Why I'm Glad I No Longer Work for Westlake
The title isn't as snarky as it might suggest at first. Take a look at the comments on this story on IMG and then read some of the comments about Halo on the IMG forums.
In Halo you have what is arguably one of the most technologically cutting-edge games, in that it uses bleeding-edge pixel and vertex shader support to draw cool effects throughout the game. But unfortunately, Halo was shown running on a G3 and a Rage 128 back in 1999 and suddenly everyone thinks that this is somehow a relevant indicator of what they should be getting today. Never mind that the demo shown in 1999 was totally unfinished, was essentially lacking most everything that makes it playable and was at least a year off from release, if not more. It was demoed in 1999 and for a lot of Mac gamers that (combined with Bungie's purchase by Microsoft) has turned Halo into the One Game That Everyone Has An Opinion On. "If Halo doesn't run on my blueberry iMac, I'll never buy another Westlake game again!" "It'd better use Altivec or I'll start stabbing monkeys with chopsticks at the zoo!" "If it isn't threaded to use 200% CPU utilization, then I'm sending over the Russian Mafia to crack some skulls!" "I'm going to pirate this game to within an inch of its life. That'll teach 'em!" Slight exaggerations, perhaps, but not by much - which is scary.
I've talked to Ken, Phil and Duane since I left Westlake about Halo, and they've done some damn good work on it. But holy god, do I ever feel for them. It doesn't matter much how good a job they do - they're up against a tide of public opinion that borders on a lynch mobbing and it's pretty much out of their control. Halo could turn your own shit into nuggets of pure, solid gold and it would still get panned for, oh, not depositing the gold into your safe-deposit box when it was done. The simple truth is that it hurts to be on the receiving end of criticism, but when the criticism is frequently "fuck you for even trying," it's the sort of thing that makes you want to just stay in bed all day with a bottle of whiskey, some pizza and a pile of "Girls Gone Wild" DVDs.
I tend to believe that the reason Halo has become such a lightning rod has to do mainly with Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft and all the wounded pride that spawned in Mac users. The end result is that some folks are (often irrationally) striking back with their full fury, and losing sight of the reality that Halo is just a game that you play for entertainment, not a religious screed about the next coming of Christ.
News flash: so what if it doesn't run on your iMac or PowerBook because you've got a gimpy video card. It's a game. And you know what? Sometimes games demand a little more from your system than, say, Mail.app. Halo isn't the first game to push the envelope, and it won't be the last.
Comments
Sad isnt' it? Ken freaking passed out coding this game and people f-ing want Halo to run on a Rage card. Screw them.
I must say I'm very very happy to know that it's really coming along and almost here. I upgraded my G4 from 533mhz to 1.4Ghz just for this game and it's totally going to worth it.
Thanks Westlake!
Posted by: Jeffrey | November 21, 2003 12:48 AM
"I tend to believe that the reason Halo has become such a lightning rod has to do mainly with Bungie's acquisition by Microsoft and all the wounded pride that spawned in Mac users. The end result is that some folks are ... losing sight of the reality that Halo is just a game that you play for entertainment, not a religious screed about the next coming of Christ."
Halo may be a game, but as far as Mac gaming is concerned, it's the most important game of all time. Bungie was the best commercial Mac game developers, and arguably one of the best game developers in general. Halo was quickly shaping up to be their magnum opus, and at a time when Mac gaming was in a sorry state, we were ecstatic that probably one of the best games ever would end up on our boxes.
Then, in the Summer of 2000, Bungie announced they had been bought by Microsoft, and that Halo would be an Xbox game. I sincerely doubt anyone not involved could say they saw this one coming. Something that seemed so close had been snatched from us in an instant. Some yelled, "Traitorous pig!" while others (including me) tried to remain level-headed. Soon after, Bungie said that there would still be Mac/PC versions of Halo, although those would come later. On November 15, 2001 Halo was released and went on to win numerous Game Of The Year awards and sell over three million copies. Not bad, considering that this was the first time many gamers had ever heard of Bungie.
With the Xbox version out of the way, we could all get back to talking about the Mac/PC versions (those who didn't by an Xbox, anyway). My guess was something like this: After taking a nice long vacation, Bungie would probably start working on the Mac/PC versions in January '02, and they would probably ship in Autumn of '02. That Summer, Bungie announced that the PC version was going to be ported by Gearbox and the Mac version was going to be handled by Westlake. It would be an understatement for me to say that I was surprised that in almost a year the only work done on Mac/PC Halo was figuring out who would port it! Good news: the Mac and PC versions would be as close to a simultaneous release as possible. Bad news: that release was going to be in '03.
In '03 there was enough news about PC Halo to more than make up for the complete lack in years before. It seemed like every week there was another interview or preview filled with new and exciting info. Notice I said "PC Halo". Because other than brief one-sentence mentions in interviews and the occasional update on the Westlake status page, there was very little info about the Mac version. This didn't really bother me until the interviews had Gearbox starting to say they were in the "home stretch" while Westlake's status page still said, "First Playable". It seemed to me like a simultaneous release was out of the window, and I was right.
