If you listened to the most recent podcast produced by Bungie Studios, you have heard the admission that Halo 3 will not feature tools to support the management of clans. Exactly 47 minutes into the dialogue, the news breaks like a skylight on Beaver Creek:

“No. There will not be clan functionality in Halo 3.”

For the Tied the Leader communty, this seemed to be the last mystery that needed solving before Launch Day for Halo 3. Through vid-docs, weekly updates, bootlegged publications, and a generous swarm of E3 hype; all of the other fanboy hot-buttons had been properly mashed.

Online Co-op? Check!
Detachable Machinma Cameras? Check.
Map Editors? Check.
A Finish to the Fight? CHECK!!!

For “clans” like the ours, as well as those of our trusted allies, unanswered questions about the immediate future of roster management loomed over the best laid schemes intended to migrate our fighting forces to different environs in a new game. Now that the truth is out in the open, we can start making plans to lead the wagon train from Coagulation to our new home on Valhalla.

Let’s all put away our riot gear. Shall we? Since this news item hit the grid, this blogger has received more than a few calls to action to make some noise on this issue. This was most likely in response to my last statement on the subject. Several weeks ago, an article on this masthead shined a spotlight on the very question of what Halo 3 would have in store for communities that had sprung from the cradle of the Bungie fanbase.

Did I really think that one little blog post could impact a years-long development process in the 11th hour? No, way. The powers that be know full well that we like our clans. They didn’t need a reminder that people want to form up into lasting teams. I just wanted to know the scoop, so we could start packing our saddle bags in a way that made sense.

So, now we know. If anyone is expecting me to follow my plea with a hotly worded appeal, I will have to disappoint. This blogger is a gamer. I am not a software developer. I know nothing of the rigors that are faced by those professionals. I have the easy job. I run happily through the maze in search of my cheese.

From other notable soundbytes on the podcast, we can easily glean that not all is lost. It sounds as if that good old community feeling that we have all come to expect from the Halo Experience will be prolonged by other means. The online resources at Bungie.net are about to be augmented to take up some of the slack. In Frankie’s own words, there will be new tools to help with “organizing the social aspects” of playing Halo on Xbox Live. The Bungie’casters also alluded to the prospect that clans encompassing all of Xbox Live were “more than rumor”, having been discussed by none other than Xbox Live Pied Piper Major Nelson himself.

Check out speculative screen shots, courtesy of Heroic Odysseus at PG!

Will clans become extinct in Halo 3? No freaking way! There does not exist the slightest chance of that happening. Not even if the developers turned their back completely on the notion of a “clan” would the stalwart teams of the Halo Nation disband and scatter like refugees across a handful of matchmaking playlists.

What? You thought the Praetorians were going to hand Rome over to the Vandals just because they are losing the extra friends list that was cheated into our hands? You think the Gunslingers would surrender MidWorld to the forces of Discordia? This is Blasphemy!

Hundreds of communities have already built their own homebase, located off the Geek Reservation that both Microsoft and Bungie maintain [free of charge] in Cyberspace. For those gamers that find themselves feeling homeless in the new order, there will be many doors that lead to a better game. While some communities may approach the launch of Halo 3 from an isolationist standpoint, they will find their allies again in the long run.

As much as gamers clamor for everything to be “Next-Gen”, they can also be very resistant to change. Anyone who tackled the Beta knows that Halo 3 will be the next generation of online multiplayer warfare. Yet, with a slight change to some time-honored features, it is inevitable that our Halo Nation will suffer some attrition of crotchety gamers who cannot evolve to thrive in a new habitat. That’s as simple as Natural Selection on a microcosmic scale.

There will always be haters who need a reason to hate. Slight alterations to the ballistic properties of one beloved [and preposterous] weapon was all it took to spark one of the biggest powder kegs of dissention among the Halo playerbase. The Great Pistol Debate will forever rage on websites that play the role of a complaint department. They can take a number and sit down.

We will see more of the same naysayings in Halo 3. Tied the Leader will neither lead that charge nor participate. People come to this site to share in the appreciation of the games that fuel our pastimes. In just over a month, that pastime is getting an enormous shot in the arm.

Complaining about what we think Halo 3 might be – or should be – is a waste of time and energy. That time is better spent loading up our friends lists with the gamers we know will be at the ready to lay down cover-fire when we need it. People who occupy themselves with howling at the moon will find that they are surrounded by random betrayers come late September. This is the time to pick teams and make ready for war.

The rest will work itself out. Under the umbrella of the Bungie Team, it always has. Trust in that, my fellow gamers. It’s a safe bet.

No one is going anywhere. The Gunslingers will adapt and overcome. If the new tools at Bungie.net are better than the ones we have built for ourselves, we will gladly put them to use. I, for one, look forward to seeing how all of this might elevate the game.

We don’t second-guess around these parts.

We say thankya – like Gunslingers do…

Then, we deal in lead.

Posted by XerxdeeJ