Community Halo: Memories

The Halo community is as massive as it is diverse, as strong as it is unique. The Halo community brings together thousands of people from around the world who share but one thing in common: a love for Halo. But, to love Halo can mean any number of things. Some people love the core competitive multiplayer experience. Some love the story. For others, it's the expanded universe that attracts them. Many love Halo for the ways it allows them to play differently than originally intended. We have players, forgers, photographers, videographers, actors, writers, editors, musicians, creators, consumers, and more.

A few months ago, Akmigone decided to make a statement about the diversity and passion present with this community. I had the privilege to participate in this project alongside others like ducain23, Mr Pokephile, Robius5991, H2AK0N, Dust Storm, and others. Each of us was asked the seemingly simple question "what do you love about Halo?" Our answers can be seen in the video below.

Even among a relatively small number of people, the answers were incredibly varied. We attempted to represent as many subgroups within the community as possible, but we know that there are others out there who love Halo for other reasons too.

Before asking you the same question we were all asked, I would like to thank everyone who took part in this project, and everyone who has contributed to this community over the years. We have something truly special here, treasure it.

I would especially like to thank SOLIDSNAKEee who, despite not recording his answer for this project was immensely helpful with the administration and completion of it.

So now I ask you, what do you love about Halo?

 

I love a number of things about Halo that have allowed me to do more than I ever expected when I first picked up a copy of Halo 3.

I love the epic Sci-fi universe of Halo, with all of its amazing locations, species, technology, and characters. Halo's universe and atmosphere are very unique for a First Person Shooter, as it is not gritty or grounded in realism, but instead full of fantastic and impossible worlds and creatures. Imagination has always been at the core of Halo, which is something I appreciate a lot.

Halo also allowed me to do something I had always wanted to do: create my own worlds and spaces that I could walk around in. Halo was a universe I wanted to be in, and forge allowed me to start creating my own locations to explore and bring friends into. Eventually, this type of design changed into designing maps to be played with standard Halo game modes, but my love of creating explorable spaces never left my personal design process. Halo allowed me to design multiplayer maps that were also exciting to be in and explore, because everything in Halo drives ones curiosity and sense of adventure.

Finally, the community that I became a part of is what I love most about Halo. Meeting likeminded people with similar goals, friends who could drive me to improve on my designs, and great fun had testing and playing late into the night; these are my best experiences in Halo.

 

I started playing halo when reach was several months old, the first halo game that I played was halo:ce then I got halo:reach, 3, 2 , and 4. Like most people it was the campaign, the multiplayer, and the custom games that made me so interested in the game, and since then I've been playing the game. The one thing that makes the competition in halo different from call of duty, battlefield, etc is that halo's multiplayer demands more skill (as I found out that as I was playing like a noob, as a result of playing too many flood and minigames), call of duty, especially the games older than black ops 2, does demand skill in order to play good and get positive K/Ds, but it takes a shorter time to get the skills to be a "good player" if not MLG, besides unlike halo, call of duty can be a op meatgrinder that takes the fun out of multiplayer and lets not forget the hackers that ruin game for everybody, at least you can run away from a fight that you are not going to win and survive. Another thing that makes halo different from most games is that the loadouts (not custom) are balanced which separates the noobs from the pros (unlike call of duty), there is no such thing as the best weapon in halo (unless if its halo 4 ), there's only ARs, BRs, and power weapons, what most newbies don't realize when winning or usually losing BR fights is that its not the possibility of someone hacking or "who ever shoots first, wins", its the skill (and sometimes the connection but mostly the skill), even though the "you snooze, you lose" type battles are common in BR and AR duels, at least you could win the duel if the player is inaccurate or if you have a power weapon under your sleeve. In conclusion I think halo is very different and great video game that has one thing that most other games will never have (unless if they want to be accused of copying halo ).

 

It was truly an honour to be a part of this project and I am immensely impressed with not only how amazingly it turned out but how great the response from the rest of the community has been thus far. If there's one thing I love more than Halo, it's how awesome my fellow fans are- never stop being so kickass, guys.

 

likes

 

I started playing Halo as a wee bk. My older brother got the first game when I was about 4 and I remember watching him play the campaign in awe, after pestering and pestering eventually he let me play co-op with him. He held LANS and I remember stealing a controller when someone went to get a drink and then refusing to let go. I was greedy.

Several years later Halo 2 came out and the process repeated, at the time I had no clue at the extent of just how revolutionary Xbox Live was for the time, but I remember being awestruck once again by the campaign.

Unfortunately when Halo 3 came out we didn't have a 360, so my experience of that game was limited to friends places and its free release in 2013.

Reach was where I got involved with the community and forge. I remember enjoying forge and the exclusive gametype invasion, I made this shitty invasion map on headlong and asked for feedback from a bunch of the THFE guys. From memory, Shoe, Able, and Yardbird. I was really trash and it was disheartening to know how far I had to go, but it sparked this constant urge for learning and improvement. Learning why things work, and how to implement elements of design and also innovate with your own was just really cool. By getting involved with this little sub-invasion community I got to experience this whole new world of customs and the endless replay value this had was something I really loved.

