A Community Torn

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

The reason why I have titled this topic as “A community Torn” is because I see this Halo Community torn and divided by several sub communities.

  • The first community is the Casual Halo Gamer who will be more than happy to go into their local store and pick up a preowned copy of any Halo Game and play it without complaining whether or not the game was good or the online aspect of it was -Yoink-. They enjoyed it nonetheless and had fun playing it. They didn’t take to social media to complain how 343i “ruined” Halo and that after Bungie handed over the reigns to 343i during Reach it has basically gone in a downwards spiral. They enjoy the whole aspect of the game, like the fact that even if you go onto Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 you can still find a game online ( even if you have to wait 10 mins to find a game) the story mode of Halo 3:ODST ties in with the events around Halo 3 or even the fact that Halo Reach introduced us to a whole new Halo all together. WIth new characters being introduced to us and armor capabilities also being new to the Halo franchise. - The next in this community is the competitive players who in all respect may not have played Halo for nearly as long as I have, but seem to be torn too! They are torn and divided by the fact that they still want to play Halo 2, which I might add was released on November 9, 2004. There are those in the competitive community who find it “hard” to accept change and allow 343i to take Halo in a new and exciting direction. They are the type in the community who still believe that Halo 2 could be played for another 10 years competitively and that any other game made after that is not worthy of being played competitively, they believe that armor capabilities are not a thing that should be in Halo, which the CoD competitive players accepted the exo movement,so why can’t you? The other pro players are the ones who openly accept the fact that Halo is needing to move with the times and in order to grow will now need to incorporate new things into the game to attract and grow a new generation of audience who want big explosion and cool effects and completely customise everything about your character. These are the pros who will play Halo whether it is Reach or Halo 4 and will most likely embrace Halo 5 Guardians with open arms when it comes to the competitive scene, they will make suggestion about which guns might need buffed or nerfed and not jump onto forums and social media to complain how a gun is to OP and needs to be nerfed yesterday. - The final community is the “true” Halo Fan, the reason why true has quotation marks is because this part of the community is also divided. They are divided by what they define as a Halo game, there are those in part of the community who seem to have the similar mindset of some competitive players who can’t seem to see that in order for our community to grow things will need to change. They are the ones who believe either Halo 2/3 was a gift sent to us by God himself and that any other Halo after Halo 3 is rip off and not even worth their time to even look at, even though they buy the games and then -Yoink- about it too. The other part of this group of “true” Halo fans are the ones who, no matter the Developer or Publisher, what the storyline is like or even if Multiplayer is having issues they will still buy it and still play it and still enjoy it. They are the ones who like myself, which I proudly admit have Megablocks Halo toys, read the books and who openly accept the fact that 343i is taking Halo in a new direction. A direction which I can see will bring new and exciting things to not only the Halo Community, but bring a new generation of young fresh faced squeakers who will enjoy the game as much as I did when I got Combat Evolved on the original Xbox.

> I am in no way shape or form saying that Halo is dead, but it’s on the table and it needs to resuscitated- Quinn Delhoyo

So remember guys on October 27, 2015 Halo 5 Guardians will be released to the Xbox One.Lets put our differences aside and not only Help our community grow but also help 343i grow!

2

I read the first sentence and was going to post a snarky comment. But after reading all you had to say I agree.

People hate change in the things they love. I personally like the way 343i are taking Halo. I am excited to see what Halo 5 brings.
Well said.

3

Yep, pretty much, we’re here for the love of the game, and the game is looking good. There’s so much in there for casual players and Halo 3 diehards alike. They’ve really stepped up their game by returning to the roots of what made us all fall in love with the franchise and simply improving it technically, but still adding the best of exciting modern features.

I really believe they’ve nailed it this time.

4

> 2533274805962294;3:
> Yep, pretty much, we’re here for the love of the game, and the game is looking good. There’s so much in there for casual players and Halo 3 diehards alike. They’ve really stepped up their game by returning to the roots of what made us all fall in love with the franchise and simply improving it technically, but still adding the best of exciting modern features.
>
> I really believe they’ve nailed it this time.

Oh yes definitely! 343i are taking Halo to where it needs to be. And with the help of the community it can grow to what it was and surpass that! They are moving Halo with the times and that is what needs to happen.

5

Ehh the Halo community has been hellishly awful for over ten years now. One of the oldest things that tore it was the whole argument over Halo 2 being noobified compared to CE (of which I was and still am on the side of “yes it was Halo with training wheels”, still got that youtube video in my favorites) and nobody could amicably agree to disagree on anything. People were just as forceful and argumentative with their opinions then as they are now.

