Halo 3, A Ticking Time Bomb for Halo 2 Communities

No Clan Support in Halo 3 or on XBL!

Bungie included a tiny blurb in their podcast (08/10/2007) that spelled doom to the very people who truly made Halo 2 a community game. The very video game these people are waiting for with bated breath, is about to screw over their XBL Friends List. Most of these avid gamers had serious expectations they would be bringing their Halo 2 Clans to Halo 3. Now it is all up in the air with the vaporware support that Bungie quietly dropped and Microsoft XBL has dropped the ball on. Though MajorNelson spewed some vague possibilities late last winter, Microsoft is yet to offer even the slightest confirmation. Each community member will be forced to savage their XBL Friend list in order to accommodate their Clan members. Was this meant as an attack on potentially powerful gaming communities? Was this meant to stifle mature lobbying that adults are capable of? Or was this just simply a horrendous blunder like the poorly engineered Xbox 360?

Microsoft and Bungie have continually thrust Halo 2 communities into the limelight to gain positive PR and attract interest in the bottom line. PMS, TTL Gunslingers, 2old2play, SeasonedGamers, 911 Geezers, Fragdolls, GeezerGamers and many other well know communities in the gaming world were regularly featured on XBox and Bungie. Yet, after all that PR and attention, those same communities are having their legs chopped out from under them. Even if XBL were to incorporate Clan like features after the Halo 3 release, much damage will have been done to these communities.

In the middle of information starved chaos a small group of mature gamers succinctly lay it on the line to Microsoft. These voices may seem few but each represents hundreds if not thousands of like minded gamers in the silent majority.

See what your brothers and sisters in gaming are saying on the issue. I want Additional XBL Friends Lists, Now!

Will Microsoft XBL come through with the solution to every silent optimists dream? Why not be heard on the issue? There is no harm is asking for something that makes sense. What's the worst Microsoft can say? "Don't worry folks it will be ready on time, stop complaining already!" Somehow, that doesn't frighten me.