Bungie.net
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Bungie.net is the official website of video game developer Bungie Studios.
Background
Before Bungie was purchased by Microsoft, Bungie.net was used to host and play the Myth series of games. In addition to being the main portal to all official information about Bungie and their games, Bungie.net also operates as a statistical database for the games Halo 2 and Halo 3, as well as Halo 3: ODST.
Bungie.net retrieves data directly from the Xbox and Xbox 360 Live servers and stores it in its databases. Every Xbox Live player that participates in a match of a Halo 2 or 3 will have an account created on Bungie.net automatically. Connecting your Xbox Live Gamertag with a Microsoft Passport enables you to log on to your account. When logged on you can access much more.
The Game Viewer allows you to see any match on a series of images of the map itself telling you where you got killed, who killed you, and where they killed you from. You can also change settings to show where a specific player has achieved all his kills. You can also access information on any of Bungie's past or upcoming games, along with news posts and information from the developers themselves. There is also a message board that can be accessed and posted on.
PlayerStats
PlayerStats is a site within each individual Xbox Live Gamertag. Each page displays this player’s level in the various game types and where the past 1000 game scores can be accessed and viewed. The number of matches played is displayed along with the number of wins. These statistics can also be accessed via RSS feeds. Two developers have recently come up with a template for "Microsoft Excel 2003 Pro" that allows you to download your RSS newsfeed and view it in different charts and tables. The Leaderboards Page has been removed from Bungie.net to deter cheaters from Halo 2 and 3.
Groups on Bungie.net
One feature of Bungie.net is creating groups. If you have an account registered and have been a member for at least 14 days, you can create groups—commonly referred to as "chapters" or "fanclubs". Groups can have any theme to them. You can create anything from a free-for-all chat room to a Halo fan club. Groups have a special system in them generally referred to as ranks. These ranks are administrator positions that vary in power. Powers include kicking members out of the group, banning members, posting news stories for the group to read, changing rank positions. The group's founder automatically has the Full Control rank. A common problem with most groups is that they fail to find a 'niche'. For instance, many new groups are themed around Halo, even though there are already dedicated public forums relating to it, as well as a large number of groups with the same theme that have already been established. This is the reason that most groups fail; that, or poor marketing and distribution of power (some members act nice until promoted, then "overthrow" the group) There is a two-week delay between the creation of a new account and when the account is allowed to create a new group, for anti-spam purposes.
New Look
As of March 19th 2007, Bungie.net got a new look. It was a preparation for the Halo 3 Beta and launch, and it had a more futuristic look and let you view previous stories without a link. It showed the job openings on the front page and all the things were at the top, including a link to the forums all on the front page.
Later, after the new Legendary Map Pack was on Xbox Live Marketplace, Bungie.net changed its background to the backdrop of Blackout. It changed once again in mid-May. As of July 2008 Bungie.net's background is of Cold Storage.
On Monday, July 14th 2008, Bungie put a supposed "error" message that did not allow you to reach the home page. In the title bar it said "Service will resume momentarily". The page shows text in many different languages, and then apparently translates them showing different phrases. One phrase is 'Keep it Clean', a phrase that appeared cryptically in the Bungie Day Vidoc at the end. Another thing to note was that the messages changed each 7 seconds, which was not a surprise. In the bottom-right hand side under the letters 'ERR', there seemed to be countdown. However, in the bottom-right corner of the page there was a link that led into the site.
For a few hours on July 15th of 2008, the site's "Error" message was changed to an Apology Letter from Harold Ryan (Studio Manager) who announced that the secret project Bungie has been working on and was planned to be announced during the week of E3 had been decided to be kept "under wraps" once more. The page is now back to its previous layout.
On October 8th of 2008, the background changed once again from the Cold Storage theme to a background depicting a furious storm to coincide with their announcement of Bungie's new project, Halo 3: ODST.
In order to coincide with the release of Halo 3: ODST, Bungie updated their website. This included a new front page, and a new look to the personal stats pages, so as to accommodate ODST. They also show the Road To Recon list, which shows which achievements the player has earned in order to unlock recon. When all of these are complete, the player can unlock recon for themselves by clicking on a button.
