Why I Hate Halo (among other games)

[Zantos]

I don't think Halo is the worst for this. IMO whenever I've played CoD online or splitscreen then people are ruthless. It's not even that I'm not very good, I just play less frequently and theres always someone who plays every day and screws everyone over.

 

[Wondermint13]

The vehicals are only put in place for (i'm sorry) people who are too stupid to aim a gun or last longer than 5 seconds on the battle field... so instead they get given these awful to drive vehicals that allow players with no talent to run over other players who have enough guts to fire the damn weapon they were given. As for flying vehicles... 'cluck cluck cluck... come down here and take me on fair and square'

I lol'd again.

Complaining about vehicles because you couldn't figure out how to beat them huh?

Did I say I couldn't beat them??.. Rocket launcher in the face shuts up most vehicles from experience so no... I'm not having trouble thanks.

I'm simply saying It takes more talent to shoot somebody than drive a heavily armoured truck or something at them.. And dont start saying it takes skill to drive/fly something at a guy with two feet and gun because it doesn't.

 

[ajemas]

I'm sorry, but this makes absolutely no sense. Your argument is that those who play the game more often are far better at it than those who don't. This concept applies to nearly every game created ever, and not just videogames. It's only natural that those who play the game regularly will be better than those who don't. I can't think of a single game where practice won't make you perform better at it.

 

[Viking Incognito]

This can be said about a lot of things though. Call of Duty is probably the worst of them all.
I've never seen a more competitive fanbase than with CoD, specifically Black Ops for some reason and since it's all leveled and most people who tend to play online play it nonstop for weeks on end, it seems. (I remember specifically a player who, after only 2 days post release of Black Ops, was at a total of 43 hours playtime online). So really, it's just a bunch of people taking things way too seriously, can't stand the thought of losing and play simply to beat someone else.

HOLY SHIT YES! I got the game 1 month after it came out on PS3 and I am not exaggerating when I say I did not meet more that 3 other players who were under level 15

Needles to say, I never really got into it. The problem is that even the slightest head start will ensure that the obsessive jerks who reach level 25 in a month will drive away newer players.

 

[elvor0]

Five bucks says I'm going to catch a lot of trouble for this but it needs to be said.

For starters though, I'm going to have to say I don't hate all Halos. I love the first Halo game. I still have fond memories of playing with my friends. A few of them had X-Boxes and they would invite people over to play four player split screen. Myself included.
I never owned an X-box. But in those days, you were playing against other people who don't have x-boxes at a person's house who likely only plays X-Box when friends are around because... Well there was no online. Period. This made the game fun. The level of entry was set pretty low and everyone just wanted to have some fun and maybe take turns goofing around with the warthog.

But then came Halo 2 and with it X-Box live. My friend got the game and invited me over to play one day. I had some trouble figuring out the new tweaks to the gameplay as my friend steamrolled me across the scoreboard. No big deal. I'm a noob, he owns the game, but I'll figure it out. So after a few lame losses I went home broken and defeated. A little later a different friend got a small group of folks together to play a halo 2 round. A few more people, most of whom don't own X-Boxes, should make the loss at least a little more even. Right?

Nope, the owner of the X-Box killed us all in glorious excess. And even gloated about it. At this point I turned on Halo as a game. Sure, it is a competitive game. It is designed to be a challenge but let's face it. If I don't OWN an X-Box and play Halo on a regular basis, it's hard to get into it. It's an all or nothing game. You have to play it, you have to get good at it. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

Now this can be said about a lot of games but a few like Halo really kill me when I try to enjoy a good game. So I want to list off some games that just push you to be better than other people rather than just to play the game.

Three worst contenders
Halo
Mario Kart
World of Warcraft

If you're not the best at it. You might as well just give up and not bother.

Any games I missed that aren't about the game, it's about being the best at the game. List em here.

So essentially you don't like these games because you ain't very good at them because you don't play them very much. It's got nothing to do with the way the game is designed, stop being so naive, people get better the more they do anything, that's the way life is, someone who's just started playing obviously isn't going to be as good as someone who's been playing for three years.

Yes that's like every game, don't single out three and say you hate them because someone is better than you, every game has that, there are always going to be people better than you. Besides Halo is an fps, if you're good at one fps you're pretty much good at all of them.

