What are your thoughts on Halo’s multiplayer mode(s) being canon?
I, personally, feel that it is an unnecessary feature that really doesn’t add much to the experience. 343 stated that a reason that they decided to make multiplayer canon was to encourage multiplayer-only players be more interested in the Campaign, and vice-versa. I’m not so sure this succeeded. I’ll use the Campaign-only players as an example. Even if there is now a canon explanation as to why and where the Spartans are fighting, it still doesn’t make the Campaign-only community play multiplayer any more than they used to. It’s not as if they have to play the multiplayer to understand important story information.
Then there are the gameplay problems. If you haven’t seen it by now, there is a HUGE thread on these forums about the lack of playable Sangheili in Halo 4. We now, canonically, play as Spartan-IVs aboard the UNSC Infinity. Playing as Elites would go against the established canon. If you’ve seen the thread, you know how significant an issue this is for a lot of the community.
Canon multiplayer also brings a lot of questions from the “canon experts”. How does respawning work? How does one survive a tank blast? Those deeply involved in the canon take this stuff seriously, and 343 has to provide logical explanations. If they can’t, then maybe story and multiplayer should stay separate. I don’t recall any issues when this was the case.
Things like the armor and map descriptions should remain canon. And SpOps is treated as a second Campaign, so of course this mode will be canon.
I could be over-analyzing it, and canon multiplayer could provide some benefits, or not matter at all. Please share your opinions, and stay respectful.
It seemed like a good idea, but I think people who play campaign only willonly play campaign and possibly Fire Fight/Spec Ops.
I hope in the next Halo we can play as elites again. I really want an evolved version of Invasion/Dominion return where it is Elites vs Spartan II.
No more Spartan III or IV.
I want to play as a Spartan II.
Spartan III or IV are slow and weak compared to a Spartan II.
Honestly I don’t think canon-multiplayer really did anything, beyond be a weak excuse to get campaign players attempt multiplayer.
Canon can’t be used as an excuse for no-elites, because apparently they can make people look like flood. If they can make someone look like the flood, they can make someone look like an elite. Simulated elites make perfect sense being their primary enemy.
I just ignore it because it’s silly and unnecessary. I don’t like how it negatively affects Multiplayer across all modes, either.
> It seemed like a good idea, but I think people who play campaign only willonly play campaign and possibly Fire Fight/Spec Ops.
>
> I hope in the next Halo we can play as elites again. I really want an evolved version of Invasion/Dominion return where it is Elites vs Spartan II.
>
> No more Spartan III or IV.
>
> I want to play as a Spartan II.
>
> Spartan III or IV are slow and weak compared to a Spartan II.
I’ve heard a lot of people suggest being able to choose our Spartan’s class (II, III, or IV). I don’t think it would add much to the experience, but it’s another feature that wouldn’t be possible with canonical multiplayer.
> Honestly I don’t think canon-multiplayer really did anything, beyond be a weak excuse to get campaign players attempt multiplayer.
>
> Canon can’t be used as an excuse for no-elites, because apparently they can make people look like flood. If they can make someone look like the flood, they can make someone look like an elite. Simulated elites make perfect sense being their primary enemy.
Good point.
I still don’t know why they decided to make multiplayer canon. Does anyone know?
It’s not exactly something fans were begging for, and I don’t see any benefits.
The funny thing is, I’ve seen some Infinity defenders use the canon thing to their advantage in ways that don’t make sense. They’ll say that AAs need to be in load outs, as that’s what Spartan training would involve. Like they are somehow experts on the training of fictional super-soldiers in the distant future of course.
Canon multiplayer brings no benefits that I can see, yet apparently it limits what can be done with gameplay, therefore it shouldn’t be continued in my opinion.
> I still don’t know why they decided to make multiplayer canon. Does anyone know?
> It’s not exactly something fans were begging for, and I don’t see any benefits.
>
> The funny thing is, I’ve seen some Infinity defenders use the canon thing to their advantage in ways that don’t make sense. They’ll say that AAs need to be in load outs, as that’s what Spartan training would involve. Like they are somehow experts on the training of fictional super-soldiers in the distant future of course.
>
> Canon multiplayer brings no benefits that I can see, yet apparently it limits what can be done with gameplay, therefore it shouldn’t be continued in my opinion.
I agree. Metaphorically speaking, it seems that 343i planted a seed of canon, hoping that it would yield fruit to nourish the community and allow them to climb its branches to view new possibilities on the horizon. Instead, this seed grew into a thorny bush, doing not much else than taking up space where more bountiful possibilities could be sown and harvested and being in the way of expansive growth and development. Perhaps its time to uproot this thorny bush and make better use of this soil…
> > I still don’t know why they decided to make multiplayer canon. Does anyone know?
