I swear when Halo 2 and Halo 3 were popular you could go into a big team battle lobby or slayer lobby and at least 75 percent of the game would have mics. Now I’m lucky if 2 people out of the other 9 in capture the flag have a mic. And if they have a mic they are usually in private chat. Anyone else notice this?
Party chat was added during Halo 3 I believe… and in general people don’t use mics because they don’t see the point in communication if there’s no reason to win (no ranking up).
Halo 4 removed much of the skill and competitiveness that was around during the Ha;p 2 and 3 days by making the game cater to more casual players by adding in things such as random ordnance drops and personal ordnance drops. This along with the removal of power weapons spawning on the map removed the need to communicate with teammates to have a set up on a map or to gain control of a power weapon.
Also, Halo 2 and Halo 3 had more of an incentive to win ie. ranking up and gaining xp since if you lost in ranked you would rank down and if you lost in anything you wouldnt gain xp. Now you gain the same xp for winning as you do losing pretty much.
This is why almost no one uses mics on Halo 4 matchmaking.
> This is why almost no one uses mics on Halo 4 matchmaking.
It was a problem even in Reach, when the game was more deterministic. Probably a combination of the community changing on a broad scale and party chat breaking things up and making people lose hope for good full-team communication.
I always have my mic on or nearby.
If people in the lobby have mics i’ll plug mine in if it isn’t already.
> Party chat was added during Halo 3 I believe… and in general people don’t use mics because they don’t see the point in communication if there’s no reason to win (no ranking up).
Yes that was given as the reason the last 10 times this thread was made, but I’m not sure where you get it from. Look at any lobby when you are playing - nobody has mics plugged in, regardless of whether they are using party chat or not. You can tell because the icon is different…
When someone is in party chat, you can see the icon. I see it sometimes, but seeing people in party chat is ALSO a rarity.
I think it’s partly because:
- The game is uncompetitive and nobody really cares if they win or lose.
- Partly because halo fans are probably a bit older than average gamers. They need a good reason to bother putting on their mics (CSR would probably help this a lot - see 1).
- Partly because I don’t think xbox has really cared much about promoting mics as an integral part of the xbox live experience. I think in previous days they made more of a push to get people to buy mics. Nowadays, people can just buy / re-new their subs online. Fewer visits to the store, less opportunities to buy a mic. And since mics break easily, people just don’t replace them.
3 is a big one I think.
Dude, times have changed for the worse. I go into a BTB game and drive a guy in a hog. He tells me to stop so he can have a better shot, I do, we get ambushed and destroyed, he and his friends -Yoink- at me until the match ends. True it was partially my fault, but I don’t really like game chat because of that. That’s why I made a lot of friends on these forums so I could have guys to talk to and play with.
Whatever system 343i has in place is handing out mic bans left and right. When Halo 4 first came out, It seemed like 40% of the people used mice, but that soon ended once the bans started. ((((Shrugs))))
NOTE: I don’t even bother anymore, but I keep my mic right next to me.
I’ve gotten bored of being made fun of because my voice sounds nasally. I don’t really talk in real life much anymore either. Several years of getting teased for it does that to someone…
Saying something and just getting mocked for it instead of listened too kind of makes communicating useless anyway.
No ranking system
Because people on XBL are mostly trolls, high pitched children or just simply annoying for whatever reason.
I just got tired of the racism, “gay” jokes etc. Halo is fun but it also appeals to the lowest common denominator and those people are best not communicated with.
> I’ve gotten bored of being made fun of because my voice sounds nasally. I don’t really talk in real life much anymore either. Several years of getting teased for it does that to someone…
>
> Saying something and just getting mocked for it instead of listened too kind of makes communicating useless anyway.
lol ppl say the same to me over xbl yet no one has mentioned anything about it in real life to me. Not even people who are trying to taunt me/poke fun of me/start a fight. which is odd and guess it contributes the the quality of mic I use.
they took out the ranking system so nobody gives a -Yoink- if you win or lose anymore
I thought it was because of all of the -Yoinking!- annoying 12 year olds…I almost SCREAM IN TERROR whenever I forget to mute the voices when I’m done with a big group because some stupid kid is talking -Yoink- and I want to stab myself in the ear with a screwdriver.
I’ll use my mic more, when less little kids choose to play an M rated game.
Ever since MW2 and Halo 3, my younger brother who was serving oversees, convinced me to mute all non-friended voices. Thank goodness I listened to him. I have no more desire to listen to Xbox live kids than I do a middle school cafeteria crowd hopped up on Pepsi and Skittles. If I want to play a game that requires laser focused communications, second-to-second intel, and respectable conversation… I’m definitely not playing anything on Xbox live.
I stopped using my headset long ago, because I got tired of trash-talkers, ultra-aggressive “pros”, people who blast awful music down their mics, and people who warble and hoot like mental patients.
343 said they would ban people for being sexist.
Most online players are male, and don’t want to get banned.
343 randomly ban people anyway so we’re to scared to even plug a mic in now.
Mics in Halo 3 ranked were a given. If you didn;t have one on, you were screwing yourself and your team.
Halo 3 Social still had many mics even though not as much as the ranked version. you generally had parties with guests having fun etc.
Halo: Reach early on had plenty of mics. Then came silly muting by Bungie’s system and many started to drop them off. Add to this the Banshee and you really didn’t need mics as long as you had a decent player keeping the other team on spawn. Due to the game being all about social there were no mics. In arena there tended to be mics, much more then the the other playlists.
Halo 4 literally has no mics period. I always have mine on or the settings are on to allow me to connect immediately should I see others have theirs on. I am yet to be put into a game after nearly 900 games and level 130 where my team or the other has a full team of mics. The big note here is that Halo 4 has no ranked or incentive play lists so mics are not required.
Bottom line. As the ranked playlists or a ranking system goes, so do the mics. You don’t need them as there is no incentive for them to be used. I can alone win the game without the help of my team which would have been a certain loss back in Halo 3. And even if I do lose, I still get 2K credits + commendations plus double XP should you have it.
Don’t hate because it is clear and no one can deny that 343’s direction is to blame.