That treatise looks like a bunch of high-falutin' claptrap (and I say this as someone with a bona fide degree in high-falutin' claptrap) so I haven't read it yet, but on the same subject I would once again like to crosspost something that we worked up after the Myth 3 canon debates over at the Asylum (basically Myth Story Forum). These are the generally accepted "canon scales" we use for determining what information takes precedence over another, since Myth "canon" now contains so much contradictory information.
For the purpose of these scales, "authors" means the PEOPLE who were involved with the writing of the story, or their agents, NOT the company whose name was on the original product.
- Category 1: "Canon"
- Subcategory A: "Release Materials"
Information from materials publically released by the authors.
- Subcategory B: "Transrelease Materials"
Information that exists BOTH in prerelease and postrelease materials (see Category 2 below).
- Category 2: "Pseudocanon"
- Subcategory A: "Prerelease Materials"
Information from materials released prior to released materials, either promotionally or just leaked.
- Subcategory B: "Postrelease Materials"
Information from author-approved 3rd party products released as tie-ins to released materials.
- Category 3: "Noncanon"
- Subcategory A: "Legal Canon"
Information from materials released by an entity that legally owns the franchise but is not the author.
- Subcategory B: "Fan Canon"
Information construed from the above sources by logical argument and generally accepted by the fans.
Within each of these categories, materials released later are considered "more canon", and within concurrent packaged materials (i.e. a game and it's manual) digital materials are considered "newer" than printed ones because they are easier to make last-minute changes in.
I imagine within the Halo development community, the Bungie-produced games (Halo 1, 2, 3, ODST, and Reach) fall under category 1A, while most everything else falls under categories 2B (those 3rd party projects Bungie personally checked off on, like the books or Halo Wars) or 3A (new things since Bungie has moved on past Halo), with particular propositions from other materials possibly falling under other categories due to recurrence in multiple places, etc.
