MIT Hacks Harvard For Halo, Game Prompts Lots of Sick Days

yonari writes "Early on the morning before the Halo 3 release, John Harvard donned a Mjolnir helmet and a beaver emblem, and carried an assault rifle on his left shoulder, apparently acquired from the UNSC Engineering Division." The Washington Post also points out that a lot of folks took sick days on Tuesday as a consequence of the game's release. "Some local workers won't have to skip out on the office to play the game. At some companies that offer video games as a break room activity, Halo 3 was pre-ordered months ago. The Motley Fool, the Alexandria investment advisory firm, is expecting its copy of the game to arrive from Amazon.com soon. Same for Platinum Solutions, a Reston software consulting firm."

Skipping work

[hansamurai (907719)]

Couple of my friends at work skipped work yesterday to play all day. Then came in for about six hours today and stood around and talked about it for five of those hours. Too bad there's a horrible support issue I have to deal with right now, I was still at work Monday night when it was released, and I'm still at work now when I'm supposed to be playing at a friend's house. Oh, woe is me and horrible timing.

Re:Skipping work

[fractoid (1076465)]

I was still at work Monday night when it was released, and I'm still at work now when I'm supposed to be playing at a friend's house.

That's what you get for buying the "take one for the team" line. Your dedication to your company will be briefly noted, if at all, with a verbal pat on the back. When the company's in dire straits, your friends *may* be let go before you, but in the end, it won't make any difference. Remember, the team will never 'take one' for you.

OK, depressing defeatism over. :P

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[hansamurai (907719)]

At least I got a free dinner out of it... 18 hour day on Monday, looking like the same today.

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[mrchaotica (681592)]

Unless you also get time-and-a-half overtime pay, that dinner wasn't free.

Misleading Title

[Cryophallion (1129715)]

So, how many people are going to misread this that MIT hacked Harvard College (which is just across Cambridge) to get a copy of the game (which may or may not be legal)?

I am all for creative titles to create interest, and I know the pranks are called hacks, but this one is just a little too misleading.

Now MIT hacking an illegal share at Harvard (which is of course exempt from RIAA lawsuits [and therefore I assume game and MPAA by association], according to recent articles here, so they can get away with it...) in order to get the game early - THAT would be good reading. And maybe be counted as extra credit in a class.

On behalf of the Slashdot team,

[krog (25663)]

I would like to apologize for making you read a sentence to figure out what the headline meant. To the best of our abilities, we shall not let this unfortunate occurrence happen again.

Sincerely,

krog

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[AceJohnny (253840)]

Your high ID gives a hint on the origin of your cluelessness, young one.

You have much [wikipedia.org] to [catb.org] learn [mit.edu].

To summarise: when referring to MIT, "hacks" are pranks, often played on rival universities, usually Caltech or Harvard.

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[AceJohnny (253840)]

I know the pranks are called hacks, but...

Woops, missed that part. Sorry about that.

It's a medical condition.

[by Anonymous Coward]

It's called Halotosis.

Those with bad breath have halitosis halotosis, and this is characterized by a lack of people willing to play multiplay on the same Xbox.

Just continuing the grand tradition...

[John3 (85454)]

of hacking at MIT [mit.edu].

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[LarsWestergren (9033)]

Student pranks for me ha an element of rebellion and underground culture to it. Now that computer games are so mainstream and gaming companies pay ad companies to do ninja marketing that looks like it is word-of-mouth or grassroots (grafitti etc), do the students really have to do their dirty work for them? We are already brainwashed with Halo 3 ads 24/7.

Somewhere a Microsoft marketing executive is chortling evilly.

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[John3 (85454)]

Many of the hacks over the years had marketing undertones. The fake campus patrol car had a box of Dunkin Donuts in it, the cow they put on the dome was from a well known steak house. Marketing and popular culture always intertwine. By choosing the Halo theme for the hack they made the joke more accessible to the mainstream.

But yes, Bill Gate was probably smiling when he saw this. After all, he dropped out of Harvard.

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[codemachine (245871)]

However, he may not have laughed at this one: http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2004/stata_kiosks/ [mit.edu]

That's just awsome

[BeanBagKing (1151733)]

Putting aside the misleading title, and the lack of understanding of why people wait for hours in line at midnight to get the first copy (I picked mine up like a normal human the day after at best buy, I'm a fan, not psychotic). That's just awsome. Very realistic looking, blending in and looking like was part of the statue. That had to take a lot of effort and coordination. Nicely done!

