In Honor of: Halo

Halo: Combat Evolved came out in 2001 and almost single handedly made the X-box a success. Halo 2 came out in 2004 and made online gaming a reality. And Halo 3 came out in 2007 to tremendous success on the Xbox 360.

This trilogy of record breaking games spawned best selling book series, other video games, short films, and was a few months from being a movie directed by Peter Jackson.

Some of my fondest memories from college were playing Halo or Halo 2 with roommates and dorm buddies until way late in the night or until five minutes after class had started...

I don't know how to explain the success of Halo. I think one of the largest factors was the simplicity of the game - you weren't managing 100 hp, but a simple rechargeable shield. You weren't lugging around enough weapons to fight a small army, but two guns. The missions were fun and unique (if not repetitive at times) and the games looked good.

They are tremendously fun games. Tonight, in honor of Halo, I'm going to have a guys night. Some adult beverage, some video games, and just good old plain fun.

Nerd Files - 5

A short essay on why Diablo and Diablo II made me a better employee:

Efficiency. It's the key to being a good employee. If I can do everything at the same level of quality as anyone else, but I can do it twice as fast, I am getting twice more work done. Stupid math, right?

Diablo was a hack'n'slash RPG from the nineties. You chose a character class, and you journeyed into a randomly created dungeon to fight Diablo - the Lord of Terror. The randomly created map was a first of its kind - and meant there was no best way through the maze. You had to figure out the best way for each and every game.

And since the single player game had a finite amount of levels, it was in your best interest to complete each dungeon before taking on Diablo himself. When you're talking 16 major dungeons, this takes quite a bit of time. And so I started figuring out the most efficient way to get through each - and all of - a dungeon.

Now I use the same ideas to make work more convenient. I get all of my admits done faster than anyone else - because I'm not wasting time and doubling back. It's like a metaphysical dungeon - and I can navigate it faster than anyone else.

Now to slay some demons.