Halopedia:Bungie Weekly Update 01-23-05

This is the Bungie Weekly Update for January 23, 2005, written by Frank O'Connor, along with Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson).

Bungie Update
The Bungie Weekly What's Update is a forum to answer Halo 2 players' most pressing and urgent questions. Lots of info can be found here, regarding more frequently encountered issues, but this feature serves as a more organic, interactive forum.

Last week, several thousand people had their Live accounts suspended for a short period by Xbox Live, or even cancelled completely. Why? Well, for the most part, because they deserved it. Cheating, abusive language, even threats. This week, thousands more. We had a number of reasonable and unreasonable requests, demands and pleas regarding this issue. The following information is direct from Major Nelson at the Xbox Live team,

Almost everyone asks,

1 What kind of things is Xbox Live suspending people's accounts for?

A good rule of thumb is to follow the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. The code of conduct is a list of do's and don't for the Xbox Live community and gives you a good idea of what is acceptable on the service.

2 How much evidence and data does Xbox Live have to support a ban or suspension?

It's important to point out that just one piece of negative feedback from that ticked off person you just pawned on Lockout won't get you banned from Live. While I won't say how much feedback it takes to get banned remember that the Xbox Live in game feedback system has been successfully used for over 2 years across hundreds of titles. Using a variety of tools and reports we are able to confidently stand behind the actions we take to create a stronger Live community.

3 What do you say to folks who blame their suspension on a friend or family member?

(sigh) How many times have we heard that? Maybe people should not let their ‘little brother' or ‘friend' on their Xbox Live account. You should protect your Xbox Live account with the same level of security that you protect your email account with. You would be pretty ticked off if someone sent email from your account, wouldn't you? A lot of people don't know this, but they can protect their Xbox Live account so that you need a passcode to sign into Xbox Live. All you need to do if turn on your Xbox without a game, go to account management and choose "Pass Code."

4 How can folks avoid being suspended or banned?

Just follow the rules. Some people throw all social graces out the window when playing, but they need to realize that there are consequences for bad actions. If you and your team play fair, then you'll have uninterrupted gaming pleasure on Xbox Live.

5 Lots of players are worried that they could get suspended for negative feedback they didn't deserve, how do you reassure them?

If members have done nothing wrong they have nothing to worry about. From what we have seen in the community the system does indeed work.

Here is a good page to read up on Xbox Live and the feedback system. Xbox Live Feedback

Shishka (aka SD Lord British) asks,

Frankie, why is the update so short this week?

Because we were doing the Bungie Pentathlon all day. More details on Monday.

Chrispy Spartan asks,

''I would like to use Halo and Halo 2 to make movies, like those made by Red Vs. Blue. May I?''

As far as Bungie is concerned, anything you do with the game, as long as you're not misusing, distributing or selling it, is up to you. We should note that we do have a special arrangement with Red Vs. Blue and that while fan fiction is fair game, commercial use is not OK.

Hundreds of people ask,

''Can you tell me more about the downloadable content? "Trench" was kind of a tease.''

Hmm. Tease, eh? Well let me say these few words. Grizzled Ancients, Territories, Slamming Doors.

Several people ask,

What happens when you collect all the skulls?

Collecting each skull causes a different effect - but there is no specific ultimate prize for completing the collection. Other than a bag of pride.

Millions of guys ask,

''Can you ban this one jerk because he was a total jerk. And/or he's my cousin whom I hate.''

Nope, we don't ban anyone, Xbox Live does. Although we do remove known cheaters from the leaderboards once enough evidence is compiled. PS, cheaters on the leaderboards, you cheated, so technically you're not highly ranked at all. You may as well just make a Photoshop version. You clowns.

PPS, get lives.

.

Greg Vesscio asks,

''How could you lose to EGM? They had fewer people than you.''

Because they played better. They had the same number of players as us, we simply cycled people in and out. Always eight on eight.

d 0n4g3r asks,

Why are your contests sometimes open to US residents only?

It's the law. We're based in the US and we have to abide by US laws. Even though we'd like to have several wives and race champion pigs ridden by monkey jockeys. We have to abide by the stupid federal law.

Matt Magana asks,

''How do I leave feedback about bad players? I checked the site and can't find it?''

You leave it in the game itself. After you've played, pull up your friends list, press left on the stick and you'll see "recent players." If you have a legitimate beef against one, press A and one of the options you'll see is the chance to leave feedback.

Finally, one dude asked, what Mister Chief would look like if he was an anime star. Here it is. Sorry Japan