- GameJunkieJim
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Hi guys. It's been roughly 2 years since I discovered Bungie.net.
Yes, I know that this is a long post. Push through it or don’t, I don’t blame you. I know attention spans can be short. However, if you don’t, don’t bother with a reply. There's no need to add, “I didn’t read it.” to the forums.
Officially, I have been on Bungie.net for a year and 8 months.. It's actually been about two years and 3 months, but at the beginning I was only here lurking for Halo Multiplayer strategy and whatnot. I went through many hours of browsing on HIH, HBO and of course, Bungie.net. I knew all the tricks and treats in Halo. What else could this amazing game offer?
When I moved with my wife and first daughter down to St. Petersburg, Florida in late April 2004, I was leaving behind the garage of my friend and our eight man weekly fragfests. I turned to the Seventh Column to find people in St. Pete that were as into Halo as I was. Luckily, a few of the friends I had in my teen years were also into the game, and I reacquainted myself with them. Soon we were playing at my friend Ray's house. Ray had a garage built specifically for system link, one team in the garage, one team in the house. It was very cool and I wanted to set up a team for us on the Seventh Column.
I officially joined Bungie.net in May, and the first thing I tried to do was set up a group. I got my submission in right before they halted the group creation. Therefore, my first few posts were annoying, asking why I didn't have my group yet and so forth. I soon started talking with people in New Mombasa, especially with Eagle 117 and Wra7hofAchilles about theory for Halo 2. Storylines, what the Halos did and why, where the Forerunner were and so forth.
By June I had learned of more than a few Bungie.net personalities, including Texas Ben, Banshee Barron, Shai Hulud, absolutmind, impurity, Nedus, un gato, Reiginko (in fact, my first post exchange with Reiginko got me yelled at for calling him "Reggie") and of course the illustrious "it" ObbiQuiet (Thanks for the Estey Sign Story - bonus 50 points for anyone posting a link to that thread! Don't bump it though, the Soul has been known to blacklist indiscriminately! And the “Guess Who I Am” thread was quite the classic and showed just how much we took for granted on the intarweb...) I also met a few of the lesser nobility; davester, mithrandir, and their many incarnations and the flamer turned decent, Chaplain)
I started meeting people who would become in my eyes the life-force of Bungie.net's forum scenes, The Rip-Saw, who would illustrate proper and improper forum behaviour in the most comical and cerebral fashions. Banshee Barron, who would tweak the nipples of Shishka occasionally by backing up the reports of the Yellow Banshee (I believe Rip helped with that as well), Shai, who would offer a cool head and keen insight with regard to interactions and thoughts. Atsumi, who has about 90% of Bungie.net's teenage males up in arms, but was only in the arms of one of them. Xeroh, with her movie reviews and testy attitude, Josher with his happy personality, Vash/Riddick is lovable and impatient, Nos with aspirations for a Fan Brew Fanfest (hopefully 2006!), Recon Number 54 with his sage and patient advice. Sir Fragula with his distinct personality. Stalin and un gato in the Black Chapter and the Jumpers making conversations valid, JAY132 with that cockney humor (humour?), Doctor Evol helped me out immensely with my first Chapter, and VII Toast introduced me to many of the older Bungie classics. Yoozel with his quick wit, Psyched with his energetic projects, focused with his singular dedication to friends and family, Sigma was memorable when he was around, and more than a few others that I can’t easily fit into this post.
I was ambitious with the Revitalization, I was interested with the various tidbits Bungie dropped our way about Halo 2, I was ignorant with regards to Marathon two years ago, I’ve been inquisitive about Phoenix, and I’ve been embarrassed in Myth II. Achronos has even warned me over my behavior during the Weekly Update that Alta did. I did a naughty thing and cursed someone out. Not only did I act like a chivalrous buffoon, I bypassed the blam! filter... I'll tell you, a polite warning from Achronos is scarier than a full on browbeating from anyone else, including the original nemesis to the nitwit, Shishka. Even now I'm in the middle of giving a revamp to the Jumpers groups.
The I Love Bees thing, fun for about a third of us, annoying for a third of us and a little of both for the rest. The multitudes of people who swore that the August 24th date given on the website was a Halo 2 release date. I actually was flamed for telling them that the retail orders for Sears said November 9th, and that it would be November 9th. I guess they told me! Still, the DVD is pretty neat. All the clips in one place, plays on any DVD player, and has pictures of all of us fools in front of phone booths.
