- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Non-employees will never be allowed to alter something in the game - even here at Bungie, we have very strict controls on who has direct access to alter the Bungie Favorites, the manual part of the BanHammer, fileshare overrides, etc. We don't let Frankie have access to the banhammer, for example: Luke would have been banned long ago out of spite if the podcasts are any indication. (That was a joke, for the slow people in the audience)
This is something I always suspected, and expected of Bungie. One of the main reasons the council idea was never brought to fruition I think. Anyone within Bungie can be punished accordingly if transgressions occur(not saying they ever will). But, if the control were given even in small amounts to someone outside of Bungie, little more than removing such powers could be done, and then the damage is really already done. One of the main problems with finding good and trusting mods also, I think. I feel for you Achronos.
However, it is likely that at some point, the Optimatch forum (at minimum) will be restricted so that only people who have linked Gold gamertags will be able to post in it. The Halo 3 forum and the Halo 3 Files forums could possibly be limited to require a Silver or Gold gamertag to participate, although we'll probably wait to see on that one based on how that forum evolves over the next couple months. Right now, we haven't done it because Optimatch is mostly behaving and we know a lot of you have your gamertag linked to a different Live ID than the one you post in the forums with. We have a few ideas on how to get around that particular problem, though, so don't be surprised if the status quo changes in the next few months. A lot of my time right now is being spent working on a few of the "social problems" we have, so hopefully we'll see things improve in that regard eventually.
I must say, I can see only one downfall for limiting the Optimatch forum for those with linked gold accounts only, and the Files forums for only those with linked silver or gold accounts. That downfall being that not all of us have our account linked, or even linked to this email, as you have already stated. I had this problem myself and made a new email all around to connect everything. Not everyone wishes to do this though. If we could maybe change the email associated with our bungie.net account in the near future this would eliminate this. Something I'm sure you have considered and are probably working on.
As for the halo 3 forum, I believe it would be a bad idea to limit it, as it could also be used by those who do not possess, for instance, a fast enough internet to access xbox live, but have played and wish to discuss the game. I realize that high speed cable and dsl is most common these days, but I do not think we should abandon those still without it.
In the end I think some very good ideas have come out of this thread, but we should be careful about how we move forward lest our answers turn into unforeseen consequences. As always trust is an issue, though I am sure you will choose wisely. Personally I think our current crew are doing a swell job, lets just hope they can keep it up.