It’s obvious by this very blog that I love Halo. However, some of you may wonder, why?
Before I can go into detail on that, I should go further back and explain HOW I came to love Halo. Then you’ll know more of the WHY I love it.
As a young boy, I was always fascinated by space. I learned the solar system at a young age and could recite many of the moons at that time. Jupiter and Saturn were my favorite planets. I love the big red spot of Jupiter and Saturns rings. To think they were part of the very same system that Earth belonged to was amazing.
Around this time, there was a sci-fi movie that came out. I think some of you may have heard of it. It was called Star Wars….Okay, yes, I’m being a little sarcastic there. For me, Star Wars was something I got lost in. This meaning, I could imagine myself in that universe. The original trilogy tapped into me like nothing else had ever connected before. Zooming through space faster than light, visiting many planets, moons, and a couple of immense space stations, were some of the highlights. Beyond that was the fight between good and evil. My childhood was during those first three movies. They influenced me greatly, well into my adulthood. Actually, they still do.
I continued to love space, watching every Space Shuttle launch that was broadcast on network television. I began to learn a little bit about astrophysics and who Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking were. When I was 13, for the heck of it, I wrote a report on the Solar System, the space program from it’s early years until the present of that time, and where space exploration might take us. This wasn’t a homework project folks. I did this for myself, diligently going to the library and checking out numerous books on the subjects, reading them all. Yep, this is before the time of the internet and smart phones, where all of this is but a few fingertip/clicks away.
It was around this time that I discovered Iron Man. A regular guy, in a metal suit, who kicked villainous arse! I became an instant fan and still am to this day!
As an adult in my 20s, a second trilogy of Star Wars started to happen. I of course was exhilarated by this, even though they felt different to me that the now called classic trilogy. In part that difference in feeling left a void in me for Sci-FI. I had stopped collecting comic books several years prior, so I had lost touch with Iron Man. So it was at this time a video game came out that changed all of this, yet still felt familiar. Enter Halo.
When I played my first mission of Halo Combat Evolved, I knew I was hooked. It wasn’t the graphics persay, but the story. WHo was this Master Chief? Where did he come from? For that matter, where did these aliens come from and why were future humans at war with them? Over the course of the next 10 years, I along with many of you discovered the answers to those questions through more games, novels, comic books, toys and more. Halo to me is this generation’s Star Wars, though that doesn’t mean it belongs to just those of that decade. Oh, by no means… Those of us who have a few years on the younger generation have experienced our own fascination with space and the like.
As the game continued on, I started to allow myself to get more into the community aspect of Halo. It was during Halo 3 that this really started to take off with me. I barely played any Halo 2 multiplayer. It just wasn’t my thing at the time. Though I did play some before Halo 3 came out. Halo 3’s graphics on the then new XBOX 360, was superb. The story really came to life for me. I, like many of you, felt Halo 2’s story felt unfinished. The ending was too abrupt. Halo 3 closed that story well. I found myself playing the campaign many MANY times over. I’d play it to find skulls, harder difficulties, exploring the maps and yes, breaking out of them to find new areas. Man, those were the days!
With Halo 3 though, multiplayer took off for me. I really frequented Bungie in those days. At one point, I came across an article about a group that was being spotlighted by Bungie. I looked into the group and it’s forums and found a home for a time. I met some good folks through that site and we decided to start our own group. It was with this second group that I learned a lot more about the Halo community at large. We gamed with several other groups at the time, including TTL, which many of you older Halo fans may remember. Multiplayer sessions would last well into the night. I had already been teaching callouts in the first group, then the second group by this point. I was becoming competitive. Now, I’m going to be the first to say that K/D wise, I sucked during Halo 3. For me though, that wasn’t the focus of the game, well, if it was an objective gametype that is. I was a flag running, bomb planting, grifball scoring fool. I had my fellow group members to watch my back while I ran the objective. We won a TON of games and that is what mattered to me. I was a team player and our group was successful. Not just in gaming, but in social interaction with other Halo groups. If the Halo franchised had ended there, I would have felt quite satisfied with it, though of course I would have wanted further adventures. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. That second group flourished for several years from Halo 3 to ODST to Reach. This is when I created HaloFanForLife.com.
I took a different approach to matchmaking in Reach, deciding to concentrate more on slaying. Oh yes, I’d still run the objective, but I wasn’t as careless as I was in Halo 3. I wanted to see if I could make myself a better slayer and I did. Comparatively from Halo 3 to Reach, I raised my K/D by .5. That was good enough for me. I was still very much a team player, but now I could hold my own in a one to one battle with much more skill. While Bungie added some things to multiplayer that some long time fans didn’t like, I have to say, I wasn’t one of them. I enjoyed nearly every new thing that Bungie had put into Reach, well, except Armor Lock… Invasion was a favorite gametype for my buds and I. It offered multiple objectives within the same turn, elites vs Spartans, and vehicle combat. I honestly think Invasion was the pinnacle for Reach. Maybe not for the uber competitive players, but for regular fans like me.
