The Internet Tells Me to Hate Halo

Few games meet the unrealistic expectations generated by hype, and fewer still can do so without eventually being labeled as pretentious and/or overrated by future generations of gamers. There's a particular breed of gamer on the internet that has an inexplicable desire to hate everything popular and mainstream. They seem to permeate those forums that are already riddled with inane, incoherent flame wars. I was entirely content in dismissing these as troll posts, but there’s really no denying the prevalence of these opinions. I guess I missed the memo that revealed how real gamers are supposed to hate games like Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Final Fantasy VII.

At first, I actually found myself embarrassed to like Final Fantasy VII, thinking that my devotion to the title will brand me as the dreaded "f" word… fanboy. And then I realized I've merely stumbled upon the gaming equivalent of a music snob. People seem to have forgotten why these titles are so revered to begin with. There is a reason why there’s such blind loyalty for these games. It's because they have expanded gaming as a medium.

GTA4 created a living, breathing world independent of the player, and did so convincingly. It was completely unprecedented. Liberty City didn't revolve around Niko Bellic, and this was reinforced when he was introduced as a foreigner. Like the player, he doesn't belong. He's from the outside and trying to fit into a world that doesn't wait for his beck and call. This helped to create nothing short of a polished masterpiece and an unbelievably ambitious title.

The Halo franchise turned the FPS genre into what it is today, for better or worse. Regenerating health, refined online multiplayer options, extensive vehicular combat, creative grenade use, corpse humping...

And, Final Fantasy VII… the only game to become a franchise within a franchise in the history of gaming, as far as I can recall. Square-Enix cannibalized what is arguably its most popular title to the point of destroying its own reputation. CG, FMVs for storytelling, effeminate male characters in JRPGs, limit breaks, and more.

Many gamers seem take these titles for granted. Games like these are indisputably groundbreaking and ambitious, resulting in clones and borrowed mechanics for years and years to come. I don’t really understand where this negative sentiment comes from. I can only assume it has to do with some deep-seated need to be non-conformist, as everyone with an ounce of logic should be able to identify why these games are so influential. I appreciate and love quality products from little developers just as much as the next elitist gamer (the number of Atlus titles in my library is evidence of that), but to underplay the achievements of these games just because they’re widely popular is silly.