Yeah the gold was not as shiny this year, but before in seasons past they were having major problems with the paint chipping off. Remember some games when an Irish player would tackle someone and gold flakes would go everywhere and there'd be this big red spot on the helmet?
I don't know if the chipping was always a problem pre-2010 and we just noticed it more with HD TV and all that, but clearly that's why they made a change.
I will say though, that ND played in a lot of gloomy games this year. If the sun isn't shining brightly and if there's no stadium lights, the helmets won't look shiny. You can look at some old pictures and see the helmets looking kind of dull.
I guess we should always have shiny helmets like some of the other gold-helmeted teams do...but they don't mix in real gold either.