Also how the hell is the barrier for entry low on Halo 1 but high on Halo 3/Reach? They're almost the same game, it's just more people play it and the general skill level is higher, that's in no way the fault of the game, or even the players fault. Stop moaning about nothing.

Lets take this real life scenario (I don't like football at all, but it's a hypothetical) If I were to go and attempt to play football with a bunch of people now, I would be shit at it, because I'm unhealthy and not very good at football, mainly because I don't play it very often. For me to go and then complain that people were beating me and thus state that I hate football and complain about the game, you'd all say I was stupid and to stop moaning, and just play it more. That's the way for every game created ever, video game or not, get of your high horse.

 

[binvjoh]

Wait, you hate Halo because you're not good at it? Because it requires practice?

Sounds very reasonable.

 

[Tonimata]

Five bucks says I'm going to catch a lot of trouble for this but it needs to be said.

For starters though, I'm going to have to say I don't hate all Halos. I love the first Halo game. I still have fond memories of playing with my friends. A few of them had X-Boxes and they would invite people over to play four player split screen. Myself included.
I never owned an X-box. But in those days, you were playing against other people who don't have x-boxes at a person's house who likely only plays X-Box when friends are around because... Well there was no online. Period. This made the game fun. The level of entry was set pretty low and everyone just wanted to have some fun and maybe take turns goofing around with the warthog.

But then came Halo 2 and with it X-Box live. My friend got the game and invited me over to play one day. I had some trouble figuring out the new tweaks to the gameplay as my friend steamrolled me across the scoreboard. No big deal. I'm a noob, he owns the game, but I'll figure it out. So after a few lame losses I went home broken and defeated. A little later a different friend got a small group of folks together to play a halo 2 round. A few more people, most of whom don't own X-Boxes, should make the loss at least a little more even. Right?

Nope, the owner of the X-Box killed us all in glorious excess. And even gloated about it. At this point I turned on Halo as a game. Sure, it is a competitive game. It is designed to be a challenge but let's face it. If I don't OWN an X-Box and play Halo on a regular basis, it's hard to get into it. It's an all or nothing game. You have to play it, you have to get good at it. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

Now this can be said about a lot of games but a few like Halo really kill me when I try to enjoy a good game. So I want to list off some games that just push you to be better than other people rather than just to play the game.

Three worst contenders
Halo
Mario Kart
World of Warcraft

If you're not the best at it. You might as well just give up and not bother.

Any games I missed that aren't about the game, it's about being the best at the game. List em here.

You forgot Starcraft. And to prove my point, there's schools in Korea that teach how to play it. Playing it requires encyclopedic knowledge on every race's units, every map available, a huge number of building orders a player might use and how to counter them, and, of course, being able to multitask and perform a painstaking amount of actions at blinding speed, including building your base(s), commanding your troops (most of the times in two separate fronts) and investing in researches and improvementes in order to make your amry stronger than your enemy's. Or, in other words, having a big amount of actions per minute.

 

[Polaris19]

I play Halo in varying amounts but I am by no means good, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun. Reach and Halo 3 have a multitude of options to keep things fun and fresh.

Forge, for starters. You should see some of the stuff people come up with, some of the user created maps are better than almost all the maps in Reach and a lot of the ones in Halo 3. People have also come up with ingenious gametypes and modes that you play just for fun. Stuff like Mongoose Season, Duck Hunt, and Jenga are a blast to play, but aren't even a slight bit competitve.

In Reach you've got Firefight which, with all the customization, could keep you busy for quite awhile. It's always fun to see how you do against wave after wave of grunts.

Then of course custom games. Pretty much self explanitory there.

But in Reach it goes beyond that stuff. There's modes now that are just for fun. Action Sack is out right now as a playlist, it's a lot of modes that are somewhat competitve, but aren't really meant to be taken seriously. Then there's Living Dead and Grifball of course. Multi-Team has Rocket-Hog.

I get whipped on a regular enough basis that sometimes playing modes like Slayer, and Team Objective can get to be a chore, but if you have friends to play with, it can be a lot of fun.

Don't know a lot about MArio Kart, but WoW is a game that you have to invest time in. You won't get very far if you don't put the time in to learn the ropes and get your characters leveled. Never really played WoW myself but I have played other MMO's and in my experiance, you have to put a lot of time in before you really start to get somewhere, especially on established MMO's. It's part of the reason I think a lot of newer players are a bit Intimidated by WoW, there's so many people playing, it just seems a bit hard to be a new player in a game like that.

