Newsflash:

Master Chief's New Digs: Bungie.net 2.0

By B.B. Larouche

Bungie Community Manager Brian Jarrard had a unique challenge: to help develop a new version of Bungie.net that would be cool enough to live up to the standards of the forthcoming Halo 2. Jarrard recently talked with us about the new Bungie.net and what he sees for it in the future.

Xbox.com: What makes the Bungie community special, and how are you planning to support that?

Jarrard: I think it's the people that make our community what it is. I'm continually amazed by the cool and creative things people out there are coming up with. These aren't just fanboys, who troll around forums talking about how, "Halo rulez!" (though every community needs some of these folks to wage war on other boards). These are smart people, who have a connection with Bungie's games and other fans across the globe. Fan Web sites, fan fiction, original artwork, movies, replica costumes, LAN parties, tournaments—all of these things expand the realm of our community and drive more people into our universe. We will continue to support these efforts by amplifying and promoting their achievements, while also providing some tools and resources to [help them] keep making great content. One of the biggest things we can do, as a fairly high-traffic developer site, is push users deeper into the community and raise awareness of the huge breadth of individual fan sites and unique creations that exist on the Web.

Welcome to the new Bungie.net!

Xbox.com: In your mind, what makes for a really great online community? Was the new Bungie.net designed with these things in mind?

Jarrard: It boils down to the people and their resources. It takes energetic, intelligent, passionate, and friendly people to create a community that other people will want to be a part of. Bungie.net is designed to serve as the epicenter of our community, and the 7th Column provides the tools and resources for people to be creative and connect with other members.

We realize not everyone will have the equipment or skills necessary to create their own Halo 2 site, their own Halo LAN party club, build their own forum to talk to other fans, or get the word out to a large audience about something cool they've done. This is where The 7th Column and Bungie.net come in—we have created a suite of tools that allow our members to use their imagination and creativity, while not being bogged down by the technology. We want to facilitate getting these ideas and projects out into the world and giving our fans a stage to show off what they can do.

It's also really important for the people in the community to feel like they are making a difference and to be recognized for what they are doing. After all, our games are what drive these people to do the awesome things they do, and it's important that we recognize these creations and efforts and continue to "feed the fires." Our involvement as the developer—as the originator—helps to create extra motivation and keep driving the community forward.

The 7th Column marches on.

Xbox.com: Where would you like the Bungie community to be a few years from now? Where do you see yourself in that [cue deep voice] "Community of the Future"?

Jarrard: Ah, the Community of the Future … It's a kinder, gentler place where everybody knows your name, and you're always glad you came. Of course, we have been driving towards our goal of world domination for more than 10 years now, and though we have vastly increased the size of our Underground Army, there's still a lot left to do. We want to continue to grow and expand and bring in new recruits.

It's also exciting to think about the new things happening with Xbox Live and what the future of online gaming will be and how that will be further integrated into the community.

Xbox.com: When you were first hired at Bungie, what part of Bungie.net did you think was really cool? Where were you looking to build from there?

Jarrard: My favorite part of Bungie.net was, and still is, all of the cool functionality that The 7th Column has to offer. I had never seen a Web site that gave users so much flexibility and control to establish their own little home on the Net. In essence, The 7th Column is a sandbox that has allowed more than 7,500 individual mini Web sites to exist as self-sufficient entities. Giving people their own news system, an events calendar, and a forum—for free!—is really cool.

I also thought a lot of the content was cool. It gives users insight into the studio itself. Our new site upgrades the content side of things to a new level. If fans had a peephole inside our studio before, now they're going to have front row luxury box seats right outside our window. Later this year, we will also be making some changes to The 7th Column, but I can't divulge those just yet. Suffice to say, we're always thinking about ways to improve what we're offering, and we're really excited about the prospects of having an Xbox Live title and the implications that has for our Web site.

Xbox.com: Do you see the Halo community changing with the release of Halo 2 or merely growing much, much bigger?

Jarrard: I certainly expect it to get bigger in terms of sheer numbers, since we're hoping to introduce a whole new crowd to the Bungie universe via Halo 2. With the new influx of people will come new creative ideas and projects, hopefully akin to the original "Warthog Jump" videos or the now world-famous Red vs. Blue. There's no telling what the next amazing fan creation will be. That's one of the most exciting parts of this job, waiting to see what the fans will come up with next.

Also, with Halo 2 being online and our plans to do some really cool things with our site, I think we'll see a stronger notion of what it means to be in a community, since people will be playing together and sharing those experiences on Bungie.net. Right now, not everyone has the ability to network and meet other Halo players because LAN parties aren't an option where they live or they don’t play Halo for PC/Mac. With Xbox Live, we can extend the Halo 2 and Bungie community experience into living rooms across the globe.