Me I stopped caring about what the rest of the community thinks, got tired of the same -Yoink- time and time again. It looks good to ME so far. I couldn’t give a rat’s behind if the competitive community thinks it’s gimmicky or if people don’t like sprint or smart scope. I like the look of it and I’ll be playing it and judge it accordingly based on my experience. I’ve played every single Halo game to date on every platform they’ve been available for (even Halo 2 PC) and Halo 5 will be no exception.

To 343 I say this, make the best game you can, pour your hearts and souls into it. You have the talent available, utilize it well. So far it’s looking fine.

6

The thing with the internet…Its made every games forums a place for the community to complain. Battlefields is terrible. Destiny was awful!

7

A very interesting read. You have a unique perspective on the Halo community, Thanks for sharing.

8

Very good and interesting read. I believe you left out the “Lore fanatics” at a group. I personally feel like I’m in that group because I really don’t adhere to any of the groups mentioned above…

9

Also the Expanded Universe group!

10

Your conviction is admirable. But I have to say that one of the things I love about The Community is the divisions you describe. I don’t necessarily love the divisiveness that sometimes accompanies it, but I find the differences of opinion to be pretty interesting. And once in a while I meet someone who has an opinion that is 180 degrees from mine, but who takes the time to explain (respectfully) where he’s coming from… and it’s these types of interactions that have taught me a lot about this game that I never would have known otherwise. Seeing things through someone else’s perspective can be a good thing. That said, there is a lot of corrosiveness out there, a lot of “my way or the highway” thinking. But you’ll find that most of that drops away in the months after a launch when the hard core cranks suck it up and play or just leave.

11

The Halo community has sadly been torn since the days of Halo 2. Even the smallest of adjustments seems to set this community off. That’s the way of things though, you are never going to be able to please everyone and there are die hard people in every category.

Me, I’m happy where the game is going and I cant wait to see where MC and Co go in this next tale. My best friend has been ready to march on the 343 building for months lol. Everyone has their own definition on what a casual, competitive, and true Halo player are. I think of myself as a true Halo fan, I am a massive fan of the lore, I play each match competitively but I will never be a MLG player, and I like to just go in and enjoy the game. That is all three of your categories but it doesn’t meat the definition of any of them completely.

12

I’m pretty much the second half of the “true” Halo fans. I’m buying it and I’m enjoying it no matter what because it’s Halo.

13

> 2533275004067364;1:
> The reason why I have titled this topic as “A community Torn” is because I see this Halo Community torn and divided by several sub communities.
>
> - The first community is the Casual Halo Gamer who will be more than happy to go into their local store and pick up a preowned copy of any Halo Game and play it without complaining whether or not the game was good or the online aspect of it was -Yoink-. They enjoyed it nonetheless and had fun playing it. They didn’t take to social media to complain how 343i “ruined” Halo and that after Bungie handed over the reigns to 343i during Reach it has basically gone in a downwards spiral. They enjoy the whole aspect of the game, like the fact that even if you go onto Halo 3 on the Xbox 360 you can still find a game online ( even if you have to wait 10 mins to find a game) the story mode of Halo 3:ODST ties in with the events around Halo 3 or even the fact that Halo Reach introduced us to a whole new Halo all together. WIth new characters being introduced to us and armor capabilities also being new to the Halo franchise.
> - The next in this community is the competitive players who in all respect may not have played Halo for nearly as long as I have, but seem to be torn too! They are torn and divided by the fact that they still want to play Halo 2, which I might add was released on November 9, 2004. There are those in the competitive community who find it “hard” to accept change and allow 343i to take Halo in a new and exciting direction. They are the type in the community who still believe that Halo 2 could be played for another 10 years competitively and that any other game made after that is not worthy of being played competitively, they believe that armor capabilities are not a thing that should be in Halo, which the CoD competitive players accepted the exo movement,so why can’t you? The other pro players are the ones who openly accept the fact that Halo is needing to move with the times and in order to grow will now need to incorporate new things into the game to attract and grow a new generation of audience who want big explosion and cool effects and completely customise everything about your character. These are the pros who will play Halo whether it is Reach or Halo 4 and will most likely embrace Halo 5 Guardians with open arms when it comes to the competitive scene, they will make suggestion about which guns might need buffed or nerfed and not jump onto forums and social media to complain how a gun is to OP and needs to be nerfed yesterday.
> - The final community is the “true” Halo Fan, the reason why true has quotation marks is because this part of the community is also divided. They are divided by what they define as a Halo game, there are those in part of the community who seem to have the similar mindset of some competitive players who can’t seem to see that in order for our community to grow things will need to change. They are the ones who believe either Halo 2/3 was a gift sent to us by God himself and that any other Halo after Halo 3 is rip off and not even worth their time to even look at, even though they buy the games and then -Yoink- about it too. The other part of this group of “true” Halo fans are the ones who, no matter the Developer or Publisher, what the storyline is like or even if Multiplayer is having issues they will still buy it and still play it and still enjoy it. They are the ones who like myself, which I proudly admit have Megablocks Halo toys, read the books and who openly accept the fact that 343i is taking Halo in a new direction. A direction which I can see will bring new and exciting things to not only the Halo Community, but bring a new generation of young fresh faced squeakers who will enjoy the game as much as I did when I got Combat Evolved on the original Xbox.
>
> > I am in no way shape or form saying that Halo is dead, but it’s on the table and it needs to resuscitated- Quinn Delhoyo
>
>
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Q-m2Ki63Q
>
> So remember guys on October 27, 2015 Halo 5 Guardians will be released to the Xbox One.Lets put our differences aside and not only Help our community grow but also help 343i grow!

