- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Here's a summary:
Halo 3 Beta - A Journey
November 15, 2006 - Microsoft announces the Halo 3 Beta, which would become available for owners of Xbox 360s around the world in spring of 2007. Although no one really cares, it happens.
December 1-4, 2006 - first period to obtain the beta. "What beta?"
December 5, 2006 - everyone realizes that they could have gotten the Halo 3 beta. BLAM!
January 3, 2007 - Microsoft renews hope in its slaves by offering two new ways to get Halo. An Xbox 360 owner could obtain the beta by breathing new life into the dying Halo 2 servers by playing at least three hours of XBL matches and registering during a specific time slot; otherwise, he or she could purchase a copy of Crackdown, aka Dontbuythisgameitsucks, planned for release in mid February.
January 3-31, 2007 - WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO TO GET THE GAME?
February 1, 2007 - Vague instructions cause thousands of gamers to play halo from 12am to 4am EST; to this day, we still do not know for certain if it was necessary.
Feb 1-Feb 3, 2007 - this period is reserved for people who didn't really want the game, but felt like trying.
Feb 3, 2007 - at 11:59, procrastinators realize that they once again screwed up their chance at Halo 3 by starting their games at 11:58. I guess Crackdown is in order.
Feb 4, 2007 - World stands still for Superbowl; Bungie supposedly collects data from the last three days for the registration process. At 11:30, many gamers gather on this very forum to discuss the "Rule of Three" process that will lead them to the Halo 3 beta.
Feb 5, 2007:
12:00am, EST - "Where is the page!? Oh, maybe they meant PST. We'll wait around until 3:00am." Some of the less enthusiastic gamers leave.
12:01-2:59am, EST - Casual conversation about the process; some gamers express their discontent about the vague information.
3:00am, EST - "Where is it now!?" Like the destruction of the Halo, the missing registration page wracked the covenant of beta testers' hearts with grief. But some of the gamers renewed their faith in a prophecy that a page would appear at 3:33am, EST (What the hell, it's Bungie, and we're already up)
3:33am, EST - Only more frustration. The page had not appeared. Perhaps it was destroyed when the Forerunners activated the rings... At this point, the Covenant splits into to factions: those still loyal to the prophecy ("I'm not sleeping until I get my Halo"), and another group that became fed up with the whole business ("Peace, I'm out. l473r guyz")
9:52am, EST - The Halo 3 Page has still not been updated. Now we can only think of different times to check halo3.com and jam our F5 keys. Yeah, it sucks.
-Fin-