Question on Halo

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
I recently picked up my old copy of the original Halo and started playing it with a few friends again recreating our old college days and the 16 man death matches. Replaying it brought back the trash talking, frustration and anger as well...

So my question is this;
What is it about Halo that brings out the worst in people? I've played a wide assortment of FPS games and never seen (or felt) the rage that comes with Halo.

From the trash talking that gets really bad, words such as...

Rocket whore
Camper
Ghost wuss
Cold cocker (melee pistol)

To stupid in game rules like "no spawn killing" no more using the rocket launcher, etc. etc., to pissing people off with "humping the body" or pistol whipping when already dead. It just makes everyone so mad.

I remember the worst of it back in college. I had just sniped a guys entire team and then got an instant spawn kill when one of the players came back to life. Next thing I know I take a right hook to the jaw and go down. I get up, shake the cobwebs out, and half the guys who were playing, were now throwing fists at each other.

Seriously, I've never seen anything like this happen in any other game. Why is Halo so rage inciting?
 
Seriously, I've never seen anything like this happen in any other game.

hehe wasn't there a similar thread about Warcraft3 a while back?

Can't say much about Halo, but the Enemy Territory servers a used to play on were all pretty relaxed as far as i remember.
 
Trashtalking happens in a lot of games, Halo really isn't the only game in which that happens. Imho it happens on any poorly moderated game server.
 
This isn't limited to Halo.

Trying playing COD2. It's just as bad.

Or search some of the old Arena threads...I'm pretty sure I was known as the one with the worst mouth.
 
Reminds me of Counter-Strike "back in the day"...

I believe this to be something like Sturgeon's Law applied to people.

If an online game is very popular, particular with a certain demographic (adolescent boys), it's only natural it attracts a lot of "bullies" (or whatever you want to call them). Of course it's not everyone who plays it, but as a rule of thumb it's like 90%. Later on, when the game gets older, and the broad public moves on to something else, this gets a lot better.
 
hehe wasn't there a similar thread about Warcraft3 a while back?

Can't say much about Halo, but the Enemy Territory servers a used to play on were all pretty relaxed as far as i remember.

Yes but that was because we were playing online with hormonal 13 year olds who thought creating new swear words would make them look tougher... which is a recipe for disaster any day of the week.

This rage appears to happen for no reason.

Trashtalking happens in a lot of games, Halo really isn't the only game in which that happens. Imho it happens on any poorly moderated game server.

Yes, but this goes a lot further then simple trash talking, and this wasn't online.
 
Well I guess that the "anonymity" of playing behind a computer simply wakes some normally dormant part of one's personality ( in some people ).
 
That's known as the "Greater Internet F*ckwad Theory"

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

Pretty apt. Though, Halo never supported online play (Xbox Live wasn't running then). There were VPN hacks to play online, but that was it. It was Halo 2 that supported online play. Though, maybe all the teabagging and other crap started then...
 
First we have the deathmatch element. Any competitive element in a video game will give rise to aggression. That's just how it goes.

Second is the target audience. All video games have one. They know exactly who they're selling to and go full bore at those people. In the HALO lan groups you've been in, did you notice an overwhelming majority of one type of personality?

Third and most importantly is the tendency for a community to saturate/desaturate with a certain quality of people. A game community that has a large portion of unchecked jerks that go unmoderated for long enough will have more jerks flock to it. In response non-jerks will leave because they do not like that atmosphere. Consider your fisticuffs story. Someone disinclined to getting that serious over a virtual world will avoid HALO lan parties once they hear that. So then who's left? Bar brawlers...
 
What is it about Halo that brings out the worst in people?

Its a game that attracts a certain type of person I actively go out of my way to berate.

Halo, like BSG, Joss Whedon fandom, Family Guy (and Penny Arcade, ugh), is one of those things that's a little red flag. Now, theres a lot of great people who like those things, and thats fine - but, if you're an intolerable person on the internet, you also tend to enjoy Halo, Firefly and awful Battlestar remakes. Its not a fixed rule mind you - but a symptom.
 
Sounds like you just played with some sore losers. But then again they might have been people who play so much & "practice" that when they get beat they realize they have wasted a small part of their life. So they really just had personal problems.

Gaming can be pretty funny. Some people go out of their way to "Rick Roll" or mess with noobs. Instead of making a new post to share this you guys should watch this Team Fortress 2 video.

It's the Kitteh Apocalypse! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM1Ay85de3U Basically someone made a map to mess with the people that play games too seriously.
 
Having a microphone certainly takes abusive talk to a whole new level............ Glad I don't use one for online play.
 
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