What is a halo moment?
I read and listen to a ridiculous amount of games journalism, have played through all 3 Halo games multiple times, and have never heard anyone refer to a ‘halo moment’ before reading this. I’m sure some guy in his mom’s basement just spit out a mouthful of Red Bull upon reading this so by all means, please correct me if this is a common phrase.
I’m pretty involved with games and gaming culture (Up until recently I developed them) but I have never played Halo. I’ve never heard the phrase “Halo moment” before. I’m not sure I would get the intended meaning in context, I’m not aware of a single identifying moment in Halo, or in what qualities “a moment reminiscent of Halo” would have. Used outside of a gaming context I wouldn’t associate it with the game at all and would probably think it had been miscapitalized and look up “halo” in the dictionary to see if there was a secondary meaning of the word that was being used.
The diorama was built as a historic “Halo moment” from the Battle of New Mombasa. I’m pretty sure the quote is using the phrase “Halo moment” to mean “a moment in Halo”, i.e. a specific point in time during the Halo game/continuity. The scene in the diorama wasn’t actually one that occurred during any of the Halo games, so maybe it’s just meant to showcase a typical “moment” during the “Halo experience”.
It seems like this phrase is used much more to describe Halo than other video games. A search for “halo moment” returns more hits than “metal gear moment” or “zelda moment” or “grand theft auto moment” so I thought it might be an popular phrase within that subculture. There was also an article from last year in Digital Cinematography magazine with the following quote about the advertising campaign for Halo 3: New Deal Studios took on the task of building the set, and it was there the diorama was shot in a room 75 feet long and 60 feet wide. The diorama was built as a historic “Halo moment” from the Battle of New Mombasa. The miniature included the vast landscape, still-frame explosions, buildings, debris, freeway sections, banshee, scorpion tank and warthog vehicles.If you had never played Halo and you heard the phrase, how would you interpret it?
