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I'm very proud of this one guys, I got Insane54 to take some time out to bang out a very wordy but very worthwhile read of an interview. I don't want to waste any time so without further ado, I give you Insane54, Community Manger at HaloCustom's interview: DD: "So Insane, how did you come to be Insane54?" I54: "I started going by "Insane" when I started my first administrative/community management position at 12 or 13 years old, and ever since then I've never changed it. Long story short, I left my co-leader position at a large clan in order to make my own -- they called me "insane" (for making that move). Because I was a snarky teenager, I called myself "Insane" because I thought it was ironic at the time. I've been managing successful communities since then, and never changed my name -- it's good luck!" DD: "I agree with you on that even though I'm not all that supersticious. It's also a cool name! So where exactly were you co-administrating at that age?" I54: "I honestly don't remember the name of it, unfortunately. I think it was AoE? Something like that. The game was Jedi Knight II and III (Outcast and Academy) -- fantastic games, especially with the Lugormod and Euka mods. They're old but it really got me into running a community and creating environments for roleplaying games. The mods allowed you to place any items from the game into the server dynamically, so we built an entire world on top of that, where you pressed a button and a door opened and closed behind you, credits money systems, "renting" a place to live, food requirements, quests, jobs, just about anything you can think of, we made. So, I had a background in both running a community and making custom things, and that made my transition to larger custom-content communities that much easier!" DD: "You have a long history in Site Administration and I think that's unkown to many people in the Halo Community. Where have you been Admin or any form of Staff on Halo websites before you became the Community Manager of HaloCustoms?" I54: "For about 3 years between Halo 3 and Reach (2008 to 2011), I had the opportunity to run ForgeHub as one of three administrators and the community manager. That was a really awesome experience, because I got to see what it was like growing from a small number to something like 70K members. I got used to working with companies (including an official affiliation with Bungie), running events, and overall nurturing the community to its maximum potential; having that experience is invaluable when I'm trying to work on my own projects. ForgeHub is where I'm "famous" from, so to speak; I got to know many of the big names in the Halo community and industry, I built some great relationships with several employees at 343i and Bungie, became one of the first Community Cartographers, got one of the first Bungie All-Stars, and I learned what works and what doesn't in large scale community management. Overall, I've found that I really enjoy connecting people who otherwise would have never met. I love offering resources that let you see the world in a way that had previously been blocked by restrictions, and opening up those resources for anyone to use. I love incorporating all of the different niches of Halo and bringing them together to an interface that they can all use -- that means that people from two different niches get to experience totally new things from each other! I had a few projects in the time between ForgeHub and HaloCustoms: I ran a short-term experimental community for artists intended to be "self run" called creativeFloh!. I took a lot of the concepts that I used on that website on HaloCustoms. I've also set up communities for a local electronic music promotion company and a college counseling company. Lastly, I'm completing my degree in Software Engineering, so that takes up a lot of my time. Personally, I almost always don't like being a staff member. I like having the power to shape the site, change things up, and actually matter; I find more often than not, communities just use their staff as moderation and bodies. That's why it was so important that I'm not only the guy running and managing the site, I'm also the co-founder and legal co-owner. As a perfectionist, I've built up a lot of frustrations about the ways different websites run themselves, and I've taken many of them into consideration when designing HaloCustoms. We really stepped back and took a long time to consider how we can best serve the Halo community, drew it all out on paper and whiteboards, and then we went and implemented it. I'm really happy with the results that we've been getting at HaloCustoms thusfar!" DD: "That's all something I hope the readers take the time to read through. You really are such a huge name in Halo and it's almost a shame that there are so many people in the Halo Community that don't know you or what you've done for it. I've told you before and I'll tell you again, I love the way HaloCustoms works. What made you decide to make a site based off of custom games instead of going back down the road of Forge? I know the two coincide but why HaloCustoms and not HaloForge, let's say." I54: "I considered a forge-based website, but there are several reasons I went for customs instead. First of all, Forge is a product of customs, not the other way around. That means that no matter how big forging is, it's only useful if there are people playing that map! In addition, there's not much to add to what's already in the Halo community. I mean, look at 343i.org's maps section, ForgeCafe, ForgeHub; everybody has maps. HaloCustoms actually has a maps forum as well, and I have some huge updates coming to it in the near future, but I see that as an aspect to customs. Forgers come to HaloCustoms to test their map, then post it, then stick around and play it. It all comes full circle, and we're really big about being a *companion* site. I absolutely don't want to steal a single member from another site, I just want to offer a resource to as many Halo fans as possible. So, test your map on our site, use our resource, and stay active on your own site -- that's exactly what I hope people do. People who just host games can also find new awesome maps to play, etc. I think you'll be seeing us growing our Forge community because forge is so vital to customs and vice versa. Most importantly, I wanted to offer something new. As far as I know, nobody has really designed a full-on open interface for creating, finding, and organizing custom games both short and long term. This resource means new people meeting new people -- it makes HaloCustoms almost a "waypoint" or "hub" where people from all over the halo community can come and play some customs with guys they've never met before. So, we're seeing AGL guys playing with Grifball guys, and they're sharing ideas and maps -- it's really heartwarming when a member says "I made a game and I had a full party for 4 hours and I learned all about X, Y, and Z", it's entirely the reason we made this website." DD: "Excellently said Insane and you certainly have the right idea when it comes to bringing the Halo Community together by making use of both our sites. So one thing that I really love about HaloCustoms is the RSVP system. How did you get it to link to Xbox.com? Did you need any permissions to do that and if so, did any of your connections help you to get that?" I54: "Everything you see on the site is normal permissions with a *LOT* of custom coding. When me and dev team were starting to build this website, we literally spent every waking moment online planning, coding, debugging, so on. I'd basically be waking up, making coffee, and getting back to coding until late at night, every night during my winter break. So we spent a lot of time making sure this website really works and feels as well as it possibly could. I firmly believe that if you're not moving forwards, you're falling behind; I'd rather fail 9 times and get it right once then not try something new at all. So we're always making big changes; always adding new features, removing things, editing things. Any given day you might see us release something big and awesome because we want to maximize how useful this site is. We place a ton of emphasis on focus and usability, but we want to have a strong, powerful engine behind all of that. I really like the RSVP system because you can go to any game and go "this game has 20 RSVPs, it's probably going to be packed" or "this game only has 5 RSVPs? I should tell my friends!" In addition to the fact that by RSVPing you're automatically linked to the host's gamertag, we've also got functionality that lets the host connect to RSVPs, so that a host can send a message to those who say they're going to come. Another feature that's been big recently is our "rate" feature -- if you RSVP to a game before it begins, when the game ends you can "rate your host" good or bad. When a host reaches 25 (total) Good Host ratings, they become a Gold Host -- they get a shiny gold gradient on their games which helps highlight them as "a go-to game". 343i.org's own Spades N AZ is one of our new Gold Hosts, with nearly 150 Good Host ratings. His lobbies often command well over 30 RSVPs, so many people trying to get in a game just to play customs. It gives you an idea of how crazy custom games can get, and it really values those high-quality hosts. You can check out the game calendar here, where you'll likely see several Gold Host's games: http://halocustoms.com/events/upcoming To be honest, most "connections" I've gotten are from people I've never met, they just see the site and they see its potential and how much it could mean for Halo's future. In this case, the best way to attract investors is to have a great product, not to know the right people. I've been in touch with lots of people, websites, and companies, and we've got a lot coming from that angle! Unfortunately nothing I can disclose at this time, but we will have some great free giveaways, contests, and tournaments coming up in the future" DD: "Wow your site has had an invaluable amount of time and effort put into it and I gotta say, Insane, it really shows. It's great to hear about the fact that big news and events are coming and I've seen how many people RSVP to Spades's Custom Game Night, it's ridiculous! How did HaloCustoms come to be involved with 343industries.org?" I54: "It was right after my site had launched -- we were like a week old and had something like 3,000 members already. I got a couple messages sort of randomly from Spades while I was playing in a custom game. So, after the game, him, Absolute Dog, and myself had some long chats on Skype discussing our sites, ideas, and possibilities, and now here we are with a great partnership. I'm really glad that we can be as close as we are with 343i.org, we share a lot of common ideas (warm, close knit communities), but have our differences (you guys focus on Halo overall, we focus on custom games and forge). We work together so nicely; gotta give Spades credit for making the first move on this one." DD: "Indeed we Absolutely Dogly do, shoutout to our very own Staff of Promotions and Events' Spades N AZ! That was a very huge huge huge move on his part, and I had a feeling we had a connection to you through him when I saw how active he was on HaloCustoms haha. Had you ever heard of the site before Spades had brought it to your attention? Maybe stumbled upon it by accident, anything at all?" I54: "As part of my job in being a community manager, I think it's vital to at least have knowledge of all the major players in the game. So, I did have a kind of vague understanding of 343i.org and had been stalking around every now and again, evaluating and considering options. However, I hadn't really thought of them as a worthwhile partnership until after Spades came to me and pitched the idea! That said, I'm always open to partnering with websites and communities! I feel like by bringing together many communities by partnership, that means that we get to throw activity to our partners, and they get to tell their members 'hey come here to set up custom games!'. By doing that, it reduces their own requirement to organize custom games (let's be honest, forum boards or threads doesn't really work) and delegates it to us -- and we're more than happy to be that resource! In addition, the more places that partner with us, the more we bring communities with different traits together on our interface!" DD: "I think with partnerships like the one we have with each other and the one each of us have with THFE, it's a HUGE stepping stone for the recollaboration of the Halo Community. Speaking of which what do you think of the Halo Community right now? Do you think people are too divided over Halo 4?" I54: "I'm a really big fan of Halo 4, I think its a wonderful title especially for 343i's first real thing. I'm really excited for what Halo 5 will be bringing us; if it lives up to my expectations it *will* be the greatest Halo game ever made, no questions asked. That said, I'm seeing a lot of the community complaining about small issues and it's like "come on guys, chill out, it's a good game!" It's not perfect by any means, but I sometimes wish we could all just get behind 343i and encourage them rather than complain about every little thing that doesn't go as well as we feel it should. I really do love the Halo community, if I didn't, I wouldn't have stayed as long as I have in it. I consider many of the friends I've made over Halo to be some of my best friends that I fully trust, which includes some members on my staff, the Halo Tricks cast, Xbox Live friends, etc etc. My only complaint of the Halo community is that we are so very fragmented right now. Everyone has a little niche that they belong to, and since their friends are from that niche, they only end up playing games of that niche's style and playing with the same group of friends. I'm really hoping with all this partnership that's been going on between communities that we'll be seeing more inter-community action going on to help combat that fragmentation in the Halo community and bring us closer together. One big thing I have set up on HaloCustoms is that the staff is entirely self-run. They're actually directed to, and I quote, "put awesome things on the front page". The staff is a really chill, relaxed group that I've handpicked, and some member will go "hey, I found this article/event/video on X site!" and write a little feature for it and put it right up on the front page and social media (Twitter and Facebook) within minutes. We have tremendous flexibility, and we love to feature other website's content! Our only criteria is: make something awesome! Make something new, unique, or just plain neat and we WILL feature it, no matter if we are your partner, no matter if its beneficial to us, no matter if you came to us or we just found it trolling around. We want to encourage and reward doing awesome, unique things! I think if more Halo sites picked up on encouraging awesome behavior rather than strict guidelines, we'd see a much less fragmented Halo community that could really push 343i forward to making the best possible products that they can. There's a lot of fantastic talent on that team, and there's infinite potential for what they can do given a supportive community." DD: "I really do enjoy seeing the way the Staff interacts with the community on HaloCustoms, you have quite a funny crowd haha. One of the articles I was extremely impressed with was the one Psychoduck put up of your Staff vs. Community Event. The idea of going through the footage and instead of just rendering it and putting it in the article he broke it down into parts using screenshots is just freaking brilliant and so creative. My hat is off to Psychoduck because that's better than any work I've ever done in News. It sure is awesome! Now, I have seen a lot of freedom on that site meaning no word censor filter and anyone can talk about anything in the shoutbox. What are a couple of the rules on HaloCustoms that members have to abide by if they can say or do whatever they want really?" I54: "The overarching rule on HaloCustoms is 'use common sense'. That's the rule that I abide by, the staff abide by, and we expect every member of the site to abide by. So, we take everything in context. Is this guy clearly trying to troll? Does he know what he's doing isn't okay on the site? Has he had a previous warning? I want to create a create a fun, warm community, and to do that we do need to do some moderation, but we try to limit that as much as possible. If somebody does something wrong, we prefer to edit or delete and then send a private message to say 'hey, don't do that man'. But if they're clearly just trying to troll or get around the rules, we'll be very strict with our moderation. For example, swearing is allowed, but if its offensive in context, we'll come to you and be like 'that's not okay man'; if you ignore us and keep doing it, we'll likely ban you. We want to make the site awesome for everyone, but at the same time, we don't go easy on people who try to break the warmness of the community. If you're not trying to troll, you'll have a good time; otherwise, you'll be seeing the back end of the banhammer very quickly. Obviously this means that a lot of 'what's okay' is determined by the staff, and I'm blessed to have such a close-knit staff team. They talk amongst themselves when there's a difficult decision and make the best overall decision together. In addition, we try to create an interaction between the staff and the person who did the action; that way they can argue or debate their case. In the end, our system is loose but it works really well as opposed to an almost lawyerly list of 'rules.'" DD: "I bet the members and Staff enjoy that very much . Insane, it's been an incredible interview. It's been awesome to hear your views on the Halo Community and our sites' partnership. Now I have to ask you, what are your words of wisdom for members in the community that want what you want?" I54: "I think a lot of members want that same feel of solidarity that we used to feel in Halo 2/3. I see many, many people coming on to HaloCustoms and introducing themselves with "I really hope this brings back that Halo 2/3 feel in the Halo community". I do think that the site helps to make that a reality, and by connecting all of our talents together, we can help increase the popularity of Halo as well as connect all of these smaller websites. So, if you run a website or group or company or clan, come to me on the website, twitter, facebook, email me ([email protected]), whatever works. I will do anything I can to help you get interconnected with the HaloCustoms family. We have different ways that we work with different entities -- we have a restricted 'sponsored groups' section that is great for showcasing the great small groups in our population, we have partnership opportunities for larger sites, and we have opportunities for websites to work with us. If you're just a single person (or a person with a few friends), join the site and get talking to us as well as playing games! We're all really friendly and every person who joins the community is helping us grow bigger and bigger. Also, word of mouth is hugely important to us. If somebody needs a map tested, or is looking for friends to play, or is otherwise just getting bored with Halo, point them towards HaloCustoms. We want to be what you think of when you think 'custom games'." Everybody give Insane54 a round of applaue he was excellent in giving us an in depth look at his site, our affiliate, HaloCustoms. I advise checking it out. Check it out but remember this is your home . Just kidding really though give it a look. Thank you 343i Community Forum it's taken me all day to get this out it's been so busy, the editing glitch screwed me so bad earlier I basically did this twice . Oh man, well once again thank you all for supporting these and I hope you read all of it. HAIL This post has been promoted to an article

