I Miss When Multiplayer Games Weren't Changing All The Time - Kotaku

"After patch 1.0.0.4 arrived, many players, myself included, have started dying a lot more often, usually because multiple teams have appeared and attacked us. Many players are placing the blame for this shift on the fact that Bungie increased the noise gunshots make in Marathon. Suddenly, maps sounded like battlefields, and we could hear firefights from all directions."

"A game would arrive, people would figure it out, and then it would start to solidify into a hard object that everyone could learn and play with for years to come. Sometimes this meant that certain guns were forever bad or certain tactics were always overpo[wered]."

Marathon's patch 1.0.0.4 increased gunshot volume, fundamentally altering gameplay by making firefights audible across maps and attracting aggressive players seeking combat and loot. This change increased player deaths and shifted the game toward constant aggression. The experience prompted reflection on how modern multiplayer games undergo frequent patches and seasonal updates for balance, contrasting sharply with older titles like Halo 3 that remained largely unchanged after launch. Those earlier games solidified into stable experiences players could master over years, accepting that certain weapons or tactics might remain permanently imbalanced rather than pursuing endless optimization.

Read at Kotaku