another “you are nostalgic and entitled unless you are happy with the direction and don’t complain like me” thread. it’s cool that you have a different opinion but don’t misrepresent the people you are indirectly complaining about, because then you have no grounds to stand on.

-i’m a competitive player and i regard CE as the best not halo 2
-all competitive players i played against have played since day 1
-i don’t find it hard to accept change as i accepted change across 4 titles, i simply have an opinion on what i do and do not like, so do others
-halo 2 hasn’t been played competitively since 2007, so…
-armour abilities were accepted, just not as off-spawn abilities hence why jetpack and evade were used in reach and hardlight, thruster and hologram in halo 4
-you’ll find that in videos and discussion the pros also are not in favour of the changes (namely sprint and clamber) however having tournaments in general is their best interest, hence why halo 4 continued for so long despite such scathing negative criticism from pros.
-ghostayame and the others were hired by 343 despite prior to them getting jobs, were actively trying to get sprint, flinch, loadouts and ordnance removed from the game, the patch in h4 came from a document ghost, kurtiz and teambeyond contributed to…the more you know

if i created a thread calling people who accept change as passive 343 apologists who don’t have staunch opinions on the game i’d get suspended or banned, why is there a double standard? i don’t see people like me creating these threads using stereotypes and buzzwords as the main point, yet these threads are a dime a dozen. the ones that do get locked and these ones stay up.

14

> another “you are nostalgic and entitled unless you are happy with the direction and don’t complain like me” thread.

Pretty much my face throughout reading the competitive section.

> They are the ones who believe either Halo 2/3 was a gift sent to us by God himself and that any other Halo after Halo 3 is rip off and not even worth their time to even look at

Both of those games could use a lot of improvements. However at least Halo 3, despite all it’s flaws, is an actually difficult and deep game though. Opposed to Halo 4 where all you do is mash right trigger with the DMR because the aim assist takes care of everything.

15

> 2533274883849234;12:
> I’m pretty much the second half of the “true” Halo fans. I’m buying it and I’m enjoying it no matter what because it’s Halo.

Sums that all up in a bow for me

16

> 2533274836395701;13:
> if i created a thread calling people who accept change as passive 343 apologists who don’t have staunch opinions on the game i’d get suspended or banned, why is there a double standard? i don’t see people like me creating these threads using stereotypes and buzzwords as the main point, yet these threads are a dime a dozen. the ones that do get locked and these ones stay up.

It depends more on how you call them “passive 343 apologists,” and whether or not you seem to know better. If you were to say that “most 343i fans are casuals and casuals don’t have staunch opinions,” I’d consider that a misconception [1] rather than an insult; if, however, you were to say that “343i fans are apologist sheeple,” then that’d be a fairly overt insult. In other words, the OP seems to be misinformed rather than malicious, and if we were to ban every misinformed user who posts a misconception (even if it’s an annoying one), there wouldn’t be very many people left on the forums at all.

In general, we as moderators don’t really care whether someone likes or criticizes the franchise/games/company, as long as they remain civil; in fact, just speaking personally, the most impressive posts I’ve seen on the forums have all been critical of some aspect of the franchise. We just have the very tricky task of balancing the need for high standards with the need for achievable standards.

