They never did if it required effort. (Destiny)

by dogcow , Hiding from Bob, in the vent core., Tuesday, December 05, 2017, 08:14 (2342 days ago) @ Funkmon

Bungie cares about individual fans. Matt gave the last office copy of Myth to Fobo iirc. They gave that one guy Fate of All Fools. They care about us in the aggregate, posting weekly updates and crap, and always have.

The absolute bottom of their priorities has been that "300 fans" level for...idk, a long ass time.

Probably...the friends and family beta of Halo 3 was the last time they cared at that level? We had a thread on HBO that had like no context and if we posted in it we got a tiny little early access.

I miss the "Friends and Family" Bungie. I had bought Crackdown to ensure I'd get beta access, and then magically a code showed up (in my email? on bungie.net? I don't recall.) and I got to play a little bit early. I got matchmade with Ben Kutchera (when he was @ Ars) and bet him & everyone else up good in a sniper/shotty match on Valhalla. I wanted to join up & play with him but being new to the interface I couldn't figure out how to do it. Later in his review he said:

... I love rocket battles, but Sniper-Shotty matches give me hives.
The press invites and friends and family beta that is going on now is limited; the players are all insanely good

And I felt a little bad about giving him hives. Maybe he's just allergic to dogcows... ;-)