Red vs. Blue. We must protect this house!
Three novelizations.
Halo C.E. for the PC game, New Mombasa Classic kicks much ass. And that Zanzibar one? Woot. No akba, I won’t play with you anymore. I suck too much for that.
Marathon Netgames with Reiginko and Nos... Woot.
In September, issues between my wife and my mother necessitated our moving back to New Jersey. I transferred my preorders for Halo 2 back up north, and set about doing my best to be a productive member of Bungie.net.
We've had picture sharing threads, Videogame trivia, Custom Gametype threads, deep theoretical discussion, and in some of the groups great political and religious debate as well (ONLY in the groups, it's still a big no-no on the public forums!) With the launch of Halo 2, a few of us got together and made a group and a clan, the Bungie Jumpers. We've gone through trials and tribulations, and had rewards and elations as well.
My wife and I were also graced with our second daughter in the interim. I have had a year of playing Halo 2 with my friends, some new additions to the family, and a wealth of insight and understanding in the fellow members here on Bungie.net. I’ve had a couple people actually look with favor upon my Fan Fiction, and I got an account known as Belgelmir banned. Yes, it was I. Yes, it got unbanned, no I’m not gonna try it again. I’m no Anton P. Nym with his Enkidu. (Besides, I made liberal use of the color tags with that one… c’est la vie…)
As a community, we have dealt with random flamers, trolls from anti-Bungie and anti-Halo 2 sites (really, we could care less if you don't like it, just keep your flames and ignorance to yourself. If you're polite, then you're welcome of course), we have dealt with coordinated Spam attacks, we have dealt with impostors, and a French Halo 2 leak. We have dealt with invented conspiracy, and with rumors galore. We have dealt with Yellow Banshees, Golden Warthogs, and gnomes. We have seen the New Hotness™ arrive, we’ve seen our chapters get reformatted, for better or for worse. We’ve seen the forums go from three fairly general forums to over ten fairly specific ones. We have seen what happens when you abuse the [color] Tag. We've seen the release of three amazing Bungie classics, and some amazing Fan Fiction, some theories that may or may not be true (may we find out all shortly, Gates willing…) we've got a movie coming that scares some, and excites others (I confess I expected something of an Uwe Boll quality about it until Peter Jackson signed on.) Above all, I have had the experience that most fans of game companies will rarely have.
I have experienced a company that cares about the consumer, cares about its product, and in doing so buttresses its bottom line all the more. I have seen people ask for things as menial as a new Mister Chief drawing, up to new playlists, and Bungie has delivered. I have seen Bungie give a statistic tracker that few games can rival. I have seen Bungie deliver a gigantic public forum for the use of at least 500,000 unique users, free of charge. I have seen Bungie provide private forums for those same users, where almost anything goes, and free of charge. I have seen the employees of Bungie interact directly with the fans. I have seen Bungie allow fans to the studio (notably stosh), and I have seen Marty in IRC more than once. (Great guy, gave me some advice on parenting and whatnot.) Might I add, that whenever I think about grabbing the vitamins for my kids, I will be buying Flintstone’s Kids™ simply to put another nickel in your pocket Marty. Seriously, you are that cool. Next time I ask for advice it’ll be on how to keep the boys away from my daughters!
Last fall, I got an email from Sketch. I would be getting a custom avatar! All I had to do was endure angry PMs, flames and all of the noxious behavior I could hope to get. Nah, you guys haven’t been that bad yet. I’m dreading the launch of “The Next Project” however. I guess we’ll find out Soon™…
On a serious note, I was elated that the existing moderators at the time considered me. I was extremely thankful that they felt I could be trusted to this extent. Believe me, you don’t want the wrong person to have these buttons.
I want to take this opportunity to say - Thank you everyone. You have made me feel welcome; you have given me a chance to relax, and to enjoy myself. I gladly accepted the opportunity to help keep the peace on these forums, partly because Bungie has provided me with the opportunities to socialize, and partly because I have gleaned hours of enjoyment from their games and their community.
Thanks for a couple of fun years, and I hope to be able to continue my participation here for a good long time.
-Jim
ONWARD BUNGIE SOLDIERS!!
Next step – bloody coup!