I have played Halo since 2001, and in that time I have experienced console gaming progress from in person LAN parties with Halo: CE, early Xbox Live game chat with Halo 2, and the evolution from Halo 3 all the way to Halo: Infinite. Throughout this time I have also experienced the evolution of online in-game communication.
The early days (2004-2010) consisted of good, bad, and sometimes ugly communication. I had countless hours of entertainment, sharing the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, or just shooting the -Blam!- with random people from all over the world. I have made some good friends who I still team up with to this very day.
However as time has passed and innovations like party chat matured I experienced the decline of the social experience of online console gaming. Fewer and fewer would use game chat to communicate, lobbies filled with this symbol 
were quickly converted to this symbol 
, including my own.
When Halo: Infinite was announced to be free to play and cross-play with PC from launch. I was hoping this news would ignite new enthusiasm for game chat, but after playing over 1000 matches I have hardly heard anyone speak.
Is this perhaps due to the Disabled by default Voice Chat Mode settings for Halo: Infinite? Or have we truly regressed to the dark ages of anti-social gaming?
What are your thoughts?
7 Likes
not many reasons to use VC when for many players the only reason to start a match is to complete challenges.
if there was only one type of challenge “win a match” Im sure a lot more people would use VC, if only to try to win. the current challenges on the other hand are something you have to take care on your own.
3 Likes
Mic’s are turned OFF by default. I bet most people either dont play with 1 at all or dont care to toggle this setting on. I’d estimate about 93% of the games i’ve played in, i’ve been the only one with a mic enabled. It kind of sucks.
3 Likes
Theres no way to push to talk on controller pc but the console version has this setting. No way to bind dpad to my mic. Having a hot (unrestricted)mic isnt doable cuz its annoying.
This is the biggest reason. If u press V key to chat it disables ur player. Also the disabled chat by default doesn’t help either.
The games pop is low, also lack of english speakers cuz of this.
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first thing i did when i launched the first time was disable voice comms. i refuse to listen to people talk nonsense and be rude for no reason. people suck and thats that. if im with friends we will create a party on xbox or discord.
2 Likes
tired of this narrative being pushed just because steam charts don’t show large numbers. the game has a healthy population
tell that to my 15 minute wait times for games some mornings, then IF i find one my ping is sky high. (UK)
Honestly, I remember when Half-Life ( the original ) first incorporated voice chat into games. People enjoyed talking to one another. But over the years I felt that people being more aggressive towards one another has lead many to no longer wanting to tolerate people in online games unless they’re in a party communicating with friends they know.
I mostly say this because it seems like this is fairly normal in just about every game I play now-a-days. Most people just never respond to any type of chat, wither it be vocal or text.
I think we’ve regressed. Ive played hundreds of matches and its like 1% of the time theres someone else on the mic
3 Likes
I’m with what a lot of others say. There’s no incentive to win. Even in btb. Games like Invasion in reach generally had a reason for you to have a mic on. Commendations. And the credits that go towards armor and rank. Basic things along with customization taken from us. I made a post on this recently about how they should just sell things like visors and crazy things not armor and colors and bring back commendations. This halo would be start to heal.
The social aspect of halo has been killed by HCS dedication by 343 and a lack of care for the common player it seems. Combined with how predatory the store is, and the lack of SOCIAL game types it doesn’t surprise me no one wants to talk! Even a GG message back can be rare…
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This has nothing to do with the health of the population or steam charts…
This discussion is about the evident lack of players using game chat.
I don’t care. After a decade of being harassed and verbally berated by strangers I have developed a strong trauma aversion to open mic
Now granted, I was an adolescent/teen during this time, but I still have bad memories burned into my brain. I will not open chat with the public. Average gamer was cruel and there’s no reason to think the masses have changed
2 Likes
From my experience, people have never really used VC.
it’s a trend that has transcended all FPS shooters.
It think, in Halo 4 it was still quite usable. You could actually find some decent people.
However, I think the situation changed during Halo 5. I remember sooo, sooo many people talking trash, listening to terrible music, not muting the mic, so you could hear kids screaming, dogs barking or just the game sound’s echo.
But I don’t think it’s a Halo thing and probably more a change that happened in society in general…?
Something like…more people are gamin and/or headsets became less exotic/more common?
Honestly man, looking back on the Halo 3/Reach days 90% of online comms was 12 -Yoink!--talking. That’s something I really don’t care to listen to anymore having some stoned idiot who can’t -Yoink!- saying things that in public would get him curb stomped. I only really turn it on for friends anymore or if someone’s calling enemies out, otherwise I really don’t care for listening to your -Yoink!- music or your immature rants because you won’t turn off the hot mic.
Communication’s the same, just now we can filter through the crap.
I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but I used a mic every time I played the old Halo games. It wasn’t until 343 took over where the mic became irrelevant to me in Halo. I still use my mic in other online games all the time but just not in Halo because it is very limited now. Only when I have a party assembled do I worry about plugging my mic in for Halo Infinite.
We all would be hearing players with mics in Halo games much more often if 343 didn’t put such a limit on the chat a couple of games ago. Communication didn’t “die” in all the other online games lmao just in 343’s “vision” of Halo.
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It’s always the worst person on the team doing the most trash talking too.