Don’t Become the Monster: Etiquette for the Casual Online Hunter in Monster Hunter World

So I’m nearly 200 hours into Monster Hunter World, and as most of you are aware, it’s fantastic. So fantastic that its very high review scores (a 90 on Metacritic at the time of writing this) paired with its jump from handheld to console has given the series a whole new level of popularity. Selling over 6 million units in just under 3 weeks, making Monster Hunter World Capcoms fasting selling game of all time. With numbers like that, you better believe that this is many peoples first foray into the series, leading to not only questions from newcomers, but an absolute INSANE amount of misinformation about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to hunting in a group. Teamwork has been a staple of the Monster Hunter series and it’s one of the most enjoyable ways to play the game when done with a certain amount of education and respect for your fellow hunters. So to combat some of the bad info going around on the internet, I have compiled a list of things you can be doing to improve the all around experience for everyone playing the game, even the newcomers.

Don’t always flash a mounted monster

I have seen so many posts lately that say it’s just better to flash a mounted monster than to wait for the mount to play out. This is only true if you are running out of time on a hunt or if you are attempting to speed run in the arena. Monsters stay downed longer after a successful mount than they do from a flash pod. The argument I see posted most often is that by not flashing the monster immediately, you are ultimately lowering your teams total DPS, especially in the case of flying monsters, which brings me to my next point…

DPS Doesn’t really matter (That much)

Sure, you wanna do all the damage. You wanna get that hunt done as fast as possible so you can move on to the next piece of gear for that sweet mixed set you saw that speed runner use on YouTube. Here’s the thing though, all that damage doesn’t mean squat if you’re hogging all the team carts. There are (typically) 4 hunters in a session, while most hunt’s only allow for 3 carts (deaths). That’s not even one for every person and in some of the rarer investigations a team is only allowed 1 or 2 carts. That speed runner probably restarted that run 20 times before he got that right. This is the only Monster Hunter game where a teammate who used all 3 of our carts messaged me after and said it was my fault for not having enough damage to kill the monster fast enough. I’ll tell you guys right now, even a 40 minute hunt that ends in success feels better than a 5 minute hunt that ends in failure.

Participate

Don’t be the guy who calls in an SOS for a hunt they are struggling on and then just sits at base and waits for the calvery to come in and hand you the victory. This is incredibly rude for so many reasons. First of all, Monsters have more health when you play online, so every person who is off mining or just “Leeching” from base is making it that much more difficult for the other hunters, and they came to help you. The other major reason being that you didn’t really earn those end hunt rewards. The learning that comes with actually fighting the monster and the sense of accomplishment that comes after the beast is finally slain, can only truly be felt if you do your part in the hunt. That feeling of overcoming the challenge of a new creature is what Monster Hunter is all about.

Tripping

Knocking teammates out of there combat animations by hitting them with some friendly fire, AKA “Tripping”, has been an issue in the Monster Hunter games for as long as I can remember. This is mostly due to poor positioning and not being aware of what weapons and moves cause the actual tripping. With longsword being the main culprit in previous entries due to it’s long sweeping animations, I have noticed that in World the dual blades, bow, and slicing ammo from the two bowgun classes have been equally if not more frequent in my many, many trip ups. these can be extremely frustrating for hammer users and defensive play-styles such as the gunlance and lance users. as hammer bros need that sweet sweet stun damage to connect, especially since the stun thresholds in World are incredibly high compared to previous entries. As for the lance and gunlance, getting tripped up from behind while attempting to block a monster attack from the front will most likely lead to you taking a fireball to the face. so lets talk positioning, shall we.

Positioning

So the way it typically breaks down is hammers and hunting horn get full reign on the face so they can build up that stun damage. Blades with good tail cutting capability such as longsword, dual blades, and great sword, tend to really try and focus the tail end of the monster, looking for openings for mounting and heavy hits as needed. Now this does not mean you can never go for the head, these are just generally where your focuses should be, especially when the monster is downed. It’s most important to stick to this area while a monster is vulnerable via paralysis, traps, or being knocked down via mount, stun, of flash. As for the other weapons, I would say that insect glaive should be attempting at least 1 or two mounts a hunt and when a monster is downed should also focus points such as the tail, keeping his/ her buffs up and kinsect marking the monster. Charge blade, you just look for openings to well, charge your blade, and take advantage of knock downs to unload your full phial burst, now, this also can trip pretty easily and over a wide area of effect, so be aware of your teammates. Switch axe, I almost never see you guys tripping people up but I would say stick to just blowing things up and going nuts mid monster or rear end when heavier hitting weapons are on the hunt.

