You see problems, I see *potential* problems.

by NsU Soldier , Washington, Sunday, June 16, 2013, 19:51 (4188 days ago) @ Reconcilliation

'Religious' wasn't used or intended to be used as a pejorative, it was used to express a concept of faith.

Sorry, but what "concept of faith" would that be exactly?

You're basically asking for opinions to be made on phantoms, for players to place a religious amount of trust in the developer, but you can't form a real opinion on something that you haven't seen and don't know exists.

Immediately followed by...

It's an empirical vs religious way of thinking, and when you go down the religious path, what you end up with are people, days from release going "I know they haven't shown any of feature X, but they just wanted to keep it from us to discover in the game itself!" followed soon after when it isn't in the game with: "Well, it's not a feature that was really important anyways, the game is still fantastic!".

Given the context, it sounds like you were equating religious thinking with something like irrational and/or blind faith. So, yes, you were using the word "religious" as a pejorative in actuality, whether it was intentional or not is kind of irrelevant.

So, I'll echo Kermit's statement here, please use a different word for that particular "concept of faith" you're trying to get across. :)

That awkward business out of the way, I agree that we should temper our expectations, but I'd recommend not doing it to the point of constant doubt and negativity. (Which is an attitude you can so easily slip into.)

I also find it interesting when you recommend to take the "empirical" approach, and in another post state...

People associate and trust and believe in concepts and ideas, partly because not everyone can be completely informed about everything and sometimes it's good to just put blind faith into your belief in something, particularly with a proven track record.

and...

I do however, think that such faith in Bungie, or any other developer, is misplaced and should never free them from criticism. That it's wrong to nod along to everything they say.

Firstly, I want to point out that believing in something "particularly with a proven track record" falls into the realm of the empirical approach.

Secondly, if people have placed faith in Bungie because of their past experiences with them or their products (track record), there's nothing wrong about that, nor would their faith be necessarily misplaced.

Thirdly, I agree that you shouldn't nod along with everything anyone says. And, yes, just because you have some faith in a company, that shouldn't make them beyond reproach. But again, those kinds of rationale don't inherently follow from just putting some faith in a company.

Personally, I'm intrigued and excited about what I've seen so far. I have a good amount of faith that Bungie will deliver an amazing experience...something that might even surpass their Halo games. (In fact, I find that scenario more likely than not given their track record, the amount of planning put into it, and how excited/passionate they seem to be about it.)