[10/12/07]Halo 3 Geezers Gone Wild 3: Beyond Thunderdome...

[PeteRock]

This Friday MoosNukle and PhillyPeteRock will again be hosting Halo 3 MP games for the casual gamers of the group.  Plenty of variety, lots of friendly competition, and perhaps a few more team-based tactical games like Assault and Capture the Flag in order to give us an opportunity to dabble in games that focus more on teamwork than outright murderous mayhem.  We tried out Assault last week and it was a lot of fun.  Difficult and fairly chaotic, but once we got a handle on working together it started to really go pretty well. 

We also may try something a little different.  With 16 people the games were fun, but sometimes a little crowded and chaotic.  We may try a few team-based games with fewer people in order to maintain focus on working together rather than just overwhelming the enemy with numbers.  8-versus-8 seemed to be a bit much, especially for people new to the game, or not quite at the same level of skill as some of the other participants, making for an intimidating, difficult experience.  Some 4-on-4 or 5-on-5 assault or CTF might be interesting because you'll really have to work together with such small numbers.  But we'll see how the evening goes before trying to limit the number of participants.

We also might set the party parameters to "invite only" as well.  There have been a number of instances when my wife and I would be hosting a game with Friends we knew, and then we'd soon find ourselves playing with a number of strangers, most likely players joining in from other participants' Friends lists, and we'd wind up asking each other "who's that", or, "do we even know who that is?".  We typically have no problem playing with new people, but many of our own Friends (real-life friends and online friends) were unable to get into games throughout the night because many people we didn't know were filling the party.  But we didn't want to start booting other peoples' friends just so we could get in our own.  I would have felt badly telling someone your friend can't play because I want my friend to play.  But if we set up the game for "invite only", we might be able to keep a few spots open so that our disappointed friends who missed out last Friday due to a full party will be able to participate this Friday.  Nothing personal against anyone's friends who played with us.  I just feel badly about not being able to get some of our own friends in on the action.   

As usual, we'll be online starting at 7pm Pacific and will probably again play into the wee hours of the morning (last Friday we logged off just before 2am Pacific, having put in a 7-hour Halo 3 MP session  ).  We'll send out the usual bombardment of invites and we hope to see all of you there.

And for those that want to try out ranked matches, ATB is looking for teammates to take on the world Friday night as well.  Check out his thread if you're looking for teammates.  There should be a little bit of everything for people to choose from.  There doesn't seem to be much of a shortage of Halo 3 MP games going on each Friday night, so odds are with ATB organizing ranked get-togethers and the PeteRocks hosting casual games, there should be something for everyone.  See you Friday night.       

[happydog]

My wife will be playing softball this Friday, so I should be able to get in for at least an hour. Depending on how late her game is, I might be able to talk her into playing also as we played a few games last night and she seemed to enjoy it.

[PeteRock]

My wife will be playing softball this Friday, so I should be able to get in for at least an hour. Depending on how late her game is, I might be able to talk her into playing also as we played a few games last night and she seemed to enjoy it.

Not sure if it'll help to convince her, but my wife has been playing pretty regularly with all of us, so your wife won't be the only female in the room. 

[Harkonis]

I finally got my nephew his own live account so he can play with us.  His gamertag is IanRyu.

[Atragon]

I'm in if there's still a spot open when I go to join, gamertag: TragicNut

[USMC Kato]

I'm in of course, the third times the charm 

[CSL]

Fear my mad Bashee skillz.

[IkeVandergraaf]

I'd like to play if work and the new girl I'm dating permit it.

[PeteRock]

Fear my mad Bashee skillz.

I unfortunately didn't have time to upload the next photo, where you are blown from the sky.   

Great fun last night.  Sorry we couldn't get you into the action sooner, CSL.  When I got your message we had already reached the "this is my last game of the night" stage, so we at least got you in for our final round. 

[Purge]

I have not yet decided which camp I will be in; I was a little disappointed that last week had SOME gt'ers, but there was half of the people I couldn't identify (and I maintain the 360 user list here )

[PeteRock]

I have not yet decided which camp I will be in; I was a little disappointed that last week had SOME gt'ers, but there was half of the people I couldn't identify (and I maintain the 360 user list here )

I'm planning to make some changes to address that.  Last week the game was open to Friends.  What had happened was other people's friends were joining from their list, and before long many of our games had a number of people most of us were not familiar with.  Tonight I'm starting an "invite only" game so that we can try to keep familiar faces in the game and not be overrun with strangers, as the main reason most of you want to play is to play with familiar friends from GT and OO.  So rest assured that the management is aware of this and we're taking appropriate steps to address your concerns.

-The Mgmt.

[DonD]

I feel like I'm coming down with something, so it will depend on how I'm feeling tonight.

[pr0ner]

Do I get an invite?

[PeteRock]

Do I get an invite?

Your Live gamertag is "shoot here", right?  Or perhaps that's just what my mind preceives whenever we cross paths. 

It's not like I'm being elitist or selective in terms of who I invite (other than just letting the cool kids play).  I just want to make sure that we all can play with familiar friends and don't get outnumbered by strangers.

[pr0ner]

Do I get an invite?

Your Live gamertag is "shoot here", right?  Or perhaps that's just what my mind preceives whenever we cross paths. 

It's not like I'm being elitist or selective in terms of who I invite (other than just letting the cool kids play).  I just want to make sure that we all can play with familiar friends and don't get outnumbered by strangers.

No, you're not being elitist.  Just wanted to make sure I was still able to get in on the fun.

Gotta let you have someone to kill in the games, after all.

[PeteRock]

Do I get an invite?

Your Live gamertag is "shoot here", right?  Or perhaps that's just what my mind preceives whenever we cross paths. 

It's not like I'm being elitist or selective in terms of who I invite (other than just letting the cool kids play).  I just want to make sure that we all can play with familiar friends and don't get outnumbered by strangers.

No, you're not being elitist.  Just wanted to make sure I was still able to get in on the fun.

Gotta let you have someone to kill in the games, after all.

Absolutely.  I'm not going to limit the field within the GT/OO communities.  Anyone from OO or GT can join in on the fun, and if I see you online, you can expect an invite, even if you don't have the game or aren't planning to play.  But this time around I want to make sure we can continue to play amongst forum members so that there is some level of familiarity.  As Purge has mentioned (and my wife and I noticed it last week, too), there were times when we didn't know most of the participants, and you start to feel like the game is "getting away from you."  Our Friday Night Fights are mainly intended to give GT/OOers a chance to play in a MP environment amongst friends.  It's far more fun to play with familiar names rather than have your ass handed to you by some unknown (if we wanted that, we could just play matchmaking by ourselves).  The point is to play with people you know.  That's my goal.

Besides.  It just wouldn't be the same if my "most killed" statistic didn't read "Pr0ner".   

[pr0ner]

Besides.  It just wouldn't be the same if my "most killed" statistic didn't read "Pr0ner".   

Just for that, it's on.   

[Laner]

It may be later (i.e. after 11 or 12 Central), but I'd love to join in

[Atragon]

Could you see fit to toss TragicNut (me) an invite?

[CSL]

Well that was fun.

I guess I do pretty well driving in Rocket Race. 

[pr0ner]

Real fun, as always.

Can't believe I just played Halo 3 for four and a half hours straight, though.

[Laner]

Wheee... good times.

[SuperHiro]

That was pretty fun,  I thought I'd be hugging the basement but I managed to slug my way to the middle a few times.  I guess either I'm not that bad or you guys are horrific.

[Doopri]

pete you should do this tonight too - i missed out yesterday due to the al / nl cs goodness!