Debate This: More Xbox Live Friends Vs. Playing Halo 2 Online
August 22, 2009 50 Comments
Debate This is an ongoing feature which provides an opportunity for open discussion on various video game-related topics. Those who know how to debate in a mature and respectful manner are encouraged to participate. Present your opinion, but be prepared to defend it.
It recently came to light that there is a possible correlation between how many people you can have on your Xbox Live friends list and the ability to play Halo 2 online. While Microsoft has always touted technical issues for the official reason the current friend cap has not been lifted, it is now thought that increasing that limit would require ending support for one of the more popular original Xbox titles.
Gamers have long been requesting a friends list that holds more than the 100 allowed gamertags. There is also still a community full of Master Chief loyalists that regularly strut their stuff in Halo 2′s multiplayer (which is clearly evidenced by its constant reign on top of the weekly published Xbox Live activity lists). Both of these features have their advantages but which one is more important to the gaming community as a whole? Debate This: Would you rather have the size of your Xbox Live friends list increased or would you prefer having the ability to continue playing Halo 2′s multiplayer online? Which one out of the two is more important to you and why?
I would rather have Halo 2 over a larger friends list.
I still go back and play Halo 2 to this day and I’d be really sad to see it go just for a few extra people I can have on my list.
I duno, i like H2 even though i don’t play it much but my friend list isn’t exactly full. but i would like to be excepted as a friend to the people with full friends list like BS angel,(is there a space yet? you said in june that it was still full) and others who are very popular
I would like a bigger friends list, because I can no longer get friend requests from people, and I love adding people but I can’t lol.
Although Halo 2 is a great game, I believe it’s at the end of it’s era.
Yea, for almost every H2 map there is a H3 remake in forge that is almost as good. And the graphics are much improved. Playing H2 on an HDTV when used to H3 graphics is rather off-putting. I say end H2 and un-limit the Friends List. Besides you can always pick up H2 for PC.
I don’t play Halo 2 much so I wouldn’t be too sad to see it go, and I personally wouldn’t mind having a larger friends list.
I would debate this but I don’t see how there is a correlation between the two? How would providing a larger friends list kill Halo 2 online MP?
If I had to pick, I’d pick Halo just because I doubt I’ll ever get close enough to 100 friends for it to be worthwhile.
It has to do with the original code used for the XBox and XBL…click the “possible correlation” link in the article, G4 explains it better than I can.
If I ever want to play Halo 2, it would be in a local setting. I would much rather have the extended friends list. Not that I need it, but it’s really frustrating when you try to send someone you know a friend request and it fails because they’re already at 100. *glares at angel*
I can’t believe you went there with how long I have been trying to play with you and how long you have been feeding me nothing but excuses! :glares back:
I would much rather have H2. Anyways who in the world has that many people on their friends list? Even if they do, do they even play with them all?
How about people who have 100 or less friends can use Halo 2?
I actually thought about this, whether people could have the choice. I figured it would be an all-or-nothing thing in terms of the programming.
If there is a correlation between the two, i would much rather have H2, simply because even though i have reached over 90 friends before, i go through my list and there are many people at that point who haven’t been online for litterally months so i delete them and get a list of about 30 -40.
If the majority of people complaining about too small of a friends list were to check i would bet the same would apply to them, they simply are too lazy to take the 15 minutes to clear out the garbage.
However there are some people out there(ie bs angel here) that actually would like to have a larger friends list for real reasons. when it comes down to it though, this is the minority(sorry guys and gals)
Probably true, but an even smaller minority would be the people that still play Halo 2 on XBL.
couldnt they just disable the freinds list in halo 2 like other online games? I dont think that’d work tho for some raisin…
It would take me the next thousand years, or spamming every person I met on Live with a friend invite before I ever needed more than 100 friends. And for those of you who do have 100 friends on your list…really? REALLY? most of those people probably don’t even remember you! YOU probably don’t even remember 80-90% of THEM.
Personally, I hope it never gets changed. Because if MS does kill the original XBox’s ability to play games online that’s setting a precedent for all future consoles. Some day they’ll kill Live support for the 360 when the next console comes out. It’s bad enough they killed off the old Xbox early IMO, it had potential, there may not have been as big a market for it as the PS2, but I think it could have lasted a few more years. I guess the bottom line is; killing Live support for the old Xbox just doesn’t feel right to me.
