Completely missed the point. I never said Halo wasn’t goofy. My argument is that Halo’s goofiness trended in one direction for the most part.
Cat ears, eagle strike etc. go in a very different direction. You’re only argument is “people like it and it matches the art style so its fine” which proves my point out.
What you can do is say that you prefer to leave behind the Classic Halo tone and direction but you can’t say these items fit Classic Halo. These items simply do not fit Classic Halo and to deny that is to deny reality.
No, no I didn’t.
Your entire arguement is predicated on your subjective opinion of what one defines as cool
And refered to an undefined tone citing casette futurism. You failed to make any real acknowledgement of the goofiness. Because it undercut you perceived cool tough conception of halo. This one directional goofiness isnt real though. Hot pink flaming headed/confetti popping cat stamped spartans are halo veterans my friend.
Never did mate.
This isn’t classic halo, this is halo infinite a new game that promised a return to the old art style. Which it delivered, to deny that is to deny reality it never claimed it wouldnt provide alternatives. Further we knew about fracture before launch and as you admitted yaroi was fine because you deemed it cool enough. Or whatever loose non committal language you chose to use.
Cat ears are very much something in keeping with the tone of classic halos customisation though.
Many of my old crew rocked tomcat in halo 3 and it was very very cute. And now they have an armour attachment to match.
This is really the crux of the whole thing. Adults that want to argue that some ways of what is effectively “dressing up my virtual doll” is unacceptable compared to their totally cool way of accessorizing. If the ears bother you so much that you need to go on a diatribe about how much you hate them, i suggest buying a mirror and taking a good hard look in it.
A major part of what made Halo Halo was how it presented itself. Adding in stuff that doesn’t fit that destoys Halo’s identity.
Acting like you can magically mix water and oil doesn’t make sense. Some things just don’t belong in Halo. When people play games they have certain expectations for how it should look and feel. Acting like 343 can and should add all the cosmetics in the world no matter how off they are for Halo is the problem and it will only get worse with the current system.
I have a question for you who are pro armors that don’t fit in Halo:
Is there any cosmetics you would be against being added? If not then Halo has no identity to you which means you don’t actually like a major part of what made Halo so popular and are fine with seeing it destroyed.
I really do not get why anyone cares what someone else is wearing in game? Outside of the opening and ending of a match, I never really eyeball someone’s cosmetics. In some ways the adversary having bright, gaudy armor is an advantage as you can spot them easier. I know this for a fact as my friend pointed out mine was loud and I was getting targeted more for it, toned it down and sure enough that stopped.
I have no problem with a toggle to turn off cosmetics if someone wants that.
I’m always curious to know your perspective KC - how would you feel about a world in which there were game modes that limited armor to what a canonical (as written in Fall of Reach,) spartan would wear? Or if there was, say, an Invasion type mode, would you be cool with it if that game mode forced everyone to dark/camo colors and wouldn’t let anyone use armor effects etc? Or even just as an option for players who preferred that kind of experience? I know you have strong feelings about armor customization and personal expression, would this be any different for you?
I’d be a little bummed and I’d REALLY want to know why they’d limit a player’s visual expression/choices in a game where that’s such a huge deal to players.
I’d like a good reason for it. But generally speaking, they sorta’ did this with Invasion and… kinda’ every team game.
Lemme’ put it this way. On my leather jacket, I have a transgender pride flag. Even though I pass visually, vocally, physically, I still want people to know. Luckily I’m tough and 6’3, so most won’t challenge that. But it is an immutable part of who I am.
Expression is important to me.
Sometimes expression makes people mad.
If it’s not the trans pride pin, it’s the side shave. If it’s not the side shave, it’s the dyed hair (Dark to bright blonde), if it’s not those, it’s the chains on my jeans and leather. If it’s none of that, it’s that I’m raucous. If it’s not that, it’s that I hold my little 5’3 girlfriend close and kiss her in public.
I live in a perpetual state of, “Something about me, is going to make someone mad or offend them.” - even though, honestly, none of those things are, like. Bad. The worst they do is make someone uncomfortable, but there’s no hate or bigotry in any of it. Which is why it’s fine.
Cat ears are about the same.
When I see cat ears, I think one of two things after I go, “EYYYYYYYY” and point excitedly.
1: “Hey, nice! Another one!”
2: “Oh neat possibly another furry!”
It’s like, a sign of, “Hey, we’re of a similar mind / part of the same club.” - a members only jacket made of little metal triangles. Do they get some people mad? Yeah, clearly they do, we’re talking about it over a year later.
But to those of us who see each other in matches, cat ear wearer to cat ear wearer, it’s a similar experience to someone wearing a pride pin.
It’s one of those things that reminds you there’s others like you, and you aren’t alone. I like that. It makes me feel good.
And it also makes me laugh when I get hate mail after creaming the enemy team into a fine paste against the walls.
Looking back on your previous points about personal expression in the military, I think its important to clarify… soldiers definitely buy their own gear to supplement their kits, etc., but there is certainly also a limit to that. For example - a soldier could not A: choose not to carry their standard issue rifle because they want a different gun that looks cooler, or B: wear a patch that would expose their position to the enemy.
I think this gets at a simple fact - we’re both interested in different version of Spartans. I love Spartan-IIs, and their, for lack of better word, professionalism. I’m trying to think of good examples of them expressing themselves, but it’s all sort of wonderufly subtle… I remember one of them being described as being kinda rogue because their hair was like just perfectly the max length by regulation. I felt like the S3s in Reach were a bit too unprofessional (and as I mentioned, illogically colorful,) and I’ve found the S4s just laughably unprofessional (really Spartan Ops was the worst of this, but Halo 5 was pretty bad too.)