I'm very proud of this one guys, I got Insane54 to take some time out to bang out a very wordy but very worthwhile read of an interview. I don't want to waste any time so without further ado, I give you Insane54, Community Manger at HaloCustom's interview: DD: "So Insane, how did you come to be Insane54?" I54: "I started going by "Insane" when I started my first administrative/community management position at 12 or 13 years old, and ever since then I've never changed it. Long story short, I left my co-leader position at a large clan in order to make my own -- they called me "insane" (for making that move). Because I was a snarky teenager, I called myself "Insane" because I thought it was ironic at the time. I've been managing successful communities since then, and never changed my name -- it's good luck!" DD: "I agree with you on that even though I'm not all that supersticious. It's also a cool name! So where exactly were you co-administrating at that age?" I54: "I honestly don't remember the name of it, unfortunately. I think it was AoE? Something like that. The game was Jedi Knight II and III (Outcast and Academy) -- fantastic games, especially with the Lugormod and Euka mods. They're old but it really got me into running a community and creating environments for roleplaying games. The mods allowed you to place any items from the game into the server dynamically, so we built an entire world on top of that, where you pressed a button and a door opened and closed behind you, credits money systems, "renting" a place to live, food requirements, quests, jobs, just about anything you can think of, we made. So, I had a background in both running a community and making custom things, and that made my transition to larger custom-content communities that much easier!" DD: "You have a long history in Site Administration and I think that's unkown to many people in the Halo Community. Where have you been Admin or any form of Staff on Halo websites before you became the Community Manager of HaloCustoms?" I54: "For about 3 years between Halo 3 and Reach (2008 to 2011), I had the opportunity to run ForgeHub as one of three administrators and the community manager. That was a really awesome experience, because I got to see what it was like growing from a small number to something like 70K members. I got used to working with companies (including an official affiliation with Bungie), running events, and overall nurturing the community to its maximum potential; having that experience is invaluable when I'm trying to work on my own projects. ForgeHub is where I'm "famous" from, so to speak; I got to know many of the big names in the Halo community and industry, I built some great relationships with several employees at 343i and Bungie, became one of the first Community Cartographers, got one of the first Bungie All-Stars, and I learned what works and what doesn't in large scale community management. Overall, I've found that I really enjoy connecting people who otherwise would have never met. I love offering resources that let you see the world in a way that had previously been blocked by restrictions, and opening up those resources for anyone to use. I love incorporating all of the different niches of Halo and bringing them together to an interface that they can all use -- that means that people from two different niches get to experience totally new things from each other! I had a few projects in the time between ForgeHub and HaloCustoms: I ran a short-term experimental community for artists intended to be "self run" called creativeFloh!. I took a lot of the concepts that I used on that website on HaloCustoms. I've also set up communities for a local electronic music promotion company and a college counseling company. Lastly, I'm completing my degree in Software Engineering, so that takes up a lot of my time. Personally, I almost always don't like being a staff member. I like having the power to shape the site, change things up, and actually matter; I find more often than not, communities just use their staff as moderation and bodies. That's why it was so important that I'm not only the guy running and managing the site, I'm also the co-founder and legal co-owner. As a perfectionist, I've built up a lot of frustrations about the ways different websites run themselves, and I've taken many of them into consideration when designing HaloCustoms. We really stepped back and took a long time to consider how we can best serve the Halo community, drew it all out on paper and whiteboards, and then we went and implemented it. I'm really happy with the results that we've been getting at HaloCustoms thusfar!" DD: "That's all something I hope the readers take the time to read through. You really are such a huge name in Halo and it's almost a shame that there are so many people in the Halo Community that don't know you or what you've done for it. I've told you before and I'll tell you again, I love the way HaloCustoms works. What made you decide to make a site based off of custom games instead of going back down the road of Forge? I know the two coincide but why HaloCustoms and not HaloForge, let's say." I54: "I considered a forge-based website, but there are several reasons I went for customs instead. First of all, Forge is a product of customs, not the other way around. That means that no matter how big forging is, it's only useful if there are people playing that map! In addition, there's not much to add to what's already in the Halo community. I mean, look at 343i.org's maps section, ForgeCafe, ForgeHub; everybody has maps. HaloCustoms actually has a maps forum as well, and I have some huge updates coming to it in the near future, but I see that as an aspect to customs. Forgers come to HaloCustoms to test their map, then post it, then stick around and play it. It all comes full circle, and we're really big about being a *companion* site. I absolutely don't want to steal a single member from another site, I just want to offer a resource to as many Halo fans as possible. So, test your map on our site, use our resource, and stay active on your own site -- that's exactly what I hope people do. People who just host games can also find new awesome maps to play, etc. I think you'll be seeing us growing our Forge community because forge is so vital to customs and vice versa. Most importantly, I wanted to offer something new. As far as I know, nobody has really designed a full-on open interface for creating, finding, and organizing custom games both short and long term. This resource means new people meeting new people -- it makes HaloCustoms almost a "waypoint" or "hub" where people from all over the halo community can come and play some customs with guys they've never met before. So, we're seeing AGL guys playing with Grifball guys, and they're sharing ideas and maps -- it's really heartwarming when a member says "I made a game and I had a full party for 4 hours and I learned all about X, Y, and Z", it's entirely the reason we made this website." DD: "Excellently said Insane and you certainly have the right idea when it comes to bringing the Halo Community together by making use of both our sites. So one thing that I really love about HaloCustoms is the RSVP system. How did you get it to link to Xbox.com? Did you need any permissions to do that and if so, did any of your connections help you to get that?" I54: "Everything you see on the site is normal permissions with a *LOT* of custom coding. When me and dev team were starting to build this website, we literally spent every waking moment online planning, coding, debugging, so on. I'd basically be waking up, making coffee, and getting back to coding until late at night, every night during my winter break. So we spent a lot of time making sure this website really works and feels as well as it possibly could. I firmly believe that if you're not moving forwards, you're falling behind; I'd rather fail 9 times and get it right once then not try something new at all. So we're always making big changes; always adding new features, removing things, editing things. Any given day you might see us release something big and awesome because we want to maximize how useful this site is. We place a ton of emphasis on focus and usability, but we want to have a strong, powerful engine behind all of that. I really like the RSVP system because you can go to any game and go "this game has 20 RSVPs, it's probably going to be packed" or "this game only has 5 RSVPs? I should tell my friends!" In addition to the fact that by RSVPing you're automatically linked to the host's gamertag, we've also got functionality that lets the host connect to RSVPs, so that a host can send a message to those who say they're going to come. Another feature that's been big recently is our "rate" feature -- if you RSVP to a game before it begins, when the game ends you can "rate your host" good or bad. When a host reaches 25 (total) Good Host ratings, they become a Gold Host -- they get a shiny gold gradient on their games which helps highlight them as "a go-to game". 343i.org's own Spades N AZ is one of our new Gold Hosts, with nearly 150 Good Host ratings. His lobbies often command well over 30 RSVPs, so many people trying to get in a game just to play customs. It gives you an idea of how crazy custom games can get, and it really values those high-quality hosts. You can check out the game calendar here, where you'll likely see several Gold Host's games: http://halocustoms.com/events/upcoming To be honest, most "connections" I've gotten are from people I've never met, they just see the site and they see its potential and how much it could mean for Halo's future. In this case, the best way to attract investors is to have a great product, not to know the right people. I've been in touch with lots of people, websites, and companies, and we've got a lot coming from that angle! Unfortunately nothing I can disclose at this time, but we will have some great free giveaways, contests, and tournaments coming up in the future" DD: "Wow your site has had an invaluable amount of time and effort put into it and I gotta say, Insane, it really shows. It's great to hear about the fact that big news and events are coming and I've seen how many people RSVP to Spades's Custom Game Night, it's ridiculous! How did HaloCustoms come to be involved with 343industries.org?" I54: "It was right after my site had launched -- we were like a week old and had something like 3,000 members already. I got a couple messages sort of randomly from Spades while I was playing in a custom game. So, after the game, him, Absolute Dog, and myself had some long chats on Skype discussing our sites, ideas, and possibilities, and now here we are with a great partnership. I'm really glad that we can be as close as we are with 343i.org, we share a lot of common ideas (warm, close knit communities), but have our differences (you guys focus on Halo overall, we focus on custom games and forge). We work together so nicely; gotta give Spades credit for making the first move on this one." DD: "Indeed we Absolutely Dogly do, shoutout to our very own Staff of Promotions and Events' Spades N AZ! That was a very huge huge huge move on his part, and I had a feeling we had a connection to you through him when I saw how active he was on HaloCustoms haha. Had you ever heard of the site before Spades had brought it to your attention? Maybe stumbled upon it by accident, anything at all?" I54: "As part of my job in being a community manager, I think it's vital to at least have knowledge of all the major players in the game. So, I did have a kind of vague understanding of 343i.org and had been stalking around every now and again, evaluating and considering options. However, I hadn't really thought of them as a worthwhile partnership until after Spades came to me and pitched the idea! That said, I'm always open to partnering with websites and communities! I feel like by bringing together many communities by partnership, that means that we get to throw activity to our partners, and they get to tell their members 'hey come here to set up custom games!'. By doing that, it reduces their own requirement to organize custom games (let's be honest, forum boards or threads doesn't really work) and delegates it to us -- and we're more than happy to be that resource! In addition, the more places that partner with us, the more we bring communities with different traits together on our interface!" DD: "I think with partnerships like the one we have with each other and the one each of us have with THFE, it's a HUGE stepping stone for the recollaboration of the Halo Community. Speaking of which what do you think of the Halo Community right now? Do you think people are too divided over Halo 4?" I54: "I'm a really big fan of Halo 4, I think its a wonderful title especially for 343i's first real thing. I'm really excited for what Halo 5 will be bringing us; if it lives up to my expectations it *will* be the greatest Halo game ever made, no questions asked. That said, I'm seeing a lot of the community complaining about small issues and it's like "come on guys, chill out, it's a good game!" It's not perfect by any means, but I sometimes wish we could all just get behind 343i and encourage them rather than complain about every little thing that doesn't go as well as we feel it should. I really do love the Halo community, if I didn't, I wouldn't have stayed as long as I have in it. I consider many of the friends I've made over Halo to be some of my best friends that I fully trust, which includes some members on my staff, the Halo Tricks cast, Xbox Live friends, etc etc. My only complaint of the Halo community is that we are so very fragmented right now. Everyone has a little niche that they belong to, and since their friends are from that niche, they only end up playing games of that niche's style and playing with the same group of friends. I'm really hoping with all this partnership that's been going on between communities that we'll be seeing more inter-community action going on to help combat that fragmentation in the Halo community and bring us closer together. One big thing I have set up on HaloCustoms is that the staff is entirely self-run. They're actually directed to, and I quote, "put awesome things on the front page". The staff is a really chill, relaxed group that I've handpicked, and some member will go "hey, I found this article/event/video on X site!" and write a little feature for it and put it right up on the front page and social media (Twitter and Facebook) within minutes. We have tremendous flexibility, and we love to feature other website's content! Our only criteria is: make something awesome! Make something new, unique, or just plain neat and we WILL feature it, no matter if we are your partner, no matter if its beneficial to us, no matter if you came to us or we just found it trolling around. We want to encourage and reward doing awesome, unique things! I think if more Halo sites picked up on encouraging awesome behavior rather than strict guidelines, we'd see a much less fragmented Halo community that could really push 343i forward to making the best possible products that they can. There's a lot of fantastic talent on that team, and there's infinite potential for what they can do given a supportive community." DD: "I really do enjoy seeing the way the Staff interacts with the community on HaloCustoms, you have quite a funny crowd haha. One of the articles I was extremely impressed with was the one Psychoduck put up of your Staff vs. Community Event. The idea of going through the footage and instead of just rendering it and putting it in the article he broke it down into parts using screenshots is just freaking brilliant and so creative. My hat is off to Psychoduck because that's better than any work I've ever done in News. It sure is awesome! Now, I have seen a lot of freedom on that site meaning no word censor filter and anyone can talk about anything in the shoutbox. What are a couple of the rules on HaloCustoms that members have to abide by if they can say or do whatever they want really?" I54: "The overarching rule on HaloCustoms is 'use common sense'. That's the rule that I abide by, the staff abide by, and we expect every member of the site to abide by. So, we take everything in context. Is this guy clearly trying to troll? Does he know what he's doing isn't okay on the site? Has he had a previous warning? I want to create a create a fun, warm community, and to do that we do need to do some moderation, but we try to limit that as much as possible. If somebody does something wrong, we prefer to edit or delete and then send a private message to say 'hey, don't do that man'. But if they're clearly just trying to troll or get around the rules, we'll be very strict with our moderation. For example, swearing is allowed, but if its offensive in context, we'll come to you and be like 'that's not okay man'; if you ignore us and keep doing it, we'll likely ban you. We want to make the site awesome for everyone, but at the same time, we don't go easy on people who try to break the warmness of the community. If you're not trying to troll, you'll have a good time; otherwise, you'll be seeing the back end of the banhammer very quickly. Obviously this means that a lot of 'what's okay' is determined by the staff, and I'm blessed to have such a close-knit staff team. They talk amongst themselves when there's a difficult decision and make the best overall decision together. In addition, we try to create an interaction between the staff and the person who did the action; that way they can argue or debate their case. In the end, our system is loose but it works really well as opposed to an almost lawyerly list of 'rules.'" DD: "I bet the members and Staff enjoy that very much . Insane, it's been an incredible interview. It's been awesome to hear your views on the Halo Community and our sites' partnership. Now I have to ask you, what are your words of wisdom for members in the community that want what you want?" I54: "I think a lot of members want that same feel of solidarity that we used to feel in Halo 2/3. I see many, many people coming on to HaloCustoms and introducing themselves with "I really hope this brings back that Halo 2/3 feel in the Halo community". I do think that the site helps to make that a reality, and by connecting all of our talents together, we can help increase the popularity of Halo as well as connect all of these smaller websites. So, if you run a website or group or company or clan, come to me on the website, twitter, facebook, email me ([email protected]), whatever works. I will do anything I can to help you get interconnected with the HaloCustoms family. We have different ways that we work with different entities -- we have a restricted 'sponsored groups' section that is great for showcasing the great small groups in our population, we have partnership opportunities for larger sites, and we have opportunities for websites to work with us. If you're just a single person (or a person with a few friends), join the site and get talking to us as well as playing games! We're all really friendly and every person who joins the community is helping us grow bigger and bigger. Also, word of mouth is hugely important to us. If somebody needs a map tested, or is looking for friends to play, or is otherwise just getting bored with Halo, point them towards HaloCustoms. We want to be what you think of when you think 'custom games'." Everybody give Insane54 a round of applaue he was excellent in giving us an in depth look at his site, our affiliate, HaloCustoms. I advise checking it out. Check it out but remember this is your home . Just kidding really though give it a look. Thank you 343i Community Forum it's taken me all day to get this out it's been so busy, the editing glitch screwed me so bad earlier I basically did this twice . Oh man, well once again thank you all for supporting these and I hope you read all of it. HAIL View full article

I know I haven't had one of these up in a while but these take time to do and this member was very busy before we started and busy throughout. However, I think this one is well worth the wait because I found this interview to be fantastic. Here's imakequilts's interview DD: "Alright imakequilts your name is pretty self explanatory so we can skip the name origin story haha how long have you been into quilt-making?" IMQ: "Well Dan I made my first quilt 20 years ago but I have been into quilt-making for around 10 years." DD: "Wow I assume you've made a whole lot of quilts in that time then haha what influenced you into quilt making if you don't mind me asking? I'd like the readers to get a more personal view of you than one of you on the site and don't worry we won't get too personal haha" IMQ: "Well my mother and grandmother and great grandmother all made quilts. So I just naturally followed in quilt making. About 10 years ago I got involved in a quilt group within the church I was a member of and that started the roll of producing lots of quilts. I have probably made close to 100 quilts in the last 10 years. On top of that I quilt other peoples quilts for them with my computerized quilting machine. I do about 150 of those a year in my spare time." DD: "I was wrong. That's not just a lot of quilts, that is A TON of quilts haha that's pretty great. So with all the quilt making going on in your life, how did you come across the Halo franchise? Quilt making and video gaming are two very different things :lol:" IMQ: "First of all I have been into video gaming for quiet a while. My first computer was a TRS-80 color computer. Back then the way to save files was on an audio cassette tape. I spent hours typing in BASIC code from magazines and then playing the games. It was a lot different back then. I also bought an Atari Lynx when it first came out. I still think it was a lot better then the Game Boy. A friend introduced Halo to my children and me back before halo 3 came out. We did quiet a few split screen (4 player) games of Halo 2. And honestly I could not figure out how to move in that game. It just did not click. But my children were hooked so for Christmas that year the children got a halo 3 limited edition xbox. After I put the children to bed I would meet up with our friend for a few games. At some point my friend decided that we would play Rockets on Guardian. The only way I could actually get kills :-) I did become pretty good with rockets. I played with him for over a year before I was good enough to play with other people. Then I would only play lone wolf because I was not going to let down a team member because I played so badly. After about 2 years I ventured out into the social playlist. Made a few friends who I did not want on my children's account so I created my Imakequilts account. And by the way Imakequilts was after I had tried like 20 other gamer tags. It was out of desperation that I ended up with that for my gamer tag." DD: "Now that's the answer I was looking for. You've had a long history in gaming, I had no idea. By the way, imakequilts is a great name because it's simple and cool. So with that all being said, how'd you come across the site?" IMQ: "Absolute Dog is the one that told me about the site. Back when he first joined he told everyone he came in contact with about the site. I could tell how excited he was about it so I came over to check it out. Back then I just read a lot and did not post much. It was one of Choot'em's puzzles that got me really involved in the site. He drove me totally crazy trying to figure out those puzzles. I did eventually figure out one of them but that was after weeks of spending hours trying to figure it out." DD: "I know that you and Choot 'em are actually good friends on the site and have been for a while, you've even sent him a quilt! But who else besides Choot and Dog did you connect with early on in your membership?" IMQ: "Well it depends on what you mean by connected. I remember having a lot of respect for KAC31, The Director, skummgummigubbe, Azaxx and Donut for their maps in the forge contest I participated in and I enjoyed playing on their maps during the play dates. I added Spades N AZ to my list of friends because I was joining in on play dates and he was fun to hang out with. I remember having a great time with the play dates AgentLoFi hosted. I did not like DoctorB77 because he slaughtered me in a 1v1 tournament. And for the record I like DoctorB77 just fine now but that was just my first real encounter with him and no one likes to be beaten badly. I always enjoyed getting a friendly note from ZB-85 in the shout box whenever I would get on it. I remember being totally shocked to win my second forge contest because I really did not have any “close” friends on the site to boost my votes by popularity so people must have really liked my Quilting Bee Map. I could go on with all the people I've connected with as I have come across a lot of people in my time on here but I think you get the idea." DD: "I voted for Quilting Bee to win in the Heads Up Tournament Forge Contest! Great map. So are you a Forger? Do you like making Forge maps in your time on Halo?" IMQ: "I do like to forge. I don't have a lot of time for it but when I can get some quality time I enjoy it. I can say I enjoyed forging more than playing Reach. Not had much time to work on forge in halo 4 yet. I'm working on my first project there but I'm not sure I'm enjoying the forge in Halo 4." DD: "Yes I have to say Halo 4 Forge is very intricate and all but Reach's was full and easy to learn. I was alright when Forging in Halo: Reach but in 4 I'm just lost haha. So quilts, could you explain how becoming the head of Promotions and Events came into your view?" IMQ: "Well Dan I'm not really sure how I ended up in this position. I have been involved in participating in quite a few of the contest of the site and play dates for most of my time on here. I have come up with some ideas and events that I passed on to Absolute Dog. And he took some of those ideas and made something of some of them. I came up with the idea of Survivor Halo Style and I was involved in making it become a reality. I did a lot of the forge work on the maps and hosted a few of them, but only when I had to because hosting is not my thing. One day I told Absolute Dog that he needed to fix the contest and events forum and instead of pinning so much stuff come up with one thread to list the events so it would be easier to see what was really going on. He said something along the lines of why don't you do it. I actually thought he was just telling me to mind my own business. But he came back to it a few times. Actually when he asked me it was during a really busy time for my quilting and it was a couple of months later before I could even consider it. I eventually agreed to do the position with the understanding that I was not hosting events but just organizing them." DD: "And a great job you do at it. Your job is not easy for all the readers reading this that think it is haha. So speaking of events, are there any ideas floating for the new event for the first weekend of March?" IMQ: "Yes there are ideas floating around for 1st weekend in March." DD: "So they're being kept under wraps? I like surprises! I can't wait to see what'll come up on that weekend. Quilts is it true that you have the ability to appoint awards to members yourself?" IMQ: "Well we have finally finalized the details of the first weekend in March and you will be the first person I tell about it. It will be an awesome custom game play date in Halo 4. Lets just say that Absolute Dog has been collecting maps that will be worth everyone's time to come out and see and play! As for the awards yes I do give out the awards for the play dates and Spades custom game nights." DD: "Incredible!! I'm very honored actually that I'm the first outside of the events group to know! And now our readers will know soon so I guess a thread should be posted about the new event soon . Well imakequilts this has actually been really fantastic. A great interview, you've had quite the story to tell. So now quilts I ask you the final question I ask all my interviewees: What advice or words of wisdom do you have for our newer members and readers?" IMQ: "Well Dan. We are here on this site because we love to talk about halo and other video games. I just have one word of advice. Let's not take so much time talking about the video games that we forget to PLAY the video games." Quilts had some excellent answers to my questions and she could really tell a story. If you're reading this and want to get to know imakequilts more, ATTEND SOME PLAY DATES. Thanks quilts for taking time out of your schedule to do the interview and thank you 343i.org. Let's hope my next interviewee responds this month. Hail

