Hello All,
I want to start by saying I know Halo 5 is not the most popular game and many people are highly critical of it. I am here to come to the defense of the game and the features I believe set it apart from other Halo’s and gaming in general.
I have been playing Halo since CE. That game came out when I was about 10 or 11. I loved the action packed missions and the revolutionary game play and weapons. From there I fell in LOVE with the franchise, from H2 to H3 to reach even a little for H4( my least favorite but had some redeemable qualities). Then H5 came out. I didn’t buy the game at first, suspicious of the game play and style. After playing through the campaign on ledge at my friends house, it brought back some of my favorite qualities of CE and new things to the table I had never seen before.
The high powered weapons (decimated by the weapons tuning, that is rant for another time) and fast paced game play brought me joy and new found passion for online play. Warzone for me, like for many others, was an addictive new aspect that brought excitement to online halo and hours of fun. But the best quality for me was the seamless new movement system (prepare for the trolls with this comment) that pushed the pace of the game and brought new life to halo. I LOVE trust, I think it is the absolute best aspect to H5, mind you I love classic movement too, but the new angles and sneakiness that can be achieved with thrust truly made H5. I am not as big a fan of ground pound and Spartan charge, I don’t think they are that useful outside of campaign and maybe should have been disabled in ranked play. Slide was also an incredible add, great for dodging snipes and getting into bases without getting 5 shotted. But all of these together, made maps incredibly fun to play with new heights and angles, made the pace of the game faster and put the skill level higher. This forced me to grinddddd my way out of bronze and silver while learning the new aspects and took me hours of game play to master.
I know 343 gets a lot of flack, but honestly, H5 is a good game. I had a great time playing it (don’t play that much any more) and hope that people can chill on the criticism and just try to enjoy H6. I say this a lot, video games are the best they have ever been. They are longer, they have better graphics, better mechanics, better physics and play much smoother than ever before, but all people do is complain and criticize. Piece of advice, chill out and enjoy.
Cheers,
KingFish
People have every right to voice displeasure, just as you have the right to voice your enjoyment of Halo 5. If they “chilled out”, as you say, then they’d never tell 343i about the changes they didn’t like in Halo 5, and thus never get the chance for future games to be more like what they want. Criticism is how the people who aren’t so happy with the product let it be known. Sure, there can be such a thing as overly critical, and after a certain point it devolves from criticism into something else that’s not constructive. But even for issues that are long standing, a new person to Halo 5 has every right to add to the discussion; the number of people who voice their concern about a particular thing directly relates to how much of an issue it is within the community. You can see it in examples like the Sprint thread and the Playable Elites thread; if those people just chilled out, how would 343i ever know how passionate people were about these things? How would they ever get the idea that maybe those things should be looked into?
Piece of advice: when it comes to voicing your opinion, telling other people how to voice theirs isn’t helpful. Live and let live. Your post was pretty fine until that last paragraph which comes off a bit dismissive. If negative criticism gets out of line, well, that’s where Monitors come in. But constructive negative criticism is vital feedback; it’s just as important as telling 343i what they do well.
I also don’t think that video games are “the best they’ve ever been”. Production quality has certainly advanced nicely, but that’s not all that goes into a video game. There are big controversies going on in the gaming industry now that didn’t exist 10 years ago. And not every game is “longer”.
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> Piece of advice: when it comes to voicing your opinion, telling other people how to voice theirs isn’t helpful. Live and let live. Your post was pretty fine until that last paragraph which comes off a bit dismissive. If negative criticism gets out of line, well, that’s where Monitors come in. But constructive negative criticism is vital feedback; it’s just as important as telling 343i what they do well.
this is more of a comment about the community at large. There is soooo much negativity in what used to be a really positive community. It has gotten to the point that it is no longer constructive and every game that comes out is “terrible”. This post is a defense of the game and directly points to the reasons that the vast majority of criticisms of H5 and 343 at large are not constructive and don’t take into account the positive aspects of the company and game. My intention is not to be dismissive of people being critical as a whole but criticism to the point that it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. I didn’t say stop, I said chill out.
