I think alot of complaints arise from the community itself changing. The feel of the game has mutated since Halo CE. I loved all the Halo games for the game, but what I loved more was the community of nice people compared to other games.
Im not saying Halo has a BAD community now, just a different one. Alot of younger gamers have come into the gaming world as video games became more user friendly, popular, and affordable. Also the addition of things like XBL Party Chat and Private Chat create sort of cliques, they segregate the community.
Halo has gotten too large and popular to stay the same. In Halo 3, it seemed everyone had a mic and was in In-Game chat. I loved to play because even though I was young at the time, people were nice to me. Now there is an influx of newer gamers used to the competitve matchmaking oriented online rather than the laid back group of LAN Party-goers.
I personally dont care as much for that more competitve view, and the newer Halo games have been designed with more competitve gameplay. I love Halo 4 but I think things like Forge were skimpy because the community changed to a more matchmaking orented group.
I do think they should have taken in both cliques into consideration to a fuller extent. If they did they would see that their skimpy forge and customs are slowly killing off huge groups devoted to those gametypes.
I think the definition of a casual gamer is what I’m talking about though. The casual gamer used to be those guys who just messed around doing stupid funny stuff, and now most of that time is spent in matchmaking. The implementation of leveling/ranking systems was a major player in that change.
I was on halo 3 playing solo in team slayer the other day and nearly every game that I played, my team were wearing mic’s. In Halo 4 it is very rare to come across someone wearing a mic. It just shows how little team work is implemented into Halo4.
> I don’t look at the new Halo’s as if they were designed for more competitive play. I think they’re designed just to suit the casual gamer’s needs.
Which entailed making the DMR of all -Yoinking!- things the weapon to live and die by? I don’t buy that at all, not especially when the games 343/Bungie seems to look to most is over-angsty modern war shooters and Unreal Tournament (all of which have serious pretentions of being a competitve medium) while casual games like Star Warsbattlefront or Timesplitters have been increasingly disassociated from.
Hell we don’t even have bots, yet here you claim that the newer Halo’s are casual? Maybe by slight degrees from the competitive far-right but not with any reasonable sense of proportion.
> I was on halo 3 playing solo in team slayer the other day and nearly every game that I played, my team were wearing mic’s. In Halo 4 it is very rare to come across someone wearing a mic. It just shows how little team work is implemented into Halo4.
This is exactly what I mean. The community of Halo 3 was amazing. I rarely went into games without meeting cool people. I could always go into a game and start feeling like a team because we actually communicated.
> > I was on halo 3 playing solo in team slayer the other day and nearly every game that I played, my team were wearing mic’s. In Halo 4 it is very rare to come across someone wearing a mic. It just shows how little team work is implemented into Halo4.
>
> This is exactly what I mean. The community of Halo 3 was amazing. I rarely went into games without meeting cool people. I could always go into a game and start feeling like a team because we actually communicated.
I think it may have had to do something with the culture at the time on XBL. Prior to Halo 3 my game of choice was Rainbow Six Vegas. I made more frieds in that game than any other and I certainly had more amazing moments there than all of my history with Halo. In Rainbow Six Vegas 2 people behaved much the same as you see now, silent and anti-social, and I think that the mix of Halo 3 and COD 4 had a lot to do with that. The change was gradual (such that you could still find civil people in Halo 3) but it was persistent none-the-less because both franchises were pushing for the same type of assinine, or what we call now “competitive”, behavior.
People aren’t here to play with, but to use and to be used by in a dehumanizing world of oppressive and arbitary conflict where your role is simply that of matchmade ally or enemy, one of however many dozen you’ve seen that day. Even if you want to be civil it’s a lot harder to do these days simply because of the volume of humanity that you have to be civil to and the constant rotation of players in MM that means that your energy is always going to be spent on “introductions” without the pay off of familiarity. Games and gamers these days are simply built for other reasons than socialization, or at least games in this genre are.
> > > I personally dont care as much for that more competitve view, and the newer Halo games have been designed with more competitve gameplay.
> >
> > wat.
>
> I would appreciate some clarification on this statement, so I repeat: wat.
The newer games have all pushed for a competitive matchmaking with ranking systems rather than focusing on campaign and forge. The gameplay of Halo 4 and Reach were both faster than previous games, the addition of Armor Abilities is pretty much only developed for competitive gameplay. (I like some competition but the community just goes overboard sometimes. 343 and Bungie just responded to the majority)
Halo is becoming more casual. 343 has sold-out. The Halo franchise is now a CoD money-maker, rather than a quality over quantity franchise. The community is worse now because of the wide audience this game attracts, not because the competitive community is somehow “bigger” now. It’s not.
> Wait… Halo is becoming more competitive? Wrong.
>
> Halo is becoming more casual. 343 has sold-out. The Halo franchise is now a CoD money-maker, rather than a quality over quantity franchise. The community is worse now because of the wide audience this game attracts, not because the competitive community is somehow “bigger” now. It’s not.
