- Da Muffin Man
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- Exalted Legendary Member
No, ExcessiveFaun6 is not my real gamertag.
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Cortana: The message just repeats. "Regret, Regret, Regret."
Miranda: Any idea what it means?
Sgt. Johnson: Dear Humanity... we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!
Marines: Hoo-rah!
Dear Bungie,
I've been tangling with lots of eloquent phrases as of late, but I think there's just one way to say it: You guys rock. I mean you kick lots and lots of ass. Not just because of the incredible games you make, but because how much you love us. You're kind of like our mother, in a way. You do all kinds of nice things, you love us unconditionally, and stick by us even when we treat you like crap. As much of a love letter as this is, it's also an apology letter.
I feel the community hasn't been showing a lot of love back to you guys, and that it's kind of a one-way relationship. You love us, slave away for us, and we complain because we can't get to Inheritor fast enough, and the flames are blue, not red or green. We whine because Onyx division has boosters and hackers, and blame you, when I'm pretty damn sure those players that are boosting and hacking came from our own community - they sure as hell aren't Bungie employees. We're the one exploiting and breaking the system, yet we blame you.
So, I'm writing this letter to tell you that we love you back, and we appreciate the hell out of all the little things, even if the sweeping majority has some sort of mental deficiency which prohibits them from expressing the aforementioned awareness or gratefulness. I'm going to tell you a few things that I love you guys for, and I'm hoping that it'll serve two purposes: Firstly, I hope it makes someone at Bungie feel warm and fuzzy inside, cause that's the main aim of this. Secondly, I hope it reminds a few Bungie.net users that Bungie really does love us, and that we can say nice things about them too (that's right, you don't always have to be complaining on the Internet).
1) I love the pure, unadulterated passion that Bungie puts into their games. From the beginning, they have labored and sweated and bled for us, staring at computer screens until they're blind and shuffling papers until they have suffered ungodly amounts of paper-cuts. They work hard at what they do, and go way beyond any kind of industry standard. Every major first person shooter literally pales in comparison to the polish of a Halo game. You can say that Call of Duty this, or Gears of War that, but Halo games show the greatest attention to detail I've ever seen. They don't just set the bar, they grab the bar and run with it, hiding it away in a Carney Hole, never to be found by the likes of Activision, Infinity Ward or EA. There will always be bugs, and there will always be the unsatisfied minority, but what Bungie does is a rare thing; they care.
2) Beyond their passion for the games themselves, Bungie really does love the community. Note that I didn't say fans, I said the community as a whole. I can't even count the number of times I've seen Bungie employees patiently deal with screaming, whining 13 (or 23) year olds in the forums, when they really have every right to ignore them. To me, the only thing that could possibly be is patience borne of love. Bungie loves their players, every single one of them, and more than that, they show it. Bungie has released Weekly Updates just about every week without fail since November 12, 2004 just for us, their fans. They get us all excited, throw us scraps of Halo juicy goodness, and enjoy every bit of it. We're their driving force, and they tell us so every opportunity they get; just read any of the 20th Anniversary posts...they all say they couldn't have done it without us. They love us, and it's that striving to make us happy that has driven them to produce such incredible games.
3) Bungie is funny. It seems a simple thing, but in today's world, it's pretty rare for a major game development company to incorporate humor into everything they do. I don't think I've ever read an article or interview with Bungie that didn't have a joke somewhere, and the large majority of them are riddled with them. Not to mention the brilliant and completely ridiculous images that Bungie produces for their fans. And their games are overflowing with clever little nuggets of humor, ranging from Grunt food nipples to trash talking marines to hippos on shotgun shells. They take their work seriously, but they do it with a lightheartedness that is in such short supply lately.
The list goes on, but I'll stop before I get labeled a blind partisan Bungie supporter. Believe me, my faith in them has wavered in the past. I was a disillusioned fan for a while, who felt like Bungie wasn't what they once were when they made Halo: CE and Halo 2. I even have to admit that I was initially pretty disappointed in Reach, and that it sat in its case for several months before I snapped out of it and started playing again - since, I have come to love the game. The Halo games have had their flaws, but it's part of being human. Bungie is comprised entirely (to my knowledge) of humans, and one can't expect perfection - although they come disturbingly close sometimes.
All this to say that Bungie is the only game designer I've ever felt an even remote connection to, and they'll always represent something special about the gaming world to me. They really care about the community they've created, and they care about the games they make. What more can we really ask for?
Happy Birthday Bungie, and thanks for all the fish.
Signed,
A fan.