LITTLE LEVEL

With 2024 here what plans and/or goals do you have this year? My goal right now would be to get a more consistent workout schedule and build muscle.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

With so many tools to leak things in games now, leaking has become a common thing in the gaming industry. But how does it affect the game? Me personally I love leaks related to updates coming to the game. It really gives the community something to look forward too when they see the leaks and it gives the community a way to respond to what is coming so if the content is bad the company can just scrap it. Though when it comes to story leaks I try to avoid them. I like experiencing the story myself and going through it officially the same time as others. So what do you guy think? Do leaks ruin games/gaming?

This honestly has been a great year on this forum. Many interesting and beneficial conversations! I have no doubt next year will be any different! Merry Christmas and have a happy new year too!

Toxicity is communities grow every day and it seems like every day you find a batch of hate comments about a thing you love. Take Halo for example. Every move 343 makes is criticized by this toxic minority. Now yes some of this hate can be justified but people tend to make a mountain out of an anthill. But how do we as a community deal with it? Well I am gonna tell you right now, you probably can't change most peoples minds. People who insult and hate on things usually can't have their mind changed. So what do we do? Well the best we can do is remain positive but also surround yourself with a kind community that, yes, may talk about how certain aspects of the game, movie, book etc. aren't that great but they won't constantly hate on the game and learn to enjoy what the game has right. Finding the right community can prevent you from being part of the echo chamber of hate that every community has but also make you enjoy the product you are talking about even more. There is just something about talking to other people passionate about the same thing(s) as you and discussing opinions, news, favorite aspects, and other things communities do. Now I don't play Minecraft anymore but I saw this amazing video on the state of the Minecraft community and how to deal with the toxicity and it really drives home my point, and also poses a lot of interesting questions about toxicity in a community.

I watched the movie and....I was disappointed. They left out so much from the book (some scenes being actually being vital to the plot) and there was many scenes that were changed from their original vision. The movie failed to show you President Snow as it was shown in the book and that really sucked. I really feel the movie was set to fail before its launch because not only was the book to long to fit in one movie but since a lot of the book focuses on Snow's thoughts you couldn't present them in a movie without making it awkward. This made Snow's actions seem impulsive and random. When he eventually snapped at the end it wasn't well explained because just 10-15 minutes earlier he was fine. They did good visually but they lacked key scenes and since Snow's thoughts couldn't be displayed on screen his actions seemed random.

Then I would suggest being very careful what you search for in terms of guides or maybe play-throughs because at this point there is a lot of spoilers on youtube and other forums.

If you don't know Microsoft has a rewards program that gives you points you can use to redeem gift cards for different places and buy subscriptions like game pass. Now a few months ago you would get about 16,000 rewards points a month (equal to about $17-$18) and about 18,000-20,000 rewards points a month if you had game pass (equal to a little over $20.) Then with Ultimate game pass being only 12,000 rewards points a month you could get game pass free and then have plenty extra points you could save for something big. People were getting Xbox's, Headsets, Controllers, games, and much more for 100% free. So then the changes started rolling in. First they took any devices that were not manufactured by xbox of the store. Meaning you could only get Xbox made Headsets, controllers etc. So that means xbox wasn't losing as much money. People were bummed but you could still get tons of rewards points. Then Xbox took away about 1,000 rewards points of offers off the app meaning you would get less points a month. They slowly continued doing this until they removed the option to do the daily searches on Edge. Now you could only do them on the Bing app and on the mobile bing app. But things got worse. When doing searches most people would search just one letter repeated many times so they could get their points fast. So Microsoft added a system were if you search more than 3 searches in a short period of time and/or search nonsensical search results your searches would be put on hold and you couldn't get points from searching until the timer was up. Meaning what usually took about about 2 minutes now took a whole day because the system is tough and if it even seems a little like you are just abusing the system then it temporarily disables points made from searches. Now I understand you have to make money and people getting tons of free items from you and it costing you money sometimes can cause a toll on a company. But Microsoft made more money than they let on off of rewards. Not only could Microsoft sell the data they collect, featuring games on the rewards apps gets them money because games pay to be on there. I heard people on forums and a lot of people said rewards was the only way they could afford games and new headsets, controllers, chargers, and more. It really does suck but this is were we are. Maybe one day they will revert back to rewards points but as of now I guess we will have to deal with it.

