Why Halo: Reach's Campaign Was Disappointing -Part I

Disclaimer: This is part one of a four part series on why Halo: Reach's campaign was disappointing. This is not a game review.

Halo Reach's campaign was incredibly disappointing. In fact, I was so let down, I felt obligated to write this article. I have a feeling that the Halo franchise, -among many other highly acclaimed franchises- tend to score relatively higher with game reviewers than unknown IPs. So, it frustrates a great deal that Halo: Reach received a metacritic score of 91/100; a score that it did not deserve in the slightest. I have suspicions that this game was treated too softly and was not taken seriously when reviewed; there are just too many problems with this game to think otherwise. Why should Bungie be rewarded when they made such a lacklustre story/campaign? A studio needs criticism to grow and Bungie hardly received any from major media sources. If criticism isn't heard or taken seriously, Bungie's next game will have the same problems Reach has. Hopefully Bungie is still early in development for their next game to consider this criticism.

Are ARGs Still Effective?

Granted, I have no data or marketing experience on the subject, but I can't help but question the effectiveness of alternate reality games (ARGs) today. There's little doubt that ARGs are masters at generating hype for video games, but I fear that viral marketing is so commonplace today, that most ARGs have little effect intriguing a curious crowd. When the ARG achieved large-scale attention with the successful ilovebees campaign, an ARG promoting Halo 2, more and more publishers began using this alternate form of marketing. From Call of Duty: Black Ops to Mafia II to Bioshock 2, alternate reality games seem to be everywhere now-a-days. Their frequent use by publishers in addition to my personal experience with ARGs makes me curious how effective these viral marketing strategies really are. Should every video game have an ARG?  Have the prerequisites changed for ARGs to succeed? I don't have the necessary data to confidently form a conclusion, but analysing and comparing past and present ARGs may present an answer.

Can Star Wars: The Old Republic Overthrow World of Warcraft?

          

It's been seven years since World of Warcraft (WoW) launched in late 2004 to a stunned and budding industry. During WoW's incredibly successful rule, it's surprising a challenger has yet to put up a formidable fight. With the release of Cataclysm, WoW's latest expansion, World of Warcraft now boasts a stunning 12 million players worldwide and- if left unchecked- has no sign of slowing down. With Activision-Blizzard raking in money, it's surprising that it took this long for one of the AAA publishers to commit to the long, expensive quest to siphon some of WoW's profits. We've seen countless MMOs over the past several years buckle under WoW, taking the embarrassing route of going free-to-play. From Warhammer Online (WAR)  to Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), each promising MMO is eventually over-shadowed by WoW's established community, polished game play, and immersive world. Why then, are some people flocking to the notion that BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic (ToR) has a real shot of successfully co-existing with WoW in the subscription-based market?