with that. We always knew that the Master Chief wouldn't exactly continue to be seen as this huge threat that had to be stopped. Then again, I've still only played just the first level of the game. I'll reserve further comments until I've played more.

Meh, lying would be if they said there are 10 levels and there are actually 5, or if they said there is a multiplayer mode and there acutally isn't.

This seems way more like the type of misdirection well-made movie trailers use to not give away most of the story in the marketing material.

Annnnnd we're done. Really all there is to it.

 

[Signet Son]

Meh, lying would be if they said there are 10 levels and there are actually 5, or if they said there is a multiplayer mode and there acutally isn't.

Yep...this

 

[dragonelite]

It was clever and GOOD advertising. It's not a lie. To me the Locke and Chief ad showed the deception of ONI and how Chief was being framed which went perfectly with the HUNTtheTRUTH series. It's not lying. The IGN article reads like a tabloid. I honestly dont really care for Mitch and his opinion, but he's entitled to it. I'm just happy that Halo 5 is fire and majority of players seem to feel the same way.

Kinda like masterchief died trailers...

Get the HuntTheTruth team to write halo 6 story, people seems to like it.
Haven't gotten time yet to listen to it.

 

[Signet Son]

Kinda like masterchief died trailers...

Get the HuntTheTruth team to write halo 6 story, people seems to like it.
Haven't gotten time yet to listen to it.

That's what I was hoping for. Whoever did HUNTtheTRUTH NEEDS to write Halo 6. I nearly marathoned the entire thing because it was so good.

 

[bidguy]

you mean like the halo 2 or 3 ad campaign ?

 

[Stinkles]

In this thread people who are actually quite sophisticated consumers of marketing, fiction and theatrical misdirection feign ignorance and ignore the rest of the campaign including the tv spots and other material that literally told you to question the validity of the narrative.

The campaign was literally called #huntthetruth

Also I'll save you the effort of responding

yes but something something less sophisticated viewers something something what if they didn't watch it all outrage concern something

It's perfectly fine to dislike it but by this measure the Usual Suspects is a glittering palace of lies.


Another time saver.

not as good as Usual Suspects how dare you

Ad infinitum.


If we were going the route suggested here why wouldn't we just say it came with a free car?