A Halo launch is like Christmas

[SetupWeasel (54062)]

I hide in my apartment for a month, because I can't stand everyone telling me one thousand reasons why I should like it on a daily basis, and then receiving their ridicule when I reveal I don't particularly care for it.

I hate Master Chief as much as I hate Santa Claus. And Jesus.

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[Tarison (600538)]

So you come here? Do you also head to your local church to tell everybody about your hate for Jesus?

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[SetupWeasel (54062)]

Yes.

Though I didn't know that slashdot was the Church of Halo. Maybe it should say "Master Chief Saves" on the front page.

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[dabraun (626287)]

Maybe it should say "Master Chief Saves" on the front page.

I like that, I think I might need to make a bumper sticker...

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[Genom (3868)]

Bah, Master Chief doesn't need to save - he's that good. ;P

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[Spacezilla (972723)]

I hate Santa Claus. And Jesus.

I'm pretty sure they're the same person.

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[Rycross (836649)]

You know, I think you're on to something here. Have you ever seen them both at the same time?

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[AcidLacedPenguiN (835552)]

jews, on my slashdot? It's more likely than I thought!

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[geminidomino (614729)]

At least people don't go Halo caroling.

Don't be so sure... don't forget, we haven't had a Christmas yet since MS started whoring the Halo license out. (I still think they shoulda gone ahead with the Cortana lingerie...)

The Hype

[SheepLauncher (1025544)]

personally i think halo is a cool series but people are just so into it it is crazy. People lining up at midnight and playing it all night is just a little bit over the edge for me even though that will probably happen to me when sc2 comes out. I think it is cool but don't think it is groundbreaking on any level. It was intended to be a cool FPS and it was the best xbox game made and probably generated the most money. Especially on live people are jerks when they play, its not everyone but a lot of people t

No sick day for me..

[StikyPad (445176)]

Even if I cared about Halo enough to take a day off, my 360 is on the fritz. It sounds like a bad bearing in one of the fans, and death rattle aside, I have a feeling it would overheat within minutes if I even tried to play anything. One more month until GH3.

It has nothing on Dragon Quest

[LordZardoz (155141)]

In Japan, they had to pass an act of parliament to prevent DragonQuest games from being released on a week day. Too many people were ditching from work or school to buy and play the game.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/listings/article704332.ece [timesonline.co.uk]

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Somebody please explain the appeal

[Osty (16825)]

and the exact same story as Doom

Wait, what? Doom's story is exactly this: "A gate to hell opens on Mars and demons appear. Kill them". And Halo's story: "Humans are at war against the Covenant, a conglomeration of several alien races following a religious prophecy that requires them to activate and fire the different halos spread around the galaxy/universe. Firing those halos will kill all sentient life in the galaxy, but they don't know it. The installations were setup by the Forerunners to destroy the Flood, a parasitic alien race that consumes all life forms. You are Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, and you're thrown into the mix." Depending on the game, either you're trying to get off of a halo installation after crash landing and in the process learn about the Flood and what the halo installations do (Halo 1), stopping the Covenant from activating the rest of the installations and destroying all life in the galaxy while finding out why the Covenant are fighting the humans (Forerunner technology on Earth that can activate all of the halo installations) and at the same time converting a portion of the Covenant (the Elites) to the humans' side (Halo 2), or finishing that fight (Halo 3 -- Halo 2 stopped halfway through). Sure sounds the same as "kill the demons from hell, on Mars" to me.

Say what you will about the graphics, physics, multiplayer, fanboys, or whatever else, but I don't think anybody familiar with Bungie's work can say that they don't write a compelling and interesting story with a rich history and fully-populated world. See Marathon [wikipedia.org], for example.

Re:Somebody please explain the appeal

[Osty (16825)]

Sure, the writers at bungie might have made the story more involved and interesting, but there is no denying that the base plot is still about killing aliens before they can fuck your shit up, which is exactly the same as Doom. iD just had a developer write their story, rather than a team of writers.

Well, shit. If you want to break it down like that, every FPS has had the same story as Doom. You could probably even break down any game at all that way.

• Half-life: Scientists inadvertently brought aliens to fuck up the world, kill them.
• System Shock 2: Experimental faster-than-light travel inadvertently turned everybody on your ship into monsters to fuck up the world, kill them.
• Bioshock: Captialists inadvertently turned everybody into mindless aggressive zombies to fuck up the world, kill them.
• Final Fantasy: Feminine male antagonist is trying to fuck up the world, kill him. With chocobos.