The prodigal son has returned! ...For this interview. Ok this has been put off for some time. It was a masterpiece and everyone knows masterpieces take time. I don't think I've been so honored to interview anyone else to be honest. I love all my interviewees equally, I just have always looked up to Absolute Dog since I joined practically. Thank you all for being patient and enjoy the long, long... long read. DD: "My first question has to be: How are you? How are things since you've made your departure from the site?" AD: "I am good Dan. I have been enjoying spending more quality time with my girl friend, friends and family. It has meant a lot to me. This time has also allowed me to enjoy some other activities such as spending time with some new neighbors, gaming a little more than I had for a while and basically having some quality "me" time." DD: "That's fantastic to hear though and I know that's something everyone's dying to know. It's always great to have time to do what you want to do. You were more than just a member here, it was almost surprising that your name was not in orange. What do you miss most about the site?" AD: "I miss being an active moderator. I always considered myself a member that was given the opportunity to serve this community and I completely enjoyed sharing my humor, thoughts and ideas here. I spent a lot of my time reading and watching for trends in the forum. This allowed me to see what was important to the community as a whole, not just those who yelled the loudest or most frequently. I payed attention to the members who were here to read and become informed, rewarded those who truly had a genuine interest in advancing the forum to new heights and promoted the few who I saw to have qualities I felt this forum needed or were unique to the forum. I truly miss serving the members with my style of leadership. As far as my name being orange, I assume you mean Site or "Super" Moderator. It was never a goal of mine. To be honest, it was never a goal to be a moderator. The position came as a surprise and I came close to turning it down. Besides, I feel a Community Moderator has a much better opportunity to serve the members. I respect what Jester does in his position, he will always be one of the few friends on the site that understands what this means, but working directly with the community is much more rewarding to me." DD: "I can completely understand that, and I miss yours and Jester's humors when they are brought together. You are both funny alone but when you guys were together on something, it's hilarious. You've been popping in for a bit now, do you like what you're seeing with the site since your absence? It was a very big deal when you left that hit hard believe it or not with many people who you think might not have even known you. Has it changed a lot since?" AD: "Being here with and working with Jester was so much fun. We have had so many laughs publicly and behind the scenes. He is truly the most fun member to call a friend. He knew what it was like to be a Community Moderator and I knew he understood what I was going through when it was basically just me managing a lot of the day to day aspects of the forum. I was very lonely as a moderator for a long time when he left the forum to spend time with his family. His understanding is what formed such a strong bond as both a friend and fellow moderator. I owe a lot to Jester and his wife. I miss the award that she presented me with........... I do pop in from time to time on this account, sometimes I come to the site as a guest to be completely anonymous. I have mostly enjoyed seeing the new changes. I have seen some members step up and do their best to further the experience of this forum and like most of the new features that have been incorporated into the site. There were a couple things removed that still bother me, but not being here to voice my opinion or work through the issues negates me mentioning them. I knew the impact of my leaving the site would have some kind of an affect. Not to be self serving, it is just that I had been here for so long and been such a dominant figure within the forum. The feeling of leaving the site pained me in a way that is hard to explain and I spent a few weeks agonizing over the decision. I guess in a way I am proud to see the impact my presence had here. I have seen members that barely knew me feel my presence and new members wonder who I was. To answer you directly, Jester and I managed the site as a team. It worked and worked well. My leaving, in a since leaving him alone, did mean there were going to be changes. That is the natural progression." DD: "How do you feel about members who literally praise you, even though they were not here the same time you were, getting excited that they post right under you? (Not naming any names )" AD "I have wondered about that myself. It is our nature to praise people in society seen for doing good deeds that we have never met. I guess I see it for what it is depending on the member. I can only assume that some are seeing or feeling the communities overall sentiments and responding to that. Others may just want to feel some type of inclusion to a moment that had an impact here. Some others may be doing for reasons that are not positive and I think the community can see the different types of praise for what it is." DD: "A most noble and modest answer, I wasn't expecting anything less from you haha. You know I wanted to save this question but I need to know, what is your future on the site?" AD: "My future on this remains to be seen. As of this interview, the news of Jester's departure as the site moderator changes what I had planned to do. I will talk with Jester and Twam to see what they feel may be needed from me and if I feel capable and prepared to do it." DD: "I'm seriously going to miss Jester's name being in orange when it appears in the shoutbox. If Twam and Jester need it AD, would you be up for being a Moderator again? And a complementary question would be: Would you have the time to be a Moderator again?" AD: "If I took a moderator position again it would be because I have the time and desire to do it. Sorry, but that is all I will say until I have talked to some people I need to. I want to see this forum not only survive, but flourish. In my eyes certain things need to happen to continue to grow the site, keep the family feeling that has been part of it from the beginning and to allow this forum to be inclusive of all types of members. I have seen trends both good and bad in the forum since I have been a member and moderator. The key role of a moderator, to me, (aside from the daily maintenance) is to ensure that all members, new and old, have a voice and that they get a fair opportunity to voice their opinions, wants, desires, and dislikes whether they are popular or not. I have a feeling I will do what is needed for the forum." DD: "Yes I remember back when you were a Moderator that you would defend the opinions of those that you might not have even agreed on. That's a very important aspect of our site. I'm extremely pleased with the moderating team we have right now, all are funny, nice, and rule-abiding/enforcing members. Not too strict but never too lenient. Do you think that without Jester there will still be a need for an extra Moderator? Or do you think that with the way things are going that we are very capable of maintaining the site's integrity and standards?" AD: "As far as needing another moderator, I suppose that will depend on whether the super moderator is promoted from within or brought in from outside. The physical running of the site, from a moderators perspective, is not what is hard. It can be learned in due time. It is having the right person/personality in place that can make a marked difference. I think if the mods we have now are active and engaging with the community there would be no need for another community mod. The super/site mod has to be filled. They are an integral part of the functioning of the site. They also tend to have the final word on any issue that arises and have to be able to bear the responsibility of the position seriously and contemplate their decisions fully." DD: "Wow I really did not know all of that about the Site Moderator position. Truthfully I think we'd all love it to be you. What do you think this site needs besides a Site Moderator or what do you think the community needs to do in order to keep this site as great as it was when you and Jester were on together?" AD: "The site has always been dependent on a a good group of Community Moderators and an active membership. I do not want to sound self serving at all, but what happened during the period of Jester's and my roles as leaders in the community is it's own. We were not the only ones responsible for what happened during that period. There were certain members, events and evolutions of the forum that took place during our time together. Our friendship, mutual respect for each other, experiences in life and the members that founded and grew this forum to what it is now are all part of what made this period so fun and interesting. I hope that the forum will see many periods such as this in it's future. I could image a day when Azaxx and Shadow run the show, well....at least some time after they begin shaving. The moderators we have now are the future of the forum and their lineage is yet to be seen. Jester and I may well end up as a foot note in some forgotten archive that records the history of this site. Who knows. The community needs to be a "community". I have worked hard with members to let them see that all opinions, wants and hopes of any member be given it's place here. I truly despised seeing a new member come in here and be attacked because they wanted Halo 4 to be more like Halo 3 or Halo 2 than Reach. It reminds me of the fan boys of Bungie.net. Skillfully crafted responses that carry that same urbane shine that still impune the OP or their opinion with kind words. We have to be inclusive and tolerant of all types Halo related discussion or risk becoming what we once despised in other forums. Take a moment, I mean take a quiet and clear moment, and sit back and look at the forum. This is your home, your living room, your bedroom, your house. We have decorated it with color, shown your achievements for all to see, stored your history...your words, given you the opportunity for to not only share your ideas and opinions, but a place to listen to others. It was never intended to become a haven of like minded members. It was created for all of those who have anything they want to share about Halo to come and do so. That is what will keep this site great." DD: "God you are smart. We really do miss the hell out of you here just for the way you act in situations such as one where you get a person who has uncommon beliefs and is swarmed by other members. And we've never been that kind of forum, we call ourselves the 'friendliest corner of the Halo Universe' but at the same time we're slowly moving towards what we do not like. We defend senior members and members we are friends with whether they are right or wrong instead of doing the right thing and we're quick to ban those that "annoy" us even if they haven't broken the rules per se. You're exactly right. You've stayed with this forum, this family, for almost a year now. What has kept you returning and so dedicated to this site?" AD: "There have been a few reasons that held me here. The first thing that comes to mind reading the question was the friends I made early on here. John, Vitamin, Valentine, Silverado, eliteultra, Kurt and Doc were all part of my circle of friends and we had a blast bouncing ideas off of each other, hanging out in the box talking and scouring the internet for any information about HCEA and Halo 4. John always found the best information back then. After that, it just became the place I wanted to hang out when I wasn't playing Halo or working. We had formed some early bonds of friendships and all of us had this common love for Halo, talking about it and trying to see if we could come up with the next great idea for the game. We became a family. Later I became concerned more with the Halo community and how we interact with each other and even more so, how we acted with each other on this site. During a long period of very little information, I saw our numbers begin to dwindle and that is when I began to work with Jester to try and figure out ways to keep the site growing and retain it's members. Soon after that I was installed as a moderator and from then on it was serving the forum and it's members that fueled my fire. Jesters and Twams belief in me along with Jesters and Choot 'em's friendship is what truly pulled me through the tough times when I was burning out. Choot 'em was just what I needed at a crucial time and his departure from the staff hit me very hard. I can never thank him enough for the energy he gave me and our friendship continues solid to this day. Sometimes you do not realize what you have.....what something really means to you until it is gone. Fortunate are the ones who keep what they love or have the chance to find that love again. Absolute Dog" DD: "Absolute Dog, what is your advice to all the member of the forums?" AD: "Treat others as you would want them to treat you and do what you truly think is right." If you didn't like this and thought it was definitely worth the wait then I have no words for you. Thank you Absolute Dog the absolutest of all dogs. We all miss you and are waiting to see your future here on the site. Thank you 343i Community Forums for just being the best. Hail PEACE!

This interview I was very pleased with because it gives the view of the site through the eyes of one of the members of our site's affiliates: The Halo Forge Epidemic. It also gives the background on THFE and why they decided to be a part of the 343i Community Forums. So please enjoy this one like I did: DD: "Where does your name Psychoduck originate from? How'd you think of it?" PD: "I came up with the moniker "Psychoduck" in sixth grade when I got my first game platform (the original Xbox) and needed a cool name to play Star Wars Battlefront under. It has no relation to the Pokemon." DD: "So this name is a long time running name, that's cool! What does your title, 'The Competitive Host', mean in The Halo Forge Epidemic." PD: "Well, at The Halo Forge Epidemic (THFE for short), we try to cover the full spectrum of Halo's forge mode. This means covering all types of maps, from Flood to Dominion. The group of maps I cover are competitive ones. This includes any map designed to play standard game modes like Slayer, CTF, etc. I am in charge of selecting high quality competitive maps to feature, as well as creating forge tutorials that relate to competitive maps." DD: "Ah very cool, you have a really important job then . Had you ever heard of the site before THFE became a major group on it?" PD: "I hadn't actually heard of 343i Community Forum until we began negotiating our partnership. I'm not quite sure how I missed it." DD: "We were about 2.5 times smaller when you guys had joined than what we are now and a lot of members stumbled upon this site when joining so it's understandable that you missed it. What influenced the partnership between THFE and 343iCF?" PD: "The partnership was brought about due to several factors. Mainly, we needed a place to send our fans for discussion and to organize map submissions to make them easier to sift through. This site not only provided us with those functions, but also acts as a friendly forum base to work with. After Oakley started sleeping with AD, everything just fell into place. " DD: "Finally after 4 questions you show a sense of humor! Well we're really dishing out the hot gossip here now aren't we? Oakley and AD, who would've known! . Well we were all very excited when we heard about joining of The Halo Forge Epidemic. So about Forge in general, what do you think of Halo 4's Forge? Do you have a wishlist for it? (For all the Forgers and artists out there who want to know from a professional's point of view .)" PD: "Well, I think that one-price Shmeefs is pretty much all Forge needs... But, in all seriousness, I am pretty happy with Halo 4's forge. The omission of precision editting and zoom are saddening, and the camera controls in general as well as the rotation snap and magnets could certainly all function a bit better. Overall, though, I think it's great. The dynamic lighting system is awesome, the canvas maps provide a lot of variety, and object textures are pretty nifty this time around. I do wish that the rumored jumbo coliseum wall was included, but other than that my only qualm is performance issues which should be a thing of the past on next generation hardware. It couldn't hurt to have a few more large pieces to use for flooring on BTB maps, but the current limitations keep us on our toes." DD: "That's good to hear, so Forge is still getting better then! Alright, how long has THFE been together? Are you an original member?" PD: "THFE has been around since April of 2011, back when it was just Darth Human and Bevans Law working out of Darth's bedroom. It wasn't long before Oakley was brought on, but I didn't join until a bit later on in January of 2012. My first video was feature number 44 back in Reach." DD: "Very interesting stuff! So how big is your team?" PD: "Well, we have sort of a core team of a few of us with a few dingleberry people hanging around on occasion. The core group is Oakley HiDef and myself backed by Mr. Pokephile, Able SirThomas, RLD HotTamale, and A J Yusi." DD: "That's quite a team you got there on THFE. So you're now listed as an official affiliate of 343i Community Forums, do you ever think about becoming more active on the site like posting outside of The Halo Forge Epidemic forums, using the shoutbox, maybe even attending playdates or competing in community Forge contests?" PD: "I've been fairly active in the chatbox here, but frankly I don't have a ton of time to look around the forums here. I appreciate the services we get out of the site, but I just don't always have time to fully explore everything this place has to offer. I host my own customs quite regularly, so I don't really like being constrained by the schedule of official playdates. Of course, it's always a possibility." DD: "The Halo 4 Playdate went really well and we'd all love to see you and other members of THFE at our playdates. Are there any members outside of your group that you are pretty good friends with on the site?" PD: "Oh I've made a few friends on the site like Cooltest Rap, Robius, Archy, etc. I'm sure some of us will make it to a game night some time." DD: "That'd be excellent! So Psychoduck, it's been great. Do you have any tips, tricks, or advice for the up and coming Forgers out there that want to reach your status in Forgery?" PD: "My only advice is to spend time to learn about forge. Look at tried and true maps and learn from them. Be open to criticism, and spend the time needed to fix issues brought to your attention. Of course watching THFE videos can always be helpful too!" And that's your fix of insight from THFE's Psychoduck! Thank you Psychoduck for taking the time out to do one of these with me. Make sure this man is awarded! Thank you 343i Community Forums for being awesome and supporting these I'm grateful to you all.

After I interviewed THFE's Psychoduck I thought it was about damn time to interview one of the site's most important, most memorable members: The Director. Great Moderator and member overall. Please read and enjoy: DD: "What is your name's origin sir?" D: "Well, originally my username was AAN2, which is both my gamertag and initials. However, AAN2, while memorable, is a bit lackluster. So I decided to go with a character from everyone's favorite webseries Red vs Blue. Everyone went for Church, Sarge, Grif, Caboose, etc. but no one went for two of the more important characters in the series. The Councillor and The Director. The reason I say they are more important than most characters is simply because if it wasn't for them, nothing that happened in RvB would have happened. So I changed from AAN2 to The Councillor, but then had two realizations. One, I didn't really like his personality, it wasn't really a match for mine. Two, there weren't any pictures of him... So I went with The Director, and it has served me well for over a year. lol" DD: "And a very respectable name at that! People see The Director and they automatically respect you. I'm gonna go out on a limb at the risk of embarrassment that that's what I kinda did . So Director how long have you been a Moderator for our site?" D: "About five months now. Give or take a week or two. lol" DD: "5 months and 2 weeks but who's counting right? . So you've been a member for well over a year now and you've been active for a very good percentage of that time. In fact for as long as I've been here I've only seen you go inactive once and I've been here a year now. You've been here since before the blue background, before the shoutbox, and before all the Staff positions that are available today. What do you think of the site's exponential growth and changes?" D: "The site has gone through 3 background changes (x-box background, white background, blue background) and now has so many members that it's mind-boggling. We are nearly at 50k members now, you know. We've come so far and done so much. It gives me a sense of pride to know that in some small way I've contributed to such an amazing community, and I believe that we'll get even more amazing. It's been a long, strange journey, and it's not done yet. lol" DD: "I believe you on that last line haha and you have contributed a great deal to this site. Just by being a Moderator. Now what took you so long to accept the Moderating position??" D: "Lmao that implies that I was offered the position every other week. xD But yeah, I have always known that being a moderator isn't easy, no matter what you are a moderator of. And the more people, the more difficult it is. You've got to make calls that aren't popular, and have to be prepared to take the flak for it. You've got to be prepared to ban people that you get along with if they refuse to follow the rules, you've got to be prepared to turn the other cheek to opinions that you don't agree with, and you've got to be prepared to spend a ton of time on the site. lol I have already been a moderator of a pretty popular IRC server, so I already had some experience with how difficult being a moderator was and therefor avoided ever taking the position. But when AD asked me if I wanted to become a moderator, I had already done pretty much all that I could for the site. Things were getting pretty mundane for me, and I hated that. I love this site, and feeling bored of it to me would be comparable of being bored in a marriage (feels wise, not that I'm married to the site wise lmao). I thought about it for a while, and realized that not only would I be able to help people (which is something that I like to do), but I would also be helping to keep the forum clean, tidy, and friendly. So I sucked it up and said yes, and I'd have to say that while it is difficult at times, it's something that I enjoy doing." DD: "Great answer Director . I always say this but it's true: I love to see that kind of spirit in the 343 Community Forum Staff. It's what keeps this place going. So what's one interesting site related fact you can provide for the readers?" D: "Oh? Why just one? lmao http://www.343indust...-did-you-knows/" DD: "Ah I was actually hoping you'd bring up one of your great threads! I was expecting you to bring up 'Ask The Director' to be honest haha. The 343i Did You Knows thread is a great one and I hope all of you take time to read it after reading this. Director is true that you were the first non Staff member to obtain the Notoriety Award?" D: "Actually, if I recall correctly that was a tie between a couple of members, including Azaxx. lol However, I was the first non-staff member to receive an award. I just happened to be in the shoutbox while Twam was testing them out. lmao And for about a month I was the only member on the forum to have two "trusted" awards. lol I was also the first person to get the Good Samaritan award. And the "Ask The Director" thread is currently on the sidelines until such a time that I have a bunch of free time on my hands again. Lately I've been pretty swamped with work, moderating, and a semi-serious back injury. However, in another couple of weeks I will have a lull in my work-load, so I might unlock the thread so members can once again attempt to stump me. Until then, if anyone wants to view the thread it's located in my 'About Me' on my user profile." DD: "You have a lot of history on this site Director, truly. Are there any awards that you miss that have been removed?" D: "I don't really miss any awards, but the "Quantity not Quality" award was pretty funny. If I remember right, it was removed because it was seen as awarding people who spammed their post count to get higher forum ranks." DD: "I remember that award, and there was also its counterpart 'Quality Not Quantity'. Can you recall the most memorable time you've had on this forum? If not at least one very memorable moment?" D: "I've had a bunch of memorable times on this forum. One of them was definitely the time that a lot of us were roleplaying in the shoutbox. I decided to jump in at random, and in most people's opinion I completely stole the show. Another time was when Ashlynn and I went on a spree of innuendo that lasted nearly the entire night, without actually saying anything that was bad. xD And one more was the few months that Azaxx and I were competing over absolutely everything. Post count, awards, likes, you name it we competed on it. It was taken more seriously by other members than it was by us, though, and there were some people who called us out on our "oneupsmanship". The thing is though, from that competition between Azaxx and I came some threads that were pretty helpful, both by him and I. That's the nature of competition for you. Even though on the surface it appears cutthroat and brutal, out of the smoke comes the finely forged products of people pitting their wills against each other. lol There are many, many more, but those are the ones that pop into my head at the moment. Basically my entire year and seven months here has been memorable." DD: "That all sounds hilarious and I remember vividly when you and Azaxx were competing for who would get to post count first and I'm still not sure who reached it first? I think you both did it literally in the same minute . So what award are you most proud of that you've gained?" D: "Difficult decision, considering the amount that I have. xD I think it is a tie between the Choot 'em award, The Dog, Pizza?, and the well-spoken/quality posts awards. When I got the well-spoken award, I had quite a few posts, so most people assumed that I did what other members did at the time (i.e. frequent the offbeat forum, if you know what I mean). So getting the well-spoken award (along with the quality posts award) did a lot to deter those rumors. The other ones are just testaments to things I've accomplished, I guess, but I'm still very proud to have received them." DD: "Well Director believe it or not, I can't really believe it myself, but we are about done with this interview and it's time for your final questions. Do you have any advice for the great members of the forums? Do you have anything else you want to say in general? By the way you hold the record for second fastest interview, runner up to ZB." D: "Hmm... How about something like, "Remember remember, everyone is a member." That basically means that no matter how high up the totem pole you are, the rules still apply to you. Except Twam, because he can make a rule saying the rules don't apply to him, but that's neither here nor there. lol As a matter of fact, we are usually a bit harsher with dedicated/staff members than with normal/trusted members because dedicated/staff members are supposed to be role models for the newer members. As for the speed of the interview, what can I say. I have experience answering questions. lol" Great parting words from the great Director! Heed those words members! And it's true, he holds the record for second fastest interview not that they're races but he just shot back as soon as I shot. We started this 2 days ago . Thank you Director for your time. Please look out for the next one!

Back on schedule I have another interview here for us all. This was one I was wanting to do for some time and I felt he would have a good story to tell. I was right! So everyone please read what went on in my interview with Smokin Shadowz: DD: "Ok where does the name Smokin Shadowz come from?" SS: "Me and my friend were both playing gears sitting in the dark and somebody else was lighting incense in the room and I could see the shadow of the smoke from the tv light, then it just came to me." DD: "I could imagine that now, that's pretty cool haha. Are Gears and Halo part of your favorite game franchises? What are your favorites?" SS: "Gears and Halo are definitely some of my favorites. But my favorite by far would have to be the Elder Scrolls franchise. Everything about the world just pulls me in, every game I've played to the books I've read, they really immerse me into their story. After that it would probably be GTA series...love the open world realism in those game." DD: "Two excellent game series . I love GTA. So Smokin Shadowz you've been here a while and in the forum's new era, not many people know you used to be a member of the Staff here. Could you inform the readers of what position you served while you were here and how you gained that position?" SS: "Well, I was in the news group when it was just a thread section on the page before it was the front page of the site. I got the position by posting articles I found interesting in the some of the forums. By then Archangel Tyrael noticed this and showed me a more proper way of doing such, and said I could get on the news team if I continued, so he was a big help of doing so. Reason's for leaving was I couldn't dedicate a enough time until I came back. But it was well enjoyed." DD: "Saw right through to my next question! We all love to see that kind of good spirit in our past and present Staff members here on the forums . So do you ever think about being back on Staff if given the chance Smokin?" SS: "That I have. I would love to be back on the staff if given the chance, now that I have time to dedicate to it. But if not, I'm just happy being a member of this community and I'll continue to enjoy my time here as well." DD: "Again showing good sport and I love it . So what is it you like to do when you're not on the site enjoying being a member?" SS: "Well other then playing games a lot I usually spend most of my time with friends or out fishing, just being outdoors is nice. But during football season I'm usually watching every single game I can find. Beside that I may read a book or watch a few episodes of whatever series is on tv at the moment that I'm into." DD: "You live very laid back, I think that's very cool. What influenced your custom member title, 'Forum Ninja'?" SS: "Thanks. Good question as well. No real story behind this one. I just wanted a unique identity for the community, so after thinking for a while that's what I came up with. And every time I introduced myself in the shoutbox I always used when I came in so I figured it was a good fit, plus who hasn't wanted to be a ninja at one point in their life time ." DD: "That's very true. I think everyone, guy or girl, wants to be a ninja secretly if ever given the chance . So do you have any goals you'd like to achieve here on the site at some point?" SS: "It would be nice to get a legendary member title over time, or even become a moderator to help the site more. But I'm fine with just being here honestly. Having my very own award to give out with be kinda cool to, maybe give people a reason to be better on the site or have a goal of their own." DD: "Top notch answer Smokin Shadowz, very modest and charismatic . What were your impressions of the site when you first joined? Did you ever think you'd get a Staff job?" SS: "I actually thought I had a chance at becoming a Staff member after the first week of being on here. If I did well enough and took my time and earned it of course. My honest first impression on here was "Sweet! They have chatbox for you to talk on." But the thing that I really noticed about the site was the play dates and how active the members were. I remember my first play date on this site was the first week I had joined!" DD: "And were there any members you really looked up to or still do look up to?" SS: "GSD was probably the member that I looked up to the most, just because he did everything well and usually was quiet and stayed out of trouble. He would play with anybody that would add him. Just seemed like a generally nice person and a good moderator. Always would let me join his games or join mine when I invited him." DD: "I've always been a big fan of GSD , he is a great Moderator with a great sense of humor. So Smokin Shadowz it's been great but we have to conclude our interview. Do you have any words of wisdom for our newer members on the site?" SS: "Been a good interview. And to any newer members just try and enjoy it to the best of your ability and stay within the rules and you should enjoy this community just as much as I have. :ninja:" That's all folks! Thank you Smokin Shadowz for complying, it really was a fun interview and we all got to know a little more about you after reading this. Guys, Smokin Shadowz: get to know him. Fun loving gamer who's also very dedicated to the site. Thank you 343i.org and watch out for the next one!