Lance and gunlance users aren’t to bad about tripping, as the amount of moves that can actually trip are limited due to the precision of these weapons, with the main exception being the gunlance wyvernfire. There is a lot of bad info going around about this move, saying that you should only use it on the head, if at all, which just isn’t true. not only will this stop the all out assault on a downed monster by a teammate if struck by this move, it will knock them clear out of attacking range, so if anyone is even remotely near your blast radius, just save it for later. Also, shelling does set damage, meaning that it can’t crit or do more damage to certain body parts. Whether you are blasting a face or a thigh, you are going to do the same damage. It is exceptionally good at breaking parts though so if you have a free shot at that Diablos horn, fire away boom buddy.

Now at launch the slicing ammo from the bowguns was an enormous issue, so bad as a matter of fact, that not only was it quickly patched to do less damage and have less tripping capability, Japanese websites were writing entire articles about how it was bad for the game. Now since the patch it has gotten better, but just save that stuff for solo guys, it was created so that bowgun users had a shot at that tail when playing alone, not to ruin the experience for others because you were too worried about “Muh Deeps”. As for the rest of the hunt, heavy bowgun, you kinda have similar rules to gunlance, that little bit of extra damage isn’t worth pissing off your whole team because you wanted to unload a cluster shot on a downed monster. Light bowgun users, you guys are unsung heroes and, aside from some accidental sticky ammo misfires, are pretty good about not stopping your fellow hunters mid combo.

And then there was the bow. Guys I know you want that stun with your rain of rocks on a monsters head, but you already have so much. The cool dodges, the dragon pierce shot, the acrobatic wall shot. That head is all our horns and hammers have, so just stop spamming that move, as it trips up pretty much everyone.

Don’t be mean

Look this one is really pointed towards those vets out there. I know that guy just leeched your tempered elder hunt, but that doesn’t mean that you have the right to trip him out of his carving animation. Honestly, He’s already gonna get the end rewards and you rage trip at the chance of also tripping someone who actually earned them nearby. Also, everyone carts, even you. You don’t have to kick someone from a hunt just because they went down a little quick for your standards. Now if it’s your hunt, totally your right, I don’t want someone unprepared failing one of my rare investigations either, but try and give the new guys a second chance. The Monster Hunter community has always been known for being very open to newcomers as it’s always been that a good hunter came from a great one teaching them the game. We have wanted this game to be popular for so long and now that it has reached that mainstream popularity with World, I have seen a lot of greifing from mostly the long time hunters, and that’s pretty disappointing.

Come Prepared

Now with all that said, come to your hunts prepared or prepare to be kicked. If you come into a tempered elder dragon investigation and get one shot by a move you should be able to take at this point in the game, you will get kicked. Even I have a rule where if a person carts twice in less than 10 minutes, I’ll boot them from my rarer investigations. So eat your eats, craft those max potions, bust out those vitality gems, whatever it takes to stay alive, as carting due to not having a strong enough defense is the #1 reason hunters will fail a quest. You’re teammates wont care about how sick your build was if the only thing you actually show them is that quest failed screen.

To Sum Things Up

Don’t believe everything you see on YouTube. The fast popularity of this game has led to a lot of click-bait, “Best Weapon in the Game!!!!” nonsense. There is no meta. The best weapon is the one you feel most comfortable with. All and all to bring this long winded piece to a close, don’t be a dick. It’s not funny knocking around someone trying to get carves and it’s just not what this game is about. When played with a certain etiquette, Monster Hunter is a fantastic experience where anything can happen, and no 2 hunts are the same. Keep sharing those amazing kill screens and hilarious clips on Reddit, as it’s something that really makes this community so special and easy to be a part of. I want to challenge everyone to try something. The next time you are farming a monster, and you have a great hunt, don’t be so quick to click in that analog stick. Try and stay with that group, because finding new hunters and talking to eachother about what one person has learned or seen, is one of the many reasons Monster Hunter is so incredible.

If you have any questions or feel I said something incorrect, feel free to comment below, or message me on PSN. My ID is Gpie0711.

Happy Hunting!

10 Games you forgot you played growing up

Now I know this is going to be tailored a bit toward my age group (I’m almost 25) and some of these games are going to probably just be games I remembered. With that said, I have been testing a list I made up of about 20 games and I’ve narrowed it down to the games that have gotten the most “Oh yeah, I forgot about that game!” reactions.

