Why does Halo attract Hatred?

[DareArkin]

Every game has fans and detractors. Halo currently has a larger base of fans than almost any other game. Just as every physical action has an equal and opposite reaction, so does every popularity have an equal and opposite backlash.

Detractors of a game tend to be more vocal the more they feel they are in the minority. For example, crappy licensed games such as Open Season and Transformers are generally regarded as bad games, so the people who dislike them (i.e. nearly everyone) don't bother to mention them. Final Fantasy and Gears of War are both game series that are quite popular but somewhat divisive, so people who dislike either one will put some effort into criticising them, but they won't go over the top because they know a lot of people agree with their opinion. Halo is regarded as a good game by the majority of gamers (based on reviews and the non-Escapist population), so the people who don't enjoy it feel like they need to shout down the teeming masses of those who do, whether they say it's outright bad or just "overrated".

The Escapist seems to have a disproportionate share of people who dislike Halo and want to tell everyone about it. I don't know why this is. It might be because Zero Punctuation attracts the sort of people to the site who like to criticise things and attack things that they don't personally enjoy. That's just a theory, though.

Interestingly, many of the people who passionately criticise Halo don't have anything really bad to say about it. A typical complaint will simply say "I hated it" and either give no reason or point to aspects of the game that are common to many other games, if not totally standard for the genre. Examples include: the subtle auto-aiming, the generic story, the space marine protagonist, the "easiness" of the game (ignoring the ability to set the difficulty setting), the regenerating health (although didn't bother them in COD4) and so on. Others, such as NDWolfwood5268, claim that the first game was good but later games in the series are total crap because they only improved on it a little bit and didn't add many new features; anyone who can explain that logic is free to try.

A lot of criticism also centres on the story, often with reference to the superiority of story in games such as Half-Life 2. These people apparently have no problem with the hundreds of other games that have a more minimal story than Halo. They are also often not willing to even consider the quality of the multiplayer experience, although they seem fine with Team Fortress 2.

You, my good sir, might be my new favourite person on this forum. Kudos.

Man, no kidding. I just saw this after posting. I bow to a superior intelligence. o.o

 

[klakkat]

Its become cool to hate Halo, somehow. Or, more appropriately, the game is so popular that sides feel they must be divided on loving it or hating it; it sounds a lot like the console fandom, frankly.

I plain don't care about Halo. Played the demo for Halo 1 way back, and thought it was good for the time, but I never picked up a full version. From what I've seen, the more balanced opinions seem to state there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the game; it plays well, and the story is intelligible if heavily cliched.

Fraser.J.A probably had a key thing there: People are louder the more they think they are the minority. They probably get more ironed into their opinion as well. This may explain some of the Halo hating phenomenon

 

[VitalSigns]

Halo 1 was good.
Halo 2 was decent.
Halo 3 was so over-hyped that there was no way it could have lived up to the expectations, and it didnt. I don't think the Halo series is bad, but it certainly isn't the pinnacle of gaming either. Halo Fanboys are probably the reason I hate on Halo, I think watching anyone get up in arms about a video game they like is funny/ridiculous.

 

[Daveman]

So far, all I've found out is that Halo is over-rated (which I mentioned in my opening statement...) and that the fan base is either pretty good or god-awful. Are there any other reasons, because in my opinion that dooesn't really count up to the amount of hatred that it does recieve (basically quite good but not as good as it could've been and personal abuse from an american kid online...)

Oh, and by the way I did use the search bar, and none really answered my question. Saying "Use the Search Bar" really doesn't help, it just makes it more flamy and seems quite unnecessary.

Alright fine, I'll contribute as this thread clearly is equally successful as every other Halo thread.

Halo CE was annoying because after the open bit at the beginning we decended into a world of copy-pasted corridors and grey and also the enemies were the same all the way through with 3 very insignificant changes. Also there was just general hate for the xbox standard controller. Also it was heralded not only as being brilliant but revolutionary. I saw another thread where every single thing that Halo did that was "revoloutionary" had been done before in various games. Other than that Halo CE wasn't that bad.

Halo 2 I felt improved on the combat system with the dual wielding and the corridors where slightly easier to tell apart. Other than that though it was exactly the same game.

Halo 3 had the most nonsensical plot that was irreperably bad. Maybe I might understand if I read the books but that's just lazy game developers. The repetitive corridors were gone (yay) to be replaced with blinding Bloom lighting and more brown dirge than you see in the toilet after a vindaloo (*cries*). It actually hurt my eyes.