Hello everyone and thank you for tuning into the 22nd installment of Interviews with Stars of the Community. These have come a long way I didn't really think I'd make this many to be honest. I was worried people would get bored but the support I get keeps these coming all the time. Anyway let's get on to what went on in a really great interview I had with senior member: SuperIntendant! DD: "So what's the story about your intrigue with Super Intendent from Halo 3: ODST?" SI: "I actually did not play very much of ODST's campaign, I mostly played firefight. Despite that I always thought he was a pretty cool little side character. The idea for my name actually came from a parody thread on bungie.net which involved taking the SuperIntendent (who was a button) hostage. I just so happened to read that at the same time I wanted a new name and had a eureka moment." DD: "That's a very funny name-origin story haha are you still an active member on bungie.net now or any other forums for that matter?" SI: "I still go on Bungie.net from time to time, but not that much any more. Currently my main 3 forums are Reddit, here, and Battlelog which is the Battlefield 3 forum." DD: "Here? I hardly catch you on here! Maybe I'm not looking hard enough haha I remember when your name used to show up in the shoutbox all the time, around the time when I first joined. Back then your name was cyan colored. Would you mind sharing your history on Staff and what it was like then?" SI: "Well, I'm planning to change that, haha. I really enjoyed my time as staff on here. It was really fun to be a part of the inner workings of the site. I first got the position as part of a competition to fill two more News Group slots. You had to submit a review of a game and based on how well it was written, amongst other factors, you would be either accepted or declined. I was one of the two people who got the position and was part of it for a few months. Unfortunately some things from my personal life ended up getting in the way and I was mostly inactive for about a month and lost the position because of that." DD: "I do remember that. I was so shocked to not see your name in that color anymore. Do you have a most proud piece of news that you've shared or newsworthy story that you're most proud of?" SI: "My most memorable moment was when several people were complaining about not being able to watch an interview about Halo 4 on G4, so as it aired I took out my phone and recorded the whole thing. I had it edited, up on YouTube, and posted on here within 10 minutes of it airing. The quality was absolutely horrible, but it got the job done. As for a favorite story, I don't really have one, I liked them all equally ." DD: "Yes you did do that! I watched your phone video because I was one of those people who missed it and was complaining . So what do you do mainly when you're not frequenting the site?" SI: "School work mostly, also xbox live and PC gaming." DD: "Schoolwork can get very time consuming that's something I know firsthand. Do you have a favorite memory on the site? You've been a member for over a year now so I'm sure it'd be hard to think of haha" SI: "I think that would have to be the origin of Twammybear. Father Bullet was the one who first used it, and I've since adopted it. I remember that I was actually crying from laughing so hard, it wasn't so much the term that was funny more of the context it was used in. We were talking about something rather serious, like that huge spam bot problem we had around September of 2011 and he was making a very serious statement and he just used it in the middle of the statement like it was nothing." DD: "TWAMMYBEAR? That name alone is seriously funny . Over time how have you seen this community change SI and what is your opinion of the change?" SI: "As with any community I have seen people come and go, it's just a natural process. The biggest change has been from being that small website that people accidentally stumbled upon while trying to find Waypoint(that's how I got here ) to a forum consisting of more than 50,000 members, and that was amazing to watch. We went from being the small neighborhood in the suburbs where everyone knows each other to being the city itself. My opinion on the change is that it has its ups and downs, more members mean more opinions and a much more diverse community, but it also means that you stop knowing everyone on a more personal basis." DD: "I think that was one of the best answers I've ever gotten to one of my questions in any interview. By the way that's how I ended up here too but I couldn't be more glad to land here than there . I agree with you 1000% on everything you know we used to be so small and everyone was active and everyone knew everyone and now we're more than twice what we were maybe 6 months ago. It's pretty incredible. So when you first started on the site August of 2011 who were some names that you connected with and saw a lot?" SI: "When I first started I connected to Spectral Jester the most, I'm not quite sure why, I just did. Later when I started posting more and figured out my place here I started to become more connected with One, AD, Twinreaper, Choot 'em, and just about all of the really active members. I don't really remember who the most active members were, for a while I had the highest post count just about every day and second to me was Spectral." DD: "Really? And was the Top Dog Award still available at that time (award for having highest post count)? Those are some of the biggest names on the forum right now and it's cool to say that you were there when it was all starting. And did you and Jester ever compete for posts or did you just post in things you were interested in?" SI: "Well, I'm talking about before we had the award system. Some of the time I'm talking about was before we even had the new layout and we were still on the temporary white one. For me it was a little of both, I liked the idea of competition, but I would only post in things I was interested in. As for Spectral, I don't think he even knew I thought we were competing ." DD: "Wow I totally forgot that that summer didn't have the awards system yet and they didn't come for another half a year. That must be a very cool feeling to say you were there when there were no awards, no banner, no blue space background, no shoutbox. So Mr. SuperIntendant this interview was absolutely fantastic. Do you have any words of wisdom to provide to the newer members on the site?" SI: "Never be afraid to give your opinion, don't be afraid to talk ask questions, and keep it clean!" I sincerely hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did, it was truly a great interview. Thank you SuperIntendant for agreeing to be interviewed and thank you 343i Community once again for you support. This was another member who posted in their signature font style which I'm thankful for . I hope this is the start of SI re-frequenting the forum again. Look out for the next one!

This was an interview that I originally thought I had been blown off on but it turned out John was just busy and read it late and by that time I had already had another interviewee lined up so I promised him I would make it up to him this week. It really was a fantastic interview and I had so much fun that we went above 10 questions but I'm only posting 10 for your guys' sakes haha. Here is, John-117: DD: "Why is your member title: 'A.I.'?" 117: "You see Drizzy, my title is 'A.I.' because an A.I. is artificial intelligence that has the power to find things that humans cannot see. When I got near my later days of News Group, I asked for that title because I think and act like an A.I. I am able to find news that other people could never find or know about no matter how hard they tried. Take Halo 4's Forge for example, they are planning to reveal that at RTX or Comic Con, they are trying to decide which venue would fit is best. I learned that info from going to places people wouldn't normally go for info. That's why my title is, 'A.I.'" DD: "I love it! I hope everyone gets a look at this interview because that right there is important news! So what was the cycle of your jobs in the Community Staff? Where did you start and what other positions have you gone through before you became our new Youtube Channel Co-Ordinator?" 117: "Well, I started as a basic user like everyone else (excluding Twam). I began my first two weeks on the site as just your everyday poster, that is when I decided I wanted to be more than that. I decided I wanted to be helpful to the site. I thought, it's not what the site can do for me but, what can I do for the site? That is when I decided to created a post under announcements to act as a HUB for all Halo info. I of course followed the procedure and reached 200 posts and became a Trusted Member. I then began talking to Twam. After many long personal messages back and forth to each other, he and I finally came to an agreement. That is when the News Group was created. I then held that job for about 3 months and the site continued to increase. That is when Fire, took a league of absence and we needed someone to take over his duties of Community Moderator. I (being the clever man that I am) teamed up with my good friend Vitamin PWN and created a viral campaign on the site for me to take over Fire's position. It was crazy! I know for a fact Twam got a little mad at it but, I can tell somewhere inside him, he was impressed with how I will stick to my dream until I achieve it. I then got promoted to a community moderator. I was also happy that Vitamin got to join me as one also! About two months later, the site had grown a lot! The thing was, we had too much staff, that is when Twam gave me an honorable discharge from the position and kept the two more active people while promoting Spectral Jester to Moderator. I then took my own league of absence from the site because of personal issues. I got to the point to where I lost everything. I lost my girl friend, my job, my house, everything! I then took a small life journey and found out how to live my life the good right way, through Jesus Christ. Anyways, I make my return and everyone still accepts me with open arms. That is when I realize this is more than just a site, it is my home. Everyone on the site is family, no matter if we get along or not. Back to the story, I then saw that we had a position for YouTube open and I decided what the heck, I should at least try! Turns out, Spectral and Twam being my two awesome friends, we're waiting to see if I was going apply. After seeing that I did, they knew I was good at what I do and promoted me to the position. That is how I got to where I am now." DD: "Original News Group member, Community Mod, and now our Youtube Co-Ordinator. You have a long history with Staff here and I feel like as long as there's a position open, there's a good chance you'll get it John. That was an interesting forum life story there, I read it all the way through. All the people you mentioned are fantastic members and great at what they do, Vitamin, Fire, Spectral, Twam (of course). When you were demoted from the Community Moderator position, were you surprised?" 117: "Yes, I was surprised but I was more disappointed than anything else. That is due to the fact that I realized I wasn't putting enough time into the site. It made me very angry also, that was a reason why I went off the radar for a while. Absolute Dog, being one of my best friends and my mentor, decided to talk to me a month after I left and just helped me with how I felt about it and everything else. Absolute is by far one of the wisest men I have ever met. He has plans, he will go very far in life! Anyway, he then persuaded me to come back. I agreed to it and started back up, I was still not as active and I know I could be more active now but I have a family to take care of now! I am very thankful that everyone welcomed me back with open arms, it means the world to me!" DD: "It was a surprise to us as well to see your name in normal Dedicated Member silver. I have to agree with you and I'm sure everyone else will too when you say AD is an amazing person. Not just member but person. So how many submissions have we had so far to the Youtube Channel and how many have made the cut?" 117: "So far I have had tons of videos sent in! Right now we currently have one up and it is our featured video! I am trying to take the time and look over every single one in detail to see if the followers on the channel would actually like the videos or not. Most people think that it is easy but, the process is actually very difficult. You have to narrow down the videos, check for anything that could possibly be added to it, get info for it, and then publish it! Not as easy as it looks if you ask me." DD: "I didn't know that, that does sound like a harder process than I originally thought. So you're working towards becoming a more active member now correct? How do you balance the time with your family and other real life needs with time on the forums?" 117: "I just try to be on the site whenever I can. Whether it be a the crack of dawn or in the middle of the day, I am always on, whether it says I am or not. I make time with the family by spending dinner with them, going to church with them, doing fun weekend activities with them, stuff like that." DD: "That's awesome John, truly. Which position were you most satisfied with on the site, if there was one (News, Mod, Comms, Member)?" 117: "Most people would say Community Moderator but I have to go with News Group. I love it there and would love to go back to that! It just gives me a certain feeling that none of the other positions give me!" DD: "I know you were able to play Halo 4 earlier this year and others may not know that. Could you tell the readers why you were able to do this?" 117: "Well you see my dad used for Microsoft, he was friends with many people there so I got lucky and we were able to contact one of his old friends and I was able to get my hands on a Halo 4. I was allowed to play one game of infinity's later on the map that is now known as Haven. The game looks a lot different since when I've played it most likely because they have been in update the build. I am very proud and pleased on how far Microsoft has come with Halo 4 so far from when I last played it." DD: "That is sick. I'm sorry if this leads to the flooding of your PM inbox John, but I thought it was an interesting thing for the readers to know. With all the positions you've held and how long you've been here, do you ever feel undercredited? Or are you just grateful to be apart of this community?" 117: "I don't feel undercreditied. I am just thankful to be apart of making the site what it is today and contributing to the future of the site. As you know, we have a couple of surprises for the site coming in the future! :)" DD: "That's right, there's much to look forward to in the future . What are your views on how the site's going at this point in time? If you read last week's you'd know that Twin believes it's going south, but how about you?" 117: "I actually think we are going 'North' so to say. HALO 4 IS COMING OUT PEOPLE! I have noticed an increase in activity and size due to that! I remember 6 months ago it was hard to have 130 member on, now our regular activity is from 436- 800, it's crazy that someone would say we're going South!" DD: "Well that was in terms of quality of members and activity, I saw Twin's points and in a way I agreed but not fully. He was right about the complaining needing to stop and us needing to be a better community and not a popularity contest and learning to accept everyone's opinions even if it is against Halo 4. What are your words of advice to the members of the site John?" 117: "My words of advice to the members would have to be, it's not what can the site do for you but, what can you do for the site. Always remember that." Thank you John for being so damn interesting I hope we can become better friends. And I know this was long readers but I hope you read through it because it's great! Thank you community for being awesome and supporting these. See ya next Tuesday!

These just keep getting later and later and I apologize for that. I'd say I'm about two behind right now and after this it'll probably be three. The end of the summer is very busy for me but I'm not thinking about leaving or even saying that I'm leaving and then returning that afternoon. After this week I should be on top of everything and back on the site regularly, it's already started a little now. Anyway these threads aren't about me. This thread is specifically about Insignia: Chief of the Art Department. Insignia reminded me just how fun these could be so everyone please enjoy this read: DD: "How did you come upon the name 'Insignia' for your username on the site?" IN: "Well, originally I used my Gamertag as my username which was CRS Caboose at the time, but upon seeing another member named Caboose in the shoutbox on my first day, to avoid any issues I changed it to a name I have often used on other sites; Insignia. To me, it seems artistic. Defined as a distinguishing sign.... Ironic in a way, as that is what I now do for people.... ;)" DD: "And you are great at what you do it's shown through all of your sig work. How long have you been practicing graphic design and what program do you use?" IN: "Thanks man, you flatter me. I started with design work back when I was in school (About 9 years ago). Can't remember the programs I used back then but as time has moved on I have become quite partial to Adobe Software and currently use a mixture of CS5 and CS6. Primarily After effects and Photoshop. However, every so often I will pull out some 3D software to aid in design. Zbrush or 3D Max. It's always useful to have access to 3D models. I haven't used those techniques for anything on here yet though as it can be incredibly time consuming and it has not really been necessary." DD: "That's pretty awesome I gotta say. So you are our sole member of the Art Department on the site. What do you think about getting a new partner to assist you?" IN: "Well, for the moment, even with work I am pretty confident that I can pull off pretty much anything thrown my way. The sig shop isn't overly busy and I can pretty much cover most requests during my time off work. However, as the site grows and we get more members, I think it would be pretty stupid of me if I was not to ask for help at least lol. So yeah, I am not opposed to having a partner at all. So long as they are willing to put the work in and are not just after the sexy green name I would also like to say thank you to Quantum in this answer aswell for all his help with the sig requests whilst I have been busy! A partner without the title lol." DD: "I think Quantum is a great member and I wouldn't mind seeing his name in our lima bean green color haha. I like your spirit when it comes to your job here, that you can take on any of the requests you are given. It's very admirable and sets a great example. So we've had yet another addition to Staff lately and that is the addition of Azaxx to our Communications team running the Facebook page. No doubt Azaxx is a great member and will have no problem with this job so I want to ask what your relationship is with Azaxx, are you guys good friends would you say or is he someone you would want to get to know more?" IN: "Aha! Azaxx! I knew it was only a matter of time! Let me assure you that Aza and myself know each other well enough. A great member, an amazing friend but most of all, My arch nemesis! That's right, our friendship is just a facade.... I know he is secretly plotting against me. A plan so devious it may even beat my own plot again..... I shouldn't have said that. You heard nothing! In all though, I do believe he will be a great asset. Until we declare WW3 between us hehe. ;)" DD: "Hahah that's great! Last interview I talked about how Spectral leaving affected a member now I want to ask you Insignia what you think now that he's back and in orange alongside Absolute Dog. How do you think things on the site will be from here on out?" IN: "Well, for the short while I have known him, I believe that Spectral, along side Dog, is one of the people who makes this place run smoothly. It's great seeing him back in action and I just know that the site can only get better. Each of the members here is like a finely tuned gear. Spectral and Dog are the guys that keep the gears maintained. One of the gears breaks... well, out comes the hammer hehe. That's just the way I look at it though. With Jester back we can look onward and upward. :D" DD: "And I'm right there with you on that. It makes me nostalgic to when I had first joined and they were always in the shoutbox making jokes and playing pranks on members. I just hope it goes back to that. So Insignia, what's your favorite thing going on on the site right now?" IN: "Haha yeah, I have fallen victim to the power they have before. My favorite thing going on on the site? That is a hard question to answer. I am pretty hyped about the SWAT playdate, given that I should be able to get Reach again tomorrow. Other than that, we are getting great new members, all eager to make the community a better place so the whole site and the way the community is growing has to be my favorite thing. It's always good to see these things grow, and it's an honor to be a part of it." DD: "One thing I love is progression and this site is progressing a lot. The SWAT Playdate is definitely something to be excited about haha. So let's talk about Halo 4 now, we've seen a pretty good amount of news spring up recently. Ate you liking what you're seeing and are not worried about the game at all or how do you feel about Halo 4?" IN: "To be honest, I like the route that 343 have taken with Halo 4. In my opinion, they have given it exactly what it needed; A fresh new look. They have given Halo a new face, yet they have retained the feeling of halo. I know many people have compared it to other... and let's be honest here, lesser games, but from what I have seen so far, it is still Halo at heart. The look of it, the music, the sense of wonder you get. The only thing I am still not too sure on is the multiplayer armors. They just don't seem like Spartans to me. Still, definitely a game I'll be buying and no doubt, enjoying for hours at a time." DD: "Spartan IV's do look a bit skinnier than the other Spartans and I think that is mainly because of their armor. I usually ask questions about a main conflict going on on the site and the interviewee's views on that but right now there are none! Thankfully. So what is your most proud accomplishment on the site?" IN: "Lol, i could create a conflict? I would have to say I am proud to have made it onto the art dept so quickly. From green to light green in a month or so. :D" DD: "You might be the fastest member to join the Staff since joining along with Undead. You both chose to skip the ranks and go straight to the bright colors haha 'green to light green'. So as of now how much time woul you say you spent doing your job making signatures for people who have requested them?" IN: "As of this moment in time, not much as I have been quite busy working and helping get a brand new Bar/nightclub off to a start. As for overall time on the staff, when I began, it was pretty much day in day out, just trying to keep up on the requests. Thankfully, the shop hasn't had too many requests recently, and those who have requests waiting, I believe understand my current work situation. (I'll probably have knocked out a new batch of requests by the time this gets published, depending on work) Signature-wise, when creating a signature, the time in which I complete it all depends on the complexity of the request. Some, I can finish in as little as Ten minutes, where as others will take up to 2 hours. :)" DD: "Now that's dedication! Alright Insignia it's been great so far and I think we'd all love it if you could give us some words of wisdom!" IN: "Well, as far as wisdom goes, I can offer a little advice. When walking on water, ensure that the water is freezing before you venture out onto the lake. As far as words for those on site, the foundations have been layed, but only when we work together, can we build a great community. Treat others how you would wish to be treated, help out wherever possible and most of all, just enjoy yourselves!" Now that was fun . Thank you Insignia for a wonderful interview and to hopefully get me back into the swing of these. Thank you 343i for being such a great community and I can't wait to get to you next! Until next time!