> > It’s not exactly something fans were begging for, and I don’t see any benefits.
> >
> > The funny thing is, I’ve seen some Infinity defenders use the canon thing to their advantage in ways that don’t make sense. They’ll say that AAs need to be in load outs, as that’s what Spartan training would involve. Like they are somehow experts on the training of fictional super-soldiers in the distant future of course.
> >
> > Canon multiplayer brings no benefits that I can see, yet apparently it limits what can be done with gameplay, therefore it shouldn’t be continued in my opinion.
>
> I agree. Metaphorically speaking, it seems that 343i planted a seed of canon, hoping that it would yield fruit to nourish the community and allow them to climb its branches to view new possibilities on the horizon. Instead, this seed grew into a thorny bush, doing not much else than taking up space where more bountiful possibilities could be sown and harvested and being in the way of expansive growth and development. Perhaps its time to uproot this thorny bush and make better use of this soil…
Words of the wise.
> I still don’t know why they decided to make multiplayer canon. Does anyone know?
> It’s not exactly something fans were begging for, and I don’t see any benefits.
>
> The funny thing is, I’ve seen some Infinity defenders use the canon thing to their advantage in ways that don’t make sense. They’ll say that AAs need to be in load outs, as that’s what Spartan training would involve. Like they are somehow experts on the training of fictional super-soldiers in the distant future of course.
>
> Canon multiplayer brings no benefits that I can see, yet apparently it limits what can be done with gameplay, therefore it shouldn’t be continued in my opinion.
Just want to say that I pretty much love all your posts :).
Anyways, bromances aside, I’m all for ditching the canon nonsense of multiplayer. Combined with 343’s obsession with the UNSC and its horrific namesake gametype, I’d certainly be glad to see that angle tossed aside.
And of course, as the OP said, eventually you’re confronted with the fact that only aspect of multiplayer that’s canon in the least is the fact that it happens on-board the Infinity. Besides that, Mjolnir helmets are apparently made out of tissue paper, Plasma and Forerunner weapons are inexplicably inferior in every possible way to those of the UNSC, magazines materialize in your hand, low speed ghost impacts result in instant death, on and on and on…
> Just want to say that I pretty much love all your posts :).
Wow, well thank you! What am I doing right?
> Anyways, bromances aside, I’m all for ditching the canon nonsense of multiplayer. Combined with 343’s obsession with the UNSC and its horrific namesake gametype, I’d certainly be glad to see that angle tossed aside.
Yeah I really can’t see any reason to continue it.
> And of course, as the OP said, eventually you’re confronted with the fact that only aspect of multiplayer that’s canon in the least is the fact that it happens on-board the Infinity. Besides that, Mjolnir helmets are apparently made out of tissue paper, Plasma and Forerunner weapons are inexplicably inferior in every possible way to those of the UNSC, magazines materialize in your hand, low speed ghost impacts result in instant death, on and on and on…
I never thought of it like that, but that’s a good point. It’s hardly canon with those types of things going on.
This is slightly off topic but ill jump back on that wagon in a second but one of the other things that irks me is they put so much emphasis on forging your own Spartan’s career aboard the Infinity when you’re just going to lose that investment when the next title rolls along.
But for me the whole canon in multiplayer thing was just stupid. Why should game play suffer just so things make sense? Why does an entire community get shafted because they’re unable to use an Elite? Stuff like that.
When I play Halos multiplayer I want a fair, balanced experience where the choices are made to the benefit of the game play, not having little things added to make sense.
That’s just me though. I can understand others would have a different view.
For things like Elites in Multiplayer, making it canon really isn’t to blame for that. It could have very easily been said that a large number of Elites were on the Infinity due the a treaty with Thel. Elites being removed due to balance reasons or time constraints is much more likely because it didn’t fit with the canon they were CURRENTLY making.
Better explanations would really help the canon seem aspect seem relevant. Scrapping it entirely would be quite disappointing to me.
I think that the worst part of all this is that they never actually explain to us in-game that the multiplayer is canon. It isn’t obvious in the least bit that we’re supposed to be actual Spartans training in War Games, especially with gametypes like Flood and Grifball, as well as Forge.
To the average user, multiplayer just seems the same as ever. Which is a real shame, since it seems that we were limited in content (no playable Elites) due to this silly canon thing, all for nothing. It was a neat idea, but poorly implemented, similarly to many other things seen in Halo 4.
> For things like Elites in Multiplayer, making it canon really isn’t to blame for that. It could have very easily been said that a large number of Elites were on the Infinity due the a treaty with Thel. Elites being removed due to balance reasons or time constraints is much more likely because it didn’t fit with the canon they were CURRENTLY making.
