Why do we worry so much about Infinite?

Games Halo Infinite
1

This thread may be locked. Hopefully not.

I’m just going to cut straight to the chase:

I’ve been playing Halo since CE. If let us all say that worst comes to worst and Infinite turns out to be a flop, will it even matter in the end? We all have our lives to live, goals to realize, big dreams to chase, and amongst the grand complexities of each life, Halo is just a video game. Same with other great games like The Last Of Us, Gears, Elder Scrolls, and etc.

We all want Infinite to succeed badly. I personally want it to succeed in the story driven department the most. PlayStation is killing it with The Last Of Us 2, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and etc.

But see, that’s part of my problem. Why do I care so much about Infinite when I have big dreams to chase and a world to impact?? I keep lying to myself saying that I won’t care for Halo (or video games) anymore. Yet, admittedly, I do.

The question from the title does NOT invite simple answers such as “Because we have heard little news.” Or “Because we haven’t seen gameplay.” Instead, let us dive deeper into the human condition. Why do we even have to worry about anything related to Halo?

Now…

I’m NOT saying that we should not provide feedback. We should all do our part in helping 343I provide a great game. Better yet, a masterpiece of a game. But, giving critiques and worrying are NOT synonymous. A good chunk of the community is not just giving feedback, but also scared and worried about Infinite.

And why be concerned about something out of our control? I myself am scared for it.

Why does Halo mean so much to me? And us? I personally do not know the answer to this question.

Why are YOU worried about Infinite despite it being out of your control?

2

> 2533274949216347;1:
> This thread may be locked. Hopefully not.
>
> I’m just going to cut straight to the chase:
>
> I’ve been playing Halo since CE. If let us all say that worst comes to worst and Infinite turns out to be a flop, will it even matter in the end? We all have our lives to live, goals to realize, big dreams to chase, and amongst the grand complexities of each life, Halo is just a video game. Same with other great games like The Last Of Us, Gears, Elder Scrolls, and etc.
>
> We all want Infinite to succeed badly. I personally want it to succeed in the story driven department the most. PlayStation is killing it with The Last Of Us 2, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and etc.
>
> But see, that’s part of my problem. Why do I care so much about Infinite when I have big dreams to chase and a world to impact?? I keep lying to myself saying that I won’t care for Halo (or video games) anymore. Yet, admittedly, I do.
>
> The question from the title does NOT invite simple answers such as “Because we have heard little news.” Or “Because we haven’t seen gameplay.” Instead, let us dive deeper into the human condition. Why do we even have to worry about anything related to Halo?
>
> Now…
>
> I’m NOT saying that we should not provide feedback. We should all do our part in helping 343I provide a great game. Better yet, a masterpiece of a game. But, giving critiques and worrying are NOT synonymous. A good chunk of the community is not just giving feedback, but also scared and worried about Infinite.
>
> And why be concerned about something out of our control? I myself am scared for it.
>
> Why does Halo mean so much to me? And us? I personally do not know the answer to this question.
>
> Why are YOU worried about Infinite despite it being out of your control?

I, myself am not particularly worried. I’m loving these small dosages of information drops, keeps me hyped and adds to the mystery Halo has lacked for so long.
However I get why people are worried, especially with Biggy C giving everyone’s lungs the clap. But why they worry about a game in the first place? Maybe Halo is the only game that reduces stress after a long day manual labour and customer service for some individuals. Maybe because a lot of people have practically grown up with the series, similar to Star Wars. Maybe games in general are just a very interesting form of entertainment due to their interactive nature. Or maybe people are just attached to materialistic goods. I don’t know, you don’t know, I don’t think anyone knows, but this shouldn’t stop someone from being excited or interested in a piece of media, like what you like.
:metal:Halo Infinite​:metal:

3

For me Halo has been my favourite game franchise since 2008. Gaming is my favourite hobby, I spend a lot of my free time doing it. Chief has been my favourite video game character for the same amount of time so when I played H5’s campaign i was pretty disappointed. From the 2019 trailer I’m hyped about Halo again, I kinda thought maybe the SP was a lost cause but that trailer gives me hope that the campaign can be great again. SP isn’t as important to me though as I play tons of other SP games so if the campaign does flop like H5, oh well. I got other games to play. MP is different though. I don’t play many MP games so it’s important to me that the MP portion is good. I wanna be able to play it for years because honestly as far as arena shooters go, there’s nothing else out there good enough to hold my interest after experiencing Halo. I have been playing Apex Legends since launch and I’m still enjoying it but slowly I’m craving a good arena shooter more and more and I hope Infinite can be that game.

TL;DR I spend a lot of time gaming so I want my favourite franchise to be the best it can be.

4

I have high expectations about this but it does not mean that it is the only thing I think about, even so I am excited to know that a new installment is being worked on

5

Why worry that things out of my control will go wrong? Because it’s what humans do. There is no reason behind it, but it’s something my brain’s been built to do because worrying about things motivated my ancestors to prepare for bad times. It doesn’t necessarily make sense when all there is at stake is your enjoyment, but when you’re a monkey on the African savannah it might just help you survive a drought when the other guy who never worries about anything dies. My brain just can’t always tell the difference between things that are crucial to my survival and things that aren’t.

EDIT: It’s also worth noting that I don’t really have matters of survival to be worried about at the moment. But those brain cells still need practice so they won’t forget what their job is.

6

For the same reasons that people “worry” about any other non-essential, or even trivial aspect of their lives.

For one, it gives you something to do. Simple as that.

Secondly, the Sunk Cost Fallacy plays a role. A lot of people have been fans of the Halo series for nearly 20 years. They have hundreds or thousands of hours invested in that universe and they want that time to “mean” something. What exactly that entails…I’m not sure, but having Infinite turn out to be another disappointment, or receive the same tepid community response that Halo 4 & 5 did just seems wrong. It’s like you “chose the wrong horse” lol and that is just a crappy feeling.

People get highly dedicated to certain entertainment IPs (Halo, Star Wars, LotR, etc) because those universes become an integral part of their identity. It’s part of who they are.

“I’m Brad. I work at Intel to pay the bills but my REAL identity is MageLord69 who will kick you -Yoink- in Magic: The Gathering or Quake. Come at me!”

7

Don’t be worried. 343 takes the feedback from the fans seriously and claim they got things right for Halo Infinite. They’re using a new art style that appears reminiscent to the Bungie era titles. I personally don’t worry for the Halo titles as I always enjoy them all, Halo 4 and 5 were different but still amazing to me and I look forward to see what Halo Infinite has to offer.

8

I’ve been a Halo fan since Combat Evolved released. I’ll honestly play whatever 343i comes up with for Infinite, but I kind of feel like Infinite is their 3rd and final strike for a lot of people since most people didn’t like Halo 4 and 5.

9

We know next to nothing about it and the last two weren’t what a Halo game should be I suppose

10

If you become invested in something (even as small as an entertainment franchise), it’s only natural to want it to succeed. If it fails to satisfy an audience while failing to capture a sizable new one, nobody wants it. If nobody wants it, it dies and an entire generation of people (if not multiple) miss out on the opportunity to fall in love with something great.

While we want to pass Halo on, those we wish to share it with may not accept it if they associate it with mediocre (or bad) entries. There are many video games, movies, and so on. However, there’s only one Halo.

11

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. I was angry when Halo 4 was so far away from what I wanted, but I still had fun playing it. The reason I was so angry, and this extends a little bit to Reach, but less so, is that I felt I was really good at Halo 2, and 3 and didn’t like how a lot of these new mechanics shrunk the skill gap between me and players I thought I was better than. In Reach it didn’t effect me nearly as much, heck I got even better at Reach than I ever was at 2 and 3, but in Halo 4 and 5 I don’t think I ever got very good at either game. So I ignored both games’ merits.