A week ago I experimented with an interviewing project that I thought had a 50-50 chance of being a success and it turned out to be a big hit. Thank you to the community for that . Now when I told Quantum I wanted him to be interviewed next he was thrown off to my surprise. But he complied with my request and this is what we got accomplished in our time: DD: "Quantum, being a previous MoM and member that many (including myself) look up to, why were you surpised when I asked you to be interviewed for 'Stars of the Community'?" QM: "Well, I guess mostly because there are many in the forums who stand with much superiority to me. Take any of the moderators for example. All have been here longer than me, with more posts than me. I didn't think I had NO chance, but I definitely didn't think to be asked within the first few months." DD: "Nonsense Quantum, you stood out to ME enough for me to want to get to know you more and let some of the other members you speak of to get the chance to know some things about you that they may not have known before. Now, your 1000th post thread was fantastic. And I think it was timed greatly because it stirred a lot of hype about you and showed how great the quality of posts you make is. I remember you talking about how you were making your 1000 milestone something epic when you were at 960 maybe and you really did it. What inspired it?" QM: "What inspired me? Oh, my love for Halo. I know it's a video game and all, but it has been with me pretty much my whole childhood. I remember when my friend got the original CE. I would beg my mother to let me stay the night at his house so we could play it. I remember all the craziness about Halo 3 coming out. That's what excites me. I saw a truthfully awe-filled story, just with the releases of the games, and the chaos it caused. I put some of that energy into a few short paragraphs, and left it as a benchmarker for my career here. What inspired me? Halo did." DD: "Excellently put. Now let's get into the personal 'Quantum.' Quantum, what made you to lose the 'Matrix' part of your name and switch to 'PWN'? And then what made you decide to drop that suffix?" QM: "Just to clear this up, the PWN, was not an official name It was a fun joke I played with Vitamin... Now the Matrix part... see, I just wanted a more, MLG feel to it, if you know what I'm saying. I looked into a couple other names, and researched GamerTags for about a week, before I realized I should look closer to home. I decided to just drop the second part of the name, and changed my GT to suit. It was really more of an impulse for change. Now you may not know this, but I was originally another. All you oldies know this, but I was once Spartan-468. And maybe Sponge-Bob along the way (curse you, mods )." DD: "That sounds pretty funny haha so what's your favorite thing about Halo in general?" QM: "What I like about Halo is 1.) the futuristic FPS shooter aspect. It has weapons, cool weapons. But not only that, it has Spartans. See, Spartans are harder to kill, so you actually get a chance to play, rather then COD games. 2.) All the game modes!! I absolutely LOVE Team SWAT and Living Dead. Usually when I play matchmaking, I am playing one of those two. 3.) The storyline. You cannot hate on the storyline. Most connected series EVER. It has furthered through the games, to the point where I am begging for more. I could go on and on, but let's not impose on the readers " DD: "I feel the same way haha. So that leads right into my next question: What's your take on the whole 'Halo turning into COD' debate?" QM: "Halo is expanding, and changing in ways that may be compared to Call Of Duty titles, but it is just ways of making the game better. You may say Halo is trying to copy Black Ops and blah blah blah, but I think it is just another great way to reward players for playing more. Halo will remain Halo. That's pretty much it. I have nothing else to say on the subject." DD: "Alrighty let's get off that topic then and talk about what other games you like besides Halo. What is your favorite game or game franchise besides Halo, Quantum?" QM: "The SSX games. Definitely. They are a bunch of snowboarding games. Fun fun. I have SSX 3 for Playstation and the new SSX for 360. Great graphics, cool runs, fantastic music, and beast tricks you gotta check it out. Also, a runner up would be the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier." DD: "I am a fan of the SSX games as well. SSX: Tricky was by far my favorite, I used to have it on Gamecube. What's your most cherished award that you've attained?" QM: "That's a toughie.... I would have to say my 1,000 post award. It took me the longest to earn. I spent countless hours here, trying to help people out, and even having a bit of fun on the offbeat topics. Yes, my Diamond Award." DD: "The Diamond was well deserved with that milestone post you made. Again, great job on it because not only did it serve as your milestone post but it let the passionate fans reminisce the days of when the games were first coming out and what it was like, I know I definitely did so thank you Quantum for that post. What is an achievement you hope to accomplish on the forums now that you've reached that milestone?" QM: "The only thing I can think of working towards now, is a position of work. I mean, like not just community member, but have something I do for the community, wether it be watching over us all as we go about our business, or managing a site that we have under our wing. I don't want to sound selfish by saying that, but it's true. I want to help out more." DD: "Oh no I understand exactly where you're coming from, I think we all feel that way Quantum you're not the only one. So who is someone that stands out to you on the site, for helping out, or just having a good personality, or anything at all?" QM: "Well, you know there is a couple thousand people I can say, but I'm gonna have to say the one that has stuck out very very recently, my buddy, theorix. His contributions to the community are amazing, including the Youtube channel layout, the Signature shop, and the brand new community forum Wallpapers. Great job, theo " DD: "Theorix is a great choice, he's a great artist. Finally, Quantum, what are your words of wisdom to newer members to the site?" QM: "My words of wisdom are simple. Treat others as you would want to be treated. This can be taken many different ways, so let it touch you in a way that helps you become better." Thanks to Quantum for his time and answering every PM when they were sent, I know how time consuming and annoying it is. FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NOT SEEN HIS MASTERPIECE, CHECK HERE. Tune in next Tuesday for Interviews with Stars of the Community!!

This week's interviewee is a very well known member by all the senior members but not by the junior members so much I don't think. I thought it was very important that the newer members get to know more about this member and what they're about. Although she isn't visible in the shoutbox she's always, and I mean always watching the forums. Ladies and gentlemen: Ms. Mystic. DD: "Ms. Mystic, the Serene Mystic, how did you come up with your username and Gamertag?" MM: "Well I was planning to change my gamertag sometime last year. I was honestly having trouble coming up with something halfway decent, one of my ideas being "Ditsy Doll". I asked my Best Friend, Samantha, if there were any ideas She could think up. She suggested "Serene Mystic" and so I decided to go with that. When I had first joined this website my username was the exact same as my gamertag. My first username change was to "Serene" but, for some reason, I decided to change it yet again. This time it was to "Ms. Mystic" and that has been my username ever since the 29th of November 2011. I don't plan on changing it again if I'm honest. I like it, and it's become a well known name on the forums (Not exactly sure if that's true, but it might be! xD ) I've also started using "Ms. Mystic" as my alias on other websites, but I've found that there are some websites where that username is already registered. :c" DD: "I'd say that that is 100% accurate about you being well known on the site . Those others that use that name sound like posers, we don't like those . And your Member Title, how would you say you gained that title?" MM: "Well I have Absolute Dog to thank for my member title. A long while back Absolute and I went back and forth trying to come up with a title that would fit me. I think that my gamertag and username were what we based it off of, finding synonyms for both "Serene" and "Mystic". Another influence may have been my "peaceful" nature when it comes to how I behave on the forums. Though I can occasionally get annoyed and lose my temper (everyone does), I don't think it happens very often and isn't that bad when it does. For the most part I think I'm calm and polite in my posts and whenever I chat. For any of the times I lose my temper I'm really sorry. Anyway, having a custom title is really great and I'm thankful that AD and hopefully others believe I deserve one." DD: "It definitely suits you! Now speaking of Absolute Dog, you and him have quite a history that goes way back on this site from what I hear. There used to be arguments and fusses between both of you. How did you two overcome that stage and become better friends on the site?" MM: "Well I wouldn't say we've completely overcome what's happened in the past nor become better friends since then. That's not to say we hate each other or anything like that, just that I don't believe we've actually managed to rekindle any friendship we may have had yet. To me it seems more like we both just want to get over issues we've had in the past and try starting over. That, for the moment, it's kind of a neutral relationship. The only issues I've honestly ever had with Absolute Dog are in regards to how he has handled a few things as Moderator in the past. I don't have any problems with him as a person, but he's done things when moderating that I really don't agree with. What those things are I won't discuss in public. I'm not saying I or anyone else is above moderation because I don't believe that in the slightest. I do believe though that some of the decisions he's made while moderating weren't the best. Despite these things I do consider him to be a good Moderator and member overall." DD: "Very understandable all of that. I think it's best not to ge into specifics as you've said haha. So you are literally the basis of the 'Forum Defender' Award that still exists. This is obtained through reporting bad posts or events that have occurred on the forum that you've seen to a Moderator. How many reports a day do you make? And what do you report people on?" MM: "I think I make, on average, four or five reports a day (if not more). That's my best guess. I did count my reports one morning not too long ago and I had seven just in that morning alone, not counting any that I filed later that day. When it comes to reporting I hold no bias. It doesn't matter to me who a user is. Whether they're a member, Moderator, or other Staff, none of that matters to me. They are all still users and I'll report anything that I believe needs attention. Things that I report people on are as follows. These apply to threads, posts, status updates, and shouts: Double posts, Triple posts, Quadruple posts, etc. Creating multiple threads on the same subject. Posting one word replies or posts that only feature emotes or an anagram like "LOL". Anything that features excessive swearing and just a nasty attitude in general. Threads that are posted in the wrong section or that would fit better in another. Threads or posts that have little to no discussion value. (An example would be a thread titled "what u think of hayabusa armor?" and the OP being nothing more than "its cool". ) Anything referencing any sexual or drug related material. Posts that insult other members as well as calling them trolls without any proper evidence to support the claim. Those are all of the things I can think of at the moment that I report on. I don't just report things I spot while quickly browsing over either. I do occasionally go into a member's profile and take a look at their posts and created threads to see if anything there needs attention. This goes for new and old members alike." DD: "That is a lot of reports. I bet the Moderators appreciate the help and act immediately on the reports. Do you ever wish to become a Moderator on the site?" MM: "Absolutely. I've had plenty of experience in the past as both Administrator and Moderator. Over the years I've come to create two or three of my own forum communities and serve as both positions for a few websites as well. Granted the forums I created never took off (due to no one wishing to actually use them) but I still put hard work into making them look nice and function well. Back on topic, yes I would love to become a Community Moderator. That isn't because I would love having power and authority over regular members or being able to boss others around. Nor would I want it just for the title. I honestly would only wish to become a Community Moderator so that I may help out. Being a moderator is a huge responsibility no doubt. You are required to keep personal feelings out of your work, moderate properly despite who may be under review. Members may send you a ton of messages asking for help, about their awards, complaining about other members, etc. Not to mention you may go without thanks for what you do. That requires patience and strength to get through without blowing your top. Despite how I may have ever behaved in the past, I do believe that I would be quite competent in this position. Personal feelings and favouritism would have no place in how I would operate as a Community Moderator, as it should be. The chance to help the website by cutting down on spam, handling problem users, taking care of any posts, threads, or status updates that need attention, and just better enforcing the rules would honestly mean a whole lot to me. Working together with the rest of the Staff would be quite enjoyable as well. Communication with other Staff can really go a long way! The Staff will give me a chance if they wish. It would mean a lot, but in the end it's their call. I respect the time and effort they put into their jobs and know full well the responsibilities being in a position like that includes. A position like theirs isn't all fun and games, they're forced to make some really tough decisions at times and it can be very stressful dealing with all that they do. Please show some gratitude for what they do because they deserve it." DD: "Trust me when I say I know all those things about the Moderating position, I've heard about how tiring and thankless it can be sometimes. So here's an issue that's just been brought up within the week: what do you think of all the fuss that's went on with TheHaloCouncil? Are try justified in being mad about the way our News Group cites them?" MM: "They were completely justified with being upset about it I feel. At least in a few instances. The user in question who brought this up provided some examples of blatant copy and paste work, even down to the layout of the articles. There isn't anything wrong with taking photos and information from an existing article so long as you type it all out in your own words and style. That is the issue I believe the certain someone had with our News Group. Not that they were making articles on the same stories, but that the articles submitted were either complete copy and paste jobs, or were so close to the ones featured on TheHaloCouncil that it could still be considered plagiarism." DD: "Yes but they provided a link to cite where they gained it from so I could see why they were mad but I don't think they should've gotten mad and insulted our site and our members. The main user involved was IP banned. And another conflict along with that one, was the one where a member of the Staff was demoted because of his inactivity here and activity on another site. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think the Art Department will need another member?" MM: "Well I agree that insulting and attacking other members was uncalled for. Yes the link to the articles may have been included, but I believe that if you're a part of the News Group then you should actually construct your own version of whatever story you're reporting. Don't just submit the exact same story from another website, even if you include the link to said article. Anyone can do that. If you're capable of doing your job well as an Administrator, Moderator, or what have you on more than one site at a time, I don't see a problem with that. If a member of the Staff has become inactive for quite a while then a demotion is in order. They know their responsibilities and can warn the other Staff if they fear they'll be unable to fulfill their roles at any point. Failing to do so, to perform their duties well (if at all) is warrant for demotion in my opinion. This should apply to all Staff I believe, no matter someone's feelings about them. You are given responsibilities and expected to actively perform the duties your job entails. The Art Department will need a new member if the Staff agree that an Art Department is needed. I feel that whoever they choose should be an experienced artist and an active, respectable member." DD: "So far Insignia is the only one left in the Art Department and his laptop got a virus so he's visiting us through mobile every now and then. Have you seen any talented graphic artists that you think would fit the role of partner in the Art Department with Insignia?" MM: "Sadly I've not seen any so far. I'll try to keep a better eye out in the future though and suggest anyone if my opinion is ever wanted." DD: "Alright Ms. Mystic, on a more personal note, how is your life off of the site? What are your hobbies and activities?" MM: "I usually spend my time each day talking and doing things with my Friends and Family. Whether it's playing games with them, chatting over Trillian or Skype, or both watching and streaming games, television shows, and movies. Every moment I get with Them is special to me and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Though there are plenty of things that get me down every so often (my appearance, low-self esteem, my voice, etc.) , I have the Love and Support from all of those that are Special to me. Without them I don't know where I would be or what I'd be doing right now. Other than that I enjoy playing video games on my PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360, watching anime and other cartoons, listening to music of all kinds, and reading a few manga." DD: "I say do not let anything get you down because it shouldn't matter what anyone else except you and your close family and friends think. If you have their love and suport then I don't believe you can wrong because those two are so crucial. Ms. Mystic, it's been a wonderful interview. What is your advice to the up and comers who are reading and would like to make an impression on the site as you do?" MM: "Well to start I would point them towards the forum rules which I'll link below. http://www.343indust...tion=boardrules Please try not to come onto the website with a bad attitude. First impressions, no matter what anyone may tell you, are important. If you come to the website with a bad attitude it will really affect how someone sees you not only as a member, but possibly as a person in general. Show everyone here some respect, follow the forum rules as best you can, and feel free to ask others for help and advice with any of your troubles. If you're using the shoutbox please listen to the Moderators and take the advice of members who try helping you out if you're doing wrong. Don't be afraid to ask for help with anything. We're all (mostly) a friendly group of people and do want to get along with one another. Help the entire website out by sending reports of threads, posts, status updates, and users who break the rules. Be as clear and precise as possible. Have lots of fun and make some friends as well~! Thankee for the interview, Drizzy. I really hope it's a good for all. ~ Ms. Mystic" Thank YOU Ms. Mystic for letting me interview you and taking the time to answer all the questions sent through PM. Thank you 343i Community Forum for being awesome, I like every single one of you. Thanks for just enjoying these and reading these for those of you who actually do. Tune in for next week's interview!

This is edition was delayed because I was really busy yesterday. It took place late at night here where I am in the US so I waited until the next day to post it. This week I went with one of our most dedicated members of the forums, a Moderator: Vitamin PWN . He just had a thread dedicated to him and now his interview is being posted. Here are the thoughts of the forums from a Moderator's point a view. DD: "As I ask all of my interviewees, what is the origin of your name?" PWN: "Well when i first got my Xbox when the 360 first came out i was thinking of a GT my brother suggested Vitamin PWN and i went with it because i couldn't think of anything better, honestly at first i thought it was meh, but it started to grow on me and now i use it for everything from usernames to character names in RPGs." DD: "Well it's an awesome name I gotta say. I shorten it and give you the nickname VitaPWN and I think that sounds good too. Hope that's ok with you... ANYWAY what's the first thing you do when you get onto the site?" PWN: "Yea VitaPWN does sound awesome, i like it! But yeah the first thing i do when i get on the site is check if i have any PM's and if i do i read them, then i look at the staff forums to see if anything new has come up then i look at shout make sure everything is fine, and after all of that i look through the forums and patrol for spam and make sure the rules are being followed." DD: "This is why you have a dedication thread. Very admirable answer Vitamin. How many PMs a day do you get from members about awards, complaints and other things?" PWN: "I get a few PM's about awards, not too many though, i also get some complants, ideas on how to improve the forum and people who think i work for 343, but mostly my PM's are just talking with other members about various thing not forum related." DD: "Ok so you get a good amount each day, I expected you to get a million or so haha. What's the hardest thing about being a Mod?" PWN: "Yeah i get only a few pm's a day, not millions lol. i dont know if there is one hard thing about being a mod, but the hardest thing is having to put up with people who send some Pm's complaing about something, especially if they are being unreasonable or uncompromising, that can get on my nerves alittle. but for the most part those Pm's are few and far between." DD: "It's probably easy because you're so good at what you do I'm sure haha so I know you take pride in your moderating position and you're very good at it what with your own dedication thread and all but what does being a Moderator really mean to you? What is its value to you?" PWN: "I do take pride in the fact that im a mod, but i dont know if im good at it, all i know is i try my best. to me being a mod is a way i can give back to the community that has been a home for me since i first joined, this forum has always been there for me and it's my pleasure to dedicate my time too keep up the standards that all the members have grow accustom to, and i thank Twam and Jester and everyone else who believed in me enough to promote me to to Moderator because without them i wouldn't be here." DD: "Do you ever miss being just a member?" PWN: "Sometimes i do miss it but being a mod is just too awesome, if i ever go back to being a normal member im sure i'll miss being a mod more than being a normal member." DD: "I know you would. But I can't think of a single member who could take your place. So what is your favorite thing about these forums?" PWN: "Now my favorite thing about these forums is the people, i've been on a few forums and they are all either full of trolls or a bunch of clique that are slow to embrace new members, but these forums are so accepting, any new member can join and be accepted instantly. Also this community is close, we are more of a family than a forum and thats what i love about it." DD: "That's exactly what I like about this forum as well. Everybody here is great and we really fulfill the 'Community' part of '343industries Community Forums.' What is one of your most memorable moments here?" PWN: "My most memorable moment? thats a hard one there are alot of good memories, like when i was apart of a Machinima made by Zed the Evil taco (which is right here) or one of the first playdates we had with AD,Choot 'em, Donut and Quilts, that was a fun day probably the most fun i had playing halo 3. I remember Choot 'em kept dying by grenades and he was joking around saying i put magnets in his armor and they were attracting the grenades lol, or one game AD and donut left and it was just me and Quilts and we managed to win and i got 25 kills, that was my best game ever. those were some good times." DD: "Those sound extremely fun! So for the award junkies out there: what is the best way to get your Vitamin P award?" PWN: "Well there is no set way to earn it but generally doing something that impresses me or something for me will get you it, but it has to be unique i dont want people doing the same thing as someone else in hopes of getting the award. so you for example, Az he drew me a picture (that is currently my profile background) and that netted him my award, now the next person who draws me a pic isnt guaranteed the award just because Az got it that way, but sometimes i will just be in a good mood and give it to a random person." DD: "I see, that's a good way to do it. I think that's awesome actually. Alright Vitamin, you're an awesome Moderator and everyone in the community, old and new members, look up to you. What is your advice to new members to the site to achieve excellence in the forums?" PWN: "My advice for new members is to respect your fellow members, be yourself and most importantly have fun, if you're not having fun on here you're not doing it right lol. i also want to throw in the obligatory "follow the rules" if any members can do those things they will be an excellent member in my book." So there you have it! I've already thanked him but thank you again Vitamin PWN for allowing me to interview you it was great and you gave great answers. Thank you 343i Community Forums for letting this still happen, you guys are awesome. I can't wait to get to all of you.