That said, this really is the kind of discussion that should take place in PMs with the moderation team, though. We don’t allow the discussion of specific moderation actions on the public boards (too much potential for derailing threads), and I don’t want you to get tripped up by that rule if you feel like continuing this conversation.

[1] To clarify an ambiguity here, the misconception is that casuals are easy to please. Even in polite conversation, they’re often talked about as if they just happily consume anything a developer throws their way; but while their standards may be a bit more relaxed or more arbitrary in some cases, they do have standards.

17

> 2533274843742113;16:
> > 2533274836395701;13:
> > if i created a thread calling people who accept change as passive 343 apologists who don’t have staunch opinions on the game i’d get suspended or banned, why is there a double standard? i don’t see people like me creating these threads using stereotypes and buzzwords as the main point, yet these threads are a dime a dozen. the ones that do get locked and these ones stay up.
>
>
> It depends more on how you call them “passive 343 apologists,” and whether or not you seem to know better. If you were to say that “most 343i fans are casuals and casuals don’t have staunch opinions,” I’d consider that a misconception [1] rather than an insult; if, however, you were to say that “343i fans are apologist sheeple,” then that’d be a fairly overt insult. In other words, the OP seems to be misinformed rather than malicious, and if we were to ban every misinformed user who posts a misconception (even if it’s an annoying one), there wouldn’t be very many people left on the forums at all.
>
> In general, we as moderators don’t really care whether someone likes or criticizes the franchise/games/company, as long as they remain civil; in fact, just speaking personally, the most impressive posts I’ve seen on the forums have all been critical of some aspect of the franchise. We just have the very tricky task of balancing the need for high standards with the need for achievable standards.
>
> That said, this really is the kind of discussion that should take place in PMs with the moderation team, though. We don’t allow the discussion of specific moderation actions on the public boards (too much potential for derailing threads), and I don’t want you to get tripped up by that rule if you feel like continuing this conversation.
>
> [1] To clarify an ambiguity here, the misconception is that casuals are easy to please. Even in polite conversation, they’re often talked about as if they just happily consume anything a developer throws their way; but while their standards may be a bit more relaxed or more arbitrary in some cases, they do have standards.

fair enough, i could see how this is misinformed rather than malicious, thanks for clarifying. most of the time the moderation is fine, there does feel like a grey area. though with such a large spectrum of opinions it’s bound to happen.

18

> 2533274819302824;14:
> > another “you are nostalgic and entitled unless you are happy with the direction and don’t complain like me” thread.
>
>
> Pretty much my face throughout reading the competitive section.
>
>
> > They are the ones who believe either Halo 2/3 was a gift sent to us by God himself and that any other Halo after Halo 3 is rip off and not even worth their time to even look at
>
>
> Both of those games could use a lot of improvements. However at least Halo 3, despite all it’s flaws, is an actually difficult and deep game though. Opposed to Halo 4 where all you do is mash right trigger with the DMR because the aim assist takes care of everything.

i don’t want to see the day where beam rifle glitch exists again, or rev sniping. despite being a competitive player i’m not strongly against h5, just not for it either. some design philosophy i applaud, like breaking the pay barrier and trying to make 4v4 maps competitively viable. however a lot of implementations do seem to work against itself. in my 2 cents i think there’s a high possibility we’re going to see a lot of symmetrical 4v4 maps and not many asyms. reach failed, though as a concept i quite liked sword base, powerhouse, boardwalk and reflection (ivory tower, just safeguarding someone correcting me :wink: ). none succeeded but they all felt distinct and unique.

also talking about communities torn 343 are working on making the api accessible, i’m quite certain very few waypointers are really into leaderboards, though there’s a decent community. hopefully custom gamers, screenshot guys, forgers, speedrunners, BTB community, snipes community and montagers get something, it was definitely lacking in h4.

19

Then there’s the newly minted “Fake Halo fans” that are merely halo haters that tagged along with the Halo fanatics that claimed Halo 5 was basically COD from its very first gameplay snippets, so they go out saying things like “I played the Halo 5 beta, and it played exactly like Cod Advanced Warfare”.

20

> 2533274872578239;19:
> Then there’s the newly minted “Fake Halo fans” that are merely halo haters that tagged along with the Halo fanatics that claimed Halo 5 was basically COD from its very first gameplay snippets, so they go out saying things like “I played the Halo 5 beta, and it played exactly like Cod Advanced Warfare”.

not again