 

[Mark Hardigan]

I dislike Halo as well. But I dislike it because I don't think it's a good game and that its storyline isn't good.

 

[Julianking93]

HOLY SHIT YES! I got the game 1 month after it came out on PS3 and I am not exaggerating when I say I did not meet more that 3 other players who were under level 15

Needles to say, I never really got into it. The problem is that even the slightest head start will ensure that the obsessive jerks who reach level 25 in a month will drive away newer players.

I can admit though, I was up to around level 40 or so within about 2 months but that level of activity is just ridiculous.
I don't want to be a new player on that now.

People just play it so obsessively and with such an innate desire to fuck everyone else up that it ruins the game and drains any form of entertainment from the online modes. Oh well, there are better games out there than Black Ops, but still, it's annoying.

 

[Aphex Demon]

Wait, you hate Halo because you're not good at it? Because it requires practice?

Sounds very reasonable.

I agree.

Also, i'm not that good at World of Warcraft, I HATE IT >:|

I kid I kid, but seriously don't hate the game hate the player....(?)

 

[joebthegreat]

You forgot Starcraft. And to prove my point, there's schools in Korea that teach how to play it. Playing it requires encyclopedic knowledge on every race's units, every map available, a huge number of building orders a player might use and how to counter them, and, of course, being able to multitask and perform a painstaking amount of actions at blinding speed, including building your base(s), commanding your troops (most of the times in two separate fronts) and investing in researches and improvementes in order to make your amry stronger than your enemy's. Or, in other words, having a big amount of actions per minute.

And to add to this the huge amount of skill and knowledge required along with the excitement and variety of matches is exactly why StarCraft is so successful as an eSport. If you've ever watched professional StarCraft matches (even if you're like me and don't do very well playing the game) you can understand.

I wouldn't be so in love with StarCraft if it was easy to compete with better players.

 

[Firehound]

Let me state.

AUTHOR IS WHINY BABY MAN! /Heavy

Now in more realistic terms: Skill based games require skill. Stop whining that when you get shot in halo that instead of all your generic money object flying away, your guy dies. No game is unapproachable, and Halo is the least of that.

You seem to rage over insignificant things, try instead to enjoy yourself. For example, playing an invasion in Halo, half my team left before the match started. THe remaining three of us managed to get to the third stage by outwitting the other team, and almost won. It was crazy and fun to me. Perhaps you should get over the fact you may not be the best.

My friend bought a new console game and I trashed him even when he had weeks of play behind him and I had just picked up the controller. You just gotta laugh.

 

[Tonimata]

You forgot Starcraft. And to prove my point, there's schools in Korea that teach how to play it. Playing it requires encyclopedic knowledge on every race's units, every map available, a huge number of building orders a player might use and how to counter them, and, of course, being able to multitask and perform a painstaking amount of actions at blinding speed, including building your base(s), commanding your troops (most of the times in two separate fronts) and investing in researches and improvementes in order to make your amry stronger than your enemy's. Or, in other words, having a big amount of actions per minute.

And to add to this the huge amount of skill and knowledge required along with the excitement and variety of matches is exactly why StarCraft is so successful as an eSport. If you've ever watched professional StarCraft matches (even if you're like me and don't do very well playing the game) you can understand.

I wouldn't be so in love with StarCraft if it was easy to compete with better players.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I ADORE Starcraft. I just realize how much of a ***** it's being to get good at it. But hey, I've gotten into the silver leauges! Yay me!

 

[Liberaliter]

You hate Halo because your friend beat you in a couple of games? By that merit I should quit gaming altogether the amount of times I lose multiplayer matches.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Have you tried playing Firefight? Co-op or otherwise?

 

[Zay-el]

Really? You hate the game because they kicked you around in it several times and that you didn't have the option to play it yourself and exact revenge? I've heard plenty of pro/contra Halo reasons, but this is just plain pathetic.

 

[joebthegreat]

You forgot Starcraft. And to prove my point, there's schools in Korea that teach how to play it. Playing it requires encyclopedic knowledge on every race's units, every map available, a huge number of building orders a player might use and how to counter them, and, of course, being able to multitask and perform a painstaking amount of actions at blinding speed, including building your base(s), commanding your troops (most of the times in two separate fronts) and investing in researches and improvementes in order to make your amry stronger than your enemy's. Or, in other words, having a big amount of actions per minute.