Then there are the mod tools. This is already kind of long, so I'll just
#include
and be done with it. ;)
Which brings me to the thing that really bugs me: Mac Halo is just a port. Now before you say, "Duh!" let me explain. Every recent Mac first person shooter has been a port. They've shipped months after the PC versions, and sans mod tools. That's just how it is, and most people have accepted it. But now that has happened to Halo. It's now just like every other fps on the Mac. Nothing differentiates it at all. At one point Halo would have most likely been a hybrid Mac/PC release with editing tools for both platforms. Now, it's Unreal. Halo was the one game I knew I was going to buy for four years. But now it looks like my dual 500 will have to sit this one out. I guess my plan of waiting for the Mac version was a bad idea (yep, I haven't played it yet). :( Ironic considering my machine was built a year after the game was announced. The sad thing for me is that considering what Mac Halo has become, I don't think I'll be missing anything.
Anyway, congrats to you for all you've done and congrats to Westlake for all they've done. You guys earn all the praise you get and don't deserve to be ranked on by people who don't really know anything. And while I won't have Halo...
...I'll always have that MacWorld trailer. :)
"We are starting to see some great games come back to the Mac, but this is one of the coolest I've ever seen..."
Posted by: Ramius | November 21, 2003 01:17 AM
Even as I signed Halo for Westlake I thought "oh no, this is a bad idea". For just the reasons you mention, Brad. It was such a mythical game in the Mac community, and was the vision of the perfect Mac game to so many gamers in 1999 nothing it could do would live up to the anticipation. Westlake could have shipped it the day before the PC version and people have screamed bloody murder that the editor tools weren't included (even if they weren't included on the PC), or it wouldn't run on a 233 MHz bondi iMac.
I really do feel for the Westlake folks on Halo- they've put an incredible effort into the development, with an ridiculous amount of pressure on them, and from what I hear the game really is amazing on the Mac. But that likely won't prevent the storm of crap from hitting them and MacSoft when it is released.
Posted by: Glenda | November 21, 2003 06:17 AM
Y'know ... I don't read those comments the same way. I see them as people who've drooled for Halo for years and want to know whether their equipment will run it. I see worry (and some optimism) and a whole lot of unfounded speculation, but I don't see a single comment in that thread that comes across as bitterness to me.
IANA software developer, but I don't doubt you get furious and demanding e-mails all the time. I just don't see a hint of fuck-you-for-trying in the IMG forum.
Posted by: David | November 21, 2003 06:37 AM
It's no wonder that people looked at the thread on IMG later and said...well that doesn't look like people bitching to me.
I just went and looked this morning. There are far fewer posts there than yesterday as far as I can tell. And yesterday there was a ton of that "I don't want to have to turn down the eye candy" crap. I remember one in particular that said, I don't mind have to turn down one feature or even two....but many! etc. etc. ad naseum.
Posted by: suellen | November 21, 2003 08:39 AM
Nevermind the IMG forum thread, read the comments attached to the recent IMG news story about Apple releasing a preview of Halo.
Find the whiners: http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/comments.php?ArticleID=8752
You can't miss em.
Posted by: Jeffrey | November 21, 2003 12:03 PM
I stand corrected. Damn IMG censors.
Posted by: David | November 21, 2003 05:19 PM
Sign the game then run away eh Glenda ;)
It is indeed a shame that there was such a backlash, as others have said Halo was and will always be a very emotionally sensitive area for many Mac gamers. MacGamer had a couple of great interviews with Phil, Ken and Duane (good work Corey) that showed how things were going and how hard they were working. I dread to think about what problems popped up during the port. There were also a few questions of performance brought up then which I thought were covered well.
Unfortunately IMG has the ability to polarise opinions more than I think any other website or forum does... especially with a 'party-line' and posts going missing all the time. Sorry, I won't go off onto a rant of my own, but I don't think that certain people at IMG always do game devs, companies or the market a lot of favours, even if that's their intention.
Anyhoo, the more games like Halo that really do push the envelope and have a high profile the better IMHO, it's games like UT2003 and Halo that help push (not to mention debug) parts of the OpenGL implementation we have. Getting features across from DirectX for the first-time will surely hold the Westlake guys in good stead for the years to come. I hope that the game does well, somebody had to port it else there would be even more abuse.. and guys don't get disheartened, you know you did it :)
Hmm... what are the chances of getting an all-kew Halo demo running at MWSF next to the old one. I have a feeling that peoples memories are always rose-tinted.
Posted by: ben b | November 21, 2003 06:22 PM
I was keeping an eye on the thread Brad linked to before he posted in his blog and all the same posts are there. No one censored any posts. There's still the same negativity from SlowsilverG4.
Posted by: a2daj | November 21, 2003 08:24 PM
People who post to news site forums are, for the most part, dumbasses, and gamers are bigger dumbasses than most.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, 'tis a tale told by a whole bunch of fuckin' idiots, full of sound and bullshit, signifying nothing.
Posted by: flargh | November 22, 2003 03:03 PM
I don't agree with any of the posts at IMG, and I don't agree with most of the posts here! Halo is going to be an absolutely amazing and fun game. I've had the opportunity to pay the beta, and it is FUN. When (if) MacSoft releases a demo, all the whiners out there will be silenced. This game is NOT to be missed.
Posted by: Jean-Luc Dinsdale | December 4, 2003 07:04 PM