unforum

[bcriswell]

I do not think anyone is saying that this game and its place in the storyline were not planned out by Bungie.

What I personally believe is that there is no way we can influence the game and story of Halo 2, as by now only tweaking/bug fixing would be going on.

[perrault]

I've always said, had I the money that Microsoft, or perhaps Mr. Gates has, I'd probably just spend millions of dollars just messing with people. As it turns out, ARGs are a perfectly legal way to do so. Here is an entire community that basically says "Come! Screw up our lives and make us think for once." And that's awesome.

The game at this point, while being somewhat marketing based perhaps, is continuing to play for the sake of the game. The real hype behind ILB has died off, it's not as interesting to most people anymore. It's continuing to go on because it's another game that was created simply to be played. Make no mistake, while having obvious ties to the storyline of the "haloverse," this is an entity all its' own. It also managed to serve the purpose of advertising for Halo 2, but that really means nothing.

When an author writes a sequel, that sequel makes note of the last book on the cover. Does that mean the sequel's purpose was to advertise for the original? No. It just served that purpose as well.

[FauxHammer]

I'll tell you one potentially huge way that this plot weaves into halo 2.

As we know, the covenant's goal is to wipe out humanity. It is also known that they have the capability to destroy planets from orbit. If they can do this, why don't they simply glass Earth when they find it? Obviously, they do not glass it, and they launch an invasion on the ground.

The only other planets we know of that where the covenant invaded instead of glassing from orbit are Reach and Sigma Octanis IV. In both cases, the reason the covies didn't just glass from orbit is because they were trying to recover valuable forerunner artifacts, and did not want to risk damaging them.

We've seen the halo 2 trailers. We know that the covenant actualy land troops on earth. Therefore, they must be looking for something. Otherwise, why send in troops to die?

Now... who in the ILB story is hiding an important alien artifact on earth? Anyone else think that artifact might be the reason for--and the ultimate goal of--the covenant ground invasion on earth?

More likely Standish is the keystone between the ILB plot and the Halo 2 plot.


I would argue that ILB is not simply an "unrelated story set in the same universe". It may not be explicitly about any of the characters in Halo 2, but i think at this point it would be foolish to think that this story is anything other than the plot leading up to the covenant invasion. Probably also it is here to give us information about why the covenant is invading earth instead of glassing it.

[bcriswell]

Good spec, FauxHammer, but I wonder if possibly that would require too much backstory for all of the people who did not play ilb. I think the artifact could also be the keystone without Standish.

[Nova]

[SuperJerms]

[FauxHammer]

it should also be pointed out that Bungie has stated again and again that their #1 goal is to tell a great story. Sure, they need to make money, but these are people who used to develop top notch games exclusively for the Mac. Pretty obvious that they really WANT to tell excellent stories, even in a market where there is hardly any money to be made. Bungie was practically the only Mac-exclusive game developer, yet their games far outshone almost EVERYTHING being made on the PC at the time. They aren't just doing this for money. They are doing it because it is what they are passionate about.

Great works of art sell for millions. But you don't think of the artist who created it as some kind of shameless scammer grabbing for cash, you think of him as a talented and gifted individual expressing himself because that is his passion. (with exceptions... i'm talking to YOU, trash artists)

Think about the legendary "Halo Bible". That text probably contains huge chunks of setting and backstory information that will NEVER see the light of day. Putting that much effort into something that you know will never see the light of day is definitely not the kind of thing that a scamming marketeer would do. No, they did that because they love making great stories.

I know that is an oversimplification, but that is why it vexes me when people say that ILB is a "marketing scheme" or a "commercial for Halo". Yes, it has that effect, but it is no more true than saying that the The Hobbit is a "marketing scheme" for the Lord of the Rings. (meaning the books... not the movies)

I don't know about you guys, but I can look at the amount of thought and love that went into making halo, marathon, ILB, whatever, and see that bungie is just doing what they love to do. It isn't just money that is invested in making ILB and Halo 2, their hearts are in it too. Thats one thing that makes Bungie so different from some other developers. EA, anyone?[/i]

[skybruin]

I believe bungie will have some of this story line in Halo 2. I also believe that they have placed it in such a way that the people not playing this ARG can still follow the game. that way it still is fun for the non ARGer and will even more fun for us people in the know.

[Wainamoinen]

I agree FauxHammer. They put a lot of (unneeded) work into there games, because they love it (who wouldn't?).

I totaly believe Bungie pre-planed everything together. Halo 2 and ILB.
It will be apart of the story (it allready is).

There is a reason they made ILB. I couldn't figure out why at first but as it went on I realised more and more. I really don't think they are makeing money on this (Paying Actors/Actresess, sound effect/sound editors and many more people that I'm sure put there hard work into this adds up). As much as they love there fans I don't think they would just make a pointless side story. At first I thought we might get a demo, then I thought we were actually listening to the dialoge of a new book, but now I'm sure the reason of the whole ILB mystery is apart of the Halo 2 story (even if it's only mentioned I'm sure we'll all be yelling with delight at our TVs... or maybe thats just me )

P.S. Does anyone know where I can find a free downloadable Halo 1 for Mac?

[Nova]

[Muskie]

Tink he meant Marathon. or at least I hope he did.

http://orbitalarm.bungie.org
There's no mac port of H1 anyhow.

Muskie

[Wainamoinen]

[jellyfish_green]

[Jeeeeeeee]

[SPEC] I'd say that the storyline for ilb is not that much defined, so we can influence it, but my thought on its relation to the Halo 2 storyline is that the "damage that we will assess" (ie, the Apocalypso craching and the source of the crash) will be the introductory FMV in the game.[/SPEC]

what do you think?

[Anton P. Nym]

For those who think that ILB will affect the published version of Halo 2, that can't happen... Bungie's announced that they've all-but finished the game. A final copy was RFC (Released For Certification) to the Xbox testers last Thursday, which means that other than any technical fixes the testers require Halo 2 is complete.

Nothing we do as of last Wednesday (at the latest) can possibly have any effect upon the final release of the game... unless you think that they'll push something over Xbox Live's downloadable content channel for that. But I think that's unlikely, myself.

As far as mentions of ILB in the game... I suspect there'll be something there, but it'll be tangential to the main story line. More likely of the Easter Egg variety than an on-screen appearance by Jan or Kamal. And the amount we can change the ILB story... well, that remains to be seen.

-- Steve's still looking forward to participating in the story here, and in seeing the story of Halo 2.