I will not deny that I would have appreciated some more surprises about him during this E3 2021, but I must admit that Halo Infinite has me very excited. I will finally be able to drag my friends into this fantastic multiplayer with no excuses.
But its jump to the free-to-play format doesn’t just mean more players on PC and Xbox , but also a generous facelift to Halo’s multiplayer guts, its progress, and how the studio keeps it alive over time. And as a gift, it seems that they are also willing to raise the odd blister within the industry.
From slots to FOMO
One of the main problems with loot boxes , beyond all the bad things they behave and that we have collected in the past in texts such as the psychology of loot boxes, was that they often joined – and joined – two inelegant components like randomness and expiration date .
If you think about Overwatch, for example, to get the special skins for each event you not only had to be very lucky to get those new exclusive designs, you also had to play hard because you didn’t know when they would be available again -if it is. that this happened.
The idea was aimed at being solved with the rise of battle passes that, despite existing before, ended up popularizing Fortnite. With two or three months ahead and a list of the specific prizes that you can get by playing, all the bad things about the loot boxes were apparently out of the equation, but time ended up showing that what was solved on the one hand was twisted for another.
With the intention of keeping the player tied down for the duration of a season and a battle pass, the amount of experience to amass turned out to be enormous and, although the time to reach the end was more than fair in the eyes of some, the Hours available from others were not enough to get all the prizes.
Either you got into the dynamic of playing to get it all, or it was very likely that the money invested in that battle pass would not pay off with the full collection of prizes. In fact, what you would not have achieved before the next battle pass would be lost forever, thus enhancing the anxiety pathology called FOMO, from the English Fear of Missing Out – the fear of missing something.
The name of Halo Infinite al FOMO
What Halo Infinite and the 343 Industries team commendably propose here is precisely to take the next evolutionary leap. From the loot boxes to the battle pass, and from there to the unrestricted battle pass. Out of time limits, ruled out the option to buy levels to take advantage of that anxiety, goodbye to the FOMO .
The intention of Halo Infinite is that the battle pass, which unlike other games like Call of Duty will only include cosmetic elements, accompany you for as long as you need to complete it. Once the season is changed, your Battle Pass and Progress will still be there.
Of course, each new season will bring with it new battle passes with new content , but at all times you can buy your pass both in the new ones and in the previous battle passes. If you start playing two years after launch, you can still get the cosmetic items offered at launch if you wish.
Being able to choose where the points generated during the game will go – in case you want to complete one of your battle passes before others – from 343 Industries also ensure that you will not be able to buy levels to get those elements before. If you see someone who carries them in a game, it will be because they have earned them by playing.
It may sound silly, but for a game with so much to prove, going bare-chested seems like a commendable move. Breaking barriers and conventions is not easy, but being done by a giant like Halo may well serve as an example for the rest and for those who come later. And if it is the player who comes out winning, it will always be something to celebrate and applaud.