And to add to this the huge amount of skill and knowledge required along with the excitement and variety of matches is exactly why StarCraft is so successful as an eSport. If you've ever watched professional StarCraft matches (even if you're like me and don't do very well playing the game) you can understand.

I wouldn't be so in love with StarCraft if it was easy to compete with better players.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I ADORE Starcraft. I just realize how much of a ***** it's being to get good at it. But hey, I've gotten into the silver leauges! Yay me!

I got that, I was actually kind of just backing you up and totally wanting to spread the love of StarCraft, whenever the opportunity presents itself really.

Hey, everyone! Check out Day9 TV, especially his Funday Monday segments! Get into StarCraft2 and make eSports big! Woo!

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4916471/

(now that I've done my duty, I must take my leave)

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

But then came Halo 2 and with it X-Box live.

The quickest way to lose interest in a game is to play it with strangers. When those strangers are pulled from the bloated mass of vulgar vitriol, racism and homophobia that is XBL, the transformation from game you love to game you hate is mercifully brief.

My friend got the game and invited me over to play one day. I had some trouble figuring out the new tweaks to the gameplay as my friend steamrolled me across the scoreboard. No big deal. I'm a noob, he owns the game, but I'll figure it out. So after a few lame losses I went home broken and defeated.

The problem you have seems to be one of unrealistic expectations.

A little later a different friend got a small group of folks together to play a halo 2 round. A few more people, most of whom don't own X-Boxes, should make the loss at least a little more even. Right?

I'll relate an anecdote to demonstrate why this line of reasoning is more than a little silly. Other than video games and reading my main hobby is fencing. I've been doing it for years now and while I'm far from the best (I'm rated as a C, better than most but worse than many) I'm pretty decent at it. At the old salle (That isn't spelled correctly but I don't want to go to charmap to find the right characters. Suffice it to say that the word simply means "place where you go to fence"), once a week they had a beginners night. After their lesson, they would then go on to fence for an hour. Since there were only a handful of coaches to go around, the competitive fencers would fill in as their opposition. Most of the time our job was simply to help reinforce the lesson of the evening but sometimes it was just "open fencing" meaning the new fencers were going to try and beat us. In these matches the many of the new fencers would actually think that they had a reasonable chance to win, a perception largely helped by the fact that, most of the time, we were not trying to win so much as teach. In spite of the fact that each competitive fencer would face at least four novice fencers in a row, a victory by a novice fencer was rare.

So, why is that? Because it turns out in an endeavor predicated upon two skilled traits (the technical aspects of fencing along with the more cerebral), the person who had experience simply had an enormous advantage.

To bring this back to video games, I'll simply say this. I've played first person shooters more or less since the genre came into being. I've played them long enough that I have an exceptionally high level of innate ability at them and can do passably in most games even when I have no experience with the title or franchise. But every time I pick up a new game and decide to play it online I too go through a phase where I get my ass handed to me. It turns out that video games too are predicated upon various skilled traits. One of these I already know: the mechanical actions necessary to efficient play. The other is one I have to learn just like everyone else: map layouts, weapon selection, probable courses of action my opponents will take and so forth.

To swing it back to fencing, the basic skills of the sport are called the "language" of fencing. A bout (a match between to fencers) could be correctly called a "conversation" or, perhaps more appropriately, an argument. The language of foil (the weapon I use) and the language of epee (a weapon I do not use) are the same; the conversations are different. Video games are much the same in this regard.

Nope, the owner of the X-Box killed us all in glorious excess. And even gloated about it. At this point I turned on Halo as a game. Sure, it is a competitive game. It is designed to be a challenge but let's face it. If I don't OWN an X-Box and play Halo on a regular basis, it's hard to get into it. It's an all or nothing game. You have to play it, you have to get good at it. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

If your personality is such that you must be competitive to enjoy the game then you are indeed correct. But before you level such criticism realize that your point simply sounds absurd. If a game did not reward experience (and the skill that traditionally accompanies experience), why would people continue to play? It seems like you are asking for a game that is truly democratic, a game that offers no reward to the better player. Democratizing elements in video games are often the sources of the most intense rage. The blue shell in Mario Kart is an example of such a thing as it serves simply to punish success and I think you'll be hard pressed to find people to defend its existence.