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[peterpi (585134)]

• FPS: If it moves, shoot it
  

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[Bongo Bill (853669)]

There's one main reason, and that's multiplayer. You get used to the physics in time, and once that's over with, you're left with a multiplayer game where there's always people willing to play, with fairly good balance, a diverse variety of tactically interesting situations, some of which are unique to the series, and a pace that is considerably less intense (hence, to some, more enjoyable) than its PC counterparts. A well-produced piece of pulp sci-fi fluff rounds out a competent single-player campaign tha

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[PhoenixOne (674466)]

I'm happy Halo3 is out because it helps collect the jerks in one spot.

Although it is almost funny in Shadowrun having an 100-lbs elf call your 800-lbs Troll a fag. ;)

Re:Somebody please explain the appeal

[This_Is_My_Happening (1151393)]

I've seen a few hundred "Can somebody please explain the appeal of blank" posts and usually just dismiss them as flaimbait. In fact, the "worst than Wolf3D" jab basically guarentees you are trolling. But since I am one of the people who picked up Halo3 on launch day I figure I may as well try to explain the appeal of it, for the benefit of anyone else reading if not you.

First, the Halo universe does have some depth to it. If you think Halo 2 had the same story as doom then you probably weren't paying attention. It would take too long to explain the story in depth, but I'm sure it's all on wikipedia anyway. Certainly I don't find the Halo games as engrossing as some of the great PC games (thinking of Halflife, Deux Ex, System Shock, and most recently Bioshock) but I would definately say it's above average. At the very least the story is not a negative point. Halo 3 in particular ties up nicely the plot of the first two games.

Secondly the gameplay: I am definately a keyboard/mouse kinda guy. I think a console controller is far inferior. That said, the Halo games basically set the standard for how FPS's should be played on consoles. In this sense the original Halo stands among games like Mario64 and Goldeneye for having great control schemes (for the time). Certainly a keyboard/mouse would be better, but I don't want to use those while sitting on my couch. For the equipment it has, the Halo games have as good control as you could ask for.

Moreover even after having played just about every fps I can think of on PC, I have never found a game that had vehicles that were as fun to drive as in Halo. Halflife 2 came close, and other games may have more realistic vehicle control, but the vehicles in the Halo series are just FUN. However Bungi accomplished that, they did it damn well.

Third the graphics. I freely conceed that Halo 2 had shitacular graphics compared to computer games of the same time. After all Halflife 2 was released at the same time and was far prettier on a high-end (for the time) PC. However Halo 2 did have some of the best graphics for the xbox at the time, and for that console generation on the whole (off the top of my head I can only think of RE4 on the GC having undeniably superior graphics) For Halo 3 that is much less of an issue - the graphics are great. They aren't as gritty as Gears of War or as atmospheric as Bioshock, but they are not meant to be. They're rich, colorful and detailed, and the draw distance is impressive.

Finally I will end with the main point of Halo - MULTIPLAYER. Completely disregarding the story, the graphics, or the lack of mouse control, you still have one of the funnest multiplayer games around. Sitting in front of a big tv and playing with a few friends is an experience that cannot easily be matched on the PC, and is definately not matched by any other console game. It's like a Counterstrike LAN party but you don't have to lug a computer all over the place. In a word: awesome.

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[Prien715 (251944)]

Love your sig.

Actually, being a mouse/keyboard guy myself, I think the metroid prime series is the best approximation of FPS on console (and I haven't yet played 3, which is supposed to be by far the best). Have you played MP 3? I'm just curious as I haven't heard anyone compare the three control schemes (mouse/keyboard, dual analogue, Wiimote)?

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[nwbvt (768631)]

So the guy has different tastes than you in video games and that means he is trolling? Christ, just accept the fact that not everyone loves Halo the way you do.

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[Grave (8234)]

The overwhelming majority of people do not buy games because they want to experience a story. They buy games because they want to play the game, whether it is hijacking cars and shooting cops or throwing touchdown passes, it's about escaping your reality and doing something you can't otherwise do. No matter how good the story telling may be, most people will see it as nothing but an excuse for (or even interruption of) killing things. You can play through Half-Life 2 and not care or notice much about the

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[MooseMuffin (799896)]

Xbox live solves the splitscreen and voice chat issues, and is better than anything the PC has at letting you play together with friends. I formed a party with 2 friends last night and it takes care of finding you games together. If you want to play team games it matches you up with other teams of similar skill. If you want FFA games, it will put you all in the same FFA game. You party up once and it finds you games together for the rest of your session.

