Arbiter In Killer Instinct tease

General Discussion
201

[quote=“Iago407, post:199, topic:4468”]
I’m more just questioning your line of logic. Why is relevance the be-all end-all reasoning for why a character should be picked? Are we thinking about KI as economists? I get that we all want KI to succeed financially for fairly obvious reasons, but to me, a character’s relevance or popularity can’t be the only determining factors for how much a character should be (or deserves to be) in the game and I can’t imagine that’s the only measuring stick Microsoft and Iron Galaxy use.

I mean, if that were the case, you really think KI should have a Battletoad over say… Marcus Pheonix from Gears? He’s far more relevant in 2016 than a Battletoad, regardless of that franchise’s cult following.

So if we’re acknowledging the fact that MS/IG likely used more criteria in choosing these characters, I think it then becomes more possible to have other options like Joanna Dark (whom I think many more thought was a foregone conclusion than Rash, if that says anything about popularity or relevance) or even Kameo.

You think that Arbiter and Rash were the “by far” the best choices of the lot and while I don’t necessarily agree, but I don’t begrudge you for having that opinion and I’m still perfectly happy with those choices. Like I said, I just question the way you arrived at that opinion, even if I’d never question your right to have it. :slightly_smiling:
[/quote]I think it has two major factors:

One would be, fan feedback. Battletoads and Arbiter were two of the most requested characters on the forums among the dozens that were frequently suggested. Some of the other notable ones would have been Kameo of course, then there was Skorge from Gears of War as well as Joanna Dark. I’d say those were the other three top requested characters by the fans.

Secondly, the marketing side: I’m sure the folks at MS had a say in what licenses were on the table as well as what franchises would bring in the most players for KI and make the most profit. Battletoads as I said is such a legendary game that even mentioning its in Killer Instinct is enough to get old school fans interested and playing KI, that’s one demographic. Choosing a Halo character when Halo 5 dropped relatively recently and is working its way up the esports scene works for MS to cross pollinate those two game as well, Halo fans I’ve already observed are going to give KI a spin and some players in the forums here who don’t know the Arbiter are already curious enough to be asking for the Arbiter’s lore and history.

A game like Kameo that is probably never going to see another incarnation isn’t really going to help them sell games, Joanna Dark while more popular than Kameo isn’t really all that interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the original Perfect Dark was a gem, I love it but frankly Joanna is just another spy chick in latex and wouldn’t add much to KI. Plus the later PD games kind of sucked, if PD was to come back today the game I feel would flop. There just isn’t the fanbase or the market for it, the FPS genre is saturated so much so that even Halo is struggling, a PD game right now would be suicide. A Gears character would have fit KI more than the last two mentioned but obviously Halo is their flagship so MS would want to represent that in their cross promotion.

I’m not trying to squash anyone’s hopes of seeing their characters in KI, I’m just looking at it as logically as I can and some of the suggestions while awesome just aren’t logical fits for the two guest character slots we are confirmed to have in season 3.

2 Likes
202

Let’s give sadira a dark kameo outfit
And orchid Joanna suit. That way it kinda fits and works lol. Also if their was another guest character i feel skorge from gears of war or even maybe one of the dead rising characters with their crazy amount of weapons and moves like frank west.

3 Likes
203

I read on Shoryuken .com that they first showed this tease at Halo World Championship tour at X Games Aspen. Any reactions filmed?
I am bummed that we couldn’t get more hyped at our very own KI event. Trailer missed a tease…

204

I want to see that too.

Those people at X Games who were like:

Ok. New map…Elites.

Arbiter…

SWOOSH

KI SYMBOL

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?

2 Likes
205

To make the most of this cross over we really need:

Arbiter in KI
Fulgore armor in Halo 5
Halo announcer to do guest announcer for KI

7 Likes
206

Tj combo Johnson costume!!! Or cortana aria costume.

4 Likes
207

Add in a Fulgore Devastation Beam variant for the Spartan Laser and I don’t think I would need to play any other games this year.

6 Likes
208

A nice Warzone REQ version of the Spartan Laser with a Fulgore skin and Devastation beam SFX.

3 Likes
209

They did show it at KIWC too. Crowd went nuts. I think there is a vine or something floating about of it.

210

I dunno man, maybe you check different sites than I do, but on this site, Joanna Dark seemed like the clear cut top choice among fans from all the threads I saw with Arbiter probably coming in second, but maybe you disagree. I type in “Guest” under the search and most of the threads that come up either mention her in the title or feature her a lot in conversation.

I don’t mean to throw your own words back in your face, but you said this back in August when the whole guest idea first came out:

To be fair, I can’t recall if this was after Rash was announced, or if this was just after it was announced that guests would appear in season 3. But either way, you, along with a LOT of other people seemingly had Joanna Dark right at the top of the list.

I’m trying to look at this as logically as possible as well and I just don’t see “sell more games” as the only motivation MS/IG has here in terms of finding the best fits for guests in this game. I think that Rash is an example of my line of thinking in action.

Battletoads has a loyal, but relatively small cult following, which makes sense since the franchise, which began as a Ninja Turtles clone back in the early 90’s hasn’t seen a sequel since 1994. Yes, it’s on lists and yes there are speed runs, but do either of those make the game iconic?

I’m sorry, but I just don’t see how this franchise is so relevant and so popular as to warrant being such a logical choice if we’re talking about franchises that would bring in the most players for KI and make the most profit. So to me, there has to be other considerations at work.