#10. ATV: Off Road Fury (2001)

So if you haven’t played this game, it was some of the most fun split screen you could have. It had basic modes like trying to get the most points by doing tricks and your basic racing, but the best mode was one my brother and I had just made up called tag. You would just do the free roam mode on any of the few maps and someone would be “it”. The goal was to simply run into the other player, making them “it” and so on. The best part about this though, was the fact that the boundary walls to the maps were invisible and if you ran into one you would be sent flying off in team rocket fashion, and it was so very hilarious to us back then.

#9. Sim Theme Park (1999)

Less popular in the states compared to the similar “Tycoon” series of park builders, this was a game I fondly remember even though I could never understand why I went bankrupt, due to the fact I had absolutely no understanding how loans worked. One thing I did understand that in the dinosaur style themed park, I made the most intricate and expensive dino kart racer imaginable. Even my young mind felt an absolute amazing sense of accomplishment when I connected that final piece of track after what felt like hours of trying to make it all work.

#8. Champions of Norrath: Realms of Everquest (2004)

Most definitely the least popular game on this list, but one I just couldn’t bring myself to cut from the list. My brother and our friends scrounged up all the loose change we could find one summer to get our hands on a multi-tap so we could all play this game together one summer. It’s a Diablo style dungeon crawler RPG built in an old Baldur’s Gate engine, and man was it fun. I have tried to recapture the magic and nostalgia of this game many times, but I just think it’s a style of game I just don’t really connect with anymore. It will still always be a game I remember fondly though.

#7. Vigilante 8 (1998)

Another one of those sleeper games on this list, as most people played the much more popular “Twisted Metal” games. This was a car combat game that is basically the aforementioned game, but with a bit of a lighter tone when it came to the characters. You would be dropped into a map with a car loaded to the brim with weapons and be tasked with destroying the other cars using your characters unique abilities. It really is a shame there aren’t more car combat games like these anymore. Although, with that said the 2012 reboot of Twisted Metal wasn’t very popular, so maybe the industry has just outgrown this style of game.

#6. Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (2005)

This game was such a fantastic arena fighter, another style of game you don’t see as much of anymore. As someone who has always been a huge Spider-man fan, grabbing this game was a no brainer for me. The roster on this game was amazing with 10 popular Marvel heroes and villains such as Daredevil and Venom, but with 8 all new villains that formed a group called the “Imperfects” who were just as, if not more interesting. This game also had a story mode that has only been replicated in a few of the newer fighting games such as the Injustice games. The only thing this game really struggled from was the fact that post-launch balancing wasn’t quite a thing yet, and some of the characters ended up suffering from “Oddjob syndrome”. If someone you were playing with chose Paragon, they were no longer your friend.

#5. Road Rash (1991)

The only game on this list that actually was released before I was born, and easily the most violent game I played at such a young age. Road Rash was a motorcycle racer where you would chose your weapon before a race and try your hardest to just beat the crap out of the other riders to secure a spot at the head of the pack. It was one of those games that was simple, yet different enough to always have you doing “just one more” race before your parents had to come yell at you to turn it off and go to bed.

#4. Rise of Honor (2003)

A game where you play as Jet Li and beat the hell out of people with whatever you can find lying around, yes please! Man I probably played the opening mission of this game so many times just so I could go from burning a guys face off on an oven burner, just to turn around and smack his friend across the face with a frozen fish. Rise to Honor had an intuitive combat system that had you flicking the analogs toward the enemies you wanted to attack as they circled around you. It was a system that truly made you feel like a kung fu master. Honestly I’m surprised it hasn’t been implemented in more third person action games. I guess the best games to relate it to is a mix between the combat of Assassin’s Creed II and Sleeping Dogs.

#3. Simpson’s Road Rage (2001)

Basically a Crazy Taxi clone, Simpsons Road Rage, in my opinion, was the better version. It had a slew of the shows amazing cast, all with their own very unique styles and vehicles. The real winner in this game lies once again in it’s split screen competitive mode, where you and another player competed against each other to pick up the same passenger and take them to their destination all while trying to sabotage whoever was lucky enough to get there first. If this is one you missed growing up, that is a real bummer because they just don’t make them like this anymore.

#2. Backyard Baseball (1997)

I mean any of the “Backyard” sports games could have ended up on this list, but the baseball ones were always my favorite. getting to throw the infamous “under grounder” pitch was always hilarious, even though you knew it was unfair. A game with solid gameplay that was easy to understand back then compared to the more official sports games, and a cast of hilarious and relatable characters made this the perfect sports game for children. The gameplay wasn’t as realistic as playing in the backyard was growing up, but it was more how your imagination remembered it.