Halo 5 has the best custom games Halo has ever had. That is a fact. It can do everything every other Halo game did and more. Halo 4 had a pretty good story, and I actually REALLY appreciated being able to spawn with a Carbine at all times, as I always liked it more than the BR and went out of my way to use it whenever it was available in 2 and 3 (which was rarely as it only appeared on a few maps), and in Reach I used the Needle Rifle so much it was actually my most used weapon on Bungie.net’s Service Record page by a significant margin. Heck in Halo 5 I keep all my Carbine req’s and use them as often as possible in Warzone. I really wish BR’s in Halo 2 Anniversary included a Carbine loadout, and would be happy to see loadouts return but… not customizable ones, and not Armor Ability based ones. Like one that just lets you choose a weapon from ones that are considered equivalents, where in AR’s you can choose AR, Plasma/Storm Rifle/Repeater, Spiker, or whatever and BR’s it’s the BR or Carbine.

But yeah. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of reasons to love Infinite. And I’ll probably enjoy it more than 4 and 5 on the simple grounds that I no longer care about my performance as much as I used to. I’m open to new things now, and I want to see where they go with it. I’m just not holding my breath that it will be all that good.

12

I’m just worried about the campaign, which for the most part the Halo games have nailed. 343 got us in a huge mess by making Cortana the villain for some reason and now Infinite has to go along with it and fix it. I feel even if the story is bad, it wouldn’t really its own fault because this whole storyline with Cortana in Halo 5 got us so far off track. I just hope they’re able to turn it around and make a satisfying end to the second Halo trilogy.

13

there’s a number of reasons that vary from person to person but I think I can boil it down to these points,

  • a lot of people (myself included) grew up with the franchise. it inspires us, it helped shaped our interests, it was there during every defining era of our lives. so if the franchise falls apart, if the games fail, if halo ends because it didn’t make money or because it went down hill then it feels like we’ve lost a defining piece of ourselves. but on the other side of that, because it’s inspired and influenced us in positive ways we have a desire to see it succeed and to see other people enjoy it, to share the same experiences we had growing up. - it’s human nature to worry about things, and frankly speculation is just fun. it’s fun to think about what might be and to list things we want. - it’s nice to be heard and to feel like our opinions matter, and 343’s been showing an interest in player feed back. - we are tired, we have work/school/busy and stressful lives. and narrative and games provide us with stress relief, social interaction, escape, inspiration, or just a down right good time. the reason halo specifically matters in this point is because for these people it’s their favorite and they want to continue enjoying their favorite during those brief moments of getting away from the stress of life. personally I’m at the point where I only have 3 things that actually does anything to deal with stress; taking 40+ minute long showers, walking in circles for an extended period of time, and playing matchmaking while listening to music, and only 1 of those allows my brain to do something without going down some long rabbit hole of thoughts. - another reason may be conflict. because halo is one of those series where each game is super different from each other there’s a lot of varying and conflicting opinions. now I could go on a whole rant about society and how people react to things because of evolution in culture, technology, and politics but I’m going to skip all that and point out that we live in a time where everyone has access to everyones opinion and everyone thinks their opinion is their identity so seeing some beat something down something you enjoy you feel like you’re being attacked which in halo’s case has led to much conflict and “side choosing” over stuff like “does sprint deserve to be in halo” or “classic vs modern halo” and that conflict keeps bringing us back because it makes people feel like they’re fighting for something. a rather poor mindset but one that keeps everyone high on halo through even the most intense content droughts. also important to note that this isn’t true for everyone and likely might only count for a loud minority, it’s just something you notice on sites like youtube and twitter, cuz those extreme opinions get likes and comments that boost their visibility. - similar to conflict and the speculation point, it’s conversation. it’s something to talk about with other people. heck I worry about things with infinite, talk about what I want, don’t want, and think will happen despite the fact that I know I’m going to enjoy it anyways because I like discussing things with friends or having a civil argument/discussion with people.
14

that’s true I identify myself I’m also from those who grew up with the franchise, I am waiting.