Instead of increasing the friends list size, why can’t Microsoft implement a group system? One where gamers can create groups and manage group membership. Have an increased size on the # of members of the group (maybe 5k or 10k). This can be something exclusive to Xbox 360 users and would allow people to keep their 100 friends list limit (really, who has 100 friends that aren’t there because of some clan, group or guild membership?).
well, this is how i see it: have more room for more friends or lose a good game to play with the friends you have now? also, idk its just halo we’re talking about here, it must be more games than only Halo 2. so we’d be losing those games as well. i’m pretty sentimental and i like to keep that nostalgic stuff around (i bought Halo: Combat Evolved in the XBox Originals and still play it time to time!). you also gotta think, how long will it take you to fill the new limit? there’ll never be a big enough Friends List (i never thought i’d fill mine, but i was wrongo). but bottom line; yeah, i have to remove an old friend to make a new one, but it would be worth it to keep playing that old school stuff… :) think of it like this; you have an old favorite outfit, but you gotta lose 5 lbs every time you wanna wear it or you could let yourself go and never wear it again… ;)
i just now read the article… lol whoops, ok so it is JUST Halo 2… but still, i stand my ground! =D
For those of you that cant see the “correlation between H2 and a Friends List, Halo 2 was programmed originally for the first Xbox, which had a 100 friends list cap. Now that it’s the last game from the first Xbox that has online capabilities, since Microsoft patched it to work for 360′s Live, Microsoft is considering ditching the online servers, so that a bigger Friends list (Among other features) can become available. First of all, this opens the door to not just a bigger friends list, but also new ideas that can be implemented for Xbox Live. Now that Microsoft wouldn’t be constrained to not increasing it because of the Halo 2 servers being closed, they are considering that option, especially for the newest Bungie game, ODST (which really isn’t a full game, but has enough content to be mistaken, but that doesnt matter). Second, Halo 2 will still be available for PC, and you can still plug in your controllers and mic to use for your home computer.
I say kill the servers, and increase the cap. Besides, my friends list is full, I’ve been trying forever to discretely remove old friends for newer people that I want to be friends with. :glares at Angel and QB:
:)
I’d prefer the larger friends list. My list is generally near full, but that’s because I keep a lot of people that I know in real life, college mates, old XBL friends and others. From time to time my list nears the 100 mark and I have to start deciding who I actually can “afford” to drop.
Legacy titles like H2, although they are still good games multiplayer wise, are just that – legacy titles. Support for them has to be dropped eventually, particularly if they are holding back improvements in the system because they can’t support it. Really, it is up to the developers to decide whether or not they want to patch their legacy games to support the new infrastructure. If they do, whoop-de-doo, everyone can keep playing their old school games. If not, well nothing much can be done about it.
For me is the choice between a brilliant game i love but havent been on and the feature too add friends that have a 100 people on their list (as i have plenty of space myself) mainly consiting of people from sites like these. Selfishly id probably vote to keep Halo2.
Does anyone know how much the cap would rise? Unless its an extra 100 or more i don’t think its worth it.
Anyway im going to make the best of the time Halo2′s still online.
Halo 2 hands down. Nobody actually has more than 100 Xbox Live friends that they actually talk to.
I would much rather Halo 2 over more friends. I haven’t played Halo 2 in a while, but there may be a time where I want to go back and play it, and unfortunately that may not be an option.
Raising the friends cap is stupid. The majority of the people I know don’t even play with a good half of the people on their friends list, what’s the point in adding more?
I would much rather have Halo 2 than a larger friends list.
Halo 2!!
Really, I couldnt care either way. Mainly because I dont have H2 so if service was cut, it wouldnt affect me. I also really couldnt care to be able to have more friends. I know several users that only play with 10-15 friends even though they have 100 friends, so I think making it so we can have more than a 100 friends would be somewhat pointless. All those people would still play with the those 10-15 friends even if they had 200 friends. The only people I think would truely need more than 100 friends are users that play multiple games and have several friends for each game.
i think halo 2 should not be forgotten. besides why should we take down a great game? the only other way to play it would be with the PC version. and i just care more for halo then having a bigger friends list. i only play with about 20 people anyway and i still play halo 2!
I don’t play Halo 2, but this is a COMPLETELY stupid reason to shut it down!
The only people that want more than 100 friends are douchebags that need bragging rights, or lonely people that need a high number of “friends” to make them feel special. That’s why MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are so popular.
Having bs angel, JonCJG, DarkspireFilms, and any other popular XBox Live member on your friends list does not make you special.
Besides, does anyone honestly have more than 100 real-life friends with XBox Live?
Well… Since the people on my friends list number less than the awesomeness of Halo 2 on a 1-10 scale (which is 10), I’d have to say Halo 2, because I don’t have many friends… =(
Well, I haven’t played Halo 2 for over a year because my headset makes me sound like Deepthroat when I try to play Halo 2. So I’d go for the increased Friend list size. But then again, I stopped accepting friend requests that I got just because I’m a girl, so I don’t really need the room… I guess ultimately, I’m really not affected by this.
Just a (not so little) little addendum:
There’s going to come a point when they are going to have to upgrade the system, to make it significantly more awesome, add cool(er) features, etc etc. Inevitably, Halo 2 will be disabled at some point. Maybe the people still playing Halo 2 can opt for some kind of second service, like an “old” version (let’s say it’s the version we all have right now, for the sake of example) of Xbox live, so they can continue to play Halo 2 with other people who also have this service. And the people who don’t play Halo 2 can use the “other” Xbox Live service (the one with disabled support for Halo 2). That could make most people happy, I think.