I would also like to point out, you are literally telling me how to voice my opinion…
Well, I appreciate the “chill out and enjoy” advice, and I’m definitely working on the “chill out” part. But enjoying this game is something I have lost the ability to do, apart from forging, and the motion mechanics are half of that problem. But for every player like me who finds them to be tedious, difficult or impossible to execute, and far too fast-paced… well then there’s a player like you for whom they add immensely to the challenge and fun of the game. So be it. The other half of the problem is the weapons - pre tune or post tune - that aim themselves at whatever strikes their fancy as if controller input isn’t even a suggestion. And again, some people seem to find the added challenge to be fun rather than annoying and more power to them.
To my eye this game represents a huge leap in difficulty over previous Halos, and none of those games were easy to begin with. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for any one individual player is an important point, but even more important is whether or not it’s a good or bad thing for the population as a whole. Is Halo good with a small and dedicated population of competitive players, or would it be better off with a shallower learning curve and fewer barriers to entry and a lot more people? Of course, Halo 4 is proof that a casual-friendly game is not, in and of itself, a guarantee of a high population. But it looks to me like the hyper-competitiveness of Halo 5 hasn’t fared much better.
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> To my eye this game represents a huge leap in difficulty over previous Halos, and none of those games were easy to begin with. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing for any one individual player is an important point, but even more important is whether or not it’s a good or bad thing for the population as a whole. Is Halo good with a small and dedicated population of competitive players, or would it be better off with a shallower learning curve and fewer barriers to entry and a lot more people? Of course, Halo 4 is proof that a casual-friendly game is not, in and of itself, a guarantee of a high population. But it looks to me like the hyper-competitiveness of Halo 5 hasn’t fared much better.
I hear that. It really is the conflict the franchise is facing. The funny thing is that it seems most of the pro community I follow on twitter and twitch seem to want to go back to classic mechanics. It seems to be going pretty well for COD too so that may be the direction 343 goes. TBH, I will play H6 either way
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> > Piece of advice: when it comes to voicing your opinion, telling other people how to voice theirs isn’t helpful. Live and let live. Your post was pretty fine until that last paragraph which comes off a bit dismissive. If negative criticism gets out of line, well, that’s where Monitors come in. But constructive negative criticism is vital feedback; it’s just as important as telling 343i what they do well.
>
> this is more of a comment about the community at large. There is soooo much negativity in what used to be a really positive community. It has gotten to the point that it is no longer constructive and every game that comes out is “terrible”. This post is a defense of the game and directly points to the reasons that the vast majority of criticisms of H5 and 343 at large are not constructive and don’t take into account the positive aspects of the company and game. My intention is not to be dismissive of people being critical as a whole but criticism to the point that it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. I didn’t say stop, I said chill out.
>
> I would also like to point out, you are literally telling me how to voice my opinion…
I mean, if you want to play the semantics game, I can go that route. I didn’t tell you how to do anything. I told you that telling other people how to do something is futile. I gave my opinion plus a proverb for emphasis. And if you read my reply carefully, you’ll see that I wasn’t blaming you as telling people how to post. I was merely cautioning you for treading close to that point. Your intent may have not been to be dismissive but that’s how you came across in your final statement. Commenting on the community never goes anywhere; the community is what it is. Telling people to chill out rarely results in them actually chilling out; most of the time instead they just lash back at you asking what gives you the right.
Also, you say that you don’t like criticism to the point that it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. And that made me scratch my head. Because why would other people’s opinion at all affect your enjoyment of Halo 5? Does reading all the problems people have with the game make you not want to play anymore? I hope not. When I like a game, I don’t need it to be validated by other people, nor does it anger me that other people may not like it. I’m just comfortable with my choice. I see a lot of people talk about how Reach was the “beginning of the downward slide of Halo”, but I don’t think about how those people need to chill out and just remember the good times about a game I personally enjoyed (thoroughly).
Trying to appeal to the community at large doesn’t do anything. In some cases you make yourself a target for trolls, in others you make some people angry who feel like you tell them what to do. People come here to say what they want to say, and they can say it how they want to say it (as long as they’re following the rules, of course). Like I said, everything but your last paragraph was great; a nice post where you discuss how you like things about Halo 5, even if its not the popular opinion. And that’s fine. You’ll probably get people coming to disagree with you, but hey, that’s how it goes. But you can defend the game without dismissing the feelings and criticisms of others.
