My 9 year-old daughter loves Halo. Me & her mom (now ex-wife) are serious Halo geeks, so not a big surprise. She met “Noble Six” at Emerald City Comic Con before Halo Reach came out, she got her own Halo Reach 360 controller at Halofest in 2011 from 343 (a little girl who loves Halo = swag), and it’s got her gamertag on it and you better not use it ‘cause it’s HERS. At PAX West right before Halo 4 came out she had us get in line twice so she could play the Spartan OPS mission they had set up to try. Yeah, she likes Halo.
Anyway, here’s the cool story part:
A while back the weekend playlist was Slayer Doubles. She loved it. She died all the time, but loved it anyway. She was on headset, because she likes to talk a little - she’s not chatty, just gaming talk. The other team figured out that they were up against a little girl. Instead of the obvious happening, suddenly her skill level improved dramatically. They would run up and shoot her a bit, then when she’d respond they would forget how to fire back and seemed to follow her bullets rather than dodge them. She’d throw grenades, and they’d somehow end up going backwards to be on top of the explosions. Needless to say, her random teammate was not amused. He started betraying her, and she was really confused why her “buddy” was killing her. Then the “boot” option came up on the screen, I told her to hit “A” right now – he was gone, and the game improved even more. She ended winning the match 1 v 2. Then the next game found her with the same two opposing players (I think they partied up) and lo and behold, she won again (I guess since it was a 4 player game if 3 were present it would start anyway?). She was all grins. I congratulated her on her success and kept my mouth shut.
So, next time you hear about, or experience firsthand, players being butt-heads, remember that not all players are like that. One afternoon two random strangers in an online game match decided that what mattered most wasn’t winning, it was sharing their love of Halo by making a little girl feel like a badass.