I understand the lore differences between them, but I do think the S4s shoudl be more professional and serious.
All that said, I think its important to recognize that while not being the worst early 2000s media, early Halo lore is very… binary (in a bad way.) Female representation was poor (I think Cortana is over-sexualized,) and characters like Keys (while I do love him,) are pretty standard super masculine (the pipe, lol.)
Like its 500 years in the future, I feel like Halo can be framed in a cool and military science ficiton way without upholding the same gender standards/binary. That’s all to say that I’m fascinated by the idea of super efficient and professional spartans but simueltanously want much more representation.
Now here’s a fun thought - I think I’ve told you before about my interest in an early war Halo RPG where you start as an ODST then get recruited to ONI and eventually get augmented and get mjolnir… then players could experience the halo world with more expression than ever before - having a custom character model, and choosing your playstyle as well.
Yep. There are loads of rules and regulations on. customizing that is why realistically a spartan would never wear cat ears. I mean yes I did make the point earlier that they COULD be cannon because they are hearing devices but there is many other more practical designs including ones that are smaller and are closer to your ears.
Well if you think spartan 4’s were just teens so they still had the childish mentality. Also they had probably the least amount of behavior training. Though 3’s were literally just cannon fodder so that is why they had so many unique armors. Spartan 5’s though other than 2’s may be the most professional. They are just soldiers (marines, special units, ODST’s and more) but spartans. So yes they may be a little immature because some soldiers are but they joined willingly so they put in the commitment and hours.
Sure, I know that. Though, I have heard many cases of sidearms being custom. But they do use a rifle they’re issued. Besides, it’s not like metal cat ears are gonna’ give Spartans away any more than blue or yellow paint.
I do appreciate you backing up my point about military though, people around here do NOT have the understanding they think they do of it. It’s… Surprisingly lackadasical in some regards. Strict in others.
See that’s the thing. I love all the Spartans, all of 'em. I just don’t want then to be uniform.
Each generation has been different and changed in a myriad of ways that suits them all differently.
Somewhat, though I could complain at length about Chief’s ridiculous gold visor and bright glowing lights he’s always had on his armor. And frankly, how kinda’ useless camo is in the day and age of Halo unless you’ve got multi-spectrum with it.
Y’know that’s the funny thing. Those utter jarheads did grow into what it meant to be a Spartan - and while they weren’t terribly well written and were certainly frustrating, it was a… Not inaccurate version of, “What happens when you give a jarhead supersoldier powers and armor?” tbh. Marines are, known, to be cocky and overconfident.
Consummate professionals on-task too, but having been raised by one… Yeah, the Spartan thing would 100% get to his head.
They are now. Check out all the campaign logs in Infinite, so on and so forth. Those guys fought hard, held the line - they’re people, in a way that SIIs were never allowed to be by their duties, but those guys are still Spartans.
Chief has respect for every generation - and they’ve all carried the torch wonderfully. Those logs of what happened were some lovely seasoning. I hope we can see more of them in action.
After all, that’s us.
Mostly agreed. The first Halo was a pretty cheesy but cool and interesting sci-fi shooter of the times. Bungie did not have the grand plans they looked like they did by Halo 2, for sure.
No disagreement.
Aye yeah that’d be tubular, totally sick tbh.
Skål!
Every Spartan IV is a former active service Marine or ODST.
That’s actually totally untrue. Like that is just, straight up not true. You had the rank and file, most of which were lost at Pegasi - in SPI armor. You had the Headhunters - who were break-offs that had their own modified kit, and Noble Team - who were total anomalies.
Ok well @KCD0DGER I was totally misinformed. A friend of mine who read the books told me most of that info and turns out they were wrong. Sorry about the misinformation.
Yes Spartans 5’s were just a proposed concept…
Everything I said about the Spartan 5’s was actually the description of the 4’s.
Yes though that is true certain regiments of spartan 3’s were just cannon fodder in ONI’s eyes. It really shows that they didn’t care about their soldiers. Really interesting story. Read Ghosts of Onyx for more on that.
Again sorry for the misinformation. I also have not read much lore on the spartans mostly on other branches of the UNSC.
It happens. You’re talking to a veritable Halo encyclopedia, lol, so it’s okay.
Oh you misunderstand, I read every book up to Glasslands. Haven’t read one since - missed out on Cole Protocol, it just didn’t hold my interest. But I’m very knowledgeable on the extended lore.
I can second this. Just finished reading it yesterday.
@LITTLE_LEVEL If you have a library card (assuming you are in the US), there’s a few apps where you can get the digital versions of these books and find stuff you like without spending the money on them. I use Libby & Hoopla.
It is all about consistency. When you drink milk you don’t want it to be chunky. You want an even consistency to it. Thats what we want out of Halo.
Its a bit more in depth here as we want more than just Art Style consistency, we also want an Art Tone that is consistent. Halo armors/cosmetics pre-343 generally trened towards a certain tone (the single exception i can think of is the hearts kill effect from Reach).
This visual style and consistency of Halo is (well was) one of its greatest standout features and what made it so iconic.
The need to express your unrelated “interests” is taking president over keeping the game cohesive in the way it originally won over so many players. Not a single person is playing Halo because they have cat ears/eagle strike armor etc. At the least they irritate players and at the worst some stop playing because it is disruptive.
Playing Halo made you a part of the Halo community. The desire to segregate into smaller communities with similar political/world views needs to get out of gaming. What brings everyone together in Halo is Halo and you shouldn’t need more than that.
Destroying Halo’s identity so people can show their unrelated “interests” will only hurt Halo. Halo Infinite promised a return to normalcy but some newer cosmetics are breaking that promise. A lot of this is due to the free to play model but some is just done by devs who don’t respect the world/tone/style that was set up by Bungie.