- RoboChocobo
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- Exalted Mythic Member
If you don't got it, you want it. If you got it, you want more of it. Of course if you don't know what it is, it's hard to get any in the first place.
EDIT: The Second Page has some astoundingly insightful comments from Anton, as well as new ideas being discussed, and logic holes in my first 2 posts. Please read the entire thread before going in there with a torch and Claymore. Thank you.
Alright, might as well explain what this is about. I think just about anyone could tell me that Bungie has changed over the years. It's gone from being a tiny business which consisted of a bunch of guys in a dusty old sludge filled basement of a ex-catholic school, to Studio who's very name exibits awe in the gaming world, and recieves special treatment from Microsoft.
However, one could argue that lots of comanies make good games. Just look at Blizzard, Id, Bioware, some of the teams in Ubisoft, etc. However, what's always elavated Bungie above the rest has been it's interaction with the fanCommunity. Where with other companies you sat there looking at the same frontpage of a website that never changed, wondering how development was going, Bungie was talking to you. They endoresed fan interaction, and that's what's made them so great.
However I think the tone of this interaction has undergone some significant changes over the last 5 years, and not neccessarily for the better.
First, I'd like to bring up Myth and Post-Myth Bungie, and the atmosphere of the fancommunity. By simply exploring Bungie and the fansites from that period, you see a completely different Bungie. Even if it's very subtle, the atmosphere it created still can be felt years after the websites are shut down. Just browsing around Bungie.Org, and Myth.Bungie.org on the internet wayback machine is depressing.
When Halo arrived, the community exploded. Just by watching the websites at the time, and observing the old T&R posts at the time shows an example of the Myth/ Oni communtiy atmosphere being imposed into the enviroment of the Halo immigrants- who began an almost teraforming like process. Bungie's traditional ways seemed to slowly drop as it had to handle the new community. The old members seem to have handled them fairly well, but eventually the atmosphere definetly changed, and thats where the basis of the "old-skooler" mentality first took root. Where Minotaur, PiD, Marathon Demo, (and later full version) players were the original old-skoolers, they were relegated to obscurity in the post Microsoft atmosphere.
However in the build up to Halo 2, that's where the biggest, and most drastic change happened. The New Hawtness wrecked the community in alot of ways it seems. Old-Chapters were messed up, and the interaction with Bungie through custom chapter design ( To show devotion to Bungie-ness.) seems to have dissapaited. As Halo 2 dragged on, more Halo immigrants arrived, and eventually the old-skoolers were outnumbered in a gross ratio. They brought with them an influx of 12 year olds, asshats, and trolls that to this day taint Bungie.net. God bless mass market appeal.
Meanwhile During the dev of Halo 1 & 2, we find out that they're crammed into a Redmond office on the MS campus, and forced to fight off the suits every other day. They have to work their buts off to remain independent of Microsoft cash whores, and prove to MS that they're worth the investment, and can make them Money. After Halo 1 & 2 they end up making so much money for MS in terms of Games, consoles, and XBl that they are given their own satellite building almost an hour from Redmond where they can be left alone, they make their own decisions, they don't kneel to stupid MS demands, and are given unpreccedented design freedom from MS. This is in part from new people at MS, old fogeys quitting, and the rest getting with the times of how the hell to run a proper game business.
Back when they first moved into redmond, they shoved Bungie into 8 foot cubicles in a cramped office. THeir communication broke down just like it was strained with the community. They had to tear down the cubicles before they became effective. That's why they moved into such a free flowing office.
Halo's mass market appeal brought a different kind of community interaction into the mix. Bungie couldn't be involved in the personal touch it used to. And as the community clamoured like a hungry beast for more info, they turned to a "episodic Content" approach almost like chapters in a book. Everyweek we got an update that sated hunger, but ultimately made us want more. Information on the forums was limited, and when we were given choice morsels, they ended up leaving a bitter after taste upon the comming of the main couse (IE The Halo 2 E3 Demo). By giving this appearance of an amazing, almost complete game, they were messing with the mentality of the community. They started work on Halo 2, but then took a great chunk of time to get things ready for E3, only to have half the work for E3 ultimately be not usuable. We thought things were fine and dandy, instead of understanding the running fight to finish the game that was going on.
Which is why they are doing things differently with Halo 3. First, we recieved NO halo 3 news for over a year and a half. They created a solid foundation for Halo 3, talked to the 360 hardware guys, etc. They planned out better than Halo 2, hired new people, moved offices, etc. EVerything they needed to make Halo 3 amazing.
When they showed Halo 3, they showed the Engine, and a teaser for the game. Nothing of true consequence. The teasers grow in boldness, as time has gone on, but it's maintained a much tamer, "We can take that back if we have to" attitude. Instead of showing you something that might give you the wrong impression. They've given us mini documentary's to help keep us feeling involved, and to show us that theyr'e hard at work without revealing anything critical. Remember the "wierd units" in the first documentary, and it seems those have turned out to be early Brute designs.
The weekly updates have taken on a much more "This week we talk about" role, more commentary on the forums, while refusing to give people fuel to start any sort of riot fires.
They've become more removed form the community, and instead have 3 guys handle all the major interaction, who are practically masters of misdirection. (I've talked to Frankie, Trufax)
Meanwhile, they have the community split up into the IRC bunch, the HBO Bunch, the Bungie.net community, with the regular users, the helpful community members, and then there are the bad parts of the B.net community with the spammers, flamers, illiterate jerks, and detrimental members of the website (B.net retards, you know who they are), and finally to end on a good note, the B.net Group community.
Note, This is all conjecture. I've done all of this from reading archives of dead sites, looking at long lost Bungie videos and interviews, checking out forgotten fansites, and all sorts of talks with ancient, near decrepit old-skoolers. This is me putting the pieces together, and seeing if they fit. I may very well be wrong about alot of this. I may very have written the most arrogant piece of trash ever.
[Edited on 1/29/2007]