For me, the only real news yesterday was the precise parameters of the beta, and although I can understand some disappointment, I wasn't surprised by the length.

Why wasn't I? Well, we already knew PS users would get four more days than anyone else. At this late date there's little point in a long beta--all that's left to do is load testing I expect. Based on the fit and finish of the Alpha, they've already fine tuned this thing. About that Alpha, I was stunned with how big it was. I'm glad it wasn't longer than it was because then we might have found the end of it. If part of the point here is that there is always more to discover, the length of the alpha was perfect because I bet few people felt like they had seen everything there is to see, as it was. It was enough of a taste, though, to answer the most important question: is the game fun? It was for me.

Xenos said something very important about scope in one of his posts. To paraphrase, given the amount of content in this game, some extra pieces might not matter very much in the grand scheme of things. That's one thing you can't expect Bungie to say. Hey, yeah, we're giving Sony fans some goodies, but don't worry, Xboxers, it ain't all that, and you'll get it, too, down the line.

Saturday night I had the most fun I've had in a while. My best friends' 12-year-old and I were playing the Reach level The Package and trying to get through the area outside Sword base. We kept failing and trying new strategies. It was exactly the kind of thing I love, which is just fun problem solving of the kind that Bungie has never failed to deliver. I think we can expect more of the same, no matter how much we pay for it or on what we play it.

I may have been overwrought in my defensiveness yesterday and for that I apologize. I came expecting dissection of the IGN videos, I got butthurt. Lots of butthurt. There may be some subconscious thing going on, too. Deep in our hearts, some of us old timers may derive some secret pleasure from finally enjoying a Bungie game again without the Microsoft taint. That marriage always seemed to me to be one of convenience instead of love. I don't know. I'm grateful for the Xbox and the friendship it's brought me. And Bungie fans who came in through Halo certainly have their own complicated feelings about all this, but in the end, the play's the thing, as the man said. We're going to play, and I hope everyone has fun, and this ill will melts away.

Xenos said something very important about scope in one of his posts. To paraphrase, given the amount of content in this game, some extra pieces might not matter very much in the grand scheme of things. That's one thing you can't expect Bungie to say. Hey, yeah, we're giving Sony fans some goodies, but don't worry, Xboxers, it ain't all that, and you'll get it, too, down the line.

Perhaps, but equally, if they can't say it, we can't assume that, right?
It could be substantial, it could not be.

Also, what is one person's trinket is another person's precious.

I may have been overwrought in my defensiveness yesterday and for that I apologize. I came expecting dissection of the IGN videos, I got butthurt. Lots of butthurt. There may be some subconscious thing going on, too. Deep in our hearts, some of us old timers may derive some secret pleasure from finally enjoying a Bungie game again without the Microsoft taint. That marriage always seemed to me to be one of convenience instead of love. I don't know. I'm grateful for the Xbox and the friendship it's brought me. And Bungie fans who came in through Halo certainly have their own complicated feelings about all this, but in the end, the play's the thing, as the man said. We're going to play, and I hope everyone has fun, and this ill will melts away.

Indeed.

Bungie Day 2014 will go down in history for different reasons than the others but that's ok. I think maybe yesterday's uproar needed to happen, and I'm glad it did, but it should also be over now, at least the everyone get angry at once part. As you say, we have a great game to look forward to and I hope we can all do so as friends despite yesterday's dust up.

With boldness to the stars! :)

Good post, Kermit. Thanks for that.

- CC

After thinking it over last night and reading the same reactions on other forums, I think the reactions were a little deeper than just over extra goodies. I think there's an underlying sense of abandonment amongst many fans that are on xboxes. The lack of attention towards them is taken as an insult, even if it isn't meant to be that way.

Imagine a best friend who starts hanging out with a new crowd in another town down the road. It's cool that your friend is making new friends, and eventually you'll get to meet some of them, so at first you're excited. Then your friend starts spending more and more time over there while just giving you the occasional phone call. Then he throws them a party but doesn't invite you. You could have gone on your own, but you didn't have gas money. Then he throws another party, but you are only allowed to attend for a few hours. Would you feel a little abandoned by your friend?

You could move to the other town so you could hang out more and do all the other cool stuff your friend and his new friends are doing, but that's going to be expensive and you'll probably have to say goodbye to other friends, like your old mutual friend Master Chief, unless you want to buy a house in both towns. I could see that predicament stressing out a lot of people, and causing them to lash out at their old friend, even if he never intended to upset them.