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> Also, you say that you don’t like criticism to the point that it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. And that made me scratch my head. Because why would other people’s opinion at all affect your enjoyment of Halo 5? Does reading all the problems people have with the game make you not want to play anymore? I hope not. When I like a game, I don’t need it to be validated by other people, nor does it anger me that other people may not like it. I’m just comfortable with my choice. I see a lot of people talk about how Reach was the “beginning of the downward slide of Halo”, but I don’t think about how those people need to chill out and just remember the good times about a game I personally enjoyed (thoroughly).
How does that make you scratch your head? The game’s experience is defined by the people who play it. It takes away from the game when everyone online complains about some feature when they lose, or when your favorite streamer stops because twitch chat is toxic. You are right, I don’t want to play with people who complain anymore. The criticism of video games has snowballed to the point that it is out of control. Sure things like micro transactions and game mechanics should be discussed but people need to do so in a calm (aka chiller) manner. I understand that people don’t like being told to chill, but some people should really take a step back and ask them selves if their comments are actually beneficial or just trolling. I think you should ask your self this question too. I would really like to get back to game mechanics and positivity, so I would appreciate if we get back on topic.
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> > Also, you say that you don’t like criticism to the point that it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. And that made me scratch my head. Because why would other people’s opinion at all affect your enjoyment of Halo 5? Does reading all the problems people have with the game make you not want to play anymore? I hope not. When I like a game, I don’t need it to be validated by other people, nor does it anger me that other people may not like it. I’m just comfortable with my choice. I see a lot of people talk about how Reach was the “beginning of the downward slide of Halo”, but I don’t think about how those people need to chill out and just remember the good times about a game I personally enjoyed (thoroughly).
>
> How does that make you scratch your head? The game’s experience is defined by the people who play it. It takes away from the game when everyone online complains about some feature when they lose, or when your favorite streamer stops because twitch chat is toxic. You are right, I don’t want to play with people who complain anymore. The criticism of video games has snowballed to the point that it is out of control. Sure things like micro transactions and game mechanics should be discussed but people need to do so in a calm (aka chiller) manner. I understand that people don’t like being told to chill, but some people should really take a step back and ask them selves if their comments are actually beneficial or just trolling. I think you should ask your self this question too. I would really like to get back to game mechanics and positivity, so I would appreciate if we get back on topic.
Yeah, but with that whole “I get the last word” mentality that’s so prevalent on the internet, obviously I’m not going to let it end there with you thinly suggesting that I’m trolling. Perhaps, I’m in a position to know the kinds of directions conversations go, and the kinds of responses people tend to make, in a more global way than yourself. Maybe I’ve seen similar statements in less moderated forums and seen the replies, and know the amount of work it can generate for mods and am trying to circumvent that. And maybe we have a difference in how we enjoy games, because I personally could care less about twitch streamers and what people say over mics. If I hear a complainer in an online game, I mute them and be on my merry way. The beauty of mastering my own domain and such. But I try not to let other people affect my enjoyment of games. Of course, sometimes that’s hard when you deal with like a griefer or something, but when it comes to complainers, why even give them the time of day? Can’t speak to streamers because why would I watch someone play a game I could be playing myself, or just play something else, but that’s probably a generational thing.
In a perfect world, everyone would be constructive in how they provide criticism. But reality isn’t perfect, and we’ll always have people that take it too far. We’ve always had that, even before Halo 5 or even Halo 4. Community mentality is one of those things you have no control over. I get wanting to be positive but next time maybe do it sans an additional aside about community behavior. Criticism of games is hardly out of control.
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> I know 343 gets a lot of flack, but honestly, H5 is a good game. I had a great time playing it (don’t play that much any more) and hope that people can chill on the criticism and just try to enjoy H6. I say this a lot, video games are the best they have ever been. They are longer, they have better graphics, better mechanics, better physics and play much smoother than ever before, but all people do is complain and criticize. Piece of advice, chill out and enjoy.
Why should they “chill” and not criticize if they are playing a game they don’t like in a series they do like?
The immense criticism of Halo 4 is what led to Halo 5 being what it is at launch, and the extensive criticism of Halo 5’s launch is what led to Halo 5 being what it is right now.