15

The only reason Halo fans should be worried about Halo Infinite is because it’s not going to live up to hype. Weirdly enough 343 Industries has done a remarkable job marketing this game by not saying anything at all. That’s an effective strategy in my opinion. People are so anxious right now to get any news about Infinite that they will keep talking about so they can pass the time until we see something.

However, the concern is what we’ll see this summer and if it’ll pass our standards. If we like or even love the gameplay we will say 343 did a great job. If we don’t we will either be disappointed, angry, or let down because we will feel 343 did not live up to expectations. The only thing worse would be that because 343 has waited so long to show anything that when they show new footage of Halo Infinite if we as Halo consumers don’t like what 343 is offering they won’t have enough time to fix their mistakes in the post production phase.

343 needs to execute and make a big splash this year with what they are offering fans in terms of gameplay, multiplayer, forge, custom games, Warzone, etc.

16

As someone who has quite literally grown up with the franchise, it matters to me. Me and halo both started in 2001 and going strong :muscle::handshake: I remember me and my dad playing halo CE before I even started kindergarten. And now when I get home from my job and have breathing room for an hour or 2 I always try and crank in a few games and surprisingly getting some of my friends into halo and now there’s a group of us hyped up for this game.

im not worried for the game, it’ll sell well as always and I will play it regardless because I love the lore. Even if the current direction wasn’t my vision for the “reclamation” I believe halo 5 is going to seem like a less bad game whenever infinite’s story is said and done. I think halo 5s campaign was a little off the rail but infinite having a story to conclude 5s and settle the current conflict and maybe ending with humanity and the mantle would make halo 5 seem vital to humanity’s reclamation and start a new era therefore making halo 5 important and not bad. But it’s all subjective I suppose.

I use to play heavily and was really good at any of the games as I played them all religiously. But now with lack of time I’m not good at any of them anymore and play for fun and a little more casual and don’t care about taking an L

i Embrace change, I didn’t mind halo 4 or 5 in their multiplayer direction, I actually loved 5. It felt fast (a little too competitive) but fun and has the best custom games out of pretty much any halo thanks to the browser (even if it was late it’s a redeeming quality) and thanks to forge and an amazing community.

I’m excited to see where infinite goes and I have a dream of developing games and my end goal would be at 343. Halo means a lot to me and possibly a future career and a livelihood. From birth til I’m old. I hope it’ll be a lifelong thing (one can hope)

17

> 2535473509360653;15:
> The only reason Halo fans should be worried about Halo Infinite is because it’s not going to live up to hype. Weirdly enough 343 Industries has done a remarkable job marketing this game by not saying anything at all. That’s an effective strategy in my opinion. People are so anxious right now to get any news about Infinite that they will keep talking about so they can pass the time until we see something.
>
> However, the concern is what we’ll see this summer and if it’ll pass our standards. If we like or even love the gameplay we will say 343 did a great job. If we don’t we will either be disappointed, angry, or let down because we will feel 343 did not live up to expectations. The only thing worse would be that because 343 has waited so long to show anything that when they show new footage of Halo Infinite if we as Halo consumers don’t like what 343 is offering they won’t have enough time to fix their mistakes in the post production phase.
>
> 343 needs to execute and make a big splash this year with what they are offering fans in terms of gameplay, multiplayer, forge, custom games, Warzone, etc.

Duke Nukem Forever, while certainly flawed, received far greater criticism than it deserved because 3D Realms left people with little information for too long. People spent almost two decades with only trailers and speculation to go off of, and this caused them to craft a game in their mind they were never going to get to play.

Halo Infinite was obviously only revealed in 2018, but everyone knows it’s been in development since at least 2016. With how long it’s taking for 343 Industries to even say anything of substance regarding the game, there are many assuming that it’ll be the greatest game in the franchise (with the rise of YouTubers like Halo Follower not helping this problem).

Halo Infinite will not be what anyone expects it to be, and 343 Industries need to make that clear sooner rather than later.