>
> Better explanations would really help the canon seem aspect seem relevant. Scrapping it entirely would be quite disappointing to me.
343 directly stated that canon was the reason we can’t play as Elites. They made Flood models, so we could have easily had Elite models.
And I highly doubt the UNSC would help the Elites train, seeing as how many of them still hold a grudge against humanity.
> > For things like Elites in Multiplayer, making it canon really isn’t to blame for that. It could have very easily been said that a large number of Elites were on the Infinity due the a treaty with Thel. Elites being removed due to balance reasons or time constraints is much more likely because it didn’t fit with the canon they were CURRENTLY making.
> >
> > Better explanations would really help the canon seem aspect seem relevant. Scrapping it entirely would be quite disappointing to me.
>
> 343 directly stated that canon was the reason we can’t play as Elites. They made Flood models, so we could have easily had Elite models.
>
> And I highly doubt the UNSC would help the Elites train, seeing as how many of them still hold a grudge against humanity.
I actually think they made the ‘canon’ statement to give a reason other than “We couldn’t figure out/didn’t have time to make the Elites work for multiplayer”. The Flood models use the same hitboxes as the S-IV models, so they managed to work with that, but Elites are a different story (they are larger and have a different head placement, which affects headshots from behind and the side). Even if this is true, they still had no reason to give such a half-baked idea be made official IMO.
> > For things like Elites in Multiplayer, making it canon really isn’t to blame for that. It could have very easily been said that a large number of Elites were on the Infinity due the a treaty with Thel. Elites being removed due to balance reasons or time constraints is much more likely because it didn’t fit with the canon they were CURRENTLY making.
> >
> > Better explanations would really help the canon seem aspect seem relevant. Scrapping it entirely would be quite disappointing to me.
>
> 343 directly stated that canon was the reason we can’t play as Elites. They made Flood models, so we could have easily had Elite models.
>
> And I highly doubt the UNSC would help the Elites train, seeing as how many of them still hold a grudge against humanity.
I’m not going to bother to look up year ol bulletins, so I guess I’ll take your word on that. Flood models are just a reskin of the Spartan model, they do not have a different structure or size.
It would have been quite interesting though. Spartans would also get regular training on how to fight the Elites, which is a win. Would have also better explain Jul’s group being rebels and a seperate group.
I only see cannon as 343’s poor excuse for not putting Elites in. 343 has complete control over the cannon so they can put Elites in if they want to. Thel is still friends with the UNSC and no ones gonna complain about Elites working on Infinity as part of the treaty.
It’s more likely IMO that when they started making Halo 4 that they saw there would be no time for Elites or they wanted to concentrate on the Spartans customization more. Just look at Halo 4. They didn’t have time to add in so much other stuff and look at all the new custom options for Spartans the evidence is there.
As for what Jazzii man said you can tell those guys that game play still goes over cannon. I do support some of the additions you may be referring to but using cannon in this way is a weak argument and shouldn’t be a reason a to remove multi player cannon.
To be honest Elites seem to be the only problem cannon has appeared to cause and as I’ve stated above I don’t even think cannon has caused that. I don’t know what other problems there are.
Don’t say that you want to play as an SII because they are better. Master Chief in the Campaign is equal to an SIV because cannon doesn’t dictate game play stats. 343 could make the SIVs in multi player equal to an SII from Halo 2 or 3 and it wont damage cannon at all they did it because they wanted to. If you don’t want canonical multi player you shouldn’t care about what generation of Spartan you play as. What you should be asking for is for 343 to change the player stats in multi player.
I like that my Spartan has a place in the Halo universe and I hope that in Halo 5 Elites will be canonically implemented and have that same feeling. I hope that in Halo 5 343 can take canonical multi player further by putting us in more campaign like scenarios where we can interact with other characters in the Halo universe.
Cannon multi player should stay as long as it doesn’t affect game play. If anyone has any other problems with multi player cannon other than the things I’ve talked about above feel free to point them out to me.
P.S Onyxtech you shouldn’t have look for that bulletin. Halojunky should be the one providing the link if he wants to prove his point. That’s how things usually go around here.
> I only see cannon as 343’s poor excuse for not putting Elites in. 343 has complete control over the cannon so they can put Elites in if they want to. Thel is still friends with the UNSC and no ones gonna complain about Elites working on Infinity as part of the treaty.
>
> It’s more likely IMO that when they started making Halo 4 that they saw there would be no time for Elites or they wanted to concentrate on the Spartans customization more. Just look at Halo 4. They didn’t have time to add in so much other stuff and look at all the new custom options for Spartans the evidence is there.