Wow it's been a while. I haven't been taking a break actually from interviewing it's just that with transferring, work, and homework for classes I just transferred into, things got kind of busy. So I've been doing the interview process verryyy slowllyyyyy. That was my slow motion typing. This time we've got DocB. He actually gave it away in the shoutbox about a week ago but not too many people caught on , he's been my friend on here since a little after he joined pretty much. Me, him and Adam would spend hours trying to decode messages from 69086 AC while he was still posting (that lying piece of trash..). Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did: DD: "Doc, what's the reasoning behind your name 'DoctorB77'?" DOC: "Well the name DoctorB stands for Doctor Brendan. I originally tried DoctorB as my gamertag to find that it was already taken. So I added 77 on the end. The reason I chose 77 is because when I was 3 I started playing ice hockey. When we were choosing numbers I chose 77. I don't know why but that is what I picked. Anyway for the next 12 years I have always been the number 77 in my recreational leagues. Now the reason I chose DoctorB is in 6th grade I was forced to do a science fair project. However it ended up being the one thing that I enjoyed that year. Me and my partner decided to video tape us doing our experiment while I who was named DoctorB explained and performed. I am also interested in becoming a Doctor or be into a position in the medical field. So I hope to be called Doc online and in real life soon enough DoctorB77 has been my little superhero identity on the internet for the past 5 years. Even though I get an occasional Doctor877, most people just call me doc." DD: "That's an excellent aspiration, but a tough one. I hope your ready for many years of school . So if you don't mind me asking, what made you want to become a doctor?" DOC: "Well, I was born into a family of medicine. My parents are both pharmacists and they seem to enjoy what they do. I have always wanted to help other people and there are always people who need help. If I ever do go into the medical field and become a physical therapist or possibly a different theraputic profession I also want to study and try to do something to not just help patients but the world. I would study genetic mutations along with different forms of pyschotherapy. My family line on my fathers side unfortunatly has alziemers. My grandmother thinks I am a girl. I do enjoy science and anatomy and I hopefully get the chance to help hundreds or even thousands of people. But it helps to know that I can have a way to understand myself down to a cellular level." DD: "Wow that is truly amazing Doc and I think everyone reading would have to agree with me. You have very high goals and you sound confident in reaching them and I think that's a very admirable quality. Let's talk about your aspirations on here now though. Do you ever hope to assume a position of Staff on the site?" DOC: "Staff on this site would be quite amazing for me. I had recently tried to join the art department because both drawing and image editing is one of my good hobbies. I do not think that a moderator position is really suited for me right now so I do not really have any aspiration to become a mod. I hope that opportunity could come up in following years when I am around 17 or 18 and I am heading to college. So around when halo 5 is coming out I might try . My current goals on this site currently are - Win a Forge Contest - Beat Mr. Biggles in an MLG Match - Get the Absolute Dog award with a slice of pizza from My main goal though is to become friends with all on this site and try to be looked up to by a few :)" DD: "I would think that you are already looked up to already in a big way. I mean the DGL was not easy to get started am I right? Could you tell us the story of the DGL? Influences and progress and such?" DOC: "Thank you. That was a very nice comment. So for the DGL... I for a while saw Undead's tournements that he has been hosting and it seemed that people who were participating were having a lot of fun. I have always had a history of going balls out whenever I do something. So yes you could call me a bit of a try-hard . I wanted to run a tournement like him as well. But I never wanted it to end. So I came up with the idea of forming a league. The name just came to me I guess But I created the website over 2 days and worked on the rules, setup, and requirements for the league and the forge contest. After those two days I worked on the announcement thread. I had a couple people say they were interested and that excited me. I then released the forge contest sign-ups hoping tjat I would get to see some really good maps. I was very fortunate to catch the eye of one of our prestige forgers, Donut, who submitted his very unique map called Astonished Arch. After seeing his map I grew very excited to see what everyone else had. Then right before the buzzer skuumigummigubbe submitted his map as well as Absolute Dog saying he would contribute a map. After coming out of the forge contest I asked for sign-ups. Now at first a couple people jumped on the chance. But not enough to form a season. It really sucked to have gone through all of that work for nothing. After the failure of the DGL I went to try to see if I could host the Sig of the Week contest. That dropped like a rock as well. Then a few days later I see that Choot em had replied in the sign up thread in the most enthusiastic way I have ever seen. I messaged him amd said that the DGL was unfortunatly cancelled due to the low sign up count. Despite me telling him it was over he went out and sparked peoples interest by updating his status to talk about the DGL as well as to talk to people in the chatbox. Then I start tp see more members post on the closed sign up thread. I was then able to restart and recruit 12 members to play in a short 3 month long season 1. I want to really thank Choot for the support he gave. Without him I would have wasted hours upon hours of time spent on my computer setting up the DGL. Thank you so much Choot for keeping the DGL alive I also have to thank Absolute Dog for providing admistration and moral support to the league. The of course thanks to Donut and Skumm for making maps as well as Quantum who helped me judge them. Then of course thank you Dan for allowing me to do this in the first place along with the support you have given throughout. Sorry for the novel :P" DD: "Not a problem, that's all important info up there Doc! I've always supported your idea of the DGL since you first pitched it to me and I'm glad to see the way it's going. Me and Choot just had our match the other day actually, hello Choot 'em . And so with all the hard work you've put into the DGL, are the participants cooperating well enough for the league to progress? How are the matches going?" DOC: "The league is going very well. About 3/4 of the games are being played and that is a lot better than I had first expected. Mr. Biggles seems to really enjoy the DGL and was eager asking me when I was going to put up the third match list for season 1. He has completed all of his games almost immediately and destroying the competition while doing so. Gazzy Mill Mill and Skummgummigubbe also seem to be enjoying the league as well as Bullet and of course Choot Em . I think that we could have a lot more games being completed if we all would add eachother on our friends list for Xbox Live. But everyone who has signed has to know how much I appreciate them participating. They all really made me want to participate on this site more and I hope I am able to get them an award for doing so ." DD: "Doc let's get off the topic of your wonderful DGL and go deeper into DoctorB77. How did you come across the site and what made you become a member?" DOC: "Well, before I was on this site I was involved in a clan on Xbox Live called the 251st. I enjoyed my time there on the forum they had as well as with them online. However the group started to fall apart and I bailed out before it blew up in my face. Currently the group is in 3 pieces and I have decided not to get involved. After the failure of the group I was in I was talking to one of my friends about how cool it would be to have a halo game feature every single map ever in the halo franchise. Now I wanted to share this idea so I went over to the bungie.net forum. Now since they do not have discussion about Halo anymore I was given a link here by a bungie.net member. Now I asked around here and met Bullet. I asked that question in the Halo 4 thread and I am glad that I stayed. I stayed because I found that everyone was very kind and there was SO much information. I have been here active since. If you want to see that thread go here : http://www.343indust...hl__+halo +maps" DD: "I remember when I first joined. I felt like I belonged here from the beginning haha. What's your favorite game or game franchise besides Halo?" DOC: "Haha. My honest answer to that would be halo, but if I had to choose it would definetly be Assassins Creed by Ubisoft. The game is very fun to play and it is amazing how much work is put into it's creation. I have always been stealthy in video games and that is definetly my tactic in Halo reach. I may not be as good at shooting as the next guy but I will add on a few more assassinations in a game, whether it be some sprint from behind or a ninja in a stairwell. Assassins Creed also is fun to me because I can mess around a lot. In RPGs I tend to just do what entertains me. Assassins Creed can ensure that for me. :)" DD: "I love the Assassin's Creed franchise and I think Ubisoft does an amazing job at improving it with each game. Great choice . This is an honest opinion question now: What do you think of the site's new home page, the news hub?" DOC: "I love it. It is a really quick way to get all of the news that you want without sorting through opinional topics. The set up is very attractive and it is one of the greatest additions to the site. Whoever thought up of this wonderful idea should be awarded a medal. And thanks to all of the people who set it up to work. It has made this site seemingly more professional and more informative." DD: "I have to agree with you, I think it's great and convenient. Recently, 343i has made a HUGE collaboration with The Halo Forge Epidemic. What do you think overall of this collaboration and what it could mean for both of our communities?" DOC: "Well at first I was unsure about how I would feel about the THFE. I thought that it might just be some site that is just recruiting members and putting ads on the site. But after the forums and subforums were made I was very excited for the epidemic. The THFA has brought so many more members to our site and a lot of them have great talent in forging. I myself love looking at pictures of user-made mapd. The epidemic has not only brought new members but has inspired other members from our site to forge in the epidemic." DD: "Wonderful! Though I haven't met any of the new members from THFE I'm also a great supporter of our alliance with them. Now as someone who's made quite a name for themself by starting the site's first league of gaming, what advice do you have for members that look at what you've done and want to make a name for themselves as well?" DOC: "Thank you for the compliment. For all of those who want to make a name for yourself you dont need to do something huge like me. Just be a good member. Be active on the forum and in the shoutbox. Make friends and play with them online. If you do want to do something for the forum make sure you enjoy it and that you will not grow bored of it. Don't lone wolf it either. Have friends help and support you. But just make sure to enjoy yourself and try to make others happy as well. All in all, just be the best member you can possibly be :)" And there you have it! It took forever but this is back up and running and I'm currently working on two others as you read this! Two amazing other members on the site! Thank you Doctor for being awesome and having the patience to deal with my lateness and business, thank you 343i for being a second home to me that I don't think I could ever give up. And last but not least, thank you internet for being the internet. Watch out for the next ones, they might come out within the week!

WOW it has been a while. Well in my off time I've had a lot of schoolwork, commuting, paperwriting (I guess that's schoolwork), real work at my actual job, and xbox playing. But now that my semester's over, this forum hit me smack in my mind like a rock thrown by an angry customer. I've missed this place and all of its great members and I hope to meet all the new ones because I know we've had hundreds join since around the launch of Halo 4. Keep in mind that this Double Feature Interview is old. Very old. But good none the less! So without further ado, here's my interview with one of our top Moderators on the site: Total Mayh3m. Enjoy: DD: "Why did you choose the name 'Total Mayh3m' for your username at 343i?" TM: "Well, actually not many people know that I signed up under the name ljp1125 at first. I then swapped to my gamertag which was Total Mayh3m because I figured since it was a gaming forum I should probably use something that people would be more familiar with. Anyways, Total Mayh3m(or Mayhem) comes from the Greek meaning... nah just kidding... basically when I signed up for Xbox Live, I wanted something that was pretty cool and that people would think "That guy means business" when they saw it. I first wanted "Extreme Mayhem" but it was taken already. So I thought to myself, why not use a number? I knew what 1337 was so I took the E out of "Mayhem" and replaced it with a 3. After I submitted it.. it was still taken and I was about ready to give up and swap to a totally different gamertag idea. Then I thought "What about Total Mayh3m? So I typed it in and sure enough it was available. " DD: "I love your sense of humor Total . That sounds like a complicated process you had for your GamerTag. Let's talk about your life here on the site when you were a newer member. What members did you connect with early on in your membership?" TM: "Early on I connected with Absolute Dog, Spectral Jester, and a guy named Headhunter (now known as SuperIntendant). Then there was this guy that I briefly connected with names Choot'em who is now our MoM. I would always greet them with a ♥ in the shoutbox. It wasn't until the first playdate I attended when I really got connected. Playdates are a great way to get connected to the community." DD: "Those are some of the biggest names in our community today! I see you got yourself a slice of pizza!! Congratulations again Mayh3m! I say again because of your semi-recent promotion to Community Moderator that I want to talk about. When you joined the site, did you ever think you'd stay long enough and put it in enough time and effort to become a Community Moderator?" TM: "Yes, Pizza is good. hehe. Well, honestly I never imagined I would make it to a moderator position on such an established forum/website as this one... ever. I always admired what those guys do as I had held a position of Moderator then Admin on a much smaller site. When I first joined this website I just wanted to really learn more about Halo and what people were thinking Halo 4 would be about. I already had some forum experience and lived out my spam days long long ago before this place was created. Occasionally I like to visit the offbeat section and play the games. But I never expected I would be this close to 2000 posts and in the position I am now. It was an incredible honor to even be considered for the facebook staff and it means even more to wear the colors of the Moderators. It is a great responsibility and it is one I enjoy doing. Because simply put.. I ♥ everyone here. :)" DD: "That must be a wonderful feeling! When I joined the thought never crossed my mind to become Staff but when I was asked I went out of my mind crazy happy . You've been an awesome contributer so far and a great Mod. So you say you've been to other forums and have been a Mod and Admin on one? How many forums had you been a member of before this one? Do you still visit the site where you were an Admin on? If so, how do you manage the time between the two?" TM: "Well, I was a member of two Lego themed forums but the first was based off of an old series called the drome racers, the game had 5 or 6 different teams and I was on a team called Nitro, so some of the best of the best on the Lego game created a board and called it the teams HQ. So I joined and we all shared our secrets on how to get good at the game and what not. I eventually became an admin there and was honored to become great friends with the creator of the board. He and I are still good friends today and we talk fairly often. That site is still on the web, however it is not very active at all as not many people go there anymore. We all check in occasionally and see how everyone is doing. The second forum was a forum called iBricks, it was huge and closer to the end of the forums life I was actually considered as a moderator but never was offered the position.. I believe I got a small position of helping with art requests there. That site had about 70k posts when the owner abruptly closed it down. Those sites shaped me into the forumer I am today. So I have grown a lot over my forum lives and have no plans of leaving this place. " DD: "Wow you really have had a lot of experience with forums haha and that's great news. I don't think any member here would like to see less of you on here. So Total what is your most proud moment here on the forums?" TM: "Well thanks! My most proud moment? Gosh, I don't know. Being able to look back at what kind of member I have been and looking at the example I left behind make me the most proud I think. Knowing that I have come this far by doing my best to be honorable and encouraging. Another thing that makes me proud is when I can help a member out. :)" DD: "And that's really great for you to say especially because this is what got you to where you are at your Moderator position. You really are a great member and easy to call on for help . So I've been noticing more and more people joining lately seeing as Halo 4 is about to arrive, as a Mod has that made your job any harder at all? Have you had to deal with more spam and misbehavior than you used to? I know you haven't been a Mod for too long but still ." TM: "Well, you don't know what Jester is like in the staff rooms.. hehe jk. Does it make it harder, I wouldn't say so. Then again I may just be getting use to things right now . As for dealing with more spam and misbehavior, yes. I have noticed that we are pulling in a decent amount of new members and some of those cause trouble within the forums and shoutbox. We get a good amount of reports a day which helps us a lot. Having a great group of guys to work with makes things fun and always entertaining. So when we do have trouble, it is not too much of a problem" DD: "That's awesome, yes a big shout out to all the Moderators of 343i Community Forum! You guys do a great job of keeping this place clean and friendly. So this one is a joint question really but there's no point in separating them. Doc was named MoM for October and Choot 'em just became a Legendary Member. Could you provide the members with some incite on your relationships with these two members and what you think of their new achievements?" TM: "Well, to be honest, I have not had as much time to build a relationship with either. However I do hold them in high respects. Choot'em I always enjoy talking with because he is just that kind of guy that is always fun to talk to. Doc I've not gotten to talk to as much (sadly ) but from what I have seen he has done so much in the forums. 3000+ posts, DGL, and helping members out. I think both these members deserve their respective awards. Both decisions for Choot and Doc were unanimous. They are very well deserving and I am honored to be a member here with each of them. :)" DD: "I agree completely that they are completely deserving and just overall amazing members, those are two of my good friends. So Mayh3m let's talk halo 4 now. It's getting awfully close to the release, what edition are you getting and what do you plan on doing first when you start playing?" TM: "Well, first I am getting the standard edition. However I pre-ordered the game from Amazon.com so I could get the web skin and look like spiderman... hehe. The first thing I plan on doing in Halo 4 is playing through campaign, finding some screenshots of Cortana, and sending them to Jester (Pretty sure it will earn some brownie points). Jk. But I do plan on playing through campaign (Heroic first) and learning about what the new story will be about. So far I have not looked at any campaign spoilers and I won't until I actually beat campaign. After campaign I plan on playing some matchmaking and leveling up like a boss. Seems like every Halo game I always level up slower than everyone else. Anyways, after that I guess I will test out Spartan Ops, Forge, then Theater (If I haven't had a sick play before then). Maybe we can get a huge playdate going and play the new zombie mode. Who knows. :awesome:" DD: "Definitely will get you some brownie points from Jester . And the new Infection looks amazing, I think it's exactly what everyone's wanted for a long time now and people had been asking for it for some time now. That sounds like a solid plan for Halo 4 and it sounds like you're impressed and happy with what you saw as I'm sure everyone else is. So Mayh3m are you going to be at any of the Community Playdates coming up this weekend?" TM: "To be honest, I will try to make it to a playdate but I can't promise I will be there. My schedule is tight with school and work and my window of opportunity is small. I am trying to draw up some plans for some stuff.... But that's a different story (one that I won't get into lol . )I love getting to be a part of the play dates, but time is limited for me and that makes it hard for me to get to join them. Survivor is a handful as it is hehe. if I am able to open up some time then you all will certainly see me joining you all." DD: "That sounds great! I hope I get to play with you again! So could you please provide the readers with some advice on how to become as great a member and achieve as much as you?" TM: "Well, honestly I just respected those above me and didn't be anyone but me. I have always tried making quality posts and reporting anything bad I see. Being honest and throwing ideas out there. Shoot, I knew nothing about the Halo books, Prometheans forerunners, precursors, etc. until I asked someone about it. They invited me into a chat via the messenger and they explained it to me and it helped me understand better. So what I would tell anyone reading this is, be yourself, get involved, respect those over you, and have fun. Quality posts are better than quantity. Definitely. Building friendships here is a wonderful thing. So don't take those for granted either." So there it is! Part 1 of the Interviews Double Feature! If the font color for Mayh3m's responses is too hard to read GET A NEW COMPUTER SCREEN. No, just comment and I'll change it later for everyone, I've had someone in blue before but I put them as a darker blue and it actually was harder to read. This one looks ok by my standards. Comment, like, do whatever it is when you do when you read these because they're back and you might be next! But not really because someone is already next. But you could be after them!

This interview was so late that I could've posted it for the upcoming week's interview. This week was a busy one. Every time I found free time it was destroyed by people. Crushed into debris... Anywho let's not talk about me, let's talk about One! Yes One, our fine Moderator . Enjoy: DD: "One, why is your name One?" ONE: "I pretty much chose the name because it wasn't taken. When I joined this site was fairly new so I thought I'd get a good, short name to go by, and this is what I thought of. Nothing exciting, lol." DD: "But you're number One! Like Smitty Werben Yeggerman-Jensen! That's very exciting. Can you tell everyone how long you've been a Moderator here?" ONE: "I have...no idea who Smitty is, so i don't know whether to take it as a compliment or insult, I'l go with both. I have been a mod for 3 months maybe? I can't remember what I had for dinner last night so I don't even know if I got that right." DD: "It was a Spongebob reference, just ignore that completely. I know Fire will understand if he reads this haha. On a very serious note however, before, there was you, Vitamin, Fire, and GSD playing the sneaker beaver on the Mod squad. Now GSD's out of hiding and Fire is no longer a Moderator. Are the Mods still looking for a spot at the moment or do you think 3 is enough?" ONE: "right now, I'm not going to say if there is a mod spot open or not. I can say however that at the moment, I feel as though the site has a very capable group of moderators. But, it wouldn't hurt to have more." DD: "I think we are fine with or without a new one. It's good to hear the viewpoints of a time like this from a Moderator's position though. How do you feel about the new Staff change around we had recently?" ONE: "While it is sad to see Staff go, the reasons are always justified, so there is no need to get worked up about the changes. But while we lost staff, we also gained 2 great assests to the team. All the staff do a good job and I know they will continue to do a fantastic job." DD: "I agree with you there. Shoutbox misconduct has been a growing problem over the past few weeks, with you being a Moderator it's very important to get your views on this. Do you think shoutbox misconduct is minimizing or is it still continuing?" ONE: "It seems like, from what i hear and see, it still continues. The shoutbox is the instant thing people see upon opening the site, and we need to make sure it looks good. The mods try and make sure this happens, but there needs to be effort on the members part too." DD: "That's disappointing seeing as the shoutbox conduct thread was made a few weeks ago. For the readers who haven't seen it, please read it here http://www.343indust...for-moderators/. I've heard more than once that being a Moderator is a tough and sometimes thankless job. What keeps you on the site as a Moderator?" ONE: "Well, seems like I'm the only mod that signed the contract saying if I leave they kill my family.... But no, I stay because there is no reason to leave. I enjoy my time here and hope to stay for as long as this site remains up. You can't get rid of me easily!" DD: "That's a great attitude for a Moderator to have and I'm sure you're not alone on that, Vitamin and Shep most likely feel the same way . On average how many PMs do you deal with on a daily basis?" ONE: "uh, honestly, most days I don't even get PM's, lol. How many do people think mods get? :P" DD: "Billions. I thought Mods get PMs every day about awards and complaints and a whole bunch of other crap. Anyway haha what's your favorite thing about coming onto the site ?" ONE: "I'd have to say the best thing about this site has to be the community. It is one of the best I've experienced." DD: "I love that answer when the guests give it. The community is what this site is all about, it's so much different than every other site it's great. And what do you like to do most when you're on this site?" ONE: "I probably use the shoutbox more then anything, so I'd have to say I like that the most, it's nice to just have a place where people can IM chat on site, rather then have to use PM's, I don't see chatboxes on sites much and think it's a fantastic addition to the site.Except when people spam emotes....I hate those things." DD: "I think everyone's a fan of the shoutbox and that's right, not a lot of sites have one. Ok One, to conclude this please give a final message to te readers: words of wisdom maybe?" ONE: "Me? Wisodm? Hah, that's not right. Anywaaay..um...I'd have to say, trust what the mods say. If they do something it's been thought out, you'll generally lose if you challenge them." Ah another one down. Great final answer if you ask me, I think that's something members should all keep in mind. Thanks One for taking the time out to do this and being patient while I was gone. Thank you 343i Community for being awesome because without you all this would not exist. The next interview is going to be late, I'm just going to come out and say it now. There's no avoiding it haha. Look out sometime this week!