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My observerservational perspective to what I saw in that thread yesterday:

You have a PS4. You played the Alpha. You weren't left out on anything. You still were so mad at people who are feeling left out (rationally or irrationally feeling that way). It's short sighted. Of course you won't mind a short Xbox Beta. You got an Alpha and will get a longer PS4 Beta. You're fully entitled to be defensive, disappointed, etc. at the threads yesterday. They're also allowed to be upset, butthurt, whatever. For some reason, we're back to that thing where it's only okay for the "positive" people to be upset, and then there's this "entitlement" that makes it okay to disregard, belittle, and shame those being "negative" without consequence. Pete's one of the most positive people I've known and seen around DBO and HBO. His contributions are vast and ongoing. He gets upset, boom, screw him? Screw Ragashingo? It wasn't just you, obviously.

I also observe contradictions in logic because you're trying to excuse away why they have no right to be upset. If the Beta will leave more to explore, or if the Beta inversely won't have enough to justify a longer Beta, then there's no real reason (beyond contracts, obviously) that the Beta should not be the same length on both consoles. I would say quit trying to justify it with all of that. The simple fact is, contracts. That's it. That's also probably not Bungie's fault in any way, shape, or form. They have every right not to like it and to express that, and you have every right to express your disappointment at their dislike. It's all still funny, to me, considering you have full access either way. And no, I don't want to discuss how they could, too, if they buy a PS4. You might not know this, but lots of those people posting and complaining yesterday totally have a PS4, including some who didn't outright say it.

Either way, it's up to those people to forgive you or not. Equating them to children with things like "yet so many are screaming like somebody took their blankie" is always helpful. They may be upset, but the personal attacks that they received were ridiculous (again, not just from you). No one's apologizing for that though. Just apologies for getting a bit too defensive and such.

But that's just my perspective on the thread. I also saw a ton of irrational anger, and a lot of hilarious things like cancelled pre-orders that were immediately un-cancelled (all while Bungie and Activision sit there laughing hysterically like, yep, they'll buy our stuff no matter what we do, and this is proof. Let them talk and get mad. Who cares). Always wonderful. Lots of "fail" on both sides.

In the end, you're right. Do it for the play, and the gamers beside you. Hopefully this all blows over. The DLC timed exclusivity, if over a year, is still BS in my opinion. /End

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I started that “blankie” sentence with “what bugs me.” That doesn’t translate into being “so mad” as you’ve characterized me. Regardless, I thought apologizing for being overwrought covered some ground, including saying that “many were screaming like somebody took their blankie.” Let me now apologize specifically for that. It wasn’t intended as a personal attack. It was an observation based on what I saw here and on Bungie.net, but I could have and should have expressed it less dramatically.

Please don’t question my respect for Pete or Ragashingo. Never said screw either of them, no sir. I don’t know what this consequence you speak of is that I didn’t suffer but others did. We have people here who disagree and expressed themselves. That is all.

Please don’t disregard MY opinions because I’m a PS4 owner. I could live without the exclusives, and I’d planned to for a while after I first heard about them. The beta has never been anything but pure gravy in my eyes--a generous freebie. There are a myriad of reasons for my PS4 purchase (made just before E3), involving friends IRL and virtual. The Last of Us blew my mind and caused me to consider that I may have been cloistered. The lynchpin, though, was community. I want to play with my friends here. I'm very fortunate I could afford to acquire other platforms (though it's not been without sacrifice). I’m aware of that.

One last thing. I’m 50 freaking years old. I figured out a while ago that I’m not the reason for the season. I’m (I love DeBerga’s phrase) grizzled and prone to entertaining perspective. Pre-Halo, I spent many years waiting and hoping for cool games to be ported to my platform of choice. That required a ton of patience--patience that often went unrewarded. Bungie helped make things better back then. I’m grateful to them, you see. They’ve given me more than I’ve ever given them. Gratitude wasn’t very evident yesterday, and yes, it bothered me. We had more significant reasons to be angry at Bungie in 2000, but I wasn’t angry at them, even then. In all honesty, my Bungie fandom has been tested more than ever this year. Playing the Alpha restored some faith. It’s not at its high-water mark, but it’s creeping back up. I want my Behind the Scenes vidoc with Marty talking about audio. I’ll never have it. Here we are. Amor fati. Love fate. It’s a choice.