MLG’s Lenoxcoolgamer has come on board at 343 Industries to help in the development of the next Halo.
Lenox is publicly known as just another player in the competitive Halo scene. Behind the scenes, however, fans attest that he was a major player (so to speak) in MLG Halo, directing and producing it’s broadcasts for years. The expectation is that Lenox will bring the expectations of the competitive gaming community to the table.
How relevant will Lenox’s involvement in Halo will be? Well, let’s make a tenuous, but necessary, comparison to Seth Killian, formerly of Capcom and Sony Santa Monica. S-kill was an intensely competitive player in the Street Fighter scene and a founder of the EVO Championship series himself. In Capcom, he was directly involved in the development of Street Fighter IV, which is widely credited for bringing fighting games back into prominence. Seth feels his most important contribution to the game was dissuading Capcom from 3D collision to traditional hitboxes.
In Sony Santa Monica, he then helped develop PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, with other competitive players like Daniel Maniago. Unfortunately for Seth, his involvement did little for that game’s popularity, although it could be argued that stems from factors he had no control in.
So, what can we gleam from this? People like Lenox and Seth Killian can adapt games to better suit the needs of the competitive community, but these are a small dedicated fanbase, and those adaptations may not necessarily help in making a popular game. Of course, Lenox is coming into 343 with a different perspective, so the substance of his contributions may be entirely different as well.
We’ll make sure to keep you up to date with the latest on Halo 5.