Also, before you suggest it, don't mention the multiplayer. That is no excuse for a terrible singleplayer campaign. They could've gone down the same route as TF2 and just had multiplayer but they didn't.

I await people telling me how what I just said was my opinion.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

I'm actually positive this is a group of people trolling now.

 

[King Yayap]

Halo 1 was good.
Halo 2 was decent.
Halo 3 was so over-hyped that there was no way it could have lived up to the expectations, and it didnt. I don't think the Halo series is bad, but it certainly isn't the pinnacle of gaming either. Halo Fanboys are probably the reason I hate on Halo, I think watching anyone get up in arms about a video game they like is funny/ridiculous.

I agree there, I mean, I asked a simple enough question and everyone starts flaming for no real reason! Halo is alright, I don't play it much, but I kinda like it, yet it's constantly seen as the antichrist on gaming forums. I just wanted to know why Halo were seen as such an abomination when it is just another video game...

 

[King Yayap]

So far, all I've found out is that Halo is over-rated (which I mentioned in my opening statement...) and that the fan base is either pretty good or god-awful. Are there any other reasons, because in my opinion that dooesn't really count up to the amount of hatred that it does recieve (basically quite good but not as good as it could've been and personal abuse from an american kid online...)

Oh, and by the way I did use the search bar, and none really answered my question. Saying "Use the Search Bar" really doesn't help, it just makes it more flamy and seems quite unnecessary.

Alright fine, I'll contribute as this thread clearly is equally successful as every other Halo thread.

Halo CE was annoying because after the open bit at the beginning we decended into a world of copy-pasted corridors and grey and also the enemies were the same all the way through with 3 very insignificant changes. Also there was just general hate for the xbox standard controller. Also it was heralded not only as being brilliant but revolutionary. I saw another thread where every single thing that Halo did that was "revoloutionary" had been done before in various games. Other than that Halo CE wasn't that bad.

Halo 2 I felt improved on the combat system with the dual wielding and the corridors where slightly easier to tell apart. Other than that though it was exactly the same game.

Halo 3 had the most nonsensical plot that was irreperably bad. Maybe I might understand if I read the books but that's just lazy game developers. The repetitive corridors were gone (yay) to be replaced with blinding Bloom lighting and more brown dirge than you see in the toilet after a vindaloo (*cries*). It actually hurt my eyes.

Also, before you suggest it, don't mention the multiplayer. That is no excuse for a terrible singleplayer campaign. They could've gone down the same route as TF2 and just had multiplayer but they didn't.

I await people telling me how what I just said was my opinion.

An honest and quite valid opinion, though!

 

[Pandalisk]

Because the people that announce there hatred of it hate it?.. like how those that announce there love of it, love it. theres no sneaky hidden agenda, its just personal opinion.

 

[Daveman]

snip

An honest and quite valid opinion, though!

Thank you kindly.

 

[ReZerO]

It attracts hatred because it's not perfect (as you said), yet how many times have you heard people going on about how it's the god of gaming and there is nothing better or ever will be.

The hatred is just a backlash to this attitude, if people would stop going on how good the game is, than the others would stop going on about how bad it is (I think the detractors just see it as compensating the overblown ?yay yay it?s sooooo awesome!? claims of the fanboys).

 

[dumblydore16]

Sorry, I don't usually do this but USE THE BLOODY SEARCH BAR!!!!!

There are just way too many Halo bashing threads and that's coming from me, a fanatical Halo basher.

THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR HALO BASHING THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF HALO BIG DIFF MAN

 

[VitalSigns]

Halo 1 was good.
Halo 2 was decent.
Halo 3 was so over-hyped that there was no way it could have lived up to the expectations, and it didnt. I don't think the Halo series is bad, but it certainly isn't the pinnacle of gaming either. Halo Fanboys are probably the reason I hate on Halo, I think watching anyone get up in arms about a video game they like is funny/ridiculous.

I agree there, I mean, I asked a simple enough question and everyone starts flaming for no real reason! Halo is alright, I don't play it much, but I kinda like it, yet it's constantly seen as the antichrist on gaming forums. I just wanted to know why Halo were seen as such an abomination when it is just another video game...

