: Instead of beating me up, open your minds and expand on my entirely imaginary
: allegory!
While the allegory might be workable, I always saw Halo's storyline as commentary on the dangers of fanaticism regardless of actual creed. There are people here in the US, Fred Phelps for example, who make al Qaeda look pretty tame.
This does bring to mind something else, too. Back when Halo 2 came out Joe Staten was said in an interview that people might interpret Halo 2's storyline as being an attack on the US folly in Iraq, but that they'd be wrong because Bungie doesn't like to put commentary about current events into their games (and even if he wanted to, staunch Republican Marty O'Donnel would never let it pass).
The first part of Staten's quote, minus the part about the political interpretation being incorrect, was copied by some right-wing writer who, in retrospect, seems to have been trying to pick a fight for reasons unknown. Bungie immediately began taking huge amounts of unjustified abuse from conservative wireheads who had somehow forgotten that Bungie is not in the same league as Tom Clancy's Red Storm Interactive and the like. It was really, really mean stuff, most of it directed at Joe Staten personally, and it went on until he showed up long enough to clarify and correct... and hey presto--the insults stopped faster than you can say "frogblast".
To be fair, I've seen so-called liberals engage in some pretty intense flaming as well (though not over something as apolitical as a video game) and frankly I think it's pretty stupid. Computer games and the people who create and play them are taking a lot of fire from both sides of the spectrum--such as foaming psycho Jack Thompson on the right and gutless pansies Clinton and Leiberman on the left--and the last thing I want to see is a bunch of networked rednecks firing away at anything that looks even slightly blue in color. Why do they take it so seriously?
I've probably raised a few hackles for the above, but it's all true to the best of my knowledge.
This concludes today's opinion piece by BobBQ, left-wing gun nut at large and angry citizen who has lost both faith in and patience with the pyramid scheme that passes for a goverment in his country.
