Georgia Tech Loves Halo 3
I have been trying to ignore the Halo 3 coverage everywhere online as I don’t have an Xbox 360 and the hype has started to make me want one (even though my bank account is at -$44.63). But this type of stuff is hard to ignore when you go to a tech school and campus was noticeably void the morning after the Halo 3 launch. The same thing happened when Halo 2 came out my freshman year, not to mention the Ethernet cables strung through the dorm hall as the old dorm had a weird network topology where only a few LAN devices could see each other.
I was close to getting through the week without needing to write about Halo 3, and then I saw the New York Times’ Halo 3 article. An NYT reporter quoted two Georgia Tech students waiting in the Halo 3 line… this can’t be good:
In Atlanta, an arc of young men lined a balcony at Lenox Square, the city’s biggest shopping mall, as they awaited the game’s debut at a GameStop store. Ari Velazquez and Dan Gibson, roommates at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said they had converted their apartment into a sort of high-tech video game cave, sealing windows with blankets and cardboard and stocking up on ramen noodles, chips and white-cheddar popcorn.
“We expect that, like, no one’s going to go to class tomorrow, and the teachers are going to know,” said Mr. Gibson, 20.
“We’ve been in Internet seclusion for like weeks,†to avoid any leaks about the game’s plot, Mr. Gibson said. Mr. Velazquez gestured toward the balcony in the Atlanta mall and added, “If I found out the ending of the game right now, you’re going to have to hold me back from jumping.”
Did I mention that those two students are in my Computational Media major, which is unfortunately referred to as the “gaming” major by those outside of our loop. There you have it, Georgia Tech really is as geeky as you’ve heard.
I hear prostitution is a good way to earn money fast… ;)
I haven’t gotten to play Halo 3 yet unfortunately. My system died right before the game came out, so unless I buy a new one, I’m stuck waiting a month for it to be repaired. :(
That’s one thing that scares me about the Xbox 360. If I ever, for whatever reason, buy a console, there’s a good chance it will die… not cool.
Consider yourself lucky if you have been able to stay away from Halo 3 — right now, it’s owned my life among many others’ since its midnight launch. One of the side effects that I’m experiencing include hearing the Halo theme whenever I feel motivated.
You should just mooch Halo 3 off of a friend if you don’t have a 360 like me. Awesome game. Frickin flood.
I don’t have an xbox, but every time a game like this comes out, I wish do. I hate microsoft for this. I wish apple would build a gaming system, then at least I’d be like, “to bad, that game doesn’t work on my system”. Now there’s nothing to stop me from buying an xbox and halo 3, which I know will break after the first time I play it.. Help! I promised myself no more microsoft products ever. I’d get it for the pc, but then I’m right back where I started, lol.
Maybe if I ran halo inside windows xp in a virtual machine, on a macbook pro, it might be alright.
Paul, I can’t believe you’d think of buying a microsoft product. Are you feeling alright?
P.S. Aren’t those your roommates?
@Paul: There is no need to think that a brand new Xbox 360 console today will break. The latest ones are more stable then the first ones around.
As a grad student at Tech I don’t get to see the mass hysteria that accompanies the launch of a game like this, but I can imagine what’s going on behind closed doors. I’ve been seriously thinking about getting Halo 3, which would bring the number of Halo games in my possession to an even one. I didn’t have an Xbox when the first two released, so I had an excuse for not participating. Now I feel like I’m just missing out. Maybe I’m not destined for Halo, though — I’ve never used the term “pwn’d” as an exclamation in my life. And skipping class because a game launched? Lame. Skipping class four months after the game has come out and you suddenly get the itch? Therein lies the honor.
My dad went to GT… and only recently has he understood my obsession with Halo. luckily for me, I pre-ordered it and it was delivered to my door at 4am the morning of launch. i’ve already missed a paper and a test because of it. If you want your grades to remain steady, don’t do it. Don’t take the plunge.
Otherwise, go ahead– my 360 hasn’t broken once yet (occasional red ring, but simply power off and power on again). I have one of the originals.
I’m becoming pretty desperate myself. But I live in Germany and am waiting for an iPhone so… I need my money. :(
Haha, interesting. Those two guys were in my freshman English class here at Tech. Oh, and just so you know, that’s the first time I’ve heard Computational Media referred to as the “gaming” major, but me, being an International Affairs major I guess that’s not surprising, as I don’t know many CM majors. I’ve always thought it more of a graphic design, Web 2.0 kinda major.
I’m a Microsoft guy. I admit it. I love their software. It’s the hardware that I shy away from. If I had the time to play games, I might play this one. Unfortunately…
We have the same thing happening at <a href="http://www.rit.edu">RIT</a>. Classes were empty the day it came out. I am content with my Wii.