Maybe my information is outdated. I definitely remember "Halo player" being a generic insult a few years ago.

I've never seemed to run into this "insult", maybe just coincidence though, especially seeing how I used to co-own halo2rocks.com :P

And while every game will be hated by a few people, not every game has a large and vocal community of people who seem to spend every waking moment ranting on the internet (like I'm doing now) and listing petty or imagined flaws in the game.

You hating on Halo? (Don't know your feelings on the games?) Or just ranting? XD

Indeed, one of the things that bothered me about OoT is that it was released at about the same time as FF7, received similar critical acclaim, was commercially very successful and, like FF7, had a large fanbase who considered it the "best game evar". While FF7 receives hate for its zealous fanbase (some haters seem to think that the actions of a fanbase can be used to criticise the game itself), OoT's fanbase seems to get away with it. If it wasn't for this, I'd probably just see the game as mediocre and forgettable, or just plain annoying, rather than worthy of hate.

What is it you don't like about Ocerina of Time if i may ask?  I'm not in any way a Nintendo fan, but I've certainly enjoyed OoT, Majora's Mask & The Wind Waker in recent years.

True, the personal actions and/or opinions of a fanbase really should not be used as  valid "cristicism" of a game.

I've never seemed to run into this "insult", maybe just coincidence though, especially seeing how I used to co-own halo2rocks.com :P

It has been used everywhere on the internet except vgchartz and Halo forums

You hating on Halo?

That's quite an extraordinary interpretation.

I've never played Halo, for a variety of reasons. For all I know, it might deserve the hate it gets or it might be very good.

I was just remarking on the way that some people seem to spend more time talking about the way some people spend so much time talkign about the games they hate that one wonders how they have any time left to actually play games. For some reason, certain games attract this kinds of people in large numbers.

What is it you don't like about Ocerina of Time if i may ask?  I'm not in any way a Nintendo fan, but I've certainly enjoyed OoT, Majora's Mask & The Wind Waker in recent years.

I hated the controls (not just because of the N64 controller; I hated the controls when I emulated OoT and used a PS3 pad), I couldn't get into the story and I found most of the characters incredibly annoying. Especially Navi and that bloody owl.