- homocidalham
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- Exalted Mythic Member
"That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.
Now try how and why."
I have a problem with the concept of overrated and underrated.
Both of the concepts assume two things:
1. That there is somehow a ubiquitous consensus.
2. That there is and objective qualitative level which something has attained that said consensus is above.
Of course, I'd normally just dismiss such accusation and not comment at all, but while I can't say that bungie is either underrated or overrated, the fact that I'm commenting at all on the matter speaks volumes towards how I do think of bungie.
Aside from this, though I dismiss the concepts of under or over rated, I would say that the gaming community, especially those that like to provide less than affectionate criticism of them, as a whole, is next to entirely ignorant of what bungie is, and what bungie stands for.
Name any other gaming developer. They're almost either defined by their games, a single personality, or ludic paradigm. People who like video games flock in to start showing their love for what ever has been created.
Bungie stands out because of two factors:
First, they started out with a few post-collage age males with a very small community surrounding them. As such, they developed rituals, jokes, and other oddities. This isn't all that unusual, as any medium to small video game developer worth their skin is going to have a sense of humor, but it's when this is combined with another facet of bungie that it becomes meaningful.
To be specific, bungie was unique in that they had fairly latent set of ideas and motifs that unified their games. This meant that when people talked about marathon, myth, or pathways into darkness, they had more to talk about then "here is what should be in the sequel", or "look at this solitary easter egg."
When this was combined with the aforementioned humor and in jokes, the discussions started to get mixed and blended to the point that the humor and the speculation couldn't quite be separated.
Id est, bungie isn't defined by the games that they create, bungie games are defined by bungie. Thus, unlike any number of studios, there is a distinctly "bungie" finger print with every game that they make. Of course, this goes beyond culture and into game design.
I may be hard to see this, given that bungie has spent half of it's existence on one series, but where most studios have a fairly "take an existing idea and see what sticks" approach to game design, Bungie differentiated itself by being able to examine what makes things great at their basest level and focusing on those elements.
All of this "culture" and ideas carried over to Bungie during the Halo years. Whats more, the culture went through a huge trial by fire during the Microsoft acquisition. It pissed a lot of people off, but those that were able to get over it found out that there was more to bungie than just "mac loyalty." No doubt bungie is a very different developer than they were ten years ago, but they still carry the same culture that they do. It isn't appreciated by most halo players, but it can definitely be found. It's the secret sauce that has made so many bungie fan rabid to the point of not just wanting to work in the games industry, but specifically wanting to work at bungie. Hell, I'd want to work at bungie if I thought that I could somehow help them make better games.
Again, halo years aside, Bungie has been pretty good about not being an overly pampering parent. They made a strategy game when their base was shooter fans, they made games for windows when their base was Mac fanboys during a high point of MacRage. They could have just made another Pathways into Darkness game. They didn't continue to just make Marathon games, even thought they had an audience. They didn't just make more myth games, in spite of their base's wishes. They made a fighting game that wasn't 2D. They wanted out of making halo games, despite how incredibly safe it is and how incredibly uncertain their future is now. They tried a ton of stuff out. They frequently hold community events and they have employees who are active in the community. Contrary to popular belief, they change quite a bit from sequel to sequel.
Of course, some people will agree with this, but say that they're work is lackluster. Sure, they haven't alway done everything perfectly, but they have taken risks, and Bungie put a ton of effort into the two last entry's when they could have just phoned them in and expected people to buy them because of the Halo name.
I guess you could just call this the rant of a bungie fanboy. I don't dislike other game developers, I just really love bungie. I don't know what lies ahead for bungie, but I've followed them for the majority of my life, and I'm waiting to see what they will do now.