Halo 2 Content Contest
By SketchFactor
Tuesday, May 20th, 2003, 1:58 PM
Treasure Hunting
One of the cool things about Halo that has added to its longer than usual lifespan is the ongoing search for hidden "easter eggs." The developers have imbedded a variety of eggs into the game with everything from hidden text to hidden areas within levels. What started as a casual hunt for many has turned into an obsession as hours upon hours are spent trying to uncover these hidden gems. If you don't believe me, head over to HBO and check out their forum and chances are you'll see any number of posts dealing with some sort of hidden element within Halo. The winners of this little contest will add their own text to the list of eggs in Halo 2 by creating content that will appear in the final game.
All Your Base Are Belong To Us
If you've visited the "tips n tricks" section at HBO, you've no doubt seen the list of everything that's been discovered so far. Back in January, 2002, Allenthar is credited with finding some interesting tidbits hidden away inside the game's UI. When you select "Custom Game Types", there's a screen that shows a diagram of the Chief's armor along with some little text blurbs that appear to be technical descriptions for the various features of his MJOLNIR armor. Look closely at the text pointing to his left leg. Upon closer inspection, you might notice that it actually says "Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me." Now what does this have to do with the Chief's armor you might ask? Absolutely nothing! Since it's really not legible in-game anyways, random placeholder text is ocassionally inserted to create the illusion of something else. Check out the photo below, courtesty of HBO, to get a better idea of this example. This is only one example of this type of egg but the final results of this contest could end up anywhere.
Help Wanted
So now you know a little about some of Halo's hidden eggs and some of the weird text that made it into the game's UI. Well this time around David Candland, aka Evil Otto wants your help with creating content for the game UI. Some may say we're being lazy but really we just wanted to offer you, our fans, a cool chance to be a part of the game (yeah, that's it). It takes a ton of work to design and implement the UI for the game and Otto is asking for your help to create and contribute a small piece of it.
Rules of Engagement
By now you're surely near passing out from anticipation and excitement over the prospects of being immortalized in Halo 2. So what exactly are we looking for? Well, there's no specific parameter but essentially we're looking for random phrases, quotes, sentences, etc.. that will be used somewhere in the Halo 2 UI. Sounds simple enough, right? Before you get carried away with your thinking, lets review a couple of ground rules:
1. Only registered Bungie.net users are eligible to enter. You'll need to be logged in to submit your entry.
2. Each person is only allowed to submit ONE entry.
3. Don't bother submitting anything with profanity, vulgarity, controversy, etc.. If you're having doubts about whether or not your content qualifies, play it safe and go with something else.
4. Evil Otto will pick the top 3 entries that he likes. There is no specific criteria but creativity, humor and originality won't hurt. If he chooses, Otto reserves the right to not pick ANY of the entries. Sorry, that's life.
5. This contest is open from today, 5/20 through Sunday, 6/8 UNLESS the datbase fills up prior to then. This database will only hold 1,000 entries and once it's filled, the contest is over and no more entries will be accepted regardless of the date.
Once you've got your ultimate phrase ready, you need to submit it HERE (Closed)
Please note, the viewing privileges for this database have been turned off. So, you can submit an entry but you won't be able to actually view it. After you submit your entry you'll get an error message since you won't have permission to view what you just entered. Do not worry. I assure you that your entry was received. We have to do this to prevent people from stealing or modifying anyone elses's submission.
Once the contest has closed Otto will review the entries and pick his three favorites. We'll annouce the winners but you'll have to wait until the game ships to see what, where and how the winning phrases are used in the game. Good luck!
Fineprint
There is no physical prize or reward associated with this contest. The top three entries will merely have the satisfaction and pride of knowing that they wrote something that ended up in Halo 2. If the same thing is submitted by multiple people, whomever submits it first will get priority. Again, all decisions are final and Evil Otto has the last word on the outcome. All submissions become the property of Bungie Studios and Microsoft.