Drizzy why are the Interviews getting later and later?? BECAUSE FACE IT, THEY'RE GETTING OLD. ... Ahem, ahh but the life is young in this one. With so much hype surrounding this member I couldn't not interview him. So without further delay, here's our lucky number 13: Undead. Enjoy... DD: "Alright Undead, with a Gamertag like Map The Streets, how'd you choose this username for the forums?" UD: "Well I got 'Map The Streets' from a song by a band named 'Senses Fail' and my forum name 'Undead' came from the band 'Hollywood Undead' I really enjoy music and its actually a big part of my life." DD: "I love Senses Fail, and music is a major part of my life. Mainly Hip-Hop but Senses Fail is a great band that me and my friend like. Do you have any musical talents or hobbies that involve music?" UD: "Not really haha. The only thing I can really play is the Piano. I taught myself how to play a few Hollywood Undead songs but that's about it. I just let the professionals make the music then I listen to it. :P" DD: "Alright still cool, still cool haha. Alright so you are our comminuty's newest Member of the Month. How shocked were you about that? How does it make you feel to know that you are so appreciated and respected among the users on the site?" UD: "When I first got the Private Message from Arch I couldn't believe it. I was extremely happy that I made an impact on this great forum and that a lot of people thought I deserved it. I'm very honored to be Member of the Month and I'll continue to contribute and show my love to this site until I die. I love this site and everyone on it." DD: "That's awesome Undead. That's what we like to hear from our MoMs haha. These Undead Tornament's that you have set up, how did you think of an idea of hosting a tournament each month?" UD: "Actually it was only going to be a onetime thing until me and Jester talked about it. He told me I could make an award for it and I changed it to a monthly thing. But my Swat tournament for this month isn't going all that well. I still need a handful of teams to be able to start it. But it will be done. :)" DD: "I'm very sorry to hear that Undead. For anyone who wants to be in the tournament or is in the tournament and has not PMed Undead about teams, here is the link: http://www.343indust...ds-tournament-2. I think the monthly tournament idea is very fun and good for getting the members together. What is your avatar picture from?" UD: "To be honest I had 'Insignia' make me this avatar and I think he did an amazing job! I think he said it was from an old movie or something but he definitely did a good job." DD: "Yes I'd say he did an awesome job. I love insignia's work, he rendered my Award . Ok now this is a big dilemma that's been brought to attention many-a-times on the site recently, what do you think of members' behavior in the shoutbox? Do you feel the shoutbox is going downhill?" UD: "Its not really going 'downhill' but there are times where its hard to even have a nice conversation without being rudely interrupted. But other than that the shoutbox is an amazing place to be. Especially when all the funny people are on. haha" DD: "Haha so are people you enjoy talking to in the shoutbox or what do you like to talk about with anyone in it of you have no one in particular in mind?" UD: "I just kind of go with the flow. Whatever people are talking about and I can relate to it or just chime in I do it. But if the shoutbox is kind of "dead" I start talking about music or new games coming out. That usually works but if it doesn't I just go help out on the forum the best I can." DD: "Which is what we love about you on the site Undead . When you're not on the site what are you up to?" UD: "I'm usually chilling with my friends or playing video games on my PC or Xbox. I tend to play Basketball and Football on my spare time as well." DD: "Nice you sound like a very laid back individual haha what do you like most about the site?" UD: "Thanks haha. And I love all the Halo information on this site and the community. I honestly think this site wouldn't be as good as it is without the amazing members that are on this site." DD: "I have to agree with you 1000% percent on that one. Every member is just great and they bring so much to the table. So Undead, as we conclude your spectacular interview, what is your advice to the members who admire you and your Member of the Month title?" UD: "Just keep up the good work and stay active. Also be noticed. If you want to be noticed be helpful, nice, and be yourself." Simple and to the point, he is. Thank you Mr. Hollywood Undead for the great interview . The answers reminded me of ZB's from the very first one in a way. Sorry to Mr. Bullet if this is your text color, when I interview you I will change this slightly then make this yours and bolden it. If this is not your text color then I am not sorry... But you're a great guy ! Anyway thank you to everyone who still reads these and enjoys these, the fact that you ask me where the interviews are when they're late fuels me to keep making these. The last thing I want to do is bore you all. I love you 343i, watch out for next week's Star!

I had been planning this interview for about 3 weeks now and keeping it hidden from Tyrael no matter how much he asked about becoming the next interviewee or who would be next . This was something I think a lot of people were looking forward to and I find this to be really informative. It lets you know his perspective of the site and what he likes and what you can do to contribute. Enjoy: DD: "What can you tell us about your name change history? When I joined you were Shagyhomeboyz still so start from there." AT: "Well i got pretty tired of using "shaggyHOMEBOYZ" (random name from xbox live and family came up with haha.), so i thought about it for a while and changed it to "Kill the King", after my favorite song from MegaDeth people like it of course but I felt it needed changing again. I decided to use this name because, he is my favorite character from diablo trilogy and I will never change it from this for sure. I want to change my XBL GT, but I feel it's a waste of 800 Microsoft points. DD: "I like your name the way it is now, you shouldn't change it. You're our other half of our beloved News Group besides adamj and you provide us with an excellent daily wrap-up on gaming news that I feel goes overlooked a lot. What is your source for those daily and weekly wrap-ups?" AT: "Well I am currently using http://www.g4tv.com/. They are a great place to search for news. They go more in depth than most gaming news websites, sometimes I also use http://www.computera...m/homepage.php?. Also, yes sometimes I feel they get over looked myself. All I want though is people to enjoy them and they do, to me that is all that matters." DD: "I appreciate a lot of the news you bring because it's not just Halo related, it's got a lot for all gamers on the forum. So you created the Top 15 list with ShadowMagnum and Luke. Can you tell people who do not know what this list is what it is and how it is possible to get your name onto it? I see a lot of confusion when it is mentioned." AT: "The list is comprised of several categories you must fall into. Dedication, A nice guy/girl, helping members without getting something in return, playing with fellow members of the community, being active in the shoutbox and forums(no spamming)!!! I hope people understand the list we are making is not bias, and it is currently a work in progress at the moment. The other people working on it with me haven't really been suggesting names recently. So i will contact the moderators about re-evaluating the top 15 list into something better. I am sure we will have a top 15 at the end of this month for sure, no worries. I hope that helped." DD: "Great and I look forward to it! Now with Luke being back on the site, do you think you will be collaborating with him on making the list since this group you're working with is being a bit quiet?" AT: "Yes, I been meaning to ask him about it. He is one of the original creators of the list anyways. It would be nice having him back on here. Although he needs to get accustomed to the new people on the site first. Also, I been thinking of resigning from it and letting other people take on the responsibility for it since people are so eager to have something to do and what better way.. then make them in charge of an award. Firstly, I must talk to the mods about certain things of it before I make any drastic decision." DD: "Right that'd be best, I agree with you there. Is there anything you would rather do on the site than what you do now with all your contributions whether it be news related or not?" AT: "I am always willing to help where I can. Even if i wasn't news group or etc on this site. News is what I enjoy. This forum is my second home and I like to take care of it best I can with my fellow staff/mods and ordinary members. Nothing much more to say on this question." DD: "Well said, Tyrael. Do you aspire to become something higher, like a Moderator?" AT: "We all have a need to become something higher than what we are, no one on this forum can deny that they would like to be one, even me. I would like to yes. It is up to the moderators and Twam to make that decision on any member to become one and that is something that is very rare and people shouldn't expect it to be handed to them. All I have to really say on it is, I work hard, dedicated and try to do my best for this site and if the moderators and Twam see me fit to be there then I am happy with it and if they decide not to I am happy as well. I want everyone to know our moderators are having a hard time and we should respect them and give them compliments and not make their days horrible. They have to manage, control and watch over this site daily. So please be appreciative towards them." DD: "And that is something that everyone should really take in. Moderators have a tough job, it's not just banning people and joking with members. It's much tougher than that and they don't get many days off if any at all. So is there anything you feel is missing from Staff? Like a new department you'd like to see that you think deserves to have it's own Staff position or anything?" AT: "Well I don't think a new "staff department" but.. the Mods and myself are working on an idea our fellow members "Bullet Storm aka Mr. Bullet and "ZB-85" have came up with. We have been paying attention to you guys, especially me when it comes to ideas and I had pushed through I can't go into details but people will like it and it will be a rare ranking like Legendary Membersbut given out when Mods deem the person fit." DD: "Alright this sounds really interesting! This is another hint, as John said in the previous interview, that there are big things to look forward to on the forum in the future ! With June coming to a close and the Director's reign as Member of the Month ending, whom do you feel is fit to don the pink name for July?" AT: "There are quite a few people who i think should be MoM. My honest opinion would be Undead. He does playdates, tournaments, well liked in the shoutbox and a generally nice person to talk to and play with and he can help wherever he can. So this is the person I think will be MoM of July. We will have to wait and see though. ;)" DD: "I like Undead a lot I think he's a great member and his monthly tournaments bring constant excitement to our community. But yes as far as I know it's a mystery and we'll all just have to wat and see. Shouts to the Director for being a great MoM and Forum President. Now with DragonMonday's USF Elections and our Top 15 lists and the MAMs, what's your opinion of the site's progression towards becoming a popularity contest, as Twinreaper had mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Do you think some of these are necessary, unecessary, or just fun that doesn't hurt the community in any way?" AT: "I really don't like popularity contests. It can hurt people's self esteem on the site because this person likes this person more and etc. The Top 15 isn't really about "popularity". MAM and the USF Election are. Think of the top 15 as a step below MoM just without the pink name and there are 15 of you . I don't think there should be all this popularity stuff going around though and iIdon't think the forums is such a place for it. Most people join forums for social interactions to find a place from real life to feel accepted, a new home if you will. Popularity contests either remind them of high school, college or any other place where popularity is "the thing" and I honestly don't think these popularity contests have any unbias to them either. Also, there is many other ways to have fun besides making these contests with no reasoning behind them, bias can hurt people emotionally and you guys don't even know it. It should stay off the forums but I don't mind if they turn into what I said there, but why have it if we have the top 15? Be kind, fair, think of how others feel and take care of your fellow members equally, they are your 2nd family." DD: "I think all of that is very important to keep in mind: that some of these things may seem harmless to some but could be hurtful to others. So far I haven't seen any problems or negative actions made against those two but that is something that all the readers should remember. To conclude this then, Tyrael, can you please give the readers your advice on becoming a contributing member and maybe making the Top 15?" AT: "As i said before, The list is comprised of several categories you must fall into. Dedication, A nice guy/girl, helping members without getting something in return, playing with fellow members of the community, being active in the shoutbox and forums(no spamming)!!! I would like members to always be this way towards each other and not just to get into the top 15." This is what I really like about my interviews, when you really get to know someone's opinions on things and sort of see what they're about through reading their answers. Tyrael is a great member of our community forum's News Group. Thank you Tyrael for allowing me to do this with you and for being patient with me because I know I tend to run late . Again, thank you 343i.org because I love you. Don't miss next week's interview.

Ah Twinreaper. The site's technology guru. Activist and creator of the forum's Call to Arms thread. This guest does not pull any punches and is always totally honest which is what every interviewer loves. He was a blast to interview truly! Everyone please enjoy Twinreaper's interview: DD: "How did you come up with Twinreaper for your username?" TR: "It was actually given to me by some good friends of mine back when Doom for PC first released. Yes I am that old! They always commented that I play like two completely different people...kinda like split personalities. Thus Twinreaper was the result." DD: "That's funny haha! So you've been a long time Halo fan then since you've been gaming that long? When did you start liking Halo? TR: "Truth be told, I hated Halo at launch. Absolutely hated it. I found it frustrating storywise and the campaign was hard for me to master with a controller. Halo PC was when i started to love Halo though. Something about Halo 1 for PC that just gives the warm and fuzzies." DD: "Yes I do know that you're a wizard with computers which is what makes you our forum's technology guru. Can you explain what that means and why you have that title?" TR: "I wouldn't say a wizard.....just lucky But yeah the tech guru title was given to me by Absolute Dog (my bestie) as I have an unparallelled understanding and working knowledge of the Blam! engines and side scripting engines with all Halo titles. Some people say I provide a great help to understanding the game better....I say I just post way too many TL;DR walls of textual pain." DD: "You do make long posts but a lot of them are meaningful. I wanna talk about the Call to Arms thread you made. For those who haven't read it, please do: http://www.343indust...ss-and-healing/ . How do you feel the campaign is going right now?" TR: "Well to be honest I think it didn't go far at all. Maybe like 2 feet if that. For me, it was something I felt the community needed badly. I watched the community grow from nothing, and to what it is today. I felt that it became to divided and jaded for it's own good and did not help at all to shape or change the way our Halo games were made. In the end though, they were just words. People could either side with what I was saying and agree, or choose not to listen and claim I am an idiot. either way, I made my point, got my voice out there, and in the end that is all I wanted to do...make people aware. To really answer the question directly, I have given up. The campaign is all but dead as there has been little positive response. As of now, I have chosen to return to my more harsh and direct way of dealing/helping everyone." DD: "I'm deeply sorry to hear that and I know a lot of our readers will be too. I loved it and wanted it to be on every Halo forum out there, it was truly proactive. You and VivaLebowski had a little "disagreement" in that thread. Have you guys made up since?" TR: "We kinda just left things where they were. I'll be the first to admit that i hold grudges a very long time, but in the end of that little spout, I would say that we are on more friendlier terms than before. Sort of a no harm no foul understanding between us." DD: "Thank you for being totally honest Twin, well said. I'm glad to hear that because fighting only goes against the cause. When I asked you about the interview you mentioned that you do not visit the site as often because of your personal views of the site since AD left. What are your personal views of the site?" TR: "I was kinda hoping you weren't gonna ask that one...but here goes... Now first off this is not meant to be disrespectful or directed at any one person or group. Since AD has left, I have watched this community spiral into a nonsensical sess pool of nothing more than a large overgrown 'Popularity Contest'. Everywhere I turn I see threads about being the best, or having the most awards, or some other BS thread that lists members in a numerical order for some reason. When I joined this site is was a true community. We came here for Halo and that was all we talked about. Most of the things that go on right now, AD would have never stood for. And I should know...me and AD had the same long term goal for this community, and he was one of, if not the sole reason i continued to stay here. Just as my 'Call to Arms"'thread spoke of, this website is falling fast. Things have fallen apart since he left. Now I had tried to do my best to keep the peace when he left, but I felt tired.....and with that tiredness comes my rage. As you can probably see from a lot of my posts, I don't pull punches and I don't tread lightly. I hate to come right out and say it, but this community site is on it's way to the trash heap. Change needs to happen. Someone needs to grow a set and take up the reigns AD left. Hate me if you want, love me if you must....just being honest here ;)" DD: "I love it Twin. I wish I could say I was sorry I asked but I love the answer you gave and this is just something that everyone needs to hear. Although I don't think the community is going to the dumps, I do think that there have been more 'Popularity Contests' going on for sure and things are growing farther from Halo. So what do you do now that you're not on the site as often?" TR: "Well don't get me wrong, I still swing by here. The Mods know I do...they know all my IP addresses..lmao! But when I am not here, I am busy as of right now, righting a prelim map handling app to open and display Halo 4 data. Other than that, I am part of a wide developers ring that consults with microsoft 3-4 times a year on products, deployment etc.. I also co-lead a map team for halo 2 called the H2MT, and do extensive map, weapon, scenery and machine tag modeling. When I'm not doing that, I run a Mexican Restaurant, in which i server tasty taco's that Nova craves. Yum Yum Nova! And of coarse as you all know i run a home server from which I host a website, and many game servers and a Teamspeak channel as well. I'm a very busy man you know....can we hurry up and get this interview started or what?!?" DD: " Alright I'm sorry for taking so much of your time I had no idea! So this team that consults with Microsoft about products, is it Vyrant Studios from your signature? What is Vyrant Studios exactly?" TR: "Actually yes.. Vyrant Studios is my registered developer firm name and is also my private "team" of sorts dedicated to crafting and deploying the best mods and extension content to various games and platforms. The MSDN Developer Network I belong to is actually a 3rd party firm that deploys and grants direct access to almost every single product Microsoft has in development, behind the curtain, or already released and also provides me with full licensed copies of any product in the library I wish. It's a very cozy subscription and group. I already have my Windows 8 retail product key..lmao" DD: "Now that is amazing. This is why you are our technology guru here Twin . Is there anything at all you would want to see changed on the site whether it be community, rules, etc?" TR: "Good question. I guess if I could ask one thing to change, it would be for everyone to not get so overhyped about things, and at the very least learn to give everything a chance. No matter how far out your own personal realm of comfort, give things a chance. And by that I mean Halo. Halo means a various amount of different things to different people, and everyones experience is truly unique. Just remember that next time you go into a forum to talk about hating, or why things suck etc. On a more personal level, I just want to say that I enjoy my time here everytime I log in, and each and everyone of you guys and girls (Shout to my girl Mystie!!) makes this a great place to hang out or make a second home. Don't let greed, popularity, pressure or anything else derail you from what you want out of this place or the games it supports. You make this community, and you can break it as well. Be safe and strong in all that you do! Dude Drizzy, I thought you were gonna start this interview!!!!???? Friends is coming on for christ sake!!" DD: "What is your advice to the members of the 343i Community Forum?" TR: "Man, it ended already? That's what i get for drinking early I guess. Anyway, yeah i would like to say something to the members. Well, to the older members anyway... You are the cream of the crop. You have been here as long as I have and though you may not know it, each and every new member young and old, looks to you for guidance and friendship. Don't let them down. Continue to be good to this forum, and in turn it will always treat you well. Even if I'm not always the friendliest.... the old proverb "Do as I say not Do as I do" comes to mind...lmao. Crazy me... Anyway be good 343i and never stop trying to give it your all!" Thank you Twin, you were great. Couldn't tell if you were being sarcastic when you thought that interview was short because that took all freaking day because of my crap internet . Thank you readers, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support on these and the fact that you made these something to look forward to makes me feel appreciated. I hope everyone liked this as much as I did. Until next time!

Another late interview this week. I should move these back to Tuesdays haha. This week I interviewed another one of my best friends on the forums and esteemed member of our very own News Group: adamj004. Adam resides in "the worlds local pub" - Ireland thus making our timing for the interview a little tough, but we got it done! And here is how it went down: DD: "How were you informed of your position on the News Group when you received it? Were you all of a sudden a member of News Group with no warning or was there a PM involved or something?" AJ: "I was PM'd by Absolute Dog and also I think Spectral Jester too asking if I would be interested in news group after posting new infomation on Halo 4 quite alot and support given to me by fellow members such as yourself choot'em and many others, so I gladly accepted the position." DD: "I had been pushing for you to become News Group for a while I was so happy for you when I found out you got it, but you didn't tell me! Anyway since then you've never been short on your news, you always have good Halo 4 info. What are your main sources for the news you find?" AJ: "You have been pushing me for news group for a while and that was a huge help to me and I will always be grateful for the support, I think I found out I got promoted not too long before you noticed lol. My main sources for news would be gameinformer, halo.xbox.com, xbox magazine, IGN and also searching for any neogaf comments that would be useful on google." DD: "You check a lot of relevant Halo related sources. How many Halo forums are you a member of?" AJ: "I check as much and as often as I can, I am a member of only two forums my number one forum being our very own 343i.org and I am also a member of halo.xbox.com." DD: "Woo! We are superior! And what do you like the most about this forum compared to Waypoint's? I know this is a lot of pressure but that's what the interview's for, we wanna know about you and why you like it here! :D" AJ: "What I like more about here than waypoint is that it's alot more friendly and mature, and by mature i dont mean by age i mean by peoples attitude, theres alot more law and order here thanks to our fantastic mods and theres practically no hate or trolling not just because the mods remove that sort of thing immediately more because the mods dont need to remove things like that because the people here dont do that sort of thing, but if there is the mods are quick to react and they sort it out, and mainly every one respects each other and its a lot of fun here." DD: "I agree completely, well said Adam. So being on the News Group, do you ever feel like there's a competition for news between the two members sometimes?" AJ: "No I don't think theres competition Tyrael and I have given each other names of websites and sources to look for any infomation to help each other out, yeah sometimes if I find a new piece of info sometimes I feel a little eager to get it up but I dont sense any competition in it we always compliment each other when each of us brings some news. Feels more like a team effort." DD: "That is excellent! I love how devoted you both are, really I appreciate all the news you guys give this forum and I think it gets taken for granted by a lot of members and goes unappreciated. So you are one of the staff members who do not have an award yet. What are your ideas so far?" AJ: "That's right I havnt made an award yet. I'm just having trouble coming up with an idea I'm trying to think of one were it's a challenge and the members have to win it like Tyrael's Wings award as I recall it [was] awarded if a challenger beats him in 1v1 game of halo reach which I attempted and failed lol, but I wouldnt be a good enough player to make the award tough to win. As being Irish I was trying to think of an award that could relate to it, the award could be a little clover or shamrock or something associated with Ireland but what would the reason be for earning the award is what I can't think of lol but I'm sure I will think of something." DD: "I think that'd be very interesting and I wouldn't mind receiving an award created by you! What's a goal you want to accomplish soon on the forums?" AJ: "I will keep trying to come up with an Idea for an award I want it to be a good one so hopfully one comes to mind soon, as for the next goal I want to accomplish well becoming News Group was and still is a huge sccomplishment, an unexpected one that is haha, next thing I want to do is reach 1000 posts im so near yet so far from it lol, its just a small goal I would like to get to but i really want to participate in a playdate as I have yet to do so, sometimes I have been working and with the different time zones I have missed it but I will make sure to get involved in them more in the future it seems to be a lot of fun." DD: "Very modest goals, you've always been modest Adam . You're known to be nocturnal by many, like you never sleep and I don't know how you do it. I might be the only one who wants to know this but what keeps you up so late?" AJ: "Thank you very much dan you are very complimentary I always appreciate it, my sleeping situation is messed up lol it's my job that makes my sleeping pattern all mixed up, sometimes I finish late then have to start again in another 8 hours so quite often I go into work without any sleep and sometimes I dont start until late afternoon which allows me to stay up a lot later, in fact I dont have to start until 4pm it's only 5am now I will still have enough time before I have to go to sleep I have been up for 24hours today." DD: "That is unbelievable. It makes me laugh out loud haha alright so what do you like to do when you're not on the site giving everyone news and making good posts?" AJ: "When I'm not on the site I meet up with my firends grab a drink or two when im off work, when I'm in the house I usually have a go on the xbox and just be lazy lol." DD: "That's the life. That's what I'm doing this summer haha. So Adam this interview's coming to a close can you grace the newer members of the forums with your words of advice for being a good member?" AJ: "Haha hope you have a good one. My advice for being a good member is basically be friendly and show a nice attitude I've been to other sites and seen a lot of flaming and trolling etc and it puts people off from the site, sites like this are meant to be fun and have a good laugh and have good discussions. If you do these things you cant go wrong and it makes it better place for yourself and everyone else." That's it! Thank you Adam for your time, I'm glad we got it done. I have to thank the forum for always giving me positive feedbacks on these I appreciate it. This is the end of my set list so I'll be choosing on the fly from now on so anyone reading this could possibly get a PM soon so look out!

