This Spartan Life

This Spartan Life is an award-winning talk show created by Bong + Dern Productions and produced and directed by Chris Burke, who hosts the show under the pseudonym Damian Lacedaemion. The Show first Aired on June 28, 2005 and is distributed over the Internet. Created using the machinima technique of recording the video and audio from a multiplayer Xbox Live session of Bungie Studios' first-person shooter Halo 2. The half-hour episodes are released in six smaller parts, called modules. Guests, such as Bungie Studios' audio director Martin O'Donnell are interviewed via Xbox Live within the online multiplayer worlds of Halo 2.

Some of the comedy in the show arises from holding serious interviews in a chaotic game world, highlighted via game glitches, combat with unruly guests, and the presence of other players who outwardly appear to be unaware that the show is being filmed at all. These players fire upon other players, camera operators, and even the host and his guests.

This Spartan Life created "Webisodes" for Spiketv.com, for the 2005 Video Game Awards.

History
The idea of This Spartan Life was first conceived in late 2004, at Bong + Dern Productions when there was a drop in the amount of audio work for the company. Both Halo players, Chris Burke and John Dylan Keith began to develop the idea of a Halo-based machinima series. The creator, Chris Burke, wanted to create a sort of social environment for nonviolent interaction, but he had little success, mainly because "very few people were willing to stop shooting". After discovering the true potential to hold an intelligent conversation in the game, he was inspired to create a talk show, originally to be called The Spartan 117 Dialogs, the name of which would have come from the official code for the Master Chief. However, before episode one was released the name was changed to This Spartan Life, and all releases have been under that name. The show, while fairly popular, saw a spike popularity with the release of its fifth blog, which centered on network neutrality. That episode became widespread and was shown to the United States Congress. This Spartan Life experienced a surge in media attention, as shown by This Spartan Lifes press page.