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[FiloEleven (602040)]

Well, first thing's first. Here we're discussing Halo 3, which the astute reader may notice is not Halo 2. Nigel's Law says that Halo 3 is one better.

Second, have you played the game? I never got the chance to play the demo, and I haven't been able to play the full game yet either because the roomie's completely addicted and has parked his ass in front of my TV for the past 24 hours, but I've heard that most people who've played either one fell in love with this iteration of the series. My roomate is a

Re:Somebody please explain the appeal

[antic (29198)]

I really liked Halo 1. Can remember many of the levels very well, played it through a bunch of times and played multiplayer with friends locally many, many times.

I also liked Halo 2. Story wasn't perfect, but some decent settings and some new things (dual-wielding, etc) that really added to the game. Have played it through a few times, played absolutely shitloads of games locally with friends and a few hundred games on Live which I got this year. I like some of the multiplayer maps (e.g., Lockout) so much that it would concern my girlfriend if she knew.

I got Halo 3 on the day it launched and have started playing the campaign. We had a few people playing online to test out the multiplayer on opening night and it was pretty decent - no less fun than Halo 2. A few "This isn't like Lockout?!" complaints, but we all gradually came around due to some hilarity with the Gravity Hammer, bubble shield, flares, etc. One friend has bought a 360 today so he can get in on the action.

The graphics aren't the best shown by a FPS, no, but are very, very good. The map designs, IMO, are up there with say Half-Life 2 which I was really impressed by - terrain, lighting, everything looks excellent. The characters are great, though not quite Gears of War (in which the characters were awesome). The atmosphere is fun. Everything comes together really well - the fluidity is far superior to other FPSs IMO - everything is to scale as opposed to some of those FPS where you feel too close to the ground, or you don't seem to jump more than 15cm. The audio is really good. Grunts saying stuff about how they're going to work together to kill you, or marines complaining about you stealing their kill (as in the previous versions) are good fun.

As a product, the value for money for someone like me and many others is exceptional - I'll play through the campaign a few times solo, maybe a couple of times co-op. Then I'll play with friends locally or on Live once every week or so. Then a few hundred games on Live in match-making. Plus muck around with Forge, and try out the Theater mode which is really interesting.

I'd be interested to see an honest breakdown of Halo-haters into categories:

  - an Xbox vs PS thing
  - tied to Microsoft
  - console vs PC
  - mouse/kb vs controller sticks
  - simply didn't like it

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[spxero (782496)]

As a Halo-hater, I consider myself to be in three out of four of your categories. I think the 'console vs. PC' and 'mouse/kb vs. controller sticks' can almost be lumped together (for me, anyway), as that is my primary reason for FPS's on the PC. When Halo came along, it wasn't any better than other FPS's on the market. I felt that other games such as Rainbow Six, Delta Force, etc. had better physics, game play, and much better multi players (primarily due to online play). Halo 2 introduced internet game pla

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[Osty (16825)]

Pretty much. They didn't have much better on consoles when it came out.

You're assuming console players don't also play PC games. Maybe I'm unique, but I don't think so. Prior to playing Halo, I played plenty of FPS games on PC, from Wolf3d to Quake 3 (around the time of Halo 1's launch) and everything in between. I've backed off a lot on PC gaming since, but I've played a few more recent PC games (Far Cry, for example). What's to like about Halo?

• Unique (at the time) gameplay mechanics
  • Shields that r

TV output?

[tepples (727027)]

Unique (at the time) gameplay mechanics: Shields that recharge if you take a break from the action

Citation needed. I distinctly remember shield regeneration from Faceball 2000 a decade earlier.

Grenades thrown via a separate button. To be fair, TF1 did this first, but Halo did it better.

Forsaken did it early on as well: gun on one fire button and missile on the other.

A fun console experience. Relaxing on a couch in front of a 50" HDTV with a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup beats being hunched over a keyboard and mouse in front of a 20" monitor with 2-channel stereo any day

Didn't PCs have SDTV output at the time?

A great musical score. Marty O'Donnell is a musical genius

More of a genius than Trent Reznor (Quake [wikipedia.org]; Halo 2 [wikipedia.org])?

