So I don't know what there specific beef is with Reach, but I assume it has something to do with the novels. And by these categories, the game takes precedence, which I completely agree with. It seems to me that the games are the source material, and so are canon by definition.
: 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.