I grew up in a small town, played football, tennis – lettered in varsity. Mostly an introvert, I spent some time playing turn-based strategy, real-time strategy and role playing games. I never used to play first person shooters. I think I played a copy of castle wolfenstein for my 486Dx2 PC back in the mid nineties, but I never really got into that style of gaming.
During college, I lived with a few British transplants who showed me Halo:CE for the very first time. I had never played console games. Most of the time we would come back from the bar and do 4 person split screen games. When I first started playing, it felt like I had two left hands – spinning at my feet / circling the sky – only to get shotgun blasted by my roommate at point blank range. I don’t think I even got a kill for the first week of playing. We eventually setup a two TV and two xbox LAN – connected to two rooms. I had done LAN games before with real time strategy games, but Halo was different – more accessible to everyone, and could be played at any time.
We continued this cycle of late night Halo LAN almost nightly. It soon became part of our afternoon daily cycle as well. I really felt “addicted” to the competition of the game– much like in sports. We had played the co-op campaign as well and became deeply immersed in the storyline. After continuing playing coop, and with my muscle memory becoming more attuned to the xbox controller, I began to improve quickly. Soon I was taking on 3 of my roommates at a time and beating them (you could hear their disgust bellowing from the other LAN room.) This continued for about 9 months.
Eventually, I graduated and moved on to more higher education. I still did not own an xbox or a copy of the game. I finally convinced myself back in 2004, with the release of “Halo 2”, that I needed to buy an xbox and check out the “live” feature.
So I went to best-buy and brought back the black/green box, along with a copy of Halo 2.
Soon after, I began “matchmaking”.
With the integration of the chat over live and the novelty of this new experience, I began to become more involved in this game that I had just picked up only 1 year earlier. I noticed that they removed the pistol that I had used to take my roommates down repeatedly in CE. I picked up the battle rifle and started using it because it felt most like the pistol from CE and had more meat to it (to me, felt more realistic shooting someone across the map with a battle rifle, than with a pistol).
I didn’t realize how competitive I had become with this game – and the disgust I felt when I lost. I played against a team on “lockout” doing military callouts, and using battle rifles. My team was decimated. I could barely get a shot off. I never realized there could be people out there this good at the game.
In the spirit of my competitive nature, I was determined to get better.
I started practicing, my aiming. Trying to figure out the best way to use the battle rifle. I looked online for any instruction. Keep in mind “youtube” really wasn’t there yet, nor the plethora of instructional videos that they have today. It never occurred to the to approach this any differently than I would any other sports or activities. Was I deluded? Probably. Was it my competitive nature? Or the novelty of this new form of online game play that compelled me to continue coming back and playing hours and hours of online sessions. I remember playing a game against an online clan. My friend and I managed to pull out a victory. They seemed like nice guys and invited me to join their practice squad. I didn’t see any problem with it, they met online at 7pm for one hour everynight, went over callouts, maps, weapons strategies, and game play. It really felt like free halo lessons. I improved, and continued to play with these new friends online.
I eventually ended up on their “clan list.”
They were constantly playing in tournaments against other friendly clans. They allowed me to participate in a few of the games. It was always in good fun, never any harsh language or trash talking (these were not tolerated in the clan – always pushing to bolster friendly online play). I really enjoyed these tournaments. I felt the same sort of adrenaline rush at the end of a close game or win that I did when I was playing competitive sports and athletics. In Halo 3, when they removed the separate “clan list” – I felt it removed another layer of the game. The clan list allowed for the ability for us to create a competitive gaming “team” within the game with moderators, assigned levels, etc. all in the creation of more online community for the game. It allowed our clan to be like a “team” for competition.
I began to hear about Major League Gaming (MLG).
I went to their website – it was so clean, professional looking. I thought I was visiting an MLB or NFL site. I saw their list of pros / tournaments. I really was intrigued that they had this high level of competition. I couldn’t believe that these guys were so good they were making a living at playing halo. Ironically, I almost had the same reverence for these guys that I once had for professional baseball players, football players, etc. I watched a few of their videos on their site. I remember watching one of the pros “Walshy” pull off skillful kills. The amount of hand eye coordination required to pull these moves off was astounding. I remember seeing one of his montages where he would shoot his battle rifle and at the very end, it almost seemed to fire twice. I asked around, others told me this was the “double shot.” I remember thinking, “double shot???” What is this?
Oh yeah, there are many “glitches” in the game. I also saw Walshy instantly kill someone attempting to melee him. I was told this was called a “BXR”. Immediately, again in my competitive nature, I was determined to learn how this works. Was this legal? I thought about this. I know there was much debate about these “glitches” in Halo 2.