Again when the tool of distruction for the last two games is the DMR you have absolutely no basis to say that the game is becoming more casual. Maybe on the point that automatics are more useful now than they were in reach, but that just falls under the category of “better balance” and not to the influence of scapegoats (who if in power would have made a far different game than this. Namely Timesplitters 3.)
> > I don’t look at the new Halo’s as if they were designed for more competitive play. I think they’re designed just to suit the casual gamer’s needs.
>
> Which entailed making the DMR of all -Yoinking!- things the weapon to live and die by? I don’t buy that at all, not especially when the games 343/Bungie seems to look to most is over-angsty modern war shooters and Unreal Tournament (all of which have serious pretentions of being a competitve medium) while casual games like Star Warsbattlefront or Timesplitters have been increasingly disassociated from.
> Unreal tournament was the best competitive game of all time. It was so fun. Take that back you pretentious … not trying to insult you, but seriously that was pretentious ad could be.
> Hell we don’t even have bots, yet here you claim that the newer Halo’s are casual? Maybe by slight degrees from the competitive far-right but not with any reasonable sense of proportion.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. Everyone seems to be focused solely on Matchmaking and leave Campaign and Forge out in the cold. Every shooter game nowadays relies more on competitive shooting gameplay rather than telling a cool story or just making the game more fun.
> > Wait… Halo is becoming more competitive? Wrong.
> >
> > Halo is becoming more casual. 343 has sold-out. The Halo franchise is now a CoD money-maker, rather than a quality over quantity franchise. The community is worse now because of the wide audience this game attracts, not because the competitive community is somehow “bigger” now. It’s not.
>
> Again when the tool of distruction for the last two games is the DMR you have absolutely no basis to say that the game is becoming more casual. Maybe on the point that automatics are more useful now than they were in reach, but that just falls under the category of “better balance” and not to the influence of scapegoats (who if in power would have made a far different game than this. Namely Timesplitters 3.)
The tool of destruction isn’t the definition of if they’re dumbing down the game. Look at what they’ve thrown into the game. Gimmicks on gimmicks on gimmicks. They’re catering to the community that really doesn’t care too much for how the game plays, but rather the fact that there is a game.
OP, not to contradict your memories or anything, but Halo 3 probably had the rudest bunch of people to ever own the same video game. Trash talking on XBL wasn’t the same before or since.
Now most of those people aren’t playing Halo any more, which I think explains why the rest of us are pretty quiet.
This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not flame or attack other members.
*Original post. Click at your own discretion.
> > > > I personally dont care as much for that more competitve view, and the newer Halo games have been designed with more competitve gameplay.
> > >
> > > wat.
> >
> > I would appreciate some clarification on this statement, so I repeat: wat.
>
> The newer games have all pushed for a competitive matchmaking with ranking systems rather than focusing on campaign and forge. <mark>The gameplay of Halo 4 and Reach were both faster than previous games, the addition of Armor Abilities is pretty much only developed for competitive gameplay.</mark> (I like some competition but the community just goes overboard sometimes. 343 and Bungie just responded to the majority)
This has to be a troll. a) there is no way you started in CE if you think the gameplay has sped up. b) AAs were primarily designed for the CAMPAIGN. There are levels dedicated for specific abilities.
> > Wait… Halo is becoming more competitive? Wrong.
> >
> > Halo is becoming more casual. 343 has sold-out. The Halo franchise is now a CoD money-maker, rather than a quality over quantity franchise. The community is worse now because of the wide audience this game attracts, not because the competitive community is somehow “bigger” now. It’s not.
>
> Again when the tool of distruction for the last two games is the DMR you have absolutely no basis to say that the game is becoming more casual. Maybe on the point that automatics are more useful now than they were in reach, but that just falls under the category of “better balance” and not to the influence of scapegoats (who if in power would have made a far different game than this. Namely Timesplitters 3.)
Cherry picking one game where the tool of destruction is the DMR proves nothing. I’ve played games where the boltshot is… or beatdown… or shotgun. Your anecdotal “evidence” proves nothing.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Halo is no longer the reigning king on the MLG circuit. MLG is the definition of competitive gaming. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in-game ranks no longer exist. Ranks separated a “good” player from a “bad” player. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that ordinance drops were added to Halo to “level” the playing field (the same argument can be made for bloom in Reach).
No, my friend, competitive Halo is dead and gone. It’s no secret, but you seem to be the only person oblivious to this fact.
> I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed this. Everyone seems to be focused solely on Matchmaking and leave Campaign and Forge out in the cold. Every shooter game nowadays relies more on competitive shooting gameplay rather than telling a cool story or just making the game more fun.
Finally someone else who notices this all the complains and say the game has failed are all the stupid MP fanatics