Quote Originally Posted by teh lag View Post
I fail to see how Windows Live would cause the removal of source material to build off of. As I mentioned, I can partially understand locking the toolset, as some maps could make it easier to get acheivments, etc. However, giving us so little scenery, or removing shaders that are referenced in the Help File, or providing very limited backgound sound... That I don't understand. Maps need atmosphere and mood, and we don't have enough content given to us to have a really big variation.
Just take a look at CE. Mods were developed to the point of conversions with external applications playing an integral role, such as z-targeting for Zelda CE. Putting a limitation on it for something like like is a great way to keep any exploitations for the Live service. There's no alternative provided for wide area multiplay other than the Live service. Lets say you were able to create custom single player maps. You could create a simple box level and give it the same name as the classic maps. That right there breaks the achievement system for campaigns. Lets say you make a custom biped, you could make the whole model register as a head shot. That breaks the Live multiplayer achievements. Things like that are just the tip of the iceberg for things that would make the obsessive compulsive people working on Live overdose on advil. Honestly, I dont know if there are any OCD people at Live, but they have offered gamerscore based contests in the past. Any future ones would be endangered by H2V if the EK was open and integrated with Live.

Really, I get where you're comming from about things like sounds and such, but meh I see where they're comming from.