- gamertag: kkrotz
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Hello guys/gals.
If you don't already know, I love the Halo franchise. It intrigues me, and my mind is excited to have it in sight. I feel that it lets me indulge life whenever I play it. Halo provides a certain fluidity and most importantly, a fun factor that others struggle to rival.
Now, I'm extremely fond of the Halo community. I love that Bungie have made this franchise one that can be used by casual and competitive players alike. Competitive players work on map specific strategies in custom games and test them out on online multiplayer before they go to a tournament.
The casual players will play tons of campaign, firefight and forge. The amount of content is so expansive that the 'casual' and 'non-casual' players can be seen apart from miles away. It's incredible. People love this game so much, it became 'necessary' for them to create a website for the game, a website that will let others with the same love of the game interact with each other , and it would be free to the community. This thread is about uniting the community , because right now I feel that the casual players are too afraid to go to a website that seems 'pro' and the competitive players think they're too hardcore to go where the casual players discuss various topics.
It seems weird but, many people won't stray far from one website forum, and that can lead to a lack of perspective. One downfall in competitive gaming from Halo's standpoint was the lack of community backing the game. Not much support was given to the game at LAN tournaments and that's a major reason it's not in the MLG circuit anymore. It's disgusting to be honest. Call of Duty and League of Legends are games that are multiplatform (Call of Duty)and free(League of Legends). This doesn't make the bad games, but it does give them a larger target market and this can be a major benefit to those games. They don't need to have hardcore fans, just many normal ones.
Halo does not have that luxury. It's not free and it's not multiplatform. However, those two reasons have not stopped games like Starcraft from becoming as world renown has it is right now. There is another pressing issue with its success compared to Halo. It's multi-national. Halo seems to keep its audience in mostly the Western hemisphere and only a few gamers outside of the US play the game.
Now given all of these unfortunate circumstances that Halo finds itself in, I find that to make this franchise one of the 'franchises to beat', we need to take strong community action. I've lurked around tons of community forums, and it's insane to see the amount of content each website will bring to the game if the players just get involved in the community. There are insane YouTube channels, so if doing the whole forum thing isn't for you, then you might want to check them out.
My sole reason for this thread is to create a tight community for those that enjoy Halo. It does not have to be your first and only priority. However, if you find yourself bored with nothing to do, then you should definitely register and subscribe to the following sites to indulge in your inner 'Halo'.
Bungie: The makers, the divine makers of the Halo Franchise. After the 343i-Bungie stats transaction of the game, the forums are a bit quiet. Still a great place to discuss the Halo games though. You can look through thousands of threads on each game and you can find some very interesting things there. There is also something called 'private groups', which I find a neat feature of the site. You can create your own community (or join an existing one) of people ( does not need to be Halo related, or even gaming related) for you to converse with other people. The Flood forum is just a fun place for people to be random and just ask anything about anything. If you want to join this epic place, go here.
Halo tracker: My oh my, a site created to give you an endless amount of statistics for your Halo game so you can improve yourself (finding what weapons are your strongest etc.) and a place to compare your stats to your friends or foes for free. The stats are overwhelming at first, however you'll eventually find that they just aren't enough. In that case you should donate some cash to the site (nothing is free right?) to get what they call 'in-depth stats'. I will not deny that there are only a few active participants on the Halo tracker forums. If this thread does its intended purpose correctly, I feel that the community will flourish and we can engage in some active discussions about the game. Forums include every Halo game and one for other games. There a frequent tournaments and even a 1v1 league. It also has its own live steam, so you can show your support by watching some of the live stream footage.
Forge Hub: If you like forging, but haven't exactly mastered it, Forge Hub is for you. It's a glorious website that just oozes The Forge. It's an epic destination that can be used to share your maps, and to download the maps of others to use in custom games for some fun. There are also various threads which include tips for both competitive and non-competitive map design.
Halo Waypoint: The Makers 2.0. Pretty cool site, a bit sluggish but if you're willing to suffer a few seconds of patience then it's an amazing place to engage in some serious discussion about all Halo related topics. You can also view your recent games and check out the profiles of your friends (although admittedly not as in-depth as Halo Tracker). A lot of jokers on the site, but they will get bored and leave soon I reckon.
The Halo Forum: This is an interesting site. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in here is about Halo. It literally offers different forum sections for competitive and casual players. Anyone looking for friends to play customs with? Go to this site. Anyone looking to have some competitive 1v1 games/scrims? Go to this site. If you want to make a montage of all your sickest plays...Go to this site. Pretty active community, however there are only a few people contributing regularly enough.
Game battles(MLG): This is an extremely competitive community. It's been dead recently has Halo: Reach was kicked off of the pro-circuit. If you feel that you just own n00bs in matchmaking and it's getting too boring for you, you might want to consider this site. It's sole dedication is to put a team of n00b rapists against another team of n00b rapists to see who the better team is. Lots of focus on competitive play. Even if you aren't competitive, but enjoy making competitive forge maps, this has tons of intense tips to make the ultimate competitive map.
Big Team Battle.Net: Caters slightly more to the competitive side than the casual side. However it's not as intense as Game battles. Has its own league which works in Seasons and teams fight for top place. At the top of the league there are some extremely good teams, but if you're content in having some competitive fun, check it out. The name of the site can be misconceiving. It isn't "Big Team Battle" in a sense. They offer a 5v5 Squad slayer option too. Forums are kind of dead because there aren't enough people that know of the site.
Twitch TV: A live stream website for all kinds of games , including Halo. You can watch Live footage of all the people currently streaming on the site. Pros usually stream, and it's a great place to show your support for the game.
YouTube: If you don't know what YouTube is, please go throw yourself off of a 10 story building. For those of you that are still alive, YouTube is where many people find an output to their Halo experience. Some insane videos that unfortunately not many people see because of the lack of Communion amongst fans. I cannot tell you how crazy some of the clips are. Everything from MLG game play to montages to trick jumping and campaign eastereggs, it's all here. My problem with YouTube is that it doesn't really offer a great community feeling like the other sites do. It's still an epic site though, although not much involvement can be done by fans of the game except for watching the videos and of course subscribing to the 'YouTuber'. I'll list some MUST-SEE videos and I'll also list all the people, any logical and sane person will subscribe to:
Sunlight montage( An epic montage, nuff' said)
Nak3dHalo(I've watched all of this guy's clips. From intense competitive game play to just mocking about with friends, it's always interesting to watch him. He also finds easier ways to complete campaign challenges in Halo: Reach so you don't have to)
THFE ( Enlighten your mind with forge tips and tricks as well as tutorials)