And so, launch day for Halo 3 ODST came and went. Millions of veterans of the Halo Nation got some – that for which they had waited for months. We strapped ourselves into an express elevator to hell, going down.

The lead-up to this game was an agonizing marathon of foreplay. The Superintendant had teased us with the vague aspects of his identity for months. As the Great Drop grew nearer, details for what lie ahead became more specific.

Game trailers. Convention appearances. Press previews. The always entertaining ViDocs. A Firefight roashow aboard 2.5 tons of military transport. By the time the Live Action short emerged at the end of an episode of Band of Brothers, this gamerblogger was on the verge of a marketing overdose.

“Enough!” I wanted to shout. “I want this game. I will buy this game. Me and everyone else who ever heard of Halo is a slam dunk on this one. Why the hard sell? Just give us the freaking game, already!” Not that I minded the inside scoop. Bungie is always generous with that. It just made the wait that much harder to endure.

That’s when it hit me. This isn’t marketing. This is recruitment propaganda. Every war requires it, and this is Earth we are talking about. Turns out that I was not the intended audience for this full-media barrage. It’s true target resided right under my nose on the MidWorld Forum, home to the TTL Gunslingers and trusted Affiliates in the Good Game Network.

Allow me to introduce you to TTL Radiomond, a gamer that one might call a n00b. Before he succumbed to peer-pressure to learn the ways of the Xbox, the last controller he had wielded was from a Nintendo 64. Since his indoctrination as a Gunslinger, he has been a Call of Duty guy. Don’t resent him for that. When someone enlists, they should be allowed to choose their branch…

Radiomond said: “I took to COD and found success far quicker than I did in Halo. TTL had almost a year and a half’s worth of Halo notches on their gun belts, in addition to all of their years in Halo: CE and Halo 2. Compared to me, they were pros. I was the rookie. It was too tough for me to get excited about it and make a difference in the game. To me, Halo was like a prolific musician’s back catalog that seemed too daunting to go back and discover on my own.”

While the rest of us were keeping an eye on Bungie, and everything that they let slip from behind their curtain, Radio was sighted-in on the development of Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2. The only updates coming out of that camp were born upon twitter feeds and a rarely-updated YouTube channel. As more and more pearls issued forth from the Halo wellspring, Radio picked up on the transmission.

“The marketing of the brand was an orgiastic feast of the senses for everybody. As the news of those releases spread through our community, we all absorbed the mission of the ODST, just as any new real-life military recruit would do. The marketing prowess behind the brand enhanced the gaming experience for me the moment I dropped with my other ODSTs on Tuesday, September 22nd.”

The lure was unmistakable – as compelling for a green recruit as it was for a hardened veteran. ODST started as a pre-order to test the ability of Amazon.com to deliver the new COD to Radio on opening day. Now, it had become a game he could not wait to play.

“With ODST, I am still the rookie, but it is by design. Bungie Studios managed to find an entry point for me. As the human Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, I found a role and a link to the larger Halo story – as the rookie entering a world that’s been dominated by experienced players reminiscent of the Master Chief. I can foresee my wanting to go back through the story from the beginning someday. But for now, I am the rookie. And I am prepared to drop.”

Turns out the real message surrounded us all along. Moral to the story? Never underestimate the importance of a solid recruitment campaign. While it seems as if everyone in the world has been given a proper chance to play Halo, there are always replacement soldiers lurking about. The trick is to get their boots on the line, too.

Posted by XerxdeeJ