Then I remember playing games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Killer Instinct. So many weapon combos and so many moves to master and incorporate into the fight. Literally entire instructional manuals devoted to these button combos. Of course, you didn’t have to know the button combos to win. There were just used to give your selected player an extra bonus. They required skill and practice to learn and improve. Only after you had more experience with these moves could you even attempt them in gameplay. Of course, there were also the button mashers…
In Halo 2 glitching, I think the main difference, of course, is that these combos were NOT in the instruction manual. These were discovered in the game and harnessed by more skilled players to get a competitive advantage. Many are opposed to these glitches. And I also feel that there is too high a correlation with glitches and mods. Those who were using their computers to “Modify” the game are truly cheats and I do not agree with these at all. Glitches are available to everyone who picks up a controller. And remember, these “weapon button combos” (glitches) required a massive amount of skill and practice to master. When you pulled it off during a game it added extra level of excitement.
Well let’s think about these “glitches” from a different perspective. I don’t want to say that I’m for or against them. What if this was just a part of natural evolution and discovery? Aren’t most new discoveries and ideas found from breaking old molds? What if these moves created a whole new layer to the experience and a completely different type of first person shooter. If Bungie, in creating Halo 3, added “button combos” to the game play - this would have also changed the entire style of play. What if “animation cancellation, BXR, and double shot” were listed in the Halo 3 instruction manual? Could there be a “street fighter” type of First Person Shooter that incorporated button combos? Has it been done yet? Halo 2 touched the surface of that type of FPS game.
I think Halo 2 and Bungie were lucky like Rock Stars - in the right place, at the right time. The Xbox live revolution just started. Everyone and their sister had played Halo – it was THE game on xbox. There really weren’t many other games around at the time that came close. They positioned themselves for console online success and made a fortune doing so.
In my 10 years playing in the Halo universe, I saw a vast variation of players and styles. I think that it ultimately comes down to this dichotomy: those who play halo online casually and are deeply immersed in the story, and those that play Halo for the intense competitive nature of online play. The guys at Bungie are NOT competitive MLG Circuit players: they are competitive, innovative game makers. They want their games to be fun, engaging, successful, and sell out the competition. The amount of competitive players, to my estimation, is about 20% - the rest are in it for casual play, storyline, and online coop. Bungie has geared their games towards the latter – it sells more copies.
And what about COD? – do you see a vast difference between the games and play style? NO. IS MW1, MW2, and MW3 that much different? Sure, there are different kill streaks, specializations. But has the underlying CORE of movement, speed, and button configuration changed? NO. This keeps the replay ability high – and competitive gamers happy. What’s your K/D ratio? Lol. I think that infinity ward knows how to perpetuate a successful game – they didn’t change the mold much. But over time that will become stagnant to the casual gamer and they will move on to something else. Those that play competitively will continue to do so.
Bungie is known for innovation. Each of the halo games in and of themselves are unique and could each have different names. Halo 1 – Halo 2 – Halo 3 – Reach. But if they applied this “infinity ward” approach they could have perpetuated many games over a longer period of time. A game with the same playability of Halo 2 could have been perpetuated (i.e. Halo 2: CQB OPS 1, Halo 2: CQB OPS2, Halo 2: Sniper… whatever) – all with the same engine – just improved graphics before even getting to Halo 3 (years down the line). But that isn’t Bungie. Their approach to keeping things “new” for the market is to create change. But is it innovation? Infinity ward has garnered much success since MW1 with continued play and competition without changing the gameplay much all the way to their MW3 installment. Is a good game based on sales? Hype? Or replay value? I think for me, someone who is a gamer who wants more competitive value – I prefer replayability. I only buy games that I suspect will have this value. I don’t buy single player games (except skyrim, that was bomb.)
I always go back to the sports analogy. I was an exceptional tennis player in high school. I use the same racket I’ve always used, and I prefer the net to be the same height (36”). If, every 2 years, the height of the net changed, I had to play with a different racket, had to play in a smaller court. It would make it difficult for me to get better. I would get frustrated and move on to a more stable type of game. But that’s me. Everyone has their opinion on what they like to do. I think I have the same mentality when I play video games. I don’t have many different games and prefer to be skilled at a few. Sadly, I haven’t finished any of the campaigns for Halo ODST or Reach. My “itch” to play against real players on xbox live outweighs my ability to sit still and play against AI units from the campaign. But again, with the evolution of video games, and the constant change that occurs competitively, this is now the field. No longer do we play in the same tennis court – it is constantly evolving. I think those players yearning for Halo 2 have difficulty adapting this concept – they are undoubtedly highly competitive gamers who play halo aggressively and for the pure passion of video games as a sport. They just preferred Halo 2’s court the best.
Overall, I think the casual gamer, who plays multiple games, is a halo story line lover, and online player prefers the “shiny and new” to the same old style of play. This has defined the evolution of the game. There is still the competitive side, and MLG continues to use halo games for their tournaments. But it is much different than the MLG tournaments of old. The change that has occurred has made a different type of player reign on a different type of court. And it’s not for everyone. Those that still enjoy playing Halo games will continue playing them. Those that don’t will move on to another game. Those that a nostalgic for the older times will continue to do so.
I haven't followed much about the release of Halo 4, but I'm sure it will be great.
