The Bungie Weekly Update
Posted by KPaul at 6/16/2006 12:30 PM PDT
Frankie writes:
I'm off sick today, so I am writing this from my sickbed. I have what is called, "Ninja Virus," a rare and inexplicable condition that prevents the afflicted from rising out of their stank pit. Actually, it's a throat infection, so I cant talk -blessing for my comrades really.
Speaking of speaking, we're looking at building a - gasp - podcast! Yes, we invented the idea. It is like a kind of mini-radio show and nobody has ever thought of it before. Anyway, so yeah, there are loads of podcasts out there, and we're not trying to be bigger or better or brainier - but we will be more Bungie-fied.
More news on that as it progresses, but we already got a couple of cool interviews in the can with our matchmaking playlist Ninja and one of multiplayer designers from Halo 3, who will speak with frankness and clarity on the process of making multiplayer maps for Halo 3. We also have some other luminaries lined up for it, including the normally publicity shy Marty O'Donnell. We will have to work hard to coax him out of his shell.
Harold Ryan, our Studio Manager, who genuinely IS publicity shy, has been in the limelight this week, appearing on AOL's videogames section as "one of the coolest dads ever" which is quite a title. You can read a brief description of why Harold is such an awesome dad right here (you'll have to skip to page 5, but you should take the time to read about the other videogame dads). Now that I think about it, having a dad who's totally into video games and AV equipment would have been pretty cool.
A loosely held together with tape and string tournament has started at Bungie, where we'll be playing against other teams of two in Halo 3 multiplayer. I have teamed up with KP to form Team Cobra Kai. We'll be sweeping knees next week on two of the more polished levels. One of those is waaaaaaay more finished than the other, and is probably the most graphically accomplished Halo thing ever. And it's not finished. While playing that level, we got killed over and over again because we were staring at the HDR lighting and the eerie, iridescent surfaces that make up some of the objects on that map.
It's thrilling to think that the graphics we see in that map are the absolute baseline for how good our stuff should look. Even that pretty, pretty map is missing a bunch of graphical features, although to be honest, I had to be told that. The more detailed character models look surprisingly good on SD TV sets too. I had kind of assumed that they would be best appreciated on an HD set, but the fact is that the extra shadow, detail and realism looks every bit as impressive on our crappy old 14 inch test sets.
And it's on the pretty map KP and I, or Johnny, as I call him (he calls me Sensei Frankie) will dominate the other teams and lead Team Cobra Kai to ultimate victory.
Our show and tell this week actually included the sort-of-final models (artists will continually refine things) of the Warthog and some other vehicles, including their damaged states. So yes, shocker, I am confirming that the Warthog will be back! GASP! You guys probably never expected that.
Anyway, sorry it's short - sometimes not a lot is going on, and sometimes people type this stuff with 106 degree fever. I call them heroes. Yes heroes, I don't think that's too strong a word. Handing you over to KP now, who's not sick. Have a great weekend.
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We've had a relatively quiet week here in the contractor pit. This can be attributed mostly to the fact that Ninja 0n Fire has been suffering all week from an affliction which prevents him from showing up before 11am and kept him confined to a bed on Thursday.
Everyone else is being their usual productive self. The ninjas are doing their thing, Josh is working on whatever the hell it is that he does and Shishka is working on the upcoming podcast, some cool marketing graphics and fine-tuning the number of people he can make cry in a day. I spent the week getting content ready and trolling as many forums as possible, as I always do.
Most of this morning was spent filtering the Humpday Challenges I received from about 150 of my closest friends. The criteria for a Humpday Challenge is pretty loose but I can tell you that it helps if a group is challenging us, preferably with some sort of pre-existing presence on the internet. While I'm sure that you and your three friends are cool dudes, it would be a pretty random challenge to take. Also, flat-out insulting us and pointing out how we can't even beat any one in our own game doesn't really increase your odds. Talking about how badly you and your pro gamer buddies would pwn us in MLG gametypes doesn't help either, as we are well aware of this fact as we have enough trouble facing admins of sites who barely ever play.
That said, we got a lot of good challenges from a lot of groups and even though I only responded to the messages which required it, I got a lot of good challenges so don't worry if you didn't receive a response.
I shall fill the void this week the only way I know how: by mocking desperate cheaters. It's my safe place. Before you post in the forums about how we're jerks for not taking these seriously, know that every one of these is checked into by dedicated and increasingly cynical Bungie Ninjas. Every person here is guilty whether or not they're willing to man-up and accept it.
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PLEASE UNDAN ME! (please read)
Hi i dont know why you call network bridging cheating because when me and my friends network bridge we ar'nt cheating were only giving eachother host so we don't get cheated against and my friend only got suspended for 7 days off of his account and i got banned from mine permanently i would really appreaceat it if you would please unbann me.
Sorry sir, but you got Dan onto yourself and I'm afaid it's your responsibility to get him off.
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Man i just got band and i didnt even cheat! wtf! my connection was lagged out because my cable suppler was not working that well. you guys will here from my mom. because i spent 60 dollers on this one year account nd now i cant use it.
A couple of things about this, first is that having your mom email us doesn't change the pages of game data that we have which supports our ban. We can discern a bad connection from someone hitting the standby button, it's pretty cut and dry. Secondly, you're going about this all wrong. If you got my mom to send us an angry email about how we banned you, then I'd have to listen.
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i know this might sound a little desperate but is there any way of sucking up to Bungie for my -blam!- account to be wiped clean because i don't want to get a new account because i got -blam!- ages ago it was one of the first and so it doesn't have any numbers in it to make it unique if you know what i mean.
Well, I could use a new TV for my new place. DLP, 42", preferably with the 5 year extended warranty but hey I'm not picky. Obviously I'll need all new Monster cables to maintain signal integrity, make it happen.
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You should ban my halo 2 account. Im legit 34 in team slayer. The last time i played with modders was when moddin was big (last summer). Why is Bungie acting so -blam!- now, and bannin people for random -blam!- that is -blam!-? Do you guys wanna loose money? Why dont you guys reply to my other messages? Is it because im right and your wrong, and your mad, so you ignore me?
Oh and by the way, the pic of master chief in the red water pic is -blam!-.
Contrary to popular belief, San Francisco is not the Ban Capital of the World.
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I'm not a cheater my 7 year old son did something to my account and it's not my fault it was my 7 year old. Now I'm responsible for this account I'm just a player in halo 2.
You're seriously going to blame your 7 year old? He went online, downloaded a modded gametype and figured out how to make it work on Live? Or better yet, he cracked open the 360 and soldered a mod chip onto the motherboard? Sir, you may have spawned the evil Jimmy Neutron.
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Just before this went live, Frankie mustered all his strength to email me this archeological document with a note attached:
Oh yeah, somebody asked me if the ancients ever built monuments to Mister Chief's majesty. The answer is clear.
