Halo 2

In the mid-2000s, SaskFPS and his buddy were flouncing around  Halo 2  on the Xbox 360, launching themselves into the air with super bounces, as one did. Another friend logged on to join them on Headlong,  Halo 2 ’s multiplayer map. The host changed to the mutual friend. They all continued playing, just jumping around and shooting all over. Moments later, an unidentified player joined. That player hovered around the brownish map, no name above their head. Confused, SaskFPS eyed the scoreboard. Nothing about them was there. SaskFPS recalled a video he’d seen called the “Ghost of Lockout,” a  Halo 2  superstition that made the rounds back in 2006. Some players claimed to have encountered an unidentified, no-name white Spartan who repeatedly blew up their party with plasma grenades. Seemingly invincible, in the video, the Spartan was seen wrecking the players’ party, totally anonymously, in instants.

SaskFPS had always thought the video was fake. Fearlessly, he and his buddy tried to take down the new player’s shields, meleeing and shooting in a fatal, quick combination known as BXRing. Then, his friend quad shotted it, “because he just wanted to practice,” SaskFPS said. Halo 2 ’s blue loading screen appeared; time for the hosts to migrate. When the game began anew, there was a second unidentified player. The original one came at SaskFPS with a rifle, he remembered, repeating his fatal attack back on him and then echoing his friend’s quad-shot back at him. SaskFPS now believes in the Ghost of Lockout.