Forums on Bungie
Yet another feature on the Bungie website are the forums. The forums are a part of Bungie that let the members discuss things in certain topics, to each forum, its own topic. The list of forums are as follows:
The Underground
"Discussions about anything and everything Bungie."
Discussion of old school Bungie games such as Marathon, Myth, and Oni take place here, as well as anything relating to Bungie in general.
The Septagon
"Improve the Seventh Column and take over the world!"
The Septagon is the hub of Bungie's large and dedicated community. Various contests and debates are held here, as well as providing a place for suggestions to improve the site and questions relating to it. Help improve the 7th Column here.
New Mombasa
"Halo 2 General"
This forum is dedicated to the campaign mode of Halo 2, mostly relating to its storyline but also to Easter eggs hidden within the game. Fanfics are also posted here. With the removal of the Zanzibar forum, and the addition of the new Halo 3 forum, this is also the place for general multiplayer discussion.
Halo: Reach Forum
Halo: Reach
This forum is dedicated to Halo: Reach, Bungie's next project which falls 2010.
Halo 3: ODST Forum
Halo 3: ODST
This forum is dedicated to Halo 3: ODST and Firefight.
Bungie Universe
This forum is for discussion of all elements of the storyline, backstory, plotline, and canon elements of all Bungie games.
Halo 3 Forum
"Halo 3 General"
This forum is dedicated to Halo 3.
Optimatch
"Dedicated forum for Halo 2 and Halo 3 Xbox Live Optimatch Playlist Discussions."
In this forum, various suggestions for online matchmaking playlists in Halo 2and Halo 3 are put forth, although very rarely are they ever accepted. The employee at Bungie responsible for receiving these suggestions is known only by his screen name, "Ninja on Fire".
The Maw
"Dedicated forum for Halo 2 Vista / Halo PC related discussions."
This forum is dedicated to all versions of Halo PC, including Halo: Custom Edition. This forum is also the center of discussion for the recently released Halo 2 for Windows Vista.
The Library
"Dedicated forum for Halo Xbox related discussions."
A relatively inactive forum, The Library is dedicated to Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox in all its aspects, from storyline to multiplayer.
The Gallery
"Post your Bungie related art and montages here. No Bungie.net hosted files please."
In this forum members are allowed to post their Halo/Bungie related artworks, montages, machinima videos, et cetera. Before this however regular members were not permitted to make new topics in this forum; rather, they were to post captions to humorous pictures posted by the administrators of Bungie.net.
The News
"This forum is for discussion of the latest Bungie.net news stories."
As with The Gallery, members are not allowed to make new topics. Instead, they discuss recently-posted news stories in pre-made topics.
Voting Booth
"This forum is for official Bungie polls."
Once again, members are not allowed to make topics. Here is where Bungie conducts its official polls on many different subjects.
The Classifieds
"This forum is for promotion and recruiting for Chapters."
The Classifieds is a place where members may recruit other members either for their group or for their clan on Xbox Live. Gamertags are also exchanged here for custom games. Although the main purpose of this forum use to be recruiting members and allowing them to post in the threads thus declaring their interest in the group and subsequently boosting it to the top of the page so others may find it the Moderators of Bungie.net have decided that no more replies shall be allowed on this forum and all who post replies or an ad more than once will be banned henceforth.
The Flood
"Off topic forum. Use at your own risk. Say your stupid things here."
The obligatory off-topic forum, The Flood contains topics ranging from inquiries about your favorite food to comments on the newest games.
* The Flood is not a personal blog *
Forum Moderators
The moderators on Bungie.net are volunteers from the community who donate their time and patience to help maintain some peace and order on the forums. They primarily work to combat spammers and rule violators while also helping to answer questions and welcome new members. If a moderator sees a thread that doesn't belong in a forum, they will move it. If it's an inappropriate thread, they will lock it. The moderators also report members who violate Bungie's rules to the Bungie team so they can follow-up as appropriate.
History
Bungie.net began life in 1996 as Bungie.com, a community/business website covering Marathon and previous projects. Even in the beginning, classic pages such as Letters to the Webmaster and Soapbox existed, if in a somewhat graphically inferior manner to the later versions. A few layout and content updates ensued throughout 1997, until at the tail end of the year, consequent of the release of Myth, Bungie.net was born, serving as a community, statistics and multiplayer metaserver. Bungie.com remained to cover the business side, while it's sibling thrived. With the release of Myth II at the close of 1998, the site was further updated and now supported the multiplayer sides of both games.