Watching competitive gamers can be really interesting and analyzing them could really help you learn to be better at the game but I wouldn't pay for an esports event. I just don't watch enough esports and really you still get almost the same experience as watching it online for free. Unless there was like a meet and great or Q&A event with the cast of the game you are watching, or maybe some free souvenirs that would otherwise be pretty expensive, or really just something that adds to the experience I wouldn't really care if I didn't go.

I could help with just english but I mean you probably have an already large list of people that can do that anyway. If you don't need an english translator though I would be open to learning select languages that don't already have translators.

I have not read the manga yet but I ordered volumes 1-14 on amazon just a couple days ago so I'll read those when I get them. I don't plan on reading past the point I am in the show though.

It is crazy to think so much time has passed. I feel like just yesterday I was inserting Halo 3 into the Xbox 360 for the first time.

Recap:

It really is sad how negative people can be. No matter what you say or do they continue to be negative. Even if your argument is valid. But sadly that is how some people are. All they want is to see the company or IP they are hating on fail. Being a supporter of something no matter how popular is getting harder and harder every day because negative people will constantly harass you opinion especially when are more active with your praise. Now I see that 343 has made many mistakes but for you to wish that they just stop working on Halo and pretty much want them to quit their jobs is just too far.

Halo Infinite just dropped its winter update and I have to admit....I am a little disappointed. I mean the game is in a good state and the game seems to be running better but my problem is it doesn't feel like Christmas. I mean we got a mediocre winter themed even pass, new winter themed items, and yes the lobby screen is different but nothing in game tells you it is Christmas. You see in Halo 5 when it was winter all the maps would be covered in snow, holiday decorations, and winter themed forge maps were featured. This made the game feel more like Christmas but now we just have a lobby and paid cosmetics. It can't be that hard to put a few snowy maps in the game. Now I still enjoy the game but hopefully next year we get some winter themed maps.

Just checked out Jujitsu Kaisen and actually good show so far. A little gruesome at times but surprisingly a light-hearted show. I still like MHA better but I am trying to expand the genres I watch so I thought I would give this a try.

I think this is a great idea. As long as it wouldn't interfere with any copyright laws I think if you found a way to get the product out to a large group of people you would get a lot of buyers from the Halo Infinite community.

I loved Squad battles. I honestly feel like the new BTB can either be too hectic or really slow because I can never get a vehicle but 8v8 on smaller maps is always a good balance between chaos and spartan faceoffs.

The trailer made it seem like Locke was a bounty hunter of sorts who was out to kill the chief but instead it was about him saving the master chief from cortona. Now I understand they wanted to give chief more of a personality and a heart but caring about someone (especially an AI) isn't really a personality trait. I really like the multiplayer of Halo 5 though.

Well technically it is supposed to be a reference to Call of Duty infinite warfare character but since he looks like Master Chief they made the weapon charm based of the master beef meme.

New Update on the release date! MHA season 7 is officially scheduled to air April 2024 BUT the first 4 episodes are "special episodes.' I don't exactly know what that means but the actual first episode that progresses the story will be on May 4th 2024. Remember like I stated earlier a dub episode usually comes out 2-3 weeks behind but some of the studios that make MHA now actually have extremely active dub centers so maybe dubs will be even closer in release to subs.

I think what makes or breaks a forum really is how user friendly it is and how nice the community is. The other things matter too but if the forum is hard to get into if you join later in it's life span and the community is unfriendly then most people won't even care about how good everything else is. I remember a forum I tried to join once and though it was an active forum all they did was bash the show the forum was about and anyone that tried to go against them they would spam with hate comments and even cuss them out. I haven't even posted a single post in there because how toxic they were.

I really don't see Halo Infinite being a 10 year project anymore. 343 isn't making any money anymore because they only items I see people wearing are battle pass items or free fracture event items, and the game isn't getting a high number of players and with other big companies launching huge updates and expansions they just can't keep up. Personally I am gonna stay with Halo until its end because I still enjoy it but sadly I think soon the franchise will end.

I really don't like Marvel and Star Wars because of the fact they just won't end the storyline already. The only thing that keeps me with Disney + now is probably the fact that Hulu is part of Disney + now.

I feel like ever since game pass and free to play titles becoming a thing I have had a really hard time deciding what to play and balancing things out.