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> But the best quality for me was the seamless new movement system (prepare for the trolls with this comment)
Like this part right here, you immediately dismiss people that have problems with the new movement system as “trolls”, when they could very well have a valid argument.
It’s not any different than calling you a troll for having a problem with the weapon tuning update. “It’s really good, it fixes a lot of problems, and it shows that 343i is still willing to support the game 2+ years after launch.”
“I know 343 gets a lot of flack, but honestly, H5 is a good game. I had a great time playing it (don’t play that much any more) and hope that people can chill on the criticism and just try to enjoy H6. I say this a lot, video games are the best they have ever been. They are longer, they have better graphics, better mechanics, better physics and play much smoother than ever before, but all people do is complain and criticize. Piece of advice, chill out and enjoy.”
“but honestly it’s a good game”- do you want to play that game? Cause I could honestly say it’s a mediocre game…
“hope that people can chill on the criticism and just try to enjoy H6”- make the game fun and people will “chill out” on the criticism (which will never happen). Criticism is the very reason games change after each iteration furthermore one shouldn’t expect one to enjoy something they don’t like and then not criticize why they didn’t like it. If someone’s a life long halo fan and they dislike the newest game then so be it, I have no issue if they’ve criticize it.
“video games are the best they have ever been. They are longer, they have better graphics, better mechanics, better physics and play much smoother than ever before, but all people do is complain and criticize.”- I’d absolutely argue this to death as I don’t believe it. Games look better yes (and they should), but many play to similarly where they’re generic and nothing special. Furthermore some games are actually shorter than they used to be, and many are extended because of bland open worlds full of nothing but repetitive gameplay which is a cheap way to add playtime. I’d rather have a fun 20 hours over a 100 hour drag fest of a game, and some of my favorite franchises are guilty of this.
I just appreciate that they try new things and don’t release the exact same game over and over. Only problem is a game cycle is 3-4 years. So if someone doesn’t like it, it’s a long time to wait for the next.
Reach, for instance, had a lot of detractors at the time, but I feel it really grew on a lot of people.
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> I just appreciate that they try new things and don’t release the exact same game over and over.
Yes, this is something that has merit. One of the CoD franchise’s biggest criticisms is that it lacks innovation (or rather, innovation in the places gamers want it). I, too, appreciate that 343i saw the criticisms of Halo 4 and implemented changes as a result.
However, we see examples of devs changing a formula and it being much more well received. Look at Assassin’s Creed: yearly entries for the longest time, with most of the games receiving rather lower scores after the Ezio trilogy. Then Ubisoft takes 2 years and changes up the formula for Assassin’s Creed Origins, and the result is a much more well-like game. All this just to say, really, that new things can be good or bad.
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> Yeah, but with that whole “I get the last word” mentality that’s so prevalent on the internet, obviously I’m not going to let it end there with you thinly suggesting that I’m trolling. Perhaps, I’m in a position to know the kinds of directions conversations go, and the kinds of responses people tend to make, in a more global way than yourself. Maybe I’ve seen similar statements in less moderated forums and seen the replies, and know the amount of work it can generate for mods and am trying to circumvent that. And maybe we have a difference in how we enjoy games, because I personally could care less about twitch streamers and what people say over mics. If I hear a complainer in an online game, I mute them and be on my merry way. The beauty of mastering my own domain and such. But I try not to let other people affect my enjoyment of games. Of course, sometimes that’s hard when you deal with like a griefer or something, but when it comes to complainers, why even give them the time of day? Can’t speak to streamers because why would I watch someone play a game I could be playing myself, or just play something else, but that’s probably a generational thing.
>
> In a perfect world, everyone would be constructive in how they provide criticism. But reality isn’t perfect, and we’ll always have people that take it too far. We’ve always had that, even before Halo 5 or even Halo 4. Community mentality is one of those things you have no control over. I get wanting to be positive but next time maybe do it sans an additional aside about community behavior. Criticism of games is hardly out of control.
This is completely random and off-topic, but whenever I read your posts I always read them in Nathan Fillion’s voice because of your profile picture of Buck.
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> This is completely random and off-topic, but whenever I read your posts I always read them in Nathan Fillion’s voice because of your profile picture of Buck.
-Yoink!-, now I’m gonna start doing that.