By on 7 May, 2012 at 1:15 PM
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Halo Is Mr Unpopular In South Africa?

Halo Is Mr Unpopular In South Africa?

If you haven’t noticed there has been news floating around about Halo 4 over the last few days. With many fans and haters interpreting the incoming news with both dissent and wonderment. The success of this next installment in the Halo franchise, and the first release by 343 Industries, will undoubtedly be popular in the United States. But other regions of the world? This is questionable.

South Africa in particular has never had a strong local community supporting the Halo franchise. Of course, I’m not saying that South African gamers don’t play any Halo games. What I’m pointing out is that the support dwindles in comparison to other games that the community plays. The community is playing games like Modern Warfare, Battlefield and Gears of War. This is not going to change any time soon.

Why does the Halo franchise not have a strong footing amongst South African gamers? I think that much of it has to do with the movement in the South African gaming community towards an appreciation of military shooters, and the long standing popularity of games in the Modern Warfare, and now Battlefield series. These games have now become the staple multiplayer experience of many South African gamers. The first Modern Warfare game, in particular, took South African LAN culture by storm and became a staple of many events to this day. Although, this may be soon changing with the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive around the corner.

Perhaps, there is a perception in the gaming community that Halo is an ‘average’ FPS that is a derivative of other hyper-paced first person shooters, like Unreal Tournament, Quake and Tribes. These are common assertions amongst haters of the franchise. But the same type of rhetoric, and overall argument, can be applied to the very military shooters which are popular nowadays. Every Modern Warfare release so far has been deemed a glorified ‘map update’ with a R600 price tag. So calling Halo generic and derivative is both hypocritical, and an exercise in idiocy of the highest order.

Relatively speaking, I think that the trend in South Africa at the moment for FPS gaming is vested competitively in both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. The prospect of Halo 4 taking on these titans is pretty much a hard sell, where the Halo franchise being exclusive to Xbox 360 doesn’t help matters in the least. The next Halo game becoming as popular as the aforementioned games is a pipe dream for Halo fans in South Africa.

It’s all a matter of what is popular and trendy. With the eventual release of Halo 4, the game is going to have a tough time grabbing the attention of South African gamers. Sadly, military shooters are still king.

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Name: Adam Meikle
Location: Durban
Position: Editor, Indie

Adam has published 177 posts. Read all of Adam's posts.
  • Treble

    Cause Halo is the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again. They should damn retire this title now along with COD

    • Adam Meikle

       COD is worse. You get more value for your money in a Halo release than in COD.

    • AG_Sonday

       At this point I’m convinced you’re trying to piss people off, Treble. It’s adorable :P.

    • Timothy

      All I heard was “trololololololololol”

  • DieJason

    The MP is brilliant fun, so many different modes too. Mind you, don’t think I’ve played it for a while… must fix that.

  • Cloud Strife

    I must admit..Ive always considered Halo to be..well..crap.

    • AG_Sonday

       I never saw it as anything special, cerainly not the superhyped genesis that fans would make it out to be but it is fun.

    • Cloud Strife

      On your recomendation, I might give it another try..

  • SairenSA

    Doesn’t have a console, so I could care less than f*ckall. :)

  • Timothy

    COD can suck my Master Chief’s balls XD I’m a Halo fan and I’m gonna love it sooooo much

    • Adam Meikle

      I’m looking forward to more revelations about the Forerunners.

  • Yashaar Mall

    Look, personally I don’t like Halo. It doesn’t appeal to me in any way possible. But when i analyze a game , i try to stay neutral throughout the playthrough. And with that I say that Halo Reach was a 9/10 game. I’m expecting the same from Halo 4, but i won’t rush to buy it. But feel free to let me win it <3

  • http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

    The Halo games were never anything special. The first one introduced a lot of key concepts for FPS gaming but every subsequent title has been somewhat generic and derivative rather than genre-leading. However, you dare not say that in certain circles of the internet for you will be crucified and condemned for not calling Halo the absolute greatest thing to walk the Earth since Gregory House.

    As far as I see it, Halo itself was only popular because it dared to be a console FPS and actually pulled it off quite nicely. Modern Warfare 2 and subsequent titles were hated a great deal for their sudden shift of focus onto consoles, so how can we claim that people prefer these games over Halo online? If we’re speaking of Halo, we’re speaking specifically of the Xbox 360 and everyone knows when it comes to multiplayer, Gears of War is boss on that console. Modern Warfare games will be popular yes, as will Battlefield 3, but that’s because we tend towards team-based games. It’s also why Dota 2, LoL, HoN and Counter-Strike are also popular locally. People still play Reach because it has probably one of the best multiplayer offerings around, but even then it’s rarely ever a free-for-all deathmatch and only ever with friends if so.

    The fact is that we lack the bandwidth to enjoy such things locally but also the international community for the Halo games (from experience) as well as certain other games, suck donkey balls. It’s the place where you get ostracised for not being a male, white teenager who worships all things Master Chief and I want none of it. 

    • Adam Meikle

      If you’re arguing that Halo is only popular because it was daring to be a console FPS, before their popularisation, than you are sorely missing the other stronger points of the Halo franchise. For one, the game has astounding story in the original trilogy that is both awesome and well crafted by Bungie. Yes, the gameplay is important, but the story of Master Chief and his fight against the Covenant is just as awe inspiring as that of the Mass Effect franchise.

      Arguing that Halo is derivative and generic is to make null and void that the whole Sci-Fi genre is generic and derivative, even Mass Effect is and this undeniable. To say that Halo is not genre-leading is also flawed. Halo took over the places left by both the Quake and UT franchises on consoles, whilst COD and BF3 took over the role of more modern military shooters, with arcade elements, like that of the original Call Of Duty and Battlefield franchise. The platform is irrelevant in this argument. Consoles have been the prime platform for gaming among millions of people so it’s only natural that the FPS genre would move towards console development, like the Xbox 360 and PS3.

      To address the issue of gamers, the people I’m talking about are ‘South Africans’, not the international community. Referring the the issue of preferential treatment of Halo and BF3, If you look at the player statistics on Halo Reach the amount of South Africans playing Halo Reach is incomparable to other countries across the world. Looking at the numbers playing BF3 is a whole different story both on console and PC. So, of course, we can claim that people prefer these games over Halo locally. It’s pretty valid from what the statistics dictate.

      Plus, your opinion of the international Halo community is as subjective as possible. I’ve spoken to other people who have had no such issues as yourself. By saying that the average Halo player is a white teenager whom worships Master Chief is an indication of stereotyping on your part, and my experience of the Halo community has been great. Again, pinpointing the subjectivity of the whole gaming experience. At least, Halo 3′s ending was better than Mass Effect 3.

  • Albert Botha

    i have argued alot about this point, BUT the base is people all have a liking in one or the other if you play CoD great its a good game but for me I seriously don’t like it. I am a sci-fi gamer and I love the whole alien thing so whatever thats what I like but saying that it sucks just makes you arrogant. Gamers should see the art in ALL games just because you say yes that game looks good and it feel good does not mean you worship that game. But saying games just plainly suck is arrogant because ALL games took work and got some form of art in them.