This makes me cringe.

As opposed to a larger party? Sometimes people can't get a large party all the time and just want to enjoy themselves. I know it's frusterating when they are in party chat, but would you rather have two players in your team you can't talk to or seven?
If it makes you feel any better, I always make my parties go to game chat

I don't prefer to do this, but I often do. I often search solo.

The fact is getting a lot of people together is INFINITELY better, but I can't always do it, and to be perfectly fair, not everyone is worth waiting for. I don't mean they're worthless when they arrive, but some people just put a higher priority on playing Halo in a party than others. I get tired of waiting for people who WANT me to wait for them so that THEY can have a party when THEY get online, but won't hurry their ass up and save me the trouble.

When I see I have a game invite I either accept it ASAP or let the person know I'm unavailable. I will admit that I often fail to remember I got an invite. For example I get the invite while playing a game, I WILL finish the game first because that's my personal policy and Wheelmen policy, but by the time the game is over I've forgotten I received said invite. That sucks and I feel bad when I realize I let an invite go unanswered, but my memory has always been a weakness of mine.

I don't actually talk that much in the lobbies. I'm online to play. Not everyone plays the way I do or thinks of it the way I do, and that's fine, but when I'm online I want to play. Sometimes waiting for a full party doesn't sound as good as playing with half a party and hopefully picking up the other half after a game or two.

I like talking to people and socializing, and I'm not incapable of tolerating a short wait in the lobby (especially if I invite you while you're in a game, I expect you need to finish it), but generally I like to be ON THE WAY to a game when I'm not playing one. This makes more and more sense the less time you get to actually play the game.

I love playing with you guys. I think I've gotten along well with the vast majority of people I've met through this site. I also can't ignore the massive benefits of having a team, but sometimes the BEST option isn't among the available options. Sometimes the best option is only 10 minutes away, and 10 minutes happens to be about as long as it takes to play a game instead of waiting.

Finally, I think playing with randoms and such makes you just a bit harder. It's easy to get a false sense of personal effectiveness when you only play with a team. Sometimes I'm happy to suffer from searching alone, because although it makes my stats look worse and my experience a little less fun, it often means I'm better equipped to run with my team than I would have been had I spent my time waiting in the lobby. You become more dependable when you have only yourself or a few others to depend on, and I'd rather bring a badass into the lobby when there's a team waiting for me.

I get the largest party I can make. Sometimes that's just a few

When I have a small party I prefer changing playlists... might just be me tho...

Deaf Smith wrote:

This makes me cringe.

Haha, you shouldn't have made me party lead.

Anyways i'll keep this in mind next time.

Criporc wrote:

Haha, you shouldn't have made me party lead.

this really is a good general rule of thumb

Laughlyn wrote:

When I have a small party I prefer changing playlists... might just be me tho...

What he said...

TyphorX wrote:

As opposed to a larger party? Sometimes people can't get a large party all the time and just want to enjoy themselves. I know it's frusterating when they are in party chat, but would you rather have two players in your team you can't talk to or seven?
If it makes you feel any better, I always make my parties go to game chat

Sorry, early in the morning. But Deaf Smith is Deaf, so party chats is not it for him I guess.

I see BTB as more of a challenge when not heaving a full party, and I really love playing it so mutch that I don't wait around for a full party just to play it. It's my go to playlist
I don't play for K/D, I play for fun. If i can get more games into a short time w/out waiting for 7 other players, that can be worth it to

Sometimes I will go in with small parties to experiment. Rather than trying to keep 8 people coordinated, a small group of four or less can focus on more specific aspects of map control. Also means I'm less likely to have to fight over Warthogs.

I have a really hard time going into BTB with less then 6 people. Mostly because it sucks to have a tight group doing really well but still loose because our randoms have no coordination.

Also I still have the Reach mindset, which is that our ranks will pull in parties of BTB tryhards who will just destroy anything less then another coordinated group. Those games are not fun.

- Sometimes for the challenge of trying to carry randoms.
- So everyone doesn't quit within the first minute.
- Not enough people online.
- True skill works really well and it's nice to have a non-tryhard game every now and then.

I can agree with Sarge on the focus aspect of having a smaller group. It really is a nightmare trying to maintain map and weapon control is this game, and sometimes its nice to go in and only worry about yourself and a couple buddies rather than trying to coordinate the whole team. However if I had 4 people I would much rather play oddball or CTF or team regicide.

I do search big team by myself in the middle of the day when you suckers are at work just to help my K/D and be selfish. When I'm in a full party a lot of the time I think I get a little too selfless and put myself in impossible situations trying to help teammates in trouble. I find that playing BTB without a team makes you appreciate the awesomeness that is an 8 man party even more when you get to have one. Also, playing by myself improves my play in parties because I'm already effective by myself, but when your team is helping you out it makes it that much better. I can remember multiple times thinking I was dead when I had low or no shields, and an enemy appeared, only to see him get killed almost instantly by a team shot.

I think the main answer to this question is just the lack of a full party being online. I choose party of 8 over anything else any day.

Some people just like to intentionally keep their group small because halo is more of a social expereince than a competitive game for them. I know a lot of people like this who will only play in small groups of 2-5, as for the btb it's just the prefered playlist of some given the vehicular presense and the fact that you don't have to look very far for an enemy.

For me, when it comes to Teamates, When it rains, it POURS!

It seems like I either have 1-2 or 7-12. Drives me crazy though because so far, every-time we've had enough to make one whole BTB team, We get another friend that hops online and joins in... Causing us to have to go do something else.

If 343 ever gets their crap together on File browsers I'll be able to have cool maps and mini-games for groups like that to play customs. but I don't think we've ever been able to put together just a perfect sized BTB team.