I didn't have an Xbox on launch day, so I didn't have a Halo of my own for a few months (I have a few copies of my own now, however). Because of this, I was constantly with my friends playing and having LANs and such. Despite not having my own Xbox or copy of Halo, I still managed to find HBO and have been visiting it nearly every day since. It might just be nostalgia speaking, because I was 14 when I started playing, but my favorite