Exploratory Glitching

Glitching is also a popular activity. Map exploration started almost as soon as Halo was released…but it didn't hit the mainstream until early February 2002, when a video known as Warthog Jump appeared on the Internet (http://www.warthog-jump.com/). It astounded everyone who saw it from people who'd never even played Halo right up to Bungie employees who never imagined the physics engine could be used that way and inspired thousands of Halo fans to try stunts of their own. Some glitches were easy and tried by many people (putting vehicles on top of Blood Gulch bases, for example), while others took years to perfect and required nearly superhuman patience (stealing a Banshee at the end of the Maw, or getting to the bottom of the level Halo). Watching the evolution of the community has been amazing; it's a fantastic example of cooperative learning. (It took more than two months to get to the top of Blood Gulch, the first Halo map that anyone summited, and considerably longer to top out on all Halo maps. It took less than two weeks for the majority of Halo 2 maps to be similarly explored.)

It's difficult to pin down exactly why so many people have spent so many hours searching for Easter eggs, hunting for hard to reach places to explore, and using the physics engine to perform amazing stunts. What is certain is that Bungie did many things so incredibly right with Halo that an amazing number of people have been attracted to the game, and have remained fans over the years. For a game to bring together people across all age groups and have those people continue to play that game for years speaks volumes in itself.

With the arrival of Halo 2, there was already such a built-in interest in game map exploration, glitch hunting, and stunt performance that the number of people trying these things instantly skyrocketed. I know of many people who were attempting stunts, exploring the maps, and hunting for glitches even before they played through the game. With the discovery of the skulls in the campaign mode, the situation reached a fever pitch, with thousands of people on various fan sites searching for and documenting these strange additions to the game. It has been exciting to see so many new faces joining the ranks of the already enormous Halo community, and to see them enjoying what so many of us have loved about the game for years.