API - My Fears for the dark age. Explanation and hypothesis

Community General Discussion
1

As you may be aware, Bungie will lose access to Halo’s Stats and Files on the 31st of March. 343 Industries do not plan to re-implement all the features that Bungie currently have. Two big features that will be permanently lost for Halo Reach are:**[/li]- Online Rendering Service- Halo: Reach Stats API****
There will also be no way to view file shares, view recent screenshots, and link to files online. However 343 Industries plan to add File Shares to Waypoint in the summer. Months later.
<strong>What is an API? An API (Application Programming Interface) is what any one of us with programming knowledge can use to take data (stats, files, etc) from Halo’s servers, and use them in our own programs, this includes Stat tracking sites, sites with leaderboards, or live ranks, and mobile Halo applications.</strong>
What immediately comes to mind are sites like Halotracker, who keep amazing records of statistics, and have formed communities around them, these communities will freeze, as the Reach API will no longer pull updated data, but archived content from prior to April. However it is not just stat tracking sites that use the Reach Stats API. Innumerable amounts of sites and applications use it. For example:
- Halo.Bungie.Org (The Halo & Bungie fan site) uses the API to show what the current Reach challenges are at the top of the page.
- HaloWheelmen.com use the API for leaderboards and figures, relating to vehicular combat in Halo Reach.
- Countless mobile applications for various devices that make tailor made stats, files and challenge tracking a breeze.
- Countless personalized stats web-apps that people use for various reasons.
To the rendering service, and online file tracking:
Without file shares, and rendered films, many communities will be forced to a standstill. For example, Forge Hub, XForgery, Forge Café, Blueprint, Reaching Perfection, Zombie Cartographers, Achievement Hunter (Fails of the Weak, etc), and countless other communities will be forced to a halt, and many will cease to exist, and maybe even die before Halo 4. Even Halo Waypoint’s HRSHotD, and Friday Caption fun, and other segments will be forced to stop.
Halo, for me, more than gameplay, more than Campaign & lore, more than anything, is about the broader Halo Communities. Innumerable amounts of clans, web sites, and forums, that all feed off sharing consumable Halo content via the web. I participate in many Halo communities, and I have gained a lot from them, some small, some large. I truly fear that this dark age, from April through to the release of Halo 4, may kill some of these wonderful communities.
One of the largest Halo communities I am aware of, Forge Hub, relies on uploading files (screenshots and download links) to the web, and sharing and discussing community Forge content. Thousands of links to files will be lost during the transition, and during the dark age, no-one will be able to share maps with the community. Activity will drop to lower than it ever has before, and it may not even see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Similar communities, like XForgery, will also suffer. XForgery is a similar community, but much smaller. I am deeply concerned about it’s future.
Many other forge communities, such as Reaching Perfection, Blueprint, Zombie Cartographers, and many others will suffer this blow too. I’ve seen communities fall apart before, it is really sad, and I really hope it doesn’t happen to Halo.

I still have hardly mentioned all the sites that use Halo Reach’s screenshot sharing and render service to function. And other web sites like Halopedia and Halo Nation, who need screenshots to aid articles, will be forced to stop producing content. Capture cards are a way of getting around this, but it is far from convenient.
I wish I could shake the feeling that what lies ahead is grim, but unfortunately I can’t. I really needed to get this off my chest, and I mean this thread to NOT be a petition, but discussion.
As far as solutions go, I fear there are none. The only thing I can think of is allowing Bungie to continue their Halo features until Halo 4’s release, to smooth the transition.
I ask all of you who are reading this to reply, listing the communities you are a part of that will be affected by the loss of the API, online Reach stats, file shares, and the rendering service. Please do so in a constructive manner.
- -Der Flatulator.*
- I would like to disclaim that I am not criticizing any of the work that is done at 343i, nor am I upset with their work so far. I am, however distressed by the decisions made by Microsoft, that will inevitably force many small communities, and some large, to perish.*

2

Understood.

-Forever Forgers

-Mythic Photographers

-Point and Shoot

-Unmatched Photographers

-Epic Pic (This one hardly due to it already dying.)

Theses are some.

3

Fyrewulff has suggested sending some real, physical letters to 343i about it. If they have mail arriving on their doorstep about it beyond just dicussions in the forums, they might take notice of how strongly people feel about it.

That’s the idea anyway.

4

> Fyrewulff has suggested sending some real, physical letters to 343i about it. If they have mail arriving on their doorstep about it beyond just dicussions in the forums, they might take notice of how strongly people feel about it.
>
> That’s the idea anyway.

I saw that, I might participate in it. I don’t like the idea of spamming them with the same letter though.

5

> > Fyrewulff has suggested sending some real, physical letters to 343i about it. If they have mail arriving on their doorstep about it beyond just dicussions in the forums, they might take notice of how strongly people feel about it.
> >
> > That’s the idea anyway.
>
> I saw that, I might participate in it. I don’t like the idea of spamming them with the same letter though.

Oh, no. He’s not suggesting you send the same letter, he’s just given an example.

6

Halopedia will be fine. They have all the Halo 3 and Reach screenshots they need. It’s not going to stop them producing content in any way.

As for the other sites. Only time will tell. Halo.Bungie.org has a lot of features so I think that’ll keep chugging along. Some of the others will be screwed though, they may have a revival come Halo 4.

7

let me guess, sarge got you thinking about this as well …?

anyway, i’m mostly a part of RP and blueprint myself, i do use xforgery, forgehub and forge cafe as well but only for publicity since the feedback from those area’s i find tends to lack in quality.

i have had a talk with alzarahn and he said that xforgery isn’t to concerned since they can pull the maps in game and pink elite will be willing to do so, though, i tried to explain to him the severe loss in traffic and the main feature from them, sharing maps and community content will be frozen for weeks, possibly even months and the outcome from this could potentially kill the community but he doesn’t seem to be concerned at all.

my main concern though is the CC process, i tried to talk to godly about it the other night but of course, all that information is classified but i fear that the down time could slow the process down a lot or possibly even halt it since, from what i can see, it heavily relies on accessing and downloading the maps from the web.