The Experiment and the Treaty

Community General Discussion
1

A few days ago I posted a forum post called “on the topic of innovation”, where I presented ideas about how people are giving 343 too much hate and how sprint and loadouts are innovative. Go read it if you want, but here’s the results: a whopping 109 comments (last I checked) filled with arguments, opinion stated as fact, and of course, hate. This is the internet, after all. Bingo! If I wanted to start a war between both sides of the halo 4 players, it was easy as pie. But I decided to take it a step further with my post “so tired of idiots” where I lashed out at people on the anti 343 side. I was hoping to get some pretty legit stuff stirred up down below, and yet… I got locked. Perhaps I did get a bit carried away with the whole “lashing out” thing. So I’m just going to use the results of the innovation post as an example.

I did it all hoping to use the results as a lesson to all the people arguing in comment sections all over the internet, believing they are making a difference. Lemme break things down for you: It was easy. Wayyyy too easy to start a massive war. Well, I guess you could call it a battle in a huge war that was started when halo 4 was released. But anyway, I think it’s time to get a peace treaty going. Both sides state their opinion as fact. Both sides think that the other are ignorant. Th halo community is in pieces. Think of it like this: it’s the revolutionary war. Great Britain (representing other games) and we the U.S (representing the halo community) are at war. But the individual colonies are fighting each other, making it difficult for congress and the continental army (343industries) to fight the war. It is time for us to unite… or die. Of course, I’m not implying that halo is screwed if we don’t stop arguing, but it’d really help if we did.

We argue; some of us thought halo 4 was terrible because it wasn’t a true halo game. Some of us thought that halo 4 was great because it wasn’t the same as the last couple halo games. I love halo as a whole and was pretty torn when halo 4 came out. For awhile I was neutral, then I hated it for some time, then I played it a bunch and actually really enjoyed it. But that is my opinion. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal that sprint and custom loadouts were added. I had fun playing it, and in my opinion that’s what counts. But I’m not arguing in one side’s favor. I completely see where the other side is coming from. Halo 4 borrowed a lot of elements from cod, which most halo fans hate, thinking they were modernizing it. It was their first game, and a lot of "i"s didn’t get dotted and many "t"s weren’t crossed. I completely understand how one might come from that direction after playing the original halo games.

But the fact of the matter is that it is just a video game! Yes, it’s come to that! I really hate to call halo “just a game” but people really need to realize that it’s not that big of deal. Both sides need to stop arguing against each other and join together to aid 343 in their quest to return halo to it’s glory days. I love halo so much, and the fact is that if so many people hate what 343 has done with it, it’s not going to sell, and 343 might stop making halos altogether. That would be devastating. So let’s work together with 343 instead of against them to make halo a better experience. This time, we have a beta. This time, 343 knows what it can do. It’s time to return halo to it’s rightful place as the king of fps. But first, the war must end. So sign the treaty. Simply post your gamertag and whatever you wanna say in a comment below if you wanna sign. And yes, I know that this won’t make much of a difference and that the civil war will continue to an extent, but hopefully it’ll at least wake a few people up. And for all you haters that refuse to sign, that’s fine with me. Have fun playing 1-3 for the rest of your life, Tory. (That was a friendly joke, sorry if I offended anyone)

2

Anybody down here historic enough to get the “Tory” reference/joke?

3

Halo 4 wasn’t that great for many reasons, the things taken from COD were just part of the issue that many of us had with the game. Here are a few reasons that Halo 4 wasn’t really liked:

1)Campaign:
While it wasn’t bad, Practically everyone who was on the Halo forums prior to the Games launch had a large portion of Halo 4’s story pinned down. Cortana’s death happened as many predicted, the Chief having to fight the Didact was predicted, ETC. Thats mainly why for some it wasn’t as enjoyable, because 343 gave too much of the story away before the game actually was launched.

2)Forge:
Many people thought that largely, Forge in Halo 4 was mostly a downgrade(Despite some of the options that it offered and later remedied to a extent) from Reach’s forge because of the lack of build space(Before Forge Island), Certain options, and lack of the Precision forging that so many people loved about reach. Luckily though thats remedied in Halo 2 Anniversary Forge.

3)Perks:
To say that they were bad would be an understatement. I can’t say I’ve met someone yet who wants them to come back in H5 Guardians.

4)Weapon Balance:
While this is a little varied from person to person, some people the balance was fine, to some it was almost atrocious. The Weapons patch that did come later on, was sort of a relief and a nightmare, cause while it did remedy some of the problems that people had pointed out from playing the game(Such as the Slight Imbalance of the DMR vs all(Although its more accurate to say that it was balanced, but for Reach’s sandbox of weapons as opposed to Halo 4’s) it also served to create entirely new problems as well. The most obvious examples of this were the OP Battle Rifle, which made every starting weapon in the game Except the DMR(and in some cases the assault rifle) pointless because of how huge the power gap was. The Assault rifle was another point of concern because before the patch it was okay, wasn’t too powerful, wasn’t too weak either, but still didn’t quite balance out. After the patch the Assault Rifle became way too powerful, being able to Over power some Power weapons even. The Covenant and Forerunner/Promethean weapons were never really balanced against UNSC arsenal either.

These are just a few points about halo 4, but I, like many of us, hope that 343 has learned their lesson from Halo 4 and will learn more from the upcoming MCC and will create a better game out of Halo 5 Guardians(Although, I would still recommend not jumping on the hype train til maybe the beta later this year).