#1. Dave Mira Freestyle BMX (2000)

Oh man, what a soundtrack! Sort of the BMX equivalent to the very popular Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games, it’s the reason that most of us know all the words to Sublime’s “What I Got” song. What else can I say that the reason I threw this one in the number one spot is due to the fact that everyone remembers the skateboarding games, but everyone I talked to remembered this game the second I brought is up. It had all of the silly tropes like bouncing up off of trains to landing impossibly complicated tricks that hadn’t even been imagined yet. On top of all that it also had, you guessed it, an incredibly fun flurry of multiplayer modes that always kept me and my friends coming back and playing rounds of “I play winner” for entire days.

Top 10 (personal) Games

I thought as a first entry it would be fun to make a list of my top 10 games of all time. This way you guys can see where my interests lie, and if you have similar taste. Now I don’t plan on putting these games in any specific order, with the exception of my #1 spot due to the fact that I have had this conversation by myself and with friends multiple times and its the only game that consistently stays in that top spot. So lets get into it, shall we.

#10. Metal Gear Solid

This is a game that will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was the first game I ever beat from start to finish. Not to shabby for a 12 year old sneaking playthroughs on his dads PS one. Honestly, it wasn’t until I replayed it in high-school that I truly appreciated what a marvel it was. The genius of the boss intro that is Psyco-Mantis just blew me away. I’m not a huge fan of the series, as I have only played MGS1 and 5, but this game is just special. Not only to me, to the gaming industry as a whole.

#9. Final Fantasy XII

Okay internet, don’t hate me for what I’m about to say. FFXII is the BEST Final Fantasy in my opinion. I know that most people think that is blasphemy, but it just hit all the right notes for me when I played through it in high-school, and after playing through the Zodiac Age re-release that happened in 2017, it only reassured me that this game is a masterpiece of storytelling, and gameplay alike. The gambit system was so far ahead of its time that even today, not many games have been able to replicate that kind of passive party control. I really wanted FFXV to be my favorite, but all of the things that I wanted that games story to focus on got left behind (the politics of the war), where FFXII focuses on the things I wanted it to and delivers in every single cut scene.

#8. Journey

Journey was the first game I played that showed me you don’t need a crazy budget and a AAA studio to make something truly incredible. It was a game that was constantly being thrown in my face and I rejected it for a long time, right up until it one a slew of awards at the Video Game Awards in 2012. I was a freshmen in college at the time so I waited for the game to go on sale and I jumped right in and after only a few hours I was teary eyed as I watched the credits roll. Its still to this day the only game that has made me cry, and I don’t mean a little cry, I’m talking audible bawling. The magic in that game is after the credits are finished and (SPOILERS) It reveals to you all the people that were playing as your companions throughout the game. I had thought the whole time it was just a clever A.I.. I had no idea, and I think that the whole mechanic of that was just so smart.

#7. Vanquish

Goodness do I want this game on PS4 so bad. There was a remastered version released on PC in 2017 so I’m just gonna lie to myself and say there is still hope. This is probably the first game on this list you maybe haven’t heard of, and that’s okay. It was a 3rd person action shooter released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010 and while it saw lots of critical acclaim (at the time of writing this, it has an 84% on Metacritic) and sold fairly well, it just isn’t a game I often find people talking about very often. This game has some of the best action in a game ever, period. My absolute favorite part of this game is how there is a dedicated button for making the main character pull out a single cigarette, take a single drag, and throw that cigarette over his shoulder. How bad ass is that? It’s super bad ass, if you were wondering.

#6. Pokemon Gold/Silver

Now there have been a lot of Pokemon games, and by a lot I mean 22 only counting the main entries, excluding the 6 re-makes, and you could argue that those should count. This game was the one that took Pokemon to the Phenomenon level. Red and Blue version had already crushed it, and Gold/Silver improved on that simple yet elegant formula in every single way. It added a day/night cycle, berries, breeding, 2 new Pokemon types, 86 new moves, and even gave you the entire region from the first game to explore and conquer, something that no other game in the series has allowed us to do, even all this time later. These are the things that make this entry in the series, in my opinion, the best one. (even though my favorite Pokemon are almost all Gen 3)

#5. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

I have been playing Monster Hunter games since the release of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on PSP back in 2008, and I have been obsessed ever since. Now it was tough to pick a definitive entry in this series as my favorite one due to the fact that at the time of writing this, Monster Hunter World is only a couple weeks away from most likely replacing this. I decided to go with MH4U as my pick here due to the fact that it added the Insect Glaive, mounting, and brought a TON of verticality to the series and I love all of those things. It also, in my opinion, had the best storyline out of any of the entries. The main thing that has always hooked me with Monster Hunter is how there isn’t a leveling system. You can’t get your ass handed to you and go “well I’ll just go grind until I’m stronger, then come back and return the favor”. You are only as good as your gear, and the only way to get better gear, is to fight the harder monsters. It gives a sense of accomplishment and teamwork that no game I have ever played has been able to replicate.

