The Decade We Found Halo
"...When you first saw Halo, were you blinded by its magesty?
Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?"
~ Prophet of Regret
October 20, 2552
Were that date to hold true, the conversation between The Prophet of Truth and Thel 'Vadamee (or the Arbiter, as he is better known) would take place 566 years - to the day - since I was born.
Yes, my birth date was on that same day in 1986, and for awhile I lived in the 80's and grew up mostly in the 90's...
Then the Millennium shift... Y2K... The start of the future had arrived, much to the chagrin of those who thought the new century would start with mass computer failures and other sorts of chaotic shenanigans.
What did the new millennium have in store for us? Would I be growing up in the era of peace? Prosperity? Medical and Technological advancements? Would we finally make first contact with the Vulcans and embrace logic? (Did I mention I love Star Trek?)
Some of that held true... but following the incredible tragedy of September 11th, 2001, and the ensuing war in the Middle East... and the disastrous economic fallout in the final moments of the decade...
It seemed to me that the decade as a whole was not something to be very excited about. Now that it closes, and I have since graduated from High School (and in a few months, college) I find myself looking back on the past 10 years - the first step in this new century - and wondered what changed my life the most... what influenced me? what excited me?
What happened in the last 10 years that truly motivates me?
There are many answers to those questions (getting two diplomas, finding my own identity, carving my future career path...) that will continue to move my life forward as I enter the real world of work, bills, love, loss, and life.
There is one thing, however, that I am passionate about enough to add to that list of achievements and accomplishments I have attained personally, and that would be the day I discovered the artifact.
The day I Discovered Halo.
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Yes, something changed when I first picked up Halo. I like to equate it to the time I first saw Star Wars, or the first time I played Sonic The Hedgehog 10 years prior (I was a Sega kid, not Nintendo, and damn proud of it). Something was different about that game, as we all know, but for me it was more than the revolutionary game play, storytelling, and music.
It felt different... It felt new... It felt epic
Hell, I felt important while playing it.
...let's step back for a moment.
I was an avid player of Bungie's "Marathon" trilogy on my dad's work laptop (A Powerbook G3, mostly because a Windows version was simply not available yet, and somehow it was loaded onto the machine when I first got my hands on the damn thing.) We had a windows 95 computer too, but I was not really aware of the similar games, such as Doom or Wolfenstein. Marathon, however, felt new, and it felt epic, but I was not old enough to really appreciate the story of the game like I would later on. Still, I knew of Bungie, and I loved what they had created.
Fast forward about 5 years. 2002. Halo had already landed on the Microsoft Xbox, and I had no clue what it was and why I should care. I didn't even own the machine... I was still playing the Sega Dreamcast, and my parents got my siblings and I a Nintendo Gamecube for Christmas. I was happy for the Nintendo, as they were churning out games like Super Smash Brothers and Rogue Squadron (Did I mention I love Star Wars?) and other popular games among my peers, so I was content.
The following September (2003 for those who have lost track) during one fateful school day, my life changed. A longtime friend of mine, Marc Brenner (I hope you are reading this Marc, its a damn shout out), brought to school with him the manual for the PC version of Halo: Combat Evolved. Why he had it with him, I'm not sure, but he said I needed to check it out, so I did.
Game manuals are all the same, even today. Control diagrams, menu and feature explanations, and of course there are a few pages of credits. Most manuals, at the beginning, usually have a few pages that explain the story (or try to, at any rate) as well as introduce you to the characters. Halo was no different. They showed me the Pillar of Autumn, the Marines, and the Master Chief. It was all new to me... and I was fascinated. You can actually still find the manual online, by the way, click here for the PDF off the Microsoft website. Take a look and maybe you will get an idea of how it impacted me all those years ago.It was then that I remembered seeing the name "Halo" in one of the several game magazines I got. Gamepro was all over it, and since I was not an owner of an Xbox, I simply passed over it. After reading that manual, I sifted through the older magazines I had and read the articles about it. Preview, Reviews, and Interviews... all of them were hailing Halo and used such phrases as "Game-Changer", "Killer-App", and "Game of the Year."
Nintendo games didn't get called any of those terms, and I simply wasn't interested in the Playstation (to this day the brand fails to excite me). They stopped making Dreamcast games by then (Side Note: I am still EXTREMELY pissed off about the death of the Dreamcast. It was a great system.) and I really didn't own a PC capable of playing modern games. Coincidentally, my next-door neighbors, the Landreaneaus, had recently purchased an Xbox and a copy of Halo. They invited me over to play, and once I got the controller in my hands the pieces all started to come together. Halo was different. It was new. It was epic.
It was important.
It wasn't long before I saved up the cash to get an Xbox and a copy of Halo, right about the time in 2003 when the Halo 2 press onslaught began. I became infatuated with every aspect of it. The gameplay, graphics, Marty O'Donnel's fantastic musical scores (Stephen Rippy too... He did a great score for Halo Wars and somehow the community doesn't seem to highlight that much. Props buddy!), the multiplayer... all of it I loved.
But the thing that grabbed me more than anything was the story. Halo had a FANTASTIC story (despite what some critics and haters say, I might add). If you know anything about me, as I'm sure my friends can attest to, I love a good story. I've always been an avid reader, and at the time I aspired to be a writer (I still do, to be truthful). I was not only a person that enjoyed a good story, I enjoy exploring what makes up a good story. I take details apart, reflect on them, and because of that I appreciate them.
