Flame bait from game designers who say 'F**k Halo'

10:33 AM on 09.13.2007   |   Dale North

82 comments

David Jaffe's blog Jaffe's Game Design is always an entertaining read, but the responses to a recent post should prove to be very entertaining in the coming days. After that, we expect a steady decline in response post quality.

You see, Jaffe ran a instant message log from a conversation between Adam Orth (a game designer who worked on Twisted Metal:Black, Calling All Cars, and some of the Medal of Honor games) and himself. And yes, in that conversation, Orth said "f**k Halo." 

The conversation between the two was sparked by a new Halo 3 advertisement (also run on Kotaku), which the two weren't impressed with. The conversation moved into discussion about game's hype, as well as the game series itself. Of course, most of it was negative.

Jaffe says that he has his "flame suit" on, and invites Halo fans to "do their worst," but surprisingly, the responses are (mostly) readable, and some are even sensible! Who knew?

A tip of the hat to David Jaffe. The guy definitely has big balls to run something like that on his blog. As Microsoft would say, "Jump In" and say your piece. 

Hit the jump to read their conversation. 

AIM IM with adamorth.
11:47 AM

Adam: give me a fucking break:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/tease/the-teaser-for-the-halo-3-teaser-299105.php?autoplay=true

Jaffe: It's a decent add I think. I just don't get HALO. I don't think the story is all that special, don't think the world or characters matter much. I don't know if I am simply not 'getting it' and it really is all that...or Microsoft has simply purchased rabid fan reactions for what is a great game but nothing more.

Adam: that ad is insulting
"belive"?
come on

Jaffe: Am I missing something?
What's insulting about it?

Adam: well, for 1, i think it's disrespectcful to actual veterans of real wars
and 2, they really expect people to become that invested in the halo story?
i guess i just really dislike halo and that ad aint helping

Jaffe: well that's what I mean about buying the hype. I don't dislike Halo at all and really liked parts of Halo 2 alot...I am in minority who felt single player halo 2 was better than halo 1 single player. I mean, I hear people talk about the flood and shit and I'm like: what? Who gives a shit.

Adam: halo = meh

Jaffe: As for disrespect, come on...like Medal of Honor has not been doing he same for a long time. They talk about how important the games are and they are so earnest about it but come on, they are shooters. If they really cared about doing it right, they would give the MOH teams 3 years schedules and make Bioshock meets MOH...in terms of story and character and production value. And they would make THAT the game Spielberg was directing for them.

Adam: respectfully, i'll totally dosagree with you there. MOH games take alot of care to not be disrespectful it's one of the things they do right

JaFFE: While I LOVED MOH:Underground (top 10 games of all time for me) and dug the first one on PS2, emotionally, the most moved I ever was by MOH was with the music and seeing it played likve over a montage of soldiers at Video Games Live.

Adam: well, i guess i have a different insight than you do having sat with veterans and taklked about their experience and how it relates to the games...

Jaffe: It's not an issue of disrespect to the troops. It's an issue of them riding on the sentimentality of people when they talk about how much they care and understand the sacrifice of the soldiers and then put out a sub par shooter that has nothing to do in the play mechanics or design with the sacrifice the soldiers went thru. It's all window dressing that shows either the team doesn't understand how to apply the history 'under the hood' and apply it to the play itself OR it shows that EA does not care about the message at all, and it's all a way to market the game./

ADAM: i agree that most of the finished products veer off from the original intent. it's big problem at EA for MOH

JAFFE: They can cram all the sappy music and interviews with vets on the disc they want...but the game, the product they are actually selling, does not make me feel any closer to the vets sacrifice than any other shooter.
Hey- can I post this discussion on my blog if I don't put your name>?

ADAM: you can post my name...

JAFFE: sweet- sadly it will rile up halo fans...hope they see that I DO LIKE HALO! I just don't get the religious fervor and feel much of the fervor has been purchased by Microsoft. But they'll still hate me

ADAM: fuck halo

JAFFE: well they don't have your name! You can say that! Anyway- ok, gotta go! See ya! And please, for the love of God: LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!!!!

ADAM: actaully, i stand by what i said, you can print my name, just leave out "fuck halo"

JAFFE: shit really? Ok.

ADAM: ok, print it
fuck it

JAFFE: cool, you got it.