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Halo 'No Longer Just a Game' For Microsoft
News.com has a piece looking at the way that Halo has transformed from game to franchise for Microsoft and the Xbox. Despite the heavy advertising and branded products that seem to be everywhere in anticipation of next week's launch, the company is still trying to keep the IP as pure as possible. "Microsoft is wary of watering down Halo, meaning it would rather walk away from deals for Master Chief pajamas or Covenant sippy cups. Microsoft had little experience in talking to toymakers and others about how to transfer an onscreen experience to real objects. But such experts exist in the licensing arms of movie studios, so Microsoft partnered with 20th Century Fox to act as the main licensing agent for the Halo brand. Items that did not make the cut were a Halo-themed lottery ticket, lingerie modeled after a female hologram character, and toy guns based on the game's weapons. Instead, fans can expect high-quality action figures from McFarlane Toys, a tabletop game from WizKids, and replica weapons for mature buyers."
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2007/07/06/halo-3-laser-tag-command-features-plasma-rifle-plasma-pistol-energy-sword-for-your-inner-master-chief.htm
WHY the HELL NOT?!?!?!
Probably the #1 reason Mario even got popular :)
its a naval rank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_Petty_Officer
Just having a character named "Masterchief" always seemed like overkill to me.
Well, it was supposed to be Masterchef , but they couldn't get Steven Seagal to sign on, so they had to change it at the last minute.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
My wife would have _loved_ a Cortana teddy.
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
I miss my Pac Man sheets. I wonder if anyone sells retro ones in Queen size these days.
Oh, never mind I share that bed with a female. Yes, I'm new here.
I hate Grammar Nazi's
Licensed bedsheets? The game is rated MA. Nothing says virgin quite like a 21 year old with Cortana plastered across your bed.
Because Master Chief (in actuality it's Master Chief Petty Officer, but Master Chief for short) is a rank in the US Navy, the highest non-commissioned officer rank.
And wouldn't you know it.... practically all space games use naval terminology.
I've got to say, when I first started to see all the marketing crud they are doing for Halo 3 I thought it was pathetic. The "game fuel" thing really clenched it for me.
I think Ctrl+Alt+Del captured it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Well ... I haven't played any of the Halo series (not my cup of tea), but I always assumed that Master Chief was just the guys title. Similar to how you see the some characters referred to just by title in Books/Movies, I assumed that referring to this faceless character by title only was a plot device to help draw the player into the world, since the dialog would refer to someone/something they could be, instead of using a third parties name (that wasn't theirs).
In the "Real World" U.S. Navy & Coast Guard "Master Chief Petty Officer is the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank (E-9) in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, just above Senior Chief Petty Officer, and is a non-commissioned officer. They are referred to as Master Chief in most circumstances."
From the bottom of the same Wikipedia page: "In the Halo video game series, SPARTAN-117 (John), more commonly called the Master Chief, the protagonist of the series, holds the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer in the United Nations Space Command."
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
then isn't Halo still "just a game", much to the contrary of the highlighted link?
Madness?! This is Sparta!
"replica weapons for mature buyers"
haha. yeah right, it's so mature and grown-up walking round with a plastic copy of a virtual weapon from a computer game
kudos to MS though, for not putting the brand on anything. the lingerie sounds plain tacky
It never confused me at all; I'm ex-Navy and it made perfect sense to make the main hero a Master Chief.
They are godlike characters, answerable to no one; they can not be busted in rank in any normal fashion, Officers fear them, enlisted both fear them and are protected by them.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
It doesn't matter how good of a FPS HALO is... it just doesn't. Because I know myself and some of my friends aren't that good at HALO, or FPS's in general. We play games for stories, and the massive attention to detail that the creators have put in things. And yes, I know, even when it comes to stories HALO may be a bit shallow, but, even still... that's only in-game. Bungie has done a fantastic job of elaborating on the story outside of the game. If you'd look beyond HALO as a mediocre FPS, and more as a diverse, well articulated universe... you'd get over your obvious fanboy-ism to whoever it is you support.
Sure, Microsoft may be funding them (and thus it means they are suckling the teet of Statan *rolls eyes), but, it doesn't mean that Bungie is a bad company, or that they themselves are getting complacent in all the hype. I mean, HALO 2 was over-hyped from the moment it was announced, yet, I still found a very compelling game, all because of the story.
So, shut up - please - about it being an "OK" Shooter, we know that.
It's a story, and IMHO a very deep story.
GR
"Paranoia is the flaw and gift of man. Heed its advice, but do not live by its will."
Bungie's been doing that sort of story driven universe for a while. Halo shares a lot in common with the storyline that ran through the Marathon series, years ago when Bungie was a Mac only developer. I played the original marathon way back when, but never got around to the rest of the trilogy (I think it was a trilogy). But a few years ago I came across a website that basically listed all of the text from the game, almost as a screen play, and reading through it all was a reasonably entertaining story.
The Halo universe might not be 100% original, but it's got a lot of background and detail, and as such has a good bit of potential for future projects. A RTS game of some sort could certainly be interesting, or maybe one day an MMO that finds a way to combine individual soldier combat with large scale spaceship combat and all that. There's nothing insurmountable stopping anyone else from making games like that, but having a reasonably well known and already partially described universe to place the game in gives it more legitimacy and hopefully can give players a more immediate connection to a game.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Agreed. Halo (and Marathon) may not be divinely inspired, and it may not be The Best Sci-Fi ever. In fact, I don't think anyone would seriously argue that it is. But it has a huge leg-up that many stories that extend into series (or franchises) lack -- consistency. Bungie has a "Halo Bible" and it sticks with it. It presents the sci-fi and then does a pretty good job of avoiding the deus-ex-machina that's exceedingly easy in sci-fi works. You fight against bad guys and, using strategy, tactics, and the things at hand, you win.
Most games can't even stay consistent from start to finish. Halo can be accused of copy-paste level design in spots, but at least the story and actions follow an arc and are internally consistent.
Do you really think Transformers sheets would have helped you to get a girl to stay over?
"Oh boy! Are we going to try something dangerous?"
I think you mean "Official Halo 3 Covenant Grunt Food Nipple(TM):" For when you've worked up a big grunty thirst.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Actually it's the same as Sergeant Major (E9), rankwise. in practice it's different, A Navy command Master Chief is differed to by everyone but the actual Officer in charge of the command, and they will be darned polite.
Navy also has warrant ranks, the only difference is in the navy you have to be a Chief (E7+) before you make warrant, while in the Army you can get there from E5+.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.