-[b]An open letter to fellow fans and to Bungie at large[/b]- [i]Okay, think about it...[/i] Destiny has been a secret part of us, the community (and the studio obviously) for so long. For about 3 years now we've heard strange tales of Bungie's newest creation, and for those 3 years we've made our own ideas of what the story will be about, what factions we want to join simply based on their logo and we have hyped the game up so much for ourselves that I feel like I don't want the climax to hit just yet. Destiny has been, and forever will be, a big part of our history as avid fans of Bungie. Destiny was and IS their universe, but also ours. Even though we knew nothing of it, people speculated, created crazy idealist threads spawning discussions, arguments, theories, etc. That is the fun of Bungie, they never always give all the information. In the end, for the true followers, they always purposefully leave us hanging there for a bit, letting us try to guess what comes next. Good ol' Snakie (for those of you who remember him, an old, very frequent, forum visitor a few years back) said it best to me last time we talked: [quote]"The reason Halo 4 doesn't work for us is because it's filler. It's crap. It's supposed to be unknown. This 'plot' that this new baby of a writing team is putting together is just butchering the best part of a Bungie game's lore, [b][i]The Mystery[/i][/b]"[/quote] For those avid followers of Halo canon like myself, we all know the true value of secrecy when it comes to what we look deepest into. We never truly found out what the Legendary Planet was, we never truly found the origin of the Flood, we never truly found the origin of the Forerunners and we never truly found what happened to them. We only found out what we were told by the folks who felt like picking up the pieces. Regardless, this talk isn't about Halo, it's about what we're leaving behind, but also about what we will soon gain in return. Marathon, Halo, Myth, Pathways, all of these games have tons of mystery involved. There are some things in these games that will never be understood. That's how Bungie satisfies those who look so much into the story. It's always fun to play in a land that is pre-imagined and there for you to experience, but the thought of building onto that land on your own, the openness for fan-fiction and even fan games (which are a frequent occurrence now, for fans to develop unofficial sequels to games or spin-offs)... That allows the pre-imagined world in front of you to become yours in a way. Half the fun of the analysis of a story is working to find something out. There's always that "Oh my god! That's what that means?!" moment or, "Woah, that's how this happened, which will eventually cause this to happen but it's not made apparent to the common player?!". You find these things out that cause major shifts and revelations in the given story and it changes the whole playing field which gives you that "WOW" factor. You dig, dig, dig and dig and you finally find something that changes the game. You begin to know that feeling well after reading into different stories, analyzing plot points and memorizing historical events in the universe while trying to dig up the thematic elements of the story as well the symbols, themes themselves, etc. Once you do all of that, you tend to want to create something just like that. Bungie lets you do that. Bungie lets you do EXACTLY that. When they don't say something, that's your chance to butt in. That's your chance to create part of the Universe. Of course nothing created by the fans is ever official, but sometimes it's too good to not be considered official. Sometimes people start believing that what the fans write is true lore. The lore that the fans write is usually akin to the original story's style, simply because so much has been put into reading into the main story and trying to figure out every little bit about the game's universe. Once that's put together, it's hard not to base your expansion off the same style that the original work used. This similarity in style begins to make readers believe, after a while, what they have just read is true lore. That amazing event in the community is what I love most about us and Bungie. They set it up so that we can make it our own, not even just through mystery, but through gameplay, social interaction and the story itself. These key elements and aspects of a video game in today's video game culture are what built Halo, but I feel that with Halo, we simply saw the beginning of the development of what Bungie really has in mind... Halo started off as a game that imbued the player in a world they had never imagined. This evolved, suddenly and interestingly, into a movement of story telling through multiple mediums in video games. Bungie has always been about story, that's why I love them so much. With Halo 2, they wanted to develop social stories as well as obviously continue the main story arc of the player's character in the first game while adding a few new twists and turns. Halo 3 became that first real game where Bungie realized they wanted to do something different... They got the ideas down solid on how to allow social experiences to develop, expanding the player's involvement and immersion in the story and add that final shred of mystery that Halo always had, yet that mystery was always teased as a coming attraction. From there, it's easy to see that Bungie knew what they wanted to do apart from Halo. They knew they wanted something new, something that had never been done before utilizing the elements of social gaming to tell true stories in a fictional universe and cooperatively with the real world. While this is happening, they have perfected that mystery that has always been so intriguing to us hardcore fans. That portal that allows us to develop our own story. Destiny is the perfect storm for story telling, and to me, the biggest part of it, is the mystery. There will be many things that we won't know even after Destiny has been out for a year. There will be many things for us fans to dig and find. There will be many things for us to see, read and realize in the coming time. Something I am really looking forward to... The fans telling the real stories. Usually you have to hire a few writers to make short stories in different story universes, with an MMO, you make your own stories. With Destiny... I have a feeling we'll be making our own story universes inside the universe itself. Be them out of adventure, out of action or out of mystery, stories will erupt. And they will explode. I can't wait for that part of Destiny, and most of all, I can't wait to be put back into the darkness of the story's best kept secrets. Love, A fan P.S. New Monarchy ftw [see what I did there ;) ]