This fan interview is the first in what I hope is a long string of fan interviews. If you have a favorite Halo super fan you’d like to see me interview please comment below or send me an e-mail to [email protected]
For my first interview I had the pleasure of asking the beautiful and talented Maria Masuimi several Halo related questions that any Halo fan can relate to. Maria is a 25 year old Halo gamer living in Oslo, Norway, who works in public administration. She’s known on Twitter ( @MariaMasuimi ) and has been featured on HaloWaypoint.com. Her pic is the last (but not least) in that article.
Here’s a pic of her, used with permission (and fellas, please don’t gawk, it’s rude…):
HaloFanForLife (HFFL): When did you first become a Halo fan?
Maria Masuimi (MM): I recall trying Halo a decade ago, but I wasn’t truly captured by Halo until Halo 3 came around. I’ve played a lot of FPS’ in my life and never really had it has my favourite genre, but Halo kind of changed that for me.
HFFL: What about Halo made you a fan in the first place?
MM: It’s a very social game while being highly competitive with its mulitplayer and once you get into the “science” of that in all its details it’s not really an easy game to play. I think those two reasons makes the series appeal to a large number of people, including me. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it started, but I think a big part of the reason was that it was one of my first experiences with real memorable FPS co-op gameplay on a console.
Initially I mostly played campaign and it was just so fun being able to do missions with a full team and go through the struggles together with someone. But with time I got more and more into the multiplayer aspect, and that is ultimately the part that has kept me constantly coming back for more all these years.
Halo was also a nice shift of phase from the realistic military-themed shooters. I guess I have limits for how much camo fabric my eyes can take. And also, honestly, with age, a teeny-tiny percentage of me has started to slightly feel the sensation of “wrong” as I shoot realistic-looking people in FPS’. In Halo you don’t shoot something as similar looking to PEOPLE per se, which leaves that whole sensation out “you know this is wrong” of the picture. And it’s also nice to have superhuman strength and not be as bound by physical laws.
HFFL: How many Halo achievements have you completed?
MM:
• Halo CE: Anniversary?
I had quite some issues with insane lag in Anniversary. I’ve only completed 11 out of 44.
• Halo 3?
I have 45 of 79. I was a bit of a shitty player back in H3. (HFFL-I hear ya, so was I)
• Halo Wars?
I haven’t played it.
• Halo 3 ODST?
I had huge lag issues in ODST as well, but got 23 of 47.
• Halo Reach?
I have 62 of 69. Originally I would have had all achievements except for one (A Monument to all your sins), but then some new ones were added with Anniversary, and I haven’t had time to attempt all of the new ones yet.
HFFL: Which game in the Halo franchise is your favorite and why?
MM: That is so hard to answer, because I don’t have one favourite, more like favourite parts of each game. I think it stands between Halo 3 and Halo ODST. Gaming, to me, is very tightly connected with good memories. With Halo 3, I just have so many good (and frustrating) memories of trying to get through the game on all difficulties. It is the first game I recall actually playing a game for 10 hours straight till the sun came up. The ODST campaign, although I didn’t like it at first, grew on me. This might sound odd but I just get this really cosy feeling from playing ODST, it’s just so friggin cosy! Too bad about the heavy lag on co-op runs.
HFFL: What is your favorite Multiplayer game type and why? (ie., Team Slayer, FFA, BTB, Infection, etc.)
MM: I guess I’m a sucker for the simplest type of Multiplayer action, which is Slayer. I’ve never been a fan of objectives. In Reach my favourite slayer type was Squad Slayer, because it didn’t have the annoying Armor Lock, while having 10 players and 75 kills to win. I whined for a week when they removed it, before moving on to favouring Anniversary Big Team Battle instead.
In my perfect world we’d play slayer on smaller maps with more players, I thrive in chaotic carnage mayhem, because everyone has less control of what’s happening and so the traditional dynamics of team play gets somewhat distorted and less effective, so who wins is somewhat up in the air. I’m not really good at solid team play, tho I like playing in a team for the socialness of it.
HFFL: Favorite Weapon from any of the Halo games and why?
MM: My favourite weapon used to be the BR, but the DMR has suddenly become more and more desirable over time. Take away bloom, and it’s awesome. I just like how it fires single shots and the recticle makes for better precision (once bloom is out of the way).
HFFL: What are you most excited about for Halo 4?
MM: The campaign, actually. I try to avoid Halo 4 news as much as I can so that when I actually play it, most things will be new and exciting to me and hopefully surprise me. I’m also curious about Spartan Ops, and how abilities will affect multiplayer gameplay. Especially forerunner vision has potential to become a huge multiplayer headache. However, I won’t really critisize it until I’ve tried it. It might feel completely different when playing and might contribute to us having to adapt to new playstyles and ways of doing things. Which could suck, but it could also be awesome. Time will tell.
HFFL: What do you think about the changes 343 is making to Halo?
MM: I think there’s been a lot of skepticism from the community and the professional gaming community especially, which is only natural I suppose, but at times it seems people are so scared of and reluctant to change that their skepticism is crippling to game development itself.
Games evolve, it’s just what happens. It has to happen. A game released in 2012 should not feel and play as if it was released in 2001. I think if a game can’t be allowed to evolve, then what’s the point of making a new one? I think we need to learn and adapt to possibly be playing Halo in a new/different way than we have been so far.
HFFL: Where are you pre-ordering Halo 4 from?
MM: I kinda like the Rapture skin from Best Buy, so I’m thinking I might pre-order from there.
HFFL: Which Halo achievement has been your favourite or most frustrating one obtaining?
MM: Without a doubt “If They Came To Hear Me Beg” from Halo Reach. I jumped that Elite a total of 72 times before getting a perfect assassination and “survived a fall that would have been fatal.”
(HFFL – OMG, I HATED that one. You’re lucky it only took you 72 times. It took me upwards of 400 tries. Several of them I even assassinated that stinkin’ elite but it didn’t count. PLEASE 343, do not make an achievement like this. Most frustrating indeed)
HFFL: You’ve been fortunate to be featured in the Halo Bulletin with Halo illustrations. How did you feel when you found out about that?
MM: I’ve been just as excited each time, heart beating out of my chest! It is so admirable how 343 Industries make effort to truly embrace the Halo community, showing some love to both the new and the old!
Here’s the pic featured on HaloWaypoint, followed by a few others from Maria’s Twitter feed:
HFFL: Any shout outs or links you’d like to give?
MM: A shout out to everyone’s favourite Community Manager, Jessica “bs angel” Shea, just for being amazing. And my buddy Dan “Greenskull” Hammill who just partnered up with IGN (www.youtube.com/user/ReadyUpLive). Andrew Cook who makes awesome Halo weapon replicas (http://www.youtube.com/user/DaFrontlineTrooper).
(HFFL – I’ve had the pleasure of gaming with both bs Angel and Greenskull myself. Jessica laughs a lot. Several “That’s what she said,” jokes were made during one of those gaming sessions. Greenskull has a great site in ReadyUpLive and was recently honored with an in-game Halo 4 shout-out having to do with the hometown he’s from. Andrew has some AMAZING props. I’d love to commission him to make one for me.)
HFFL: Thanks Maria. It’s been a real treat to interview you and you have the distinction of being my first Halo Super Fan interview, here on HaloFanForLife.com.
And with that the interview came to a close. I hope you enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed the interview itself.
Again, if you’d like to see a specific Halo super fan interviewed, please comment or e-mail me who you’d like to see and I’ll try my best to get an interview with them.
-HFFL