I don't hate it because its popular, I just think some peoples undying devotion to it being better than anything ever is what's so funny. Halo is an average game in a sea of average games, I tried playing Gears with a Halo fanatic and the whole time I had to listen to why a cover system ruins shooting games and (this confused me) makes it less realistic. Halo 3 has fun multi-player but the xbox live crowd that game attracts ruined it for me

 

[Srkkl]

Overrated and overhyped. Also I don't like games that are only made for the multiplayer, I play to be emersed in the story not to be the best in the world.

 

[Lemmibl]

It comes down to two simple facts.

1. It's a console FPS. (lol seriously)
2. The rabid shitstain of a fanbase. (Pretty much like Twilight.)

 

[dumblydore16]

It gets sooooooooooooo much hate because people determine how much a game is good based on how much it's hyped and how good it is when it comes out. Halo 3 isn't the only over hyped great game out there. Killzone 2 had longer time to come out and barely anyone says anything public about how it's overrated. Same with Half-Life 2, and hundreds of other games. I just hate how Halo 3 attracts all this negative attraction when there's other games that would fit just as well. But people won't attack the PC games just for the fact they're on PC even though there's console games that are better than alot of PC games

another one of many reasonable statments on this thread

 

[Daveman]

Sorry, I don't usually do this but USE THE BLOODY SEARCH BAR!!!!!

There are just way too many Halo bashing threads and that's coming from me, a fanatical Halo basher.

THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR HALO BASHING THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF HALO BIG DIFF MAN

You probably don't understand that every Halo related thread ends up a Halo bashing thread.

 

[wgreer25]

Why I don't like it is this...

It is only a slightly above average game (if even that high). So I just don't understand the cult like following of it. And that following is usually 16 year olds... nothing wrong with being 16, but I am much older than that so the maturity level you generally find in that game is pretty low. I have plenty of online friends and there is a small group who play almost nothing but Halo... I don't get it, it's not that good, try something else. The Halo fanboys need to move on to something else... anything else. Perhaps MW2.

 

[dumblydore16]

Sorry, I don't usually do this but USE THE BLOODY SEARCH BAR!!!!!

There are just way too many Halo bashing threads and that's coming from me, a fanatical Halo basher.

THIS IS NOT A THREAD FOR HALO BASHING THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE THINK OF HALO BIG DIFF MAN

You probably don't understand that every Halo related thread ends up a Halo bashing thread.

well then excuse me for not being on the fourms that much im much more of a video monkey

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Every game has fans and detractors. Halo currently has a larger base of fans than almost any other game. Just as every physical action has an equal and opposite reaction, so does every popularity have an equal and opposite backlash.

Detractors of a game tend to be more vocal the more they feel they are in the minority. For example, crappy licensed games such as Open Season and Transformers are generally regarded as bad games, so the people who dislike them (i.e. nearly everyone) don't bother to mention them. Final Fantasy and Gears of War are both game series that are quite popular but somewhat divisive, so people who dislike either one will put some effort into criticising them, but they won't go over the top because they know a lot of people agree with their opinion. Halo is regarded as a good game by the majority of gamers (based on reviews and the non-Escapist population), so the people who don't enjoy it feel like they need to shout down the teeming masses of those who do, whether they say it's outright bad or just "overrated".

The Escapist seems to have a disproportionate share of people who dislike Halo and want to tell everyone about it. I don't know why this is. It might be because Zero Punctuation attracts the sort of people to the site who like to criticise things and attack things that they don't personally enjoy. That's just a theory, though.

Interestingly, many of the people who passionately criticise Halo don't have anything really bad to say about it. A typical complaint will simply say "I hated it" and either give no reason or point to aspects of the game that are common to many other games, if not totally standard for the genre. Examples include: the subtle auto-aiming, the generic story, the space marine protagonist, the "easiness" of the game (ignoring the ability to set the difficulty setting), the regenerating health (although didn't bother them in COD4) and so on. Others, such as NDWolfwood5268, claim that the first game was good but later games in the series are total crap because they only improved on it a little bit and didn't add many new features; anyone who can explain that logic is free to try.

A lot of criticism also centres on the story, often with reference to the superiority of story in games such as Half-Life 2. These people apparently have no problem with the hundreds of other games that have a more minimal story than Halo. They are also often not willing to even consider the quality of the multiplayer experience, although they seem fine with Team Fortress 2.

/thread