The campaign of Reach was a LOT of fun. I really loved the idea of my multiplayer spartan being the hero of the campaign. Was I bummed that Master Chief wasn’t in it? (Other than that little sneak peek) No actually. Many of us expected Reach to be like the book and that included Master Chief. However, this was the story of Reach told from a different perspective. There were inconsistencies between the game and the book that did bother me. Still do, and I’d like to resolve those if possible. But that’s another conversation. BY this time I had already bought all the novels that had come out and read then with great interest, soaking in as much as my mind could absorb of all of the different stories. I became entrenched in learning all there was to know about the characters, their backstories, the more intricate workings of the UNSC and Covenant and how these all came together. Halo is RICH in storytelling and it’s characters. Tell me again why this hasn’t been made into a movie yet. Oh yes, again another conversation of another time…LOL Thus came an end to an era.
As we all know, this is when 343 became public and took over Reach, and then ultimately the franchise from Bungie. It was transition time for many of us. I would go on to leave the second gaming group and focus my attention more on the blog. My passion for Halo had continued to grow with each game. The interactions I had with other gaming groups through gameplay were the best times I’ve had in Halo (and they continue to be). I knew though, that I wanted to be a bigger part in the community. Why? Well, I loved the story of Halo, it’s futuristic, yet believable setting. I love gaming with other like-minded people. So I thought, with my ever growing knowledge of the story and my interactions with the Halo gaming groups, I could bring something more to the Halo community at large.
Halo for me over the course of the next two years evolved from being just a game that I played with friends. It became a way of life. This blog is a physical manifestation of that. Okay, yes, it’s digital to you folks, but I had to put in the physical work to make it happen and continue with it. Oh, and before I forget, I do need to thank my wife. She’s the one who urged me to start this blog in the first place. As HFFL grew, I expanded to having a Facebook page, then a Twitter account for the blog. I’ve enjoyed conventions, LANs, and other types of community events along the way.
The next game was upon us. The long awaited return of Master Chief in Halo 4. Regardless of how it was received by fans, Halo 4 brought a new chapter in this fantastic galaxy. Sure things changed and evolved, but that’s been happening with each game from the beginning of the franchise. The point was, we had Halo again as well as Master Chief, new multiplayer and more.
HFFL continued to grow and I held my first HFFL LAN event in August of last year. It was my pleasure to have Ghostayame come to my LAN as well as Dust Storm from Podtacular. I’ve met 343ers at New York Comicon and became friends with one of the Vice Presidents of Mega Brands, makers of Halo Mega Bloks. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had several of my articles, artwork, and comic books featured on Halo Waypoint. Networking helped in that, but ultimately it was BS Angel who saw the merit of my work and decided to post it on Waypoint. Thanks Jess!
The last six months, I attempted to expand HFFL again, trying out formats for a video series, ricochet league, gaming group and podcast. While the first two never really took off, the gaming group did and the podcast has done fairly well. These were all done to try and get Halo out there even more for people to experience and by different venues.
Halo is now such a huge part of my life, I can’t think of it not being. I’ve recently applied for a position with 343 as a Franchise Writer. Some people think I’m crazy for applying. To them I’d say, it’s better to chase a dream, than to be left wondering what might have been. Many of my friends already think of me as a walking Halo encyclopedia, so why not apply? It would of course be an extreme honor to work there and know that if I’m fortunate enough to be hired, I’ll do everything I can to be the best I can be and bring all of my Halo fandom with me to the job.
In the meantime, I’m not resting on my laurels. Just last week, I started planning a Halo event for June of this year. Mind, you, if I’m hired by 343, that wouldn’t be able to happen. However, this is my plan if that doesn’t happen. The event is planned to be a mini-convention. I’ll be asking other Halo groups to attend and set-up booths to show off their respective site/groups. I’m going to have a full on Halo tourney and with a little bit of luck may have a special 343 guest. Prizes and more are planned as well. I’m doing this as a way to give back to the Halo community. There are not many Halo ONLY conventions going on right now. So I want to be one of those that helps bring Halo back and more into the spotlight.
So I come back to the original question…why do I love Halo? It’s characters, stories and lore; it’s competitiveness; it’s camaraderie; it’s community. Now if I’d have just said that at the beginning, would it have been enough?
-Sal
To whet your appetite, here is the finished model super imposed on a scene in space over a planet. 
