Hello all,
I’m gonna drop by some points. Halo 2 I think and standby had the largest userbase that went on the longest. Halo 2 was being played until the Xbox 1 LIVE was shutdown. Halo Reach has like less than 10,000 people online lol. Halo 3 sometimes has more.
Why is that?
After a company can no longer update its game. Modders step in and benefit the game for the community. This in turn keeps the public attracted to the series and thus still benefits the company financially (by keeping the attention towards the game).
Modifications always had some downfalls though as some bad eggs decided to go on LIVE with these modifications. Unfortunately it took Bungie about 6 TU updates back on Xbox 1 before that was under control.
Now were in the age of modified consoles. So no matter how many checks you put in the game, some xbox’s can just bypass them. We need Microsoft for that 
Want your game to live on?
I’m not asking for BXRs and superjumps. I’m asking for a mod-able game. Be more like Android. Put those security checks online, but stop encrypting the tags in your map and adding private key encryptions. Go back to the simple .map checksums.
We’ll do our research. Make our tools. Release our maps. We’ll never harm the online play. Can’t speak for everyone though, which is why you still need the security checks 
We can help make this game perfect. Android allows rooting, look at how popular their devices are? Same principle applies.
Just make that code solid that has random online security checks for map checksums that auto ban anyone stupid enough to mess with the online play.
…but why?
You’d be an idiot to not know of the huge communities Halo 2 spawned. Those communities fed on the open-ness (per-se) of Halo 2. Those same communities then were hyped for the next Halo. Unfortunately Bungie let down there, locking down their game even more on each release. Shutting the door for that community and opening the door for a community that abandoned the Halo series after a new game came out.
There are communities here to stay that can take this game to the next level for no expense to the legitimate online play.
I know most of your 343 team is some of the original team that worked on Halo 1 / 2. They’ll know what I mean. Some may be pissed at us, but trust me in saying. We keep this series strong and keep it going.
Your work is great and amazing. Thanks for all you do. Let us as a modding community take your excellent work to a new level.
Is Ninja on Fire working here now?
Thanks,
Peaches