Yep, well I've received a lambasting from a few in IBO, and support from a few others. A lot of focus in this thread has been on whether an RTS is the right medium to go through, and that's getting beside my point. I'm replying to me previous post as to not clutter up the forum with my rants. I think I can sum up my point in a few steps of thought.

1. I consider Halo an art.

2. Artwork is created by an artist in the medium he/she chooses and portrayed in the angles and perspectives he/she wishes.

3. I happen to like the art that this artist creates.

4. Another artist creates something in the style of Artist 1. Whether the new art is great or not, I feel that it is unworthy of the title and distinction Artist 1 gave it.

That was a bit vague, I used Tool as my reference in IBO.

Maynard James Keenan is the only one who can sing with his voice. Someone else may attempt his style and sound just as good, gain a fanbase of the same size and kick out more and more awesome albums, but at the end of the day, you simply cannot match what makes Maynard's voice so distinctive, and in my opinion, great.

Now Ensemble may be a great creator of RTS games, and Peter Jackson's Wingnut may turn out to be a great video game developer, but at the end of the day, it seems that the art created by Bungie cannot be mimiced by any other developer. Bungie's Halo will no doubt differ from any other developer's or genre's Halo. It's stretching the IP to somewhere I personally don't feel it should go. And those of you that tell me that I'm close minded for thinking so may not be seeing eye to eye with me on this notion of Halo as a work of art. I guess that's simply where we differ. Opinion sucks.

I get shot down for saying "I'd prefer nothing rather than something sub-par," and I don't understand that. Personally, the fact that something sub par exists, while it may not make the existing games any worse, it sure does dampen my outlook on the whole series. This works similar to how many spin-offs don't sit well with fans of a certain tv show or movie. I'm not denying that a spin-off can't work, Frasier was a great show but I could sit here listing the plethora of spin-offs out there that where companies have attempted to milk their various cash cows. The bad greatly out-wieghs the good, and that's a fact.

Now again, you'll tell me that this is not a "spin-off" the story is already laid out, but as I've said elsewhere in this thread, it's the presentation of the material. And while you all say 'Bungie is rubbing it's dick all over this' I'm very skeptical about the extent of that.

To me, considering the circumstances, these Halo games will not be "Halo." This doesn't mean that they will not be good in their own element; Halo Wars may be a kickass RTS, but will not scream of the "Halo experience," and that alone detracts from the originals, to me. Call me silly for saying that, fine, but that's my word on the matter. Perhaps it's too early to formulate a 'word' and I'm getting ahead of myself, but my train of thought on the matter continues to head toward derailment.