I think that we just have a difference of opinion here, which is fine. I don’t see Rash being more of a game seller than Joanna Dark, or a character from Gears and even if that were the case, I still don’t think that “moving more units” is the only consideration at play here, nor should it be. I also don’t buy the idea that Rash fills a certain quota for nostalgia any better than Joanna Dark or several other characters might have.

As for Joanna being “another spy in latex” and these other suggestions “not being logical fits” well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but again, we disagree (which again, is still fine). I think that other characters have their followings, they have their backgrounds and their mythos and others can be interesting and if IG’s work on this game thus far is any indication, I really think that they can make a number of characters exciting and/or fun to play as.

Really, you’re not squashing my hopes here. I’m totally okay with the two choices that were made. I just don’t buy how you’re arriving at the conclusion that these were the best options. If it were only selling more units, you go with a Gears character. If you’re talking about nostalgia, Joanna Dark was a much more talked about character on this forum.

Now we’re on the same page! That would be freaking AWESOME!

211

Yeah I did say that way back, at that time I thought that Joanna would have been neat but my opinion had changed since then. Talked to quite a few friends and they had some good points, though I stuck with my Arbiter dreams the entire time.

212

Great to hear that. I have to rewatch this then.

213

Where??? I want see!

1 Like
214

Yeah absolutely, I know that opinions change and that’s cool, I’m just trying to make the point that many people considered Joanna Dark the top option back then. I mean, she honestly seemed like a forgone conclusion a the time.

215

I’m sure someone tweeted it, but can’t remember who. I just looked for it on twitter and couldn’t find it. Sorry.

216

I thought so too for the longest time, I still preferred the Arbiter over her but I wouldn’t have minded seeing her in game. That is until someone brought up the fact that she’s basically just a British Orchid, we already have a character occupying the “sexy spy girl” trope so she really wouldn’t add a heck of a lot to the cast.

The Arbiter is an alien and so is Glacius but in my personal opinion KI is more about interesting looking characters, beasts, monsters, undead, characters who’re non-human are way cooler to me than others. I was disappointed with Kim’s trailer because she just looks like some teen girl with a dragon spirit, when season 2 launched I was bored because TJ and Maya were kind of bland looking too. Adding a duplicate secret agent didn’t sound as good to me once it was pointed out. A huge, heavily armored alien with an energy blade is far more appealing.

I think the Rash debate is relatable to that too, out of all the Rareware characters in existence a giant trash-talking toad fits KI more-so in my opinion than many other options. Sure the toads have a smaller niche following of cult fans but I still feel they’re a larger group than Kameo fans and a group that would be more inclined to play a fighting game than Kameo ones would. Sure the toads are kind of obscure but I feel that the fanbase is just sleeping, when new Battletoads stuff comes out the start crawling out of the woodwork. Guys like my buddy who loved them as a kid and hasn’t played a video game in a couple of years due to family life wants to buy an Xbox One just because of Rash in KI and Rare replay having Battletoads arcade in it. I just don’t see anyone jumping out of their chair and buying a console because a new Kameo game gets announced. Rash might not have been the best choice out of all the series they could borrow from but of the choices fans asked for he’s one of the best fits.

1 Like
217

One problem: how often do you see chief using anything other than guns?

I think the arbiter is an good choice because he has experience in close combat and with the sword in hand he can add a ton of variety potential to his combat.

3 Likes
218

congrats btw BRING PLAYABLE ELITS BACK TO HALO. AND SPLIT SCREEN!

I supposed maybe you guys in return could perhaps give us some KI themed armor as a cross promotion? >u>

Moving on, I look forward to playing as the arbiter in KI.

1 Like
219

How funny would it be if arbiter has an ultimate where you see the other player get shot in the back of the head and chief shows up behind them and goes sorry I’m late.

3 Likes
220

I dunno, I like a good mix of human and non-human characters for KI. There are so many tropes to explore in both that I’d find interesting. A vampire could be a human or a monster. An old sage, an MMA fighter (which could be done very different from a boxer like TJ), a human or monster demon. I don’t really find one side more compelling, though I do tend to think that the more human characters would likely do the heavier lifting in the story while the monsters, ya know, tend to monster more often then not.

I also don’t think that Joanna Dark being a spy has to infringe too much on Orchid being a resistence fighter. I could see Dark having much more of a tech focus, others have mentioned gun-kata, stuff like that.

I do agree with you though that Arbiter doesn’t have to infringe too much on Glacius’ territory either though. They’re both aliens. That’s more or less where the similarities end.

You think that Rash fits KI more than many other options? Not sure I agree there, but I don’t mind his inclusion. Again though, comparing Battletoads small niche following to Kameo’s near non-existent following isn’t really a selling factor if your’e arguing popularity or selling units as a reason for why he belongs in the game because you’re still talking about a small, niche following when there are options from Gears that are likely on the table.

I don’t see anyone jumping out of their chair to buy an Xbox One for a new Kameo, but do you really think that number goes up significantly because a Battletoad is in KI or because a new Battletoads game is coming out? You may think that fanbase is sleeping, but I tend to doubt that it’d be a real system seller. I could be totally wrong though.

Eh, it’s cool though. You think he’s a great fit based on what you like about KI and I can respect that logic. You’re obviously entitled to your opinion. But when you’re talking about sales or nostalgia or best fit or whatever in general, I just don’t see it the way you do. You seem big on him though, so more power to ya. Glad you got the characters you really wanted! You seem cool from your posts that I’ve seen on the forums, so I’m happy for ya.