This week I chose RedStarRocket91. I haven't seen him on in a while but one of his posts recently reminded me of how great he really is for this community. RedStar's posts are the gold standard for what a quality post should be. Please welcome this week's Star: RedStarRocket DD: "First off RedStar, what inspired your username?" RSR: "One of the first games I really got into was 'Pokemon Red', way back when I was a kid. I named my character 'Rocket', because I thought it would be funny if I ever had to fight against Team Rocket. I used the name 'Red Rocket' on online forums for a while after that, and eventually that turned into 'Red*Rocket'. When I signed up for XBL I discovered they didn't allow asterisks in usernames, so I added the 'Star' and stuck my birth year on the end, and now that's what I use for pretty much everything!" DD: "That's just the answer I expected from you Rocket, very detailed. Now I've always admired your signature because it truly reflects the quality of your posts: detailed and meaningful. What does quality of posts mean to you on this site?" RSR: "The quality of posts here really does mean a lot to me: if someone is very clear about what their opinion on a given topic is and why they hold it, it's much easier for other people to agree with it or disagree with it in a constructive manner. Giving a well-written post also makes things much better for other users, who may be particularly young or non-native speakers of English. If they're faced with an unbroken wall of text, or one which is difficult to read, that can be very off-putting, and might make them feel less comfortable responding. Plus, if you offer posts which are hard to read, contain poor language, or very light on content, people are less likely to take you seriously when you do offer up something valid - and that's a shame for everyone involved!" DD: "Fantastic, and I absolutely agree with you there. I know that when I get a like on a post from you, it means I made a good one haha. What do you look forward to most when coming on to the forums?" RSR: "As The Director says, 'Don't forget to like people's posts'! What I like most when I visit the forums is the sense of community: it's something that, sadly, you don't really get on a lot of websites these days. There are so many things up for discussion at any one time, especially in the run-up to a massive release like Halo 4, and everyone's got an opinion on what all of the changes are going to do to the way the game is played. And yet even though we have users at both ends of the love-hate spectrum for pretty much any piece of information we've been given, there's very little in the way of personal abuse or flaming when someone offers their two cents. If someone disagrees, they're much more likely to explain exactly why they don't hold the same opinion than just say 'stfu true halo fans would never think that', or whatever. I think it makes people a lot more comfortable in speaking up, and so you get a real diversity and breadth of opinions on various topics, which makes for more interesting reading - there've been a few times where I've read a post from someone who's relatively new and it's completely changed the way I look at something." DD: "That's awesome, smart kid that relatively new member . And you're dead on about the community part I mean I feel like I really know a lot of people on this site just from typing to them every day. Alright on the subject of Halo 4, how do you judge the new Halo material we've seen recently from E3? Or what are your thoughts on it I should say haha." RSR: "I like a lot of what's been shown in Halo 4 so far. It's good to see that they're bringing back old favourites in the weapon department, and I'm very excited to see what the new toys can do - the Railgun is particularly exciting for me, I don't remember seeing one of those in a game since the days of Quake. The maps are looking great too, and I'm sure I'll get used to the new loadouts system after a while, even if I'm a little hesitant about how they're going to keep everything balanced with all the possible combinations. After all, everyone initially hated the fact that you had to choose an Armor Ability at the start of games in Reach, and yet now that's just second nature. One thing that worries me is the so-called 'join-in-progress' feature, which I worry will lead to unbalanced teams or reduce the skill gap in order to prevent just that. It's a component of matchmaking which has really ruined some games - such as Gears of War 3 - for me, and I can honestly say that I prefer to end a match with half a team over having people dropping in and out throughout." DD: "Yea the join-in-progress feature is something that definitely has me skeptical along with instant respawn because that could have a huge effect on some things. How do you think Halo 4 is coming along competitively?" RSR: "I think as a competitive game, it's looking quite good. Provided the three primary spawning weapons are properly balanced, it could actually provide a fairer platform than previous games - after all, someone who's a significantly worse player overall than another might beat them if they get a DMR start because the second player is weak only with that weapon, or two players of equal skill might end up performing completely differently in a game with an Assault Rifle spawn whereas in a DMR start they would be roughly equally placed. I'm definitely not a fan of news that players will have to rank up to get certain items, however. Restricting access to equipment is anathema to competitive gameplay, no matter how well balanced it may be: while one player may get their perfect setup from their first spawn on day one, another may not get his until two or three months later. That doesn't make the first player better, it just discriminates against certain playstyles: think what Team Fortress 2 would have been like if you had to start out as a Demoman. It doesn't make any difference that the classes are perfectly-balanced, it still sucks if you're the kind of person who plays well as a Sniper. The news that we're getting maps purpose-designed for competitive play is however a huge relief: while Forge World maps like Synapse and DLC maps like Anchor 9 have helped, the original maps shipped with the game just weren't good enough in a lot of cases." DD: "Great analogy using Team Fortress 2 that's totally true. So it seems you like what you saw so far which is great. I hope everyone did haha I thought it was spectacular. Alright so off the topic of Halo 4 then, it looks like we have not one but TWO winners of the Heads Up Tournament Singles bracket. A lot of people might not know this but you and theorix TIED for first in the tournament. Would you mind giving some insight on the game you and theorix had today to tie for the Heads Up 1v1 Tournament?" RSR: "Theorix and I actually ended up playing a total of three times, and they were by far some of the most difficult games I've ever played in Halo - the guy is incredible! the first match we played was in Round Three, and he beat me easily. After that I dropped down to the loser bracket, and the winner of that was back to playing Theorix in the final. If he won, that was it as I'd already lost one, while if I beat him he got to play another game as he'd been unbeaten throughout the tournament, and it was a 'double elimination' setup. I won the first game a few seconds from the end - I got lucky and heard him pick up the Energy Sword, so I rushed the Shotgun and went after him - that was the kill which kept me alive in the tournament, as we were drawing at that point and I would have been out if we'd stayed level. The match today was even closer - no matter what I tried, Theorix countered it perfectly, and I was trailing by two kils at one point - that doesn't sound like a lot, but in a 1v1 match where it's hard to force your opponent out into the open, it's a really big difference. In the end, we were both sat with Sniper Rifles pointed at each other's heads, just waiting for the other one to move out from behind cover - it's probably the single tensest moment I've ever experienced in all my gaming career!" DD: "Shouts to theorix once again for being the most mentioned member in my interviews haha and that sounds fantastic. I know that intense feeling when you're waiting for each other to come out worried about what happens next. Sounds like a truly great match. So what's an achievement you want to accomplish on the site?" RSR: "There's a lot of thing I'd like to accomplish here - I'm not far off my thousandth post now, so that'll be something exciting, there's a couple of Awards I'd really like to get my hands on, and I'm hoping at some point in the future to earn a custom member rank - no idea what I'd ask for though, so maybe it's a good thing I'm not sure how to go about earning it! Long-term, I think I'd eventually like to join the Community Mod team - the forum and its users have been good to me so far, and I'd like a chance to really give something back to them in thanks." DD: "And you've been great to the community RedStar, that's why I wanted you here. I think you have a sure shot at becoming a Mod someday and I can't wait to read what you'll have in store for your thousandth post milestone. That will be quite the read . How about now? What do you feel most accomplished of that you've done already?" RSR: "That's a good question! There are a lot of things I've done so far that I'm proud of - joint-winning the tournament with Theorix was very special, and I've really enjoyed all of the playdates that I've been able to get involved with - the first flag I captured was a great moment, we were about ten seconds into sudden death and I got sniped at almost the exact moment I reached the flag return: I wasn't sure if I'd actually scored the point or not until the scoreboard appeared! Probably my favourite achievement so far, though, was correctly guessing what kind of weapon the Railgun was going to be from the cover image of Xbox 360 magazine a few months back - I'm not often very good at guessing the future, so do get it right in public was a rare pleasure." DD: "I remember when you said that in the OXM Magazine Cover thread! The gun looks awesome. Recently you've been busy with exams lately you've said. When can we see you back to making your excellent posts?" RSR: "I'll most likely return to posting regularly within a week or so - now that the exams are over, I have to pack my things up and get ready to move home again. Once that's done I'll be spending a lot more time here - no more revision to keep my time filled!" DD: "Great! I'm looking forward to it! Now RedStarRocket, what advice do you have for the newer members on the site to achieve good post quality such as your own?" RSR: "It always helps to use the 'Like' button beneath other people's posts - if you don't have a lot to say, or someone else has already summed up your opinion, it's often better just to press 'Like' than to post five words: this will also get you a reputation for being kind, which means people are more likely to listen to you when there's something you can make a bigger post about. That said, don't be afraid to add your own thoughts if you feel you have something to contribute! Spelling and grammar are also quite important, it's not the end of the world if they aren't your strong point but do your best to make your posts legible. Most modern browsers have some form of spell-checking extension available, so you can even use one of them to check as you type. Lastly, when creating a thread, try looking around to see if something similar has already been made recently. We really don't need any more threads asking for certain things to be included in Forge, Pelicans to be flyable, Scarabs to be driveable, or 'Halo is turning into CoD'/'Halo is NOT turning into CoD'/'Stop making threads about Halo vs CoD' threads. If you do find a thread which is on your topic, if it's been 'dead' for a while, then it should be okay to start a new one." Thank you RedStarRocket for staying up late to complete this with me, you had to have been exhausted after. Thank you 343i Community Forums for just being the best one out there. Sorry for the late interview, we DID do this yesterday but it got done late so I decided to wait until this morning. Tune in next TUESDAY! -Bows-

Week 4 of these interviews, I'm surprised. Thank you 343i Community Forum once again for supporting these. This week I chose a member of the community staff and previous MoM to interview: Mr. Biggles! Now, let's go on board with our MLG expert and gaming guru Mr. Biggles (Chris Puckett voice). DD: "Most of the other members who have been here a while and myself know why your name is what it is but for people who do not know that will read this, would you mind explaining the origin of the name Mr. Biggles?" BIGGS: "Basically, biggles was a fictional character out of a book called "Biggles Learns To Fly" and since i like the idea of flight and my mum always calls me "biggles", i always thought it was nice, and i always like been called Mr, so, Mr + Biggles = Mr.Biggles :D" DD: "That's very sweet. So what's your favorite thing about the site in general?" BIGGS: "The forums, i love the forums and how many people like to express their opinions about stuff, and just in general. i love how the community is quite close together compared to most communities and how the forums actually bring us closer together. The forums are bascially the heartbeat of the forum and im only too happy to be a part of them." DD: "Yes and you've done a great deed for this forum by bringing the idea of the 'Offbeat Items' forum and the Facebook page . What would you say is your motto, or what is a quote that you really admire?" BIGGS: "Practice Makes Perfect. i like this quote or saying rather because its so true, no matter how much natural ability you have at something, if you practice, you are going to be much better at it obviously, and this is what i do for EVERYTHING, i practice, practice, practice until im really good at it and beat everyone, a good example of this is halo, and this quote means quite a lot to me because i have examples to back it up." DD: "I could see that. Record is 24 and 0 in the forums in MLG 1v1s that's very impressive! How were you introduced to MLG and what kept you involved in that aspect of the Halo?" BIGGS: "i just played it, there was no introduction, i was terrible at it originally but i improved, and with some tactics and playing with better people i improved so much, always play with better people, it improves you so quickly. and ive always been good at 1v1s, and thats because of my MLG experience;." DD: "With that being said then how do you feel about Halo: Reach's MLG competitions being held online and not at the events anymore?" BIGGS: "im gutted but im not surprised, halo has been in going downhill since 2011 with halo reach bloom and sprint, no one liked it, and by the time it was changed, it was too late, halo is retty much a dead game MLG wise, and eventually it will be dropped permanently most likely as it brings no profit. Overall, im unhappy but it isn't a shock." DD: "I used to be really into MLG during Halo 3 days, even attended the Meadowlands event as a spectator. I just remember the immense joy of competition and winning a tough game of CTF AMP and what not. I am deeply upset that they took it out but I have to agree with you that with Reach not appealing to the MLG community's playstyle. When was the first time you encountered Halo in general?" BIGGS: "First day of halo CE, i didn't really get into halo much at the beginning, but it was a game that grew onto me, and by halo 3, iwas HOOKED, i couldn't stop playing, however, ive kind of lost the urge to play now because i don't really enjoy reach much now, and since i play WoW a lot more, i prefer WoW to halo right now, but that may change with halo 4. Halo is still the best game i have ever played." DD: "I'm sure a lot of people are doing what you're doing right now haha based on what you've seen so far, how would you say you felt about Halo 4? What would make the game ideal for you?" BIGGS: "Halo 4 looks quite good, but it seems to be getting a little out of context with forerunner vision etc etc, and, a ranking system which is like the halo 2 ranking system would be good for me, and still keeping the classic halo feel and not letting it get too far out of hand." DD: "Yes it's been said that the ranking system is going to be kind of like Halo 3 where there are true skill ranks and experience based ranks. Anyway, being a previous and MoM and a member of the 343i Community Staff in Communications, do you still have any goals you want to achieve? Maybe beating Jester in post count? ;)" BIGGS: "haha, i have many ambitions, some i won't share here, but, Beating Jester in post count is definitely a massive goal to me :D" DD: "Some you won't share... Hmm... Very interesting haha alright almost done. Now, who do you think is an underrated member on this site? What I mean who is someone you think makes quality posts and is a nice member but doesn't get much recognition for it?" BIGGS: "hmmmm, Can i say you to get extra recognition? haha hmmm, lets see, Definitely Twinreaper, he posts long quality posts and no one reads them which kinda sucks, he is so intelligent its unreal and he knows so much about computers and this website and halo 4 that none of us even acknowledge, definitely should be MoM again. :D" DD: "Thank you but Twinreaper is a great choice and I agree with you. His posts are very informative and he's super smart. So Twin if you're reading this just know that we respect you very much. Lastly Biggles, please grace those newer members that read this with your words of wisdom on how to act on the forums." BIGGS: ofc i will bro, the new members are essential to the forums. Um, try and be different from everyone else and stand out from the pack with a sick idea be respectful and try to help in anyway you can, and you willl get rewarded justly Thanks for the interview!" Thank you Mr. Biggles for participating, much appreciated. I thought you were going to bail on me a couple of times haha. Thank you everyone in the forums and just keep in mind that you could be next. There should be a smiley that bows like people do at the end of a play or something. NOTE: The question about the ranking system was before Archangel Tyrael posted his news about it which can be found HERE: http://www.343indust...4241#entry94241

I aim to please with my guests on these threads I make and surely you should be pleased with this one. This time I diverted my attention from the Dedicated section and went to the Members, but this is no ordinary member. This one has been here much longer than most of the Dedicated Members here on the forums. Ladies and Gentlemen: Nova. Enjoy. DD: "Where does your name come from Nova?" NOVA: "My name comes from two things. The place from which I live, Nova Scotia and comes from my [initials]. N.E.W. New is Nova in old Latin and from where Nova Scotia gets it's name, New Scotland." DD: "Wow that's interesting, that holds much more meaning than my name does I'll tell you that haha. And Nova, what is that symbol you use for your display picture? It looks Forerunner in origin." NOVA: "Yes! when I saw Adam's avatar of [Offensive] Bias's symbol it intrigued me. I decided to make my own and came up with that design a few months ago. It doesn't quite follow the rules but I liked it and it was my own." DD: "A unique Forerunner-influenced symbol, that is something! Master Chief thumb up on that one: . Ok Nova you're going to be one of the few members who have been here a full year in about a week, as many of our users may not have known, so what has kept you coming back to the site for this long?" NOVA: "Like a new life was to people coming to america, Halo 4 is the magnet that seems to bring everyone in. That same drive went for me. I joined before Halo 4 was even announce and was thirsty for that little drop of Halo 4 information at the time. I left for some time and came back to a new and prosperous forum. I stayed for the community and the people and in these last few months the forum has become something so much more." DD: "Indeed everybody wants their scoop on Halo 4 haha. Being here for almost a year now, have you seen the sense of community change? Has it gotten better, worse, or stayed the same?" NOVA: "It has gotten better but mostly stayed the same. I know everyone has been a little freaked out about people leaving or taking a break lately but people have always been leaving. That is why I am now one of the oldest members. I believe the community has gotten better overall. With more people joining we will always see more spam, etc but with more people we will also gain more members that will contribute to the forum and improve it overall :)" DD: "I see and are you ticked off in the least that they took away the 'One Year Member' award?" NOVA: "Sorta... I would like it if it had stayed and not only me but older members could get it as a little respect for the time they have spent on the forum. But if we had spent this amount of time, I don't think we would really care about an award, we would be happy with what we have on the forum and let our one year anniversary be like any other day. I wont be treating it like any other day but I will give thanks to everyone. It wont be a day about me but the people who make my day, everyday." DD: "Awesome Nova just awesome. Everything you do just has so much meaning and I think it's great. Now... We have all experienced a great loss here on the site, but it seems to have affected you a lot more than some other people: the absence of Absolute Dog. I know you've posted your thoughts about it in his thread but what kept you so close to AD?" NOVA: "Honestly, I don't think I was that close to him. Jester and many others where great friends to him, but still I looked up to him and he was a friend. Playing play-dates with him were just amazing, he had and I believe still has so much to say. Like I hinted before. The forum has made my day, everyday and for the last months, it was needed. My friends and I went our way. They were the same that introduced me to halo and life wasn't quite the same. I have recently dragged myself out of that dark pit and the forum was the drug that kept me pushing. Loosing AD is like loosing another friend, it was hard and I teared up slightly when I heard he was leaving. Everyone has silently helped me though and I thank everyone, [including] AD with all the thanks I can give." DD: "I teared up a bit too reading AD's real post about leaving realizing it was not an April Fools joke this time. With Fire rejoining the Community Moderators I've still heard talk about the possiblity of there being a new Mod. Who do you think would be well suited for the job?" NOVA: "I couldn't say on the fly. There are many members that do and do not deserve to be a Mod. A good person who takes place in the play-dates, is always there for people on the forum and for goodness sake has a sense of humor sounds great to me." DD: "Alright Nova, what achievement do you feel most accomplished of (an award, your membership length, a thread, etc.)?" NOVA: "None , I have yet to make something I am proud of yet but of those I would have to say my membership length. I still have so much I want to do and I believe this quote says it all. 'There is much talk, and I have listened, through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen." -Gravemind.'" DD: "Very interesting so what is it, or one thing in general, that you wish to achieve in the near future?" NOVA: "Well, I would really like to help Theorix by making signatures. I still have yet to bye the supplies to help him. It will also take some time to develop at least half of the skills he has achieved." DD: "I support the idea of more than one artist in the Sig Shop! Although you are still only at Member status, you are a senior to the majority of users on the site which entitles you to give your advice to newer members to the forums. So, Nova, what is your advice to newer members of the forums?" NOVA: "Yes I am still just a member and any advice I could give to newer members would be, be nice to others. I wanted to come up with a great big an nice piece of advice but just be nice to people. The internet is a place of no regrets. Only people with self confidence can be nice to other people, so have confidence in yourself also, don't be afraid to play things close to the edge if you are confident in yourself." There you have it folks! Thank you to Nova for giving me his time because these interviews do take about an hour or more through PM haha. Shout out to theorix once again, congratulations on being the most mentioned member in these threads. Thank you 343 Industries Community Forum and tune in next MONDAY for another new Interview with Stars of the Community! Remember just because I haven't interviewed you doesn't mean I won't.