#4. Horizon Zero Dawn

This game. Just wow. I’m tempted to just leave it there and move on to the next one, but for consistency’s sake, I won’t. The fact that this game didn’t win a single award on the big stage at the VGA’s in 2017 was a real bummer. This game had the action, the world, the writing, it had it all. The world that Guerilla Games has created with this game is probably my favorite game world of all time. It has the mystery, the politics, and the monsters (human and non-human) to make up an incredible game. The ecosystem is so unpredictable and the habits of the creature like robots you hunt are life like and mesmerizing. I believe in this world, it might as well be a real place.

#3. The Last of Us

I really struggled deciding if i was going to go with this game or Uncharted 4, but in the end, I decided that The Last of Us is a game that stands on it’s own, while Uncharted 4 is ultimately lifted to masterpiece due to the fact that it is the definitive end to a larger narrative (and a perfect ending at that). While Journey may have been the first game to make me cry, the opening to this game made me feel something that I had never felt before. I felt loss. This game is the game I use when arguing that video games are the best entertainment medium out there today. By the end of this game you know its characters. You may not agree with all of their choices, but you understand them. I know Joel better than actual people I have met in my real life and that, in my opinion, is fucking incredible.

#2. Bloodborne

This was actually a game I wasn’t going to play. A friend of mine had bought it day one, played it for a few hours, and gave up on it. He then lent it to me because I was currently in a gaming drought and was willing to try anything to help pass the time. Now, this being my first entry into the “souls” series, I wasn’t prepared for what lied ahead of me. I spent the first 4 hours in the opening area, wandering around and dying over and over again. After dying for the umpteenth time, something clicked inside of me and I just “got it”. I started to remember where every enemy was, what attacks they would use, and the best way to beat them. I was hooked. At the time of writing this, I have beaten this game 11 times, and plan to beat it many more times. This game got me so excited for Dark Souls 3 and I went all in, beat that game and after the credits rolled all I wanted to do was play Bloodborne. No game has ever made me feel like an absolute angel of death they way Bloodborne does. But what makes that feeling special is that I worked for that, I earned the ability do just eviscerate any enemy that steps up to me in Yharnam, and that makes me feel so good.

Honorable Mentions

This list, like for most gamers, was incredibly hard to put together, and there were some games that just didn’t make the cut. Honestly on any given day, any one of these games listed below could have taken a spot on this list.

Dead Space 2, Uncharted 4: A Thieves End, Pokemon Black/White, Final Fantasy XV, Persona 5, Mass Effect 2, Titanfall 2, Dark Cloud, Kingdom Hearts II, Assassin’s Creed II and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

#1. Shadow of the Colossus

Like I said before, This list is in no particular order, except for this game. This game is and probably will always be my favorite game of all time. At the time of writing this list, a PS4 remake is due to release in a couple of months and if you haven’t played this game, I can’t recommend it enough. The thing that I find so special about this game is that you don’t play as some killer assassin, or a powerful hero. You are just barely a man, who can barely lift his sword, and are tasked with taking down a slew of giant dangerous beasts. The other amazing thing about this game is that when you do plunge your sword into a Colossus for the final killing blow, watching them go down… It’s sad. You feel for them, as this once incredible towering creature comes tumbling to the ground with confusion in its face and a somber tone in the background. In the end it’s a story about love, and what a simple person can accomplish to help the person he loves even if it isn’t necessarily the right thing. Call me a romantic, but I’ll stand by this game and buy it as many times as they release it. I love this game, and it’s probably a huge reason I am the person I am today.

Welcome to the casual gamer’s blog

This is the blog for you filthy casuals out there. This is the blog for the gamer who doesn’t have the time he used to. Maybe you aren’t into video games as much as you used to be, maybe you work more and play less, or maybe you are a new dad/mom who just doesn’t have as much time as you used to (like me). This blog is here for you. So we can ask questions and possibly play together in those precious moments when we can steal away a match or a raid. So we can look back at those classic games we played as kids that made us love video games so much, or maybe even look to the future, at those games we are saving our limited gaming hours for.

This blog is for you.