Jace to Face

I'm going to start with Microsoft, a greedy and gluttonous collective with a singular focus on making dollars. Many moons ago, Bungie Studios crafted a game called Halo: Combat Evolved. It was wildly successful and paved the way for Halos 2 and 3, both more advanced and creative than their predecessor. In 2007, Bungie and Microsoft Game Studios split ways (on 7/7/07 or Bungie Day 2007, if you must know). And Microsoft predictably couldn't restrain itself and collaborated with other studios to make Halo Wars, a real-time-strategy game released in North America in March of this year, and the upcoming Halo Legends, an anime. Let's be honest: Halo Wars was not well-received, a mediocre offering in a crowded market with superior, more well-established titles. And Halo Legends, so far as I can tell from the preview, is rather unimaginative in its artistry and, I suspect, its story as well. I don't really mind the idea of a Halo anime. It's more that Legends' style doesn't fit. It doesn't make sense. It's too standard an anime approach, and that doesn't see eye to eye with everything we've seen and come to love about the story and its characters. The same goes for the Halo novels. There are more than there need be, and the ones without Bungie's stamp of approval don't always mesh quite right in the established Halo universe. Writing style is off. Characters are off. Stories don't match. These other games and stories do Halo the detriment of diluting its essence and character.

The way I see it, Bungie is Halo's creator and ultimate caretaker. They have a vision for the story they've told and the universe they've built. Beyond this, the studio does a fine job interacting with its fans, allowing them to be active participants in Halo's development. All this is wonderful. Great. Everyone else just needs to stop messing with it.