Halo 4, while not exactly being a fantastic game, still had its moments for me. Customs, forge, campaign, they were all worth it because of the entertainment that could be shared with friends and the community.

So what I love about Halo?
- 'The Developer experience' : It's just crazy to be able to feel this with the use of forge, and while it can be incredibly frustrating, it's also incredibly rewarding.
- Customs/ Forge : There's just so much content available to play because of these and when my interest in multiplayer faded, the experiences customs could give kept me here.
- The Universe/Campaign : Ever since I was a kid I've found the universe leaves me completely awestruck, it's fantastically immersive and so much fun to play though in its entirety.
- Multiplayer: There's nothing like true competitive halo to me, it just offers so much satisfaction.

Oh wait, that's pretty much every element of the franchise

 

This is the best video I've ever watched. Thanks to all that contributed to it's making.

 

Man, this is one of the best videos I've seen ever on Youtube, even on the Internet. I have to say good job to you guys, you did fantastic work . But anyways, I guess I'll tell my reason why I love Halo so much :').

The reason that Halo is so lovable is because.... is just everything about it! The story is amazing, the multiplayer is well balanced and very skillful (But still very fun ), and the whole community makes it wonderful itself. To me, I think of Halo as a genre instead of just a game series. There are not many games that have their communities so dedicated to the series! You don't see many books and comics and fan stories of the series, you don't see people making unique minigames out of just some Slayer, Infection, KOTH, etc. Can you make Slender out of Battlefield? no. Can you make Hunger Games out of Call of Duty? Maybe, but it'll rely on really heavy honor rules. Because of the community, Halo is many games. It's a racing game because of the Race gametype, it's a survival game because of Infection, it's an aesthetic game because of Forge, it's Duck Hunt because of the community's dedication to make that minigame!!! Even when other communities make fun of our game for some type of reason (idk why, but just random times some of them do :/ ) , just think of this: Are they dedicated as much as we are? Are they willing to do great things with their games? And if you look at their games, you don't see much. Sure, their games are fun and stuff, but is their game title enough to be classified as a genre?

It really worries me that the community is fighting over what's good and bad for Halo over H5. Fighting over that it has sprint, fighting over it looks like ADS, fighting over thrusters, fighting over many things. The reason why I don't really like H5 is not because it's changing, I dislike it because it's too close to be related to other games. Halo is unique, it's supposed to be unique. Having many elements from other games, that's just like a man in a crowd, he'll blend in easily. Seeing the community fighting, that just hurts me. Instead of fighting over these things, why can't we act together to change things that make us both happy? Why can't we just get along and be like the early days when we just care about the game being fun and just be Halo? I have to say Halo 5 is fun, but it's just not Halo. If people are complaining that Halo needs to change and not be the same thing, then why don't we work together and bring in new things while keeping it at it's core and being unique? That's why we have a H5 Beta that's a year early! Anyways, sorry for my long response, just wanted to get that out there

 

Halo, best game ever. Halo community, coolest and nicest group of people! Viva la Halo

 

*ahem*

 

And here we continue...

*drops the mic*

 

Now that was epic. Well done, Phantm!

 

If only we had our like button back

 

Halo 3 gave me reason to own a 360, it allowed me to meet people who I never would have otherwise, friends I wouldn't trade for a position as president, great memories so numerous I am unable to recall them all, an experience that was both casual and competitive, responsive, and without a moment where I thought "that shouldn't have happened" (unless lag was involved, in which case it was entirely my fault and no one else s). From the noob beginnings, to 1st customs, to the making of "fat kid" to races, tank beats all, minotaur, and some many here won't recognize. The chopper was by far the most unique vehicle in Halo for how it works, as well as making good fights in matchmaking, as well as unique minigames in customs.

Halo Reach brought new cards to the table. Maps were more vast and easy to make, combat was more diverse and dynamic, yet still on an even playing field. The customs got crazier and more polished, invasion was my favorite in it for it's asymmetric gameplay, structures so massive I swear someone broke the game just to do. I loved flying through the skies with a jet pack and in a falcon, I loved rolling around with evade, or driving around in a revenant. Whether it was out smarting coppers in hot pursuit, leaving people in the dust in the more elaborate tracks, or whatever crazy thing was going on, It was here that i honestly thought customs could not get better.

And while the above is where my greatest love for Halo lies, and many call Halo 4 a bad game by comparison, I wouldn't be here writing (or typing if you want to be technical) all of this, if it wasn't in the state it was, I would be out there somewhere drifting, and so long as this site lives, those memories will continue to be made, and my love for Halo will endure. Sappy, maybe, but true nevertheless.

 

I had the privilege to participate in this project alongside others like ducain23, Mr Pokephile, Robius5991, H2AK0N, Dust Storm, and others.​

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Also 0IAH !

Wonderful post overall

 

Now that was epic. Well done, Phantm!

If only it didn't get out of tune towards the end.

 

That song rocked lol