Back in the H2 and H3 days, if you joined a team slayer game, mics were very common. If you didn’t make callouts, you’d even get the occasional try-hard that would yell at you for being the “stupid noob that’s not making call-outs”. Rarely would you get a game with no talking at all. I think I’ve played, maybe, 1 game, so far out of 20-30 infinity slayer games that had any real voice communications.
I’ve heard it being blamed on party chat, but I doubt this would have such a large impact. Most people don’t consistently go online with friends, or a team of players to run games with. And if you’re serious about teamwork, you want to communicate with ALL of your team.
In Reach people definitely used mics more too, although I didn’t play it as much alone so I’m not sure it compares exactly. (and Party Chat has been around for a while, right?)
On the plus side, the quality of voice communications has improved since Reach. Voicesare much clearer, and very easy to understand. Day and night compared to H2 communications. I guess this was an Xbox Live update?
Basically, I’m saying there must be something more to this than just party chat. Is it something about the way players are being matched up? Anybody have any ideas? It KILLS teamwork, and I don’t think it’s good long term for H4, or Xbox Live in general.
I only use my mic if I am playing with friends or I hear a lot of actual communication going on during the game, Ill then plug my mic in and contribute.
I never start with my mic plugged in when Im pugging by myself, 90% of the people that are using mics are trying to be rappers, talking -Yoink- when they didn’t do anything anyways, or just really really really annoying.
I only talk to friends. The people I’ve been seeing with mics so far more extremely moronic and use the word “ga-y” in every sentence they use. Never bother talking to them.
I only ever talk in party chat since I don’t need Johnny Potty Mouth learning new words and shouting them over the mic in my ear. I hate trash talking strangers. It stresses me out and I don’t need it. Mute all=Enjoyable Halo
Only on a rare occasion do I find a group of people really talking. Most of the time it is either silence or someone stoned/drunk babbling incoherently.
A) most people using mics are just using it to play drum&bass and chat to their mom about dinner during the game. If not this then just to shout about somebody’s emblem sucks.
B) I myself am pretty bad with cuss words when playing without a party and have the decency to keep it to myself.
I hate randoms who refuse to communicate. OP, feel free to send me a friend request if you’d like to play with someone who actually wants to work as a team.
I stopped using a mic when Reach came out and all I ran into were people just whining about getting killed, swearing for the sake of sounding “cool” and yelling at their own teammates.
And recently in Halo 4 the very first time I entered game chat, it was to confront an individual who had gone out of his way to kill me while I was in a vehicle, forcing me to focus on both him and the other team, which ultimately led to them winning. Not the most promising start.
i use to use my mic back then because i was a carefree teenager. now i have a family and kids sleeping in rooms near where i play games. i rather stay quiet and let my family sleep in peace, instead of me talking all night long through those thin walls.