4

> 2533274836684762;3:
> Halo 4 wasn’t that great for many reasons, the things taken from COD were just part of the issue that many of us had with the game. Here are a few reasons that Halo 4 wasn’t really liked:
>
> 1)Campaign:
> While it wasn’t bad, Practically everyone who was on the Halo forums prior to the Games launch had a large portion of Halo 4’s story pinned down. Cortana’s death happened as many predicted, the Chief having to fight the Didact was predicted, ETC. Thats mainly why for some it wasn’t as enjoyable, because 343 gave too much of the story away before the game actually was launched.
>
> 2)Forge:
> Many people thought that largely, Forge in Halo 4 was mostly a downgrade(Despite some of the options that it offered and later remedied to a extent) from Reach’s forge because of the lack of build space(Before Forge Island), Certain options, and lack of the Precision forging that so many people loved about reach. Luckily though thats remedied in Halo 2 Anniversary Forge.
>
> 3)Perks:
> To say that they were bad would be an understatement. I can’t say I’ve met someone yet who wants them to come back in H5 Guardians.
>
> 4)Weapon Balance:
> While this is a little varied from person to person, some people the balance was fine, to some it was almost atrocious. The Weapons patch that did come later on, was sort of a relief and a nightmare, cause while it did remedy some of the problems that people had pointed out from playing the game(Such as the Slight Imbalance of the DMR vs all(Although its more accurate to say that it was balanced, but for Reach’s sandbox of weapons as opposed to Halo 4’s) it also served to create entirely new problems as well. The most obvious examples of this were the OP Battle Rifle, which made every starting weapon in the game Except the DMR(and in some cases the assault rifle) pointless because of how huge the power gap was. The Assault rifle was another point of concern because before the patch it was okay, wasn’t too powerful, wasn’t too weak either, but still didn’t quite balance out. After the patch the Assault Rifle became way too powerful, being able to Over power some Power weapons even. The Covenant and Forerunner/Promethean weapons were never really balanced against UNSC arsenal either.
>
> These are just a few points about halo 4, but I, like many of us, hope that 343 has learned their lesson from Halo 4 and will learn more from the upcoming MCC and will create a better game out of Halo 5 Guardians(Although, I would still recommend not jumping on the hype train til maybe the beta later this year).

On point 1), I’ll disagree. I actually liked the Halo 4 Campaign. Though that may have been that I didn’t know much of the story beforehand besides the Didact being the enemy, and Cortana going into rampancy. Nonetheless, exposure to the game’s events doesn’t always mean the campaign is less enjoyable. For example, with Modern Warfare 3, we all knew Soap was going to die almost half a year before the game came out, yet that didn’t ruin my enjoyment, (Although, maybe it did for me. I absolutely hate when they kill almost everyone off, I was even pissed with Roach and Ghost in MW2)

2), Yeah, I’ll give you that. Some of that problem is mitigated with all of the stuff being on disk, though I don’t know who in their right mind would forge in Halo 4 if there’s Halo 2 Anniversary to forge on.

I’ll also agree with 3), although it was fun for a game. A more traditional Halo game (sprint staying, though) would be nice.

On 4… there were other weapons that benefited from the title update. Such as the Covenant Carbine. Since I used the carbine regularly anyway, I destroyed people with it because I was so used to aiming with it by the time the weapon balance update hit.

My gripe with Halo 4, primarily, was the unstable connection. Which lasted for quite some time in Halo 4’s cycle. This problem is mitigated with the Xbox One, though. Dedicated servers!

Back on topic, though, I’ll sign.

Oowoon.

5

Sure, I’ll sign.

halojunky117G

I do agree that some take these debates waaaaaaay too seriously. I remember someone was calling me a troll for wanting a larger player count. I’m of the opinion that Halo’s in need of some significant changes. Nothing that breaks the core of course.

6

Just as I predicted(told you all in the first thread…) a TEST!

People here have gotta loosen up when it comes to opinions and attitudes…

Anyhow that was just my two cents on this.

I was always wondering what you would receive from making such a thread…

Everyone has the right to have their own opinion, but forcing onto others or stating false facts(some were opinions more or less) isn’t the right thing to do. We should all respect each other’s opinions.

7

You are part of the problem. Whether you actually did all this as an “experiment” or are just trying to justify your actions, you aren’t helping anyone. First, you posted a thread that almost seemed like (and that you now admitted is) a flamebait, because you represented a controversial view point and then just disappeared. Then, when you finally responded, you said:

> 2535419263424440;111:
> HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA the flame wars are real
>
> calm down everybody, it’s just a video game

Which, by they way, is not what we classify as “constructive”. Of course, this happened after the “so tired of idiots” post, which, to an outsider, seemed like you were just throwing a fit over people not agreeing with you in your previous thread. Even if it wasn’t that, and it was all part of your “experiment”, you were still being a total jerk to people who happen to have different views from you. No situation, experimental or not, warrants calling people “idiots”.

Halo fans have differing view points, so debates are bound to happen. But what you don’t understand is that this isn’t a bad thing. It’s a good thing. We encourage people to debate, as long as they are civil about it. It’s of course always difficult to not call someone an idiot from time to time when they are saying something that you think is blatantly obviously false. Some people are better at it, some are worse. We, the moderators, make sure that everyone is being tolerant of the other side, and insults aren’t part of the discussion.

If “flame war” is how you would describe the original thread that started this all, it doesn’t seem like you have seen a lot of internet debates. But if you actually go and reread that thread, it’s far from a war. As a matter of fact, I’m actually very proud of our community because, for the most part, it’s capable of fairly good debate with no blatant insults. There are places where you would’ve got actual, genuine hate for presenting that opinion, and very little in terms of actual discussion.

I’m going to lock this thread, primarily because making “experiments” by being a jerk to people is not the right way to do things. However, this thread also really serves no purpose. There is no war here. There is no need for a “treaty”. Debates are part of a healthy community. If you see someone who isn’t civil, report them and try not to fall down to their level.