Ender Wiggin

I was real big in the clanning scene (is that even a thing?) way back during the late 90s/early 2k. Back then there were still a lot of clans in successful games, such as Unreal Tournament which is where I hung out a lot. Even then there were mandatory meetings, schedules, etc. But that's simply because the groups I joined were focused on competing against other clans. We were extremely competitive, and as such we needed to schedule when we could all spend a few hours to come up with strategies on various maps, hone our skills with various weapons, get some constructive criticism, etc. (well, those of us who were competing anyway.) Meetings are a good method of getting everyone together if you've got a lot of players in different time zones. At some point between then and now little Timmy decided to make a clan, and then his buddy made their own clan, and now today we have a crap ton of clans with people running them who frankly don't have any place doing as such. Some of these self-proclaimed "leaders" get it in their head that their role as a clan leader is to dictate what the members do, when they do them, etc. In the end they either get people who kiss their boots or leave the group entirely. Normally when a split happens, the people who left form yet another guild. Running a clan isn't all fun and games, it's more grunt work. You're the guy who gets to write a lot, advertise, schedule events, manage the members, promote the good ones to positions of authority while still keeping an eye on their activities to make sure they don't get delusions of grandeur. You also have the unfortunate task of dismissing someone, and often that individual could be a close friend of yours. (I've found the personal friends of clan leaders tend to think they can get away with a lot, and then make it a personal drama issue if the leader gets onto them.) The few good clans I can find these days, all of which seem to reside on PC games, are so large that even they suck. At least in my opinion anyway. I want to get to know everyone, not just a few. I don't like niches in clans. The entire clan should be it's own niche. An online kinship, or brotherhood if you prefer that. At the same time, I like guilds who are active in helping the community. I hate it when clans exclude themselves from the rest of a community. Clans should be a perk. Something that increases the enjoyment of a game. I believe if a clan truly succeeds and is good, then the clan continues to live on well after whatever game they supported has lost it's fire. Good clans are really larger-than-usual friendships that interact with each other in video games. In a good clan, the role of the leader slowly diminishes because I feel the goal should be to stop recruiting once you get large enough that you can do mostly anything in any game you'd choose (excluding Zerging) without the need to worry about what another member does, because that member is an honorable game with courtesy and respect. But these new kids, they don't get that. They seem to think the amount of power they have increases, rather than slowly becomes something in the background, used only when absolutely necessary. Ugh, I wound up ranting somewhat. That said I love clans. But just the good ones.

Halo is one of those IPs that sells itself. Like Final Fantasy. FF hasn't been able to live up to the expectations it (successfully) lived up to during the PS1 era, yet it still sells well. So I doubt there's really anything to worry about, especially not from Dead Island. I'd be more concerned about the amount of people who choose Black Ops 2 over Halo 4. But even then, I'm personally not concerned. H4 will do good regardless.

I'll be playing Combat Evolved. I doubt I'd have the time to play through all of them, and CE I remember liking the most. Plus I've still got lots to do in Guild Wars 2, and I'm close to unlocking the rest of the stuff in Battlefield 3.

Well this is disappointing, but I don't think I'll cancel my preorder.

Thought I'd get involved with the Halo 4 community in advance, so I decided to join these forums, meet some new people and hopefully friends, and have some good chats. For a little about me, I'm a history major currently in my first year of grad school. My first FPS was Unreal Tournament 1999, though I did play lots of games prior to that (Duck Hunt/Mario on NES, Super Mario Bros., Super Star Wars, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy 6, etc.) I'm more of a traditional FPS gamer from the earlier days. I'm casual in the traditional sense, in that I play for fun, but at the same time I try to get good at what I do play, learn all of the kinks, join a devoted clan for that game (more often than not I found my own group) and play competitively against other clans. It's all still in good fun however, and I abhor raging, belittling other players, immature behavior, etc. I'm a fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, having a passion for Star Wars, enjoying the Star Trek films (yeah, the blasphemy,) Lord of the Rings, anime and Final Fantasy, and novels. Halo 1 I liked quite a bit, and remember my friends and I meeting up during the weekends after school, moving a bunch of tvs around and linking our xbox's up for some fun. Halo 2 was good too, but I didn't really enjoy the multiplayer. Halo 3 I had fun online for about a year, but I was always bothered by what I perceived as not-so-serious, colorful atmosphere to the game. I'm not talking grunts, but rather simple aspects like the colors used and what seemed to me like an almost cartoonish look to everything. Halo Reach I enjoyed immensely (though admittedly I didn't play the Multiplayer that much either because I had returned to PC FPS gaming with the Bad Company series.) I liked the new art direction and felt more like Halo 1. Halo 4 looks like it's keeping the subtle grit of Reach while trying to capture the allure of the original Halo, all with a few new aspects unique to this new entry. Since it looks like the multiplayer is being given the competitive treatment (more so than the others it seems, though I could be wrong) I might find myself playing the multiplayer a lot more than I have previous entries. -- In any case, look forward to meeting some people!