>
> As for what Jazzii man said you can tell those guys that game play still goes over cannon. I do support some of the additions you may be referring to but using cannon in this way is a weak argument and shouldn’t be a reason a to remove multi player cannon.
>
> To be honest Elites seem to be the only problem cannon has appeared to cause and as I’ve stated above I don’t even think cannon has caused that. I don’t know what other problems there are.
>
> Don’t say that you want to play as an SII because they are better. Master Chief in the Campaign is equal to an SIV because cannon doesn’t dictate game play stats. 343 could make the SIVs in multi player equal to an SII from Halo 2 or 3 and it wont damage cannon at all they did it because they wanted to. If you don’t want canonical multi player you shouldn’t care about what generation of Spartan you play as. What you should be asking for is for 343 to change the player stats in multi player.
>
> I like that my Spartan has a place in the Halo universe and I hope that in Halo 5 Elites will be canonically implemented and have that same feeling. I hope that in Halo 5 343 can take canonical multi player further by putting us in more campaign like scenarios where we can interact with other characters in the Halo universe.
>
> Cannon multi player should stay as long as it doesn’t affect game play. If anyone has any other problems with multi player cannon other than the things I’ve talked about above feel free to point them out to me.
>
> P.S Onyxtech you shouldn’t have look for that bulletin. Halojunky should be the one providing the link if he wants to prove his point. That’s how things usually go around here.
The UNSC would not purposely help the Elites train, when half of them still hate humanity.
And I didn’t feel the need to find the link, seeing as how that statement was common knowledge and can be found in pretty much every pre-release article (i.e. Gameinformer).
If you still want your Spartan to have a place in the universe, there’s always SPOPS.
> > I only see cannon as 343’s poor excuse for not putting Elites in. 343 has complete control over the cannon so they can put Elites in if they want to. Thel is still friends with the UNSC and no ones gonna complain about Elites working on Infinity as part of the treaty.
> >
> > It’s more likely IMO that when they started making Halo 4 that they saw there would be no time for Elites or they wanted to concentrate on the Spartans customization more. Just look at Halo 4. They didn’t have time to add in so much other stuff and look at all the new custom options for Spartans the evidence is there.
> >
> > As for what Jazzii man said you can tell those guys that game play still goes over cannon. I do support some of the additions you may be referring to but using cannon in this way is a weak argument and shouldn’t be a reason a to remove multi player cannon.
> >
> > To be honest Elites seem to be the only problem cannon has appeared to cause and as I’ve stated above I don’t even think cannon has caused that. I don’t know what other problems there are.
> >
> > Don’t say that you want to play as an SII because they are better. Master Chief in the Campaign is equal to an SIV because cannon doesn’t dictate game play stats. 343 could make the SIVs in multi player equal to an SII from Halo 2 or 3 and it wont damage cannon at all they did it because they wanted to. If you don’t want canonical multi player you shouldn’t care about what generation of Spartan you play as. What you should be asking for is for 343 to change the player stats in multi player.
> >
> > I like that my Spartan has a place in the Halo universe and I hope that in Halo 5 Elites will be canonically implemented and have that same feeling. I hope that in Halo 5 343 can take canonical multi player further by putting us in more campaign like scenarios where we can interact with other characters in the Halo universe.
> >
> > Cannon multi player should stay as long as it doesn’t affect game play. If anyone has any other problems with multi player cannon other than the things I’ve talked about above feel free to point them out to me.
> >
> > P.S Onyxtech you shouldn’t have look for that bulletin. Halojunky should be the one providing the link if he wants to prove his point. That’s how things usually go around here.
>
> The UNSC would not purposely help the Elites train, when half of them still hate humanity.
>
> And I didn’t feel the need to find the link, seeing as how that statement was common knowledge and can be found in pretty much every pre-release article.
ONI wouldn’t help Elites. The UNSC (At least members of the UNSC that would be making decisions like this)is less xenofobic, mainly Hood. 343 control the cannon. If they want to they could create a completely reasonable story line in which this could happen.
We don’t know how long after Halo 4 Halo 5 takes place. Anything could happen in this time.
The Elites don’t even have to be on Infinity. We still don’t know much about the War games simulator. For all we know it could it can work on a wireless network connecting Infinity to Sangheilios. If the simulator can create objects why not copies of Elites being controlled from Sangheilios? What I’m trying to say is hard to explain but the point is that many different scenarios can be written to make this possible and it’s within 343’s power to do it.
Plus it’s called WARGAMES. In the real world it’s different factions showing each other their military power so no one gets too suspicious of each other.
This would be the Sangheili and UNSC showing each other the power of their finest infantry. Don’t see it as training the enemy, see it as a War game, a friendly exchange with two factions showing that they trust each other enough not to be keeping secrets like their military power.