The Great Hack of '07
On Sunday, July 8, 2007, the Moderator Pezz had his, as well as others, accounts hacked. Moderators were blacklisted. Stickies and topics were deleted and blocked. The hacker(s) caused panic by Rick Rolling and posting links to Meatspin. Almost every forum was attacked. Many people thought it had something to do with the ARG Iris, but no one is certain. The Flood Forum was said to have been hit hardest with over an entire page filled with blocked topics.
This hacking spree went on for a quarter hour.
The April Fool's 2008 Gift
In the Bungie Online Forum, on the front page the development staff drew a picture of Mister Chief in the "1000 Points of Light" Online Multiplayer World Map. This modified map was also displayed on Xbox Live from within the Halo 3 Matchmaking Lobby. The screenshot below was taken during a scheduled Xbox Live maintenance window where all users were logged out of the service. The timing of the outage was purely a coincidence which had nothing to do with April Fool’s Day (as reported by Major Nelson's prior week podcast). It appears that a person or persons unknown on Bungie's staff decided to take advantage of the outage and further Bungie's quest for World Domination through the appearance of Mister Chief across three continents.
There is very little information publicly known about the Online Multiplayer World Map, how the map is drawn and what data is used to compose the map. It can be safely concluded that each point of light does have an actual relationship to a real time user of Halo 3 Multiplayer, but how many people are needed to turn a single point of light on is unknown. The web development team has been typically tight-lipped on the subject.
Service will resume momentarily
A closed menu appeared on the 15th of July 2008 stating that it was closed. on the bottom right was a counter. Counting down to 15:07 GMT. However, this was just a front, as below the counter law the words ">>Statistical Processing Continues<<," which linked to the "Bungie Online" page. However, the Bungie homepage could not be accessed.
The page most likely had something to do with Halo 3: ODST, as the day after, the 16th of July 2008, was the date that Halo 3: ODST was meant to be announced, and that the page during this event is extremely similar to a part of the Halo 3: ODST trailer.
These phrases were showen:
- Obey Posted Limits
- No Public Access
- Please Keep Calm
- Expect Delays
- Keep it Clean
- Services will Resume
- Pardon our Dust
- Proceed with Caution
- Final Notice: Bill Past Due
The background was changed to reveal a message by Harold Ryan.
Notice Note
On July 15, 2008, Bungie posted a note saying that an E3 announcement of a project they have been working on has been postponed until an unknown date. The note reads:
Trivia
- Bungie.net is now updated every Friday in what is called a Weekly Update. You can find all news regarding the Bungie world including latest projects here.
- In Halo 3: ODST, Tayari Plaza ends with Buck saying "We got to get above this crap, link up with the bee-net", referring to F-99 Drones. B-net is an abbreviation of Bungie.net.
- Sometimes, the Bungie logo in the top-left corner will flicker to "Tru7h". It also occasionally changes into the Superintendent.
- The Search Bar button on the main page has a picture of a magnifying glass but also is the Marathon logo.
- Occasionally, Bungie.net will have comical messages in the title bar such as "Satisfy Your Grunty Thirst" and "Don't use -blam-!". After Halo 3: ODST was released, "Choppers on Lost Platoon don't count!" was added, referring to the ridiculous amount of points (current record is 10 million points) one could earn in Lost Platoon with a Brute Chopper.
April Fool's 2009
During April Fool's day 2009, Bungie announced B.U.N.G.L.E. or Bungie Ultimate Ninja Gaming League Extreme, in which the maps and games were made 'pro' by Bungie. It involved placing lots of spikers, equipment, shield doors, mancannons, and fusion coils all over the maps. The maps were insane counterparts of their original maps, with Orbital having a hallway filled with fusion coils, and Sandbox being just players spawning in the air, as well as Blackout having 6 spikers in the middle of the map as well as numerous mancannons and shield doors. The gametypes would have been impossible to have played and won without reaching the 30 minutes time limit. In addition, all of the current playlists were changed to the B.U.N.G.L.E gametypes. However, when the game was actually played, it had the normal playlists.
