Posted by: Johnrap
Zombie Spartan, My list was not meant to show that I had earned recon, only that I had contributed to the community.
I acknowledge that recon is reserved for a higher level of contribution. I was merely responding to the folks who were saying that I didn't contribute. That's simply not true. If you say I didn't contribute enough for recon, as you have, that's fine. I never claimed that I did deserve recon. In fact, I never claimed that I even knew which armor was recon. Nor that I cared about the armor selection at all. I believe I've spent a total of 5 minutes in the armor selection screen in all my time in Halo 3.
Also, you may not have been in the NPC Line Contest, or any of the others. But several members of Bungie and/or MS were. It was a fun contest. It did contribute.
My list, if anything, should have been encouraging to others that it wasn't them who were being excluded from recon. But rather that it just isn't so easy to get recon.
What can I say. I do not want recon. But...
If I had to say who is right: 14 year old kids who want a helmet in their favorite video game or 30 year old men who won't give it to them and write weekly articles bragging about it, I think I have to go with the kids.
Am I alone in thinking it weird that so many people want a funny helmet variant that you can't even see when you are playing the game, because you are looking out through it?
Sure, you can film yourself and look at your exploits from many dramatic angles in Theatre, you may even create montages of your "madskillz" and upload them to YouTube where they will most likely be ignored by a community who regard your self-promotion as narcissism.
I suppose you might wear Recon to impress others on your team, or 'strike fear into the hearts of your enemy' - but that is kind of a false inference as it has already been shown that people have got the armor variant for silly exploits, like committing suicide with a traffic cone, which is (let's face it) hardly something that points to you being a "dangerous guy to know..."
Actually, Bungie have messed-up this whole Recon armor thing. For what they award it for, they should have made it a discretionary achievement, or an extremely rare medal-thing that you only get to add o your service record if they remotely unlock it. Obviously, there are going to be weird circumstances arising from the gameplay and the Havoc physics system that amuse Bungie and are not strictly rewarded by the rank/experience system that exists. They anticipated situations like 'Skyjacker' and that thing where you just racked-up kills with the Brute Spike Grenade (because there was someone working at Bungie who was poor with weapons, but uncannily good with 'Spikes'... hence the provision for the award), but there will be super-unusual situations that they may not have thought would even arise, hence review of films of such 'achievements' by Bungie and their award of Recon...
For example, I have a friend (and this is not a pitch for Recon, as I don't want it, and he hasn't asked for it either... just an example of what I mean, ok?) who sent me a film of a Warthog on Sandtrap doing a wheelie for a good three seconds.
I have to admit, it did look cool.
I wasn't so much impressed with what was a random event in a matchmaking game, but that the Havoc physics engine supported this behavior. I thought it was a pity you couldn't get a badge for that. Well, maybe you can, I don't know, but I assumed not.
My (flawed) point is that one can imagine or know of some game event not covered by an award or achievement and Bungie should have created a badge for 'extra-ordinary whatever' and used the film-review system to award it on a case by case basis.
The Recon helmet business is the wrong approach, it just seems to be divisive and it is rather paradoxical that Bungie maintain that you have the best chances of getting it if you help the Halo community. How can something that stirs up and splits the community, creates abuse and pestering for those that wear it, be good for the community or an appropriate reward for actions by individuals deemed by Bungie to be good for the community?