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[C0rinthian (770164)]

A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.

Actually, I believe Marathon (Also by Bungie) did it first.

Bond. James Bond.

[tepples (727027)]

They didn't have much better on consoles when [Halo: Combat Evolved] came out.

Goldeneye 007 was allegedly so good that Microsoft bought its developer [wikipedia.org].

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[SetupWeasel (54062)]

Too bad they didn't play Starfox Adventures and Conker's Bad Fur Day before they did.

Still curious

[ToasterMonkey (467067)]

I still don't get what makes Halo so spectacular. I'm being dead serious. Every post tells how a different part of the game is unusually great, and mostly acknowledge the rest as decent/moderately good. I'll buy that it's an overall good game, but I really don't see why it's worthy of all this hype.

I've observed that most explanations come in one of these two forms.

They acknowledge the story was moderately good, but the multiplayer is what REALLY sets it apart from the rest, and the graphics are so-so.
Thats tough for many PC gamers to swallow. Dual wield and sticky grenades are neat, but I'm sorry, Tribes stomped it. These posts must come from players with very little multiplayer PC game experience. I'd even rank the original Team Fortress as better multiplayer than any Halo. Savage too. Halo is just a fun, _simple_ deathmatch / ctf game. It has basic multiplayer FPS elements, with the exception of a few vehicles, and the shield thing that could make one-on-one duels last longer than in most games of the genre. Those elements were not unique to Halo, see Tribes.

The other form exclaims Halo's AWESOME story, but admits it wasn't a very pretty game. I think these types of posts come from people at lest somewhat experienced with PC games. They think that having any background story at all, especially the decent one Halo apparently has, puts it a notch above most popular PC FPS titles. If they have anything good to say about the multiplayer, it's unclear if they ever ventured past the weak deathmatch modes offered by popular PC single/multi player FPS games. I agree, Halo is better than most cobbled together DM/CTF PC counterparts, but it stops there.

In conclusion, Halo seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator of FPS gamer through several different means, thus it garners a very wide audience that favors it for wildly different reasons. This would explain the greatly differing opinions on it's greatness. However, unless some solid evidence is given to explain why Halo is truly unique and worthy of all the hype it's getting, I'm putting it right up there with the likes of popular boy bands of the 90's and Britney Spears. Popular, not Great.

----------------
Go ahead, mod this flamebait; I bet you can't do it without a guilty conscience though.

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[C0rinthian (770164)]

I think Halo is to FPS what WoW is to MMO's. It isn't blatantly revolutionary, (Altho many features are, as previously stated) but instead it is a complete polished package. You have excellent visual design, a decent story with enough originality to keep it fresh, tight gameplay with a unique feel, and well balanced multiplayer. Halo 3 also brings player-created content to the console in a big way. Forge is simply an amazing tool.

Head Like a Hole

[tepples (727027)]

My old computer is a 70 MHz SPARCstation 5

And if it has a CD-ROM, it can still play halo three [wikipedia.org].

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[Dirk the Daring (679445)]

A few years ago, I had "Halo 2" on my car. Big fan of NIN and all that, and it was obscure enough that only the hardcore NIN fans got it. Anytime anyone asked what it meant, I would ask them what they thought it meant, and got some very interesting responses. (I learned, for example, that some people thought I was military: HALO [wikipedia.org])

Anyway, I remember very clearly the day that Halo 2, the game, was released. All day, Fraternity-type guys were driving by with their windows rolled down, shaking their copy of Ha

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[Sciros (986030)]

Wow okay so you have friends who have played enough that they can beat Halo 3 in 4.5 hours (actually Halo 3 I found is best played on the high difficulty levels since they made enemies total pushovers on the normal/easy ones...). Whooptee doo hell I can beat Ninja Gaiden for Xbox in 5 hours on anything below Hard as if that means the game doesn't have enough content.

Halo's multiplayer has set new standards for console FPS games. As for the "hype" being centered in by far the largest market for video games i

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[Sciros (986030)]

I was going by countries. But even if you take all of Europe into account, the size of its market is similar but smaller than the US (look up proper numbers if you don't believe me, though if you have the right settings you can just look at this report: http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/fy2005b.pdf [capcom.co.jp]). Asia as a whole is an entirely different ball game, as Korea and China's console markets aren't exactly huge. They are utterly dwarfed by the PC market, and are crippled by piracy. Things are improvin