If the cap was really that big of a problem right now, MS would find a way to change it.
Also, I don’t think the choice between Halo 2 and a large friends list cap is exclusive, ther has to be a way to accommodate both.
I’d want the bigger friends list. I never played Halo 2 online. (Please don’t stone me). I became a member of XBL after I got Halo 3. I played Halo 2 maybe once afterwards and it just wasn’t as fun as it was before. Plus looking back Halo 2′s era has ended. We now have Halo 3 and soon ODST on the way. So I think the bigger list is the better option at the time.
sometimes i go back to halo 2 online which is fairly enjoyable….and having a full friends list is the only thing stopping all the random friend request, but i dont have a full friends list yet, although i would love to have some other people on my list but their list is full…..(does not need to glare)
Will Halo 2 for Windows Vista still be playable?
If so then I think support should be dropped for the xbox version.
Microsoft is just taking the lazy way out (again) by shunting down the H2 servers. Than again, if you are still playing H2 over H3 than there is something wrong with you.
My solution to this would be an extended friends list with a selectable top 100 that show up as a regular friends list that would then work in xbox games. How does that sound?
Although I don’t have it, I think Halo 2 would be the better option. I mean, come on, can’t you remove some people who haven’t been online in a couple of months?
Halo 2!
Halo 2 online has more worth to me than >100 “friends” that I’ll probably never even play with.
It all comes down to what the friends cap would be changed to. For those popular enough to have a maxed out list (i.e. McBloggy over here) would increasing it to 200 really make that much of a difference? Your friends list would still get maxed out, but you would simply be able to add a few more than you could before.
Besides, how big can a friends list get before it becomes so large that you can’t practically keep track of those few people you really play with regularly?
Honestly, I’d rather still be able to play H2 online than have a larger friends list. While my list is maxed out, there’s the friends of friends list feature along with simply being able to access people through text/voice messages. It’s worked fine for this long and while I don’t play H2 anywhere near regularly, I still tend to hop back every other month or so.
My first comment just has to do with the fact that we’re in this conundrum anyway….in Halo 2 you are able to have 200 friends because Bungie basically gave you a 2nd friends list with the Clan Tab. I thought I remembered somebody from Bungie saying that’s why Clans were removed from H3 was because someone (*cough* M$) didn’t want that 2nd FL capability added.
If on the original XBox with H2 you could have 200 friends, what’s stopping that from happening now? Would it be a game specific programming code that would need to be added?
I can see the advantage to the FL being expanded because for those of us involved in Groups & Clans, it would help a lot. I know that depending on what day and time I’m online, it depends on who I get to play with. Some friends aren’t on past 9 or 10 pm and a whole other group gets online after 11. Friends of friends isn’t the worst thing, it’s just a pain sometimes.
I’m only kind of techie but you’re telling me that of all the ridiculously smart people that work at Microsoft, they wouldn’t be able to expand the friend’s list for 360 users, remove H2 functionality temporarily and then provide a patch downloadable by the original XBox users (who obviously have internet connectivity to the XBox) that will allow them to play H2 online still….maybe I’m just naive in that sense?
Halo 2 is a classic. It deserves better than being shut down simply because people want more friends in their friend list than they could possibly ever hope to keep up with.
The only people who need more than 100 friends on Xbox Live are the same people who need all 3,847 of their “friends” on MySpace. I would much rather keep Halo 2 running strong than allow the guy with confidence issues to reassure himself of his status on this planet.
Halo 2 gets my vote, it’s constantly one of the top most played games online. While I am one of the few who could benefit of the extended friends list it still gets my vote. There’s alot of credit and an oath in the words of Bungie. I’d rather them stick to their words and support the game than to ruin the experience for a few select individuals to have more people following them. Plus after a 100 the constant logged in and outs would drive you up the wall regardless.
Cheers,
Kensai
The ability to continue to play Halo 2. Definitely. It may be old but it’s still a great game online and I don’t see any reason to take it offline.
Honestly I only play regularly with like 10 out of 60 on my friends list, so I don’t really need the increased FL. Also, how do you find the time to play with all 100 friends? How would it be with say 500?
That list of 100 “friends” that the Xbox 360 players are crying about? Those are NOT real friends. They are just people you played a game with.
Keeping Halo 2 running is FAR more important. I have 3 people on my friends list, and I haven’t even played with them in a long time.
Keep Halo 2 online !!! It’s a far beter GAMe than Halo 3 anyhow. Screw the graphics.
I say can halo 2. It was a great game no doubt but to my knowledge I cant even get a game started in any setting. I once left it trying to seek a team slayer game for 1 hour cause its the most popular setting and still nothing. it would find 2-3 ppl then they would disappear and it would start over… On other settings i haven’t even seen 1 other matched player so yeah… Even though I don’t need 100+ friends halo 2 online is pretty well dead all ready.