It also helped that during this time I expanded my interest (and skill) in computers and computer related fields, eventually leading to my college focus and forthcoming degrees.
I played the hell out of that game... so much that my parents groaned every time they heard the monks chant as it booted up. My dad still complains about it from time to time. I preached about it to friends: "You gotta play this game", "forget about your stupid Gamecube and get Halo!", and eventually, once I was all caught up on the story, the lore, and reintroduced into the Bungie Community, I began my own hype campaign for Halo 2.
I distinctly remember one friend of mine, Brenton Galbraith, who simply didn't get me and my obsession with Halo. He was another Nintendo guy, trying to rave about the Metroid series at the time. He was with me when I got my copy of Halo 2 on November 9th. It wasn't long that he too came into the fold (By choice? Not sure. I was pretty pushy at the time, and I guess this long article shows that I still am really preachy about it). We still joke about how he was in line for Metroid with a quaint few while the masses beside him were waiting for Halo 2. Oh Brenton, how naive you were... good memories.
The rest, as many have said, is history. Thanks to the power of modern technology, such as the Internet and Xbox Live, all those old friends of mine still play Halo with me, as well as the many people I've met throughout college years and now the workplace. Even amidst our differences in social cliques, college affiliations, and amidst all of our busy lifestyles, the one thing that we all share time together doing over the distances that separate us is Halo. Halo 2 was instrumental in shaping the way we communicate online today, as it is well known that it influenced how the mightily successful Xbox Live on the 360 came to exist. We all play together across numerous games (a lot of them aslo quite fantastic) but we ALWAYS play Halo.
During the past 10 years I have played in scores of LAN parties, something really not done on the gaming consoles until Halo C.E. came about. My fellow teamates on the football team would bring 7 or so xboxes to someone's basement fridays after our games and play for hours and hours, only to do it again the following week. God only knows how much time I spent playing it on Xbox Live.And of course, there is the engrossing universe that was created. I have the books. I have the comics. I have the memorabilia. All of it adds to the mysterious, encompassing universe first told in the game.
It was new. It was epic.
By why was it Important?
That question has different answers for everyone who has been captivated by the apparent magic of this tale. Like the universes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Tolkein, Battlestar, and dozens of other fantastic fictional tales, Microsoft, Bungie, and now 343 Industries have carefully crafted a detailed continuum that, for me, is easy to identify with and get emotional about.
How can anyone get emotional about a video game story, you ask? Simple: make it identifiable with every race, creed, religion, and any other aspect of Human division.
...ok, so that's really not that simple. Halo achieves this, however. Simply put: it is not about a country, a race, an organization. The story is about Humanity struggling to stay alive against a foe that is as violent as it is hateful. Instead of pitting my character against another man, I am instead fighting for ALL mankind.
...Isn't that what we all should be fighting for here, in the real world? In the past decade, we have seen time and time again how we continually fight amongst ourselves over... let's face it... stupid shit. One group flew planes into American building, bombed locations all over Europe, and continually terrorizes people around the globe. My country is just as guilty of harsh acts in retaliation, and in general we tend to look at anyone who is different than us as wrong, stupid, and dangerous.
That's isn't right. It just isn't right. Here were are... as I am writing this sentence the clock literally rolls over midnight on January the 1st, 2010. The second decade of the new millennium begins... and still we fight amongst ourselves. Despite all our collective knowledge, social and technological advancements, and clear potential as a species, we fight each other... we kill each other. We kill each other over stupid shit. Pointless hate, greed, jealousy, personal beliefs, skin color...
And if we aren't killing each other, we are treating each other like shit.
I am by no means innocent of treating other people wrongly, but doesn't it seem rather silly that in the year 2010 we still can't find a way to get along as a species?
Most people dismiss a thing like Halo as "Trivial" and "Just a game about killing things." To a point they are right. It is just a game, an element of entertainment, and by no means can one live and die by the words, ideas, and happenings of a video game. What it isn't, however, just about mindless killing. To me, that's the farthest thing from what Halo is about. It is about Humanity, our species...
ALL OF US
...united.
United against the ideas of death, destruction, and a feigned existence. United in the goal of preserving the lives of others, ensuring their safety and well being, and generally caring about each other. To those who don't understand this, I ask you to look at stories like that of Halo, and try to see and recognize that they are not simply about "killing aliens." And its not just Halo, but many other works of art. (yes, I believe it is a genuine form or artwork) Books, movies, tv... they often actually do have a message to send. Despite what you see on the screen, or on the pages, there is meaning behind a story. In this case, it' is genuine in it's message: We are all Human, and we all have the right to exist no matter what our differences are. We must protect that right as a species, and not get caught up fighting over all our differences.
Now I realize that there are some of you out there that may be thinking "This guy is full of shit. Hes talking about an Xbox game as if it were life-changing."
No. It is not anything like that. It's no Declaration of Independence, religious doctrine, or anything like that. I'm not trying to make it out like that... it is indeed just a video game. What I am saying, however, is that Halo broadcasts a message that really impacts me on multiple levels. You may not see it, but I do.. and I believe that message would be lost to me had I not discovered this story this past decade. I be live in that message, and I try to live it as best I can. Hopefully, in this new year, you all do as well. Let's not wait until 2525 to become united in a common cause.
...were it so easy...
Happy New Year,
~James T. George
