- Ciaran
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- Exalted Mythic Member
It’s one in morning and I’ve been sick for the past week, so if I come back to this tomorrow (Later today) and feel I made a bad decision or it is locked then so be it. I have my niche to seclude to. I have my mind to share.
I’ve stood back and secretly taken sides on this issue or that dispute over the past couple of days, but now I think it’s time I put my cards down on the table. Aside from the tension, uncertainty and bitterness that has plagued us recently, there is a far more important issue that lies in our hands, and it’s beginning to slip between our fingers.
As far as I can remember on my time on Bungie.net we’ve had our doubts. Being so attached to Bungie we have joined them in the ride across the harsh landscapes of gaming galore. The heights of Halo CE to the ultimately overpopulated yet criticized Halo 3. We as a community are doomed to tread the same ground as our developers and we must accept it. At no point in the last few years has the community ‘died’. Not until perhaps a few nights ago. As diluted as that more considerate gene has been and as tested it has been against the constant flow of brutal forum fodder, we have always had each other. Members have founded their own websites, some of us secluded to the Chapters and others remain hidden in chat rooms, but we’re all still a part of that little network. I can splay out my hand a write down the separate demographics of the Bungie following, name the key characters within each of the smaller sub communities and I could always draw a line through them all. A single parallel that bonded them like nothing else I know. I felt like a character who could step forwards from that single place I chose to reside and be acknowledged without assumptions or prevarications cast against me.
As time grew on, the fan base did too. It stretched those distances and it became harder to communicate. Many of us found ourselves in a new and isolated environment, because Bungie has never been this big. They’ve never treated themselves as a business. Always a part of something inspiring. The seed of a great community. And that’s what this is; a community, not a business. A few weeks ago I saw a picture of Joe Staten attempting to club someone with a life sized Brute hammer. That’s one angle added to the separation Bungie has from other developers. The rules are being broken as Bungie have grown through such tremendous barriers and still remain much of what they were in 1991. It’s a simple fact that with 800,000 people playing one of your video games a day you will never be able to get control. The entirety of Bungie’s older fan base is comparable to the Halo 3 forum. In a short time the scales have been thrown off a bridge and this is what we get.
There is one constant however; that group of people who care passionately about Bungie. The people from MOAP, HIH, the Jumpers, BFO, RvB and many more. They’ve always been the rock that were whining and mocking and making Bungie.net a great experience. As far as they have been separated by the sheer influx of outsiders, they were always a constant. And now that’s failing. I could outline the reasons behind what problems we have with the moderators, the Recon armour, ranking and certain threads, but I expect you’re all tired of them, and it shows.
The other night the seams began to rupture and instead of being worn down from the outside, we are becoming our own worst enemy. We’re imploding with the years of gently laid down negativity, and if it continues, there will be nothing left to salvage. It will be gone because we couldn’t get along with the people who are looking for the same solutions as us. A prime example is happening to me right now. I’m considering whether or not I should mention that I have no intentions of getting Recon by Bungie’s good graces through this thread. Should I mention I don’t have an Xbox anyway? I shouldn’t have to. This is the kind of displacement I am talking about. I just don’t know what I can say, who I can trust or where to turn to.
I won’t leave you to fumble around with several points and make your own conclusions. I’m giving you one. My thesis, solution and prayer for the next few months. No cowbell, no crap. It’s so simple. Hang on.
Bungie became a bestselling developer overnight, and they will lose that place just a quickly. Their next project is going to require every penny of effort and Marty’s salary to get it the undoubted attention it will deserve and the dust always settles and people always pull through. I want all of us to do just that. Of course it’s going to be hard. Of course we have no momentum and need to work hard to bring it back again, but that is what has to be done to get though this. Our forums won’t be like this forever. We will return to the time of juvenile speculation, references to Stosh and intelligent people acting immaturely. That’s what we were and I hope it’s what we can become again. Let’s bring back the Septagon I once knew.