Escapist hate towards CoD and Halo?

[EcHoFiiVe]

Alright I was just wondering why everyone on escapist shows such absolute disdain for these two games. I am not here to have a bias. I feel like the absolutely shitty communities on these two games give them a bad reputation among people on this website. And before people say that every community has the little 10 year olds calling everything that moves a ******, it is not true. I recently got Counter Strike: Source for my computer and have been playing it online, and when I tell people I suck and ask for help with something, they actually help me. Asking a question like that on CoD or Halo will usually only bring comments such as "hey fag, gtfo thi$ gam3. we dnt wnt u her faggit.". This like default response of 95% of the people in each of those games I think sours the reputation of the game as a whole.

So I was just wondering what it is specifically that hate about CoD/Halo, to either confirm or deny my suspicions.

 

[InfiniteJacuzzi]

Hipster-only forum?

The community is where a lot of the hate comes from, and that's understandable.

 

[Couch Radish]

It's mostly by the game itself. It does nothing to actually give any kind of innovation.

Nope. Just a rehash with ever increasing numbers next to them.

 

[Irridium]

Don't know. But thankfully for Halo fans here there's a sanctuary [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Halo-Fans] for us to gather and have fun.

Speaking of which, we're having a game today in Reach, in about an hour and 20 minutes. Come in, join us, and have the best time you'll ever have in Halo!

 

[hecticpicnic]

I like Cod4 i just think think they should just stop making games because they over shadow others much better than them.And they have kinda become a monopoly on the fps market.

EDIT:Oh and i dislike halo because ever one that likes it ,thinks its the best game ever..they really do my brother is one.

 

[Zarthek]

Online community for those games is pretty deplorable a lot of the time, but that's the same as plenty of other games. Personally I think we all hate them because of how each sequel is basically the same game in a new paint job with very little in terms of improvement.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

The hate happens due to these games not being half as good as they're being praised to be.


Additionally, and in my opinion more importantly, these games are RESPONSIBLE for the fact that better games, games we love for reasons deeper than "I just shot you in your tits dickpants!" don't get nearly enough recognition, praise, money and respect. They're basically making us worse off than we were before by lowering the bar and making true quality not as viable as it should be.

 

[Lewg999]

i always liked the first game i played of both cod and halo but neither do anything to innovate, never have a great single player and if you try the online you will be hit with a barrage of abuse and swearing from fan boys and underage gamers, generally they just are not that great

 

[Netrigan]

The fanbase is always a part of the equation, which helps push a mildly positive opinion of a game into the negative.

But we're dealing with two insanely popular franchises, neither of which can be accused of being particularly innovative or original (Halo: Combat Evolved and CoD4 being about the only exceptions... and then, not very large exceptions, as they're both very comfortably inside the FPS comfort zone they were released into). When many gamers put forth their lists of what is wrong with FPS today (criminally short single player campaigns, too much emphasis on MP, charging for MP map packs, battling the same enemies time after time after time, etc.), both Halo and CoD are the most visible examples of said trends. This is especially the case with CoD, which has inspired every wannabe modern warfare shooter.

 

[mitchell271]

i love me some Halo, but I don't think it's the best game in the world. It's fun, it doesn't rely on reflexes nearly as much as CoD and it's much more arcade-y by comparison. It relies a lot more on skill and memorization of weapon placement.

CoD does suck though. Why? Because they release a new game every year, they have a monopoly on the FPS market at the moment and all they do is add a fresh coat of paint to the previous game and call it a day. I think everyone at this point would rather that Activision would have only one dev team working on the franchise and wait a couple of years to release a new one and innovate.

 

[Lawnmooer]

CoD I hate because of the community (Luckily I have peoples voices permenantly muted) the fact the game is boring (Even the multiplayer... True I did spend alot of time online in WaW but that's because it reminded me of why I started playing CoD, I'd finished all the Medal of Honour games that were out at the time.) and the whole being really popular so they can release alot of very similar games and make other companies think it's a good thing to copy as it will ensure they make money.

Halo I hate because they made vehicles destroyable... I had so much fun in the first halo but find the others really boring.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Funnily enough, not everyone hates those games.
I'd say a majority just find them a bit "meh", with a vocal minority that adamantly hates them, and another minority that loves them. And then all the people in between.
Some will hate because it is the in thing to hate popular stuff, generally, and some will have reason for disliking the game, that have to do with the actual games, not the company that made them, or how well it sells.
I think the games are decent enough.

-Snip-
Speaking of which, we're having a game today in Reach, in about an hour and 20 minutes. Come in, join us, and have the best time you'll ever have in Halo!

Don't tempt me >.>
I haven't played a multiplayer game on my 360 in at least 15 days... and Reach is decent for multiplayer...

 

[le picklez]

I'll just say the current state of the CoD franchise and community is making me turn to fighting games...

 

[Cronq]

I hate any game that has more than 3 sequels (unless it's a nintendo game)

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Because Halo and CoD were both very popular and very successful, about a million other studios copied them. Then the lower quality of the copies is actually blamed on the successful franchises that earned millions of loyal fans and a built in need some people have to feel like they are the exception to some rule. So "I hate X shooter" becomes a popular way to get people to pay attention to you if you put it in your columns and forum posts. Then it spreads from there.

Halo and CoD are both good games that give millions of people a fun time every time a new one is released. Do they rehash? Maybe. But do they give most players what they want and ask for? You bet.

Ignore the hate. You have better things to do with your time, I'm sure.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Personally, I really Enjoy Halo (although I don't own an Xbox). I find it's a great fun shooter.

It's only CoD I can't stand because it literally feels like whoever happens to see the other player first wins. Plus nonstop camping. And it feels very unoriginal. At least Halo has a gun that fires purple needles that make you spontaneously combust into a glorious purple cloud.

 

[Netrigan]

The hate happens due to these games not being half as good as they're being praised to be.


Additionally, and in my opinion more importantly, these games are RESPONSIBLE for the fact that better games, games we love for reasons deeper than "I just shot you in your tits dickpants!" don't get nearly enough recognition, praise, money and respect. They're basically making us worse off than we were before by lowering the bar and making true quality not as viable as it should be.

They're lowering the bar and the new, easier target is beyond the reach of quality games... your metaphor is kind of turned around though.

The bigger video game budgets means the sales bars keep getting higher and higher... and this is where a lot of quality games run into a problem. In the past, they had fairly small budgets and could become successful with much lower sales. Deus Ex sold something like two million copies and was considered a pretty big hit and is still fondly remembered. Today, two millions is the bare minimum you need to sell to survive the sort of budgets that such games require.

The more expensive games get to produce, the more this becomes the case. Just look at Hollywood and their obsession with action movies. Smaller, more original films still get made, but with so much noise around them, they rarely get the attention they deserve. But as long as the creators of said movies keep their budgets in line and turn a healthy profit, they can continue making such movies for a long time. Video game developers are going to have to figure out how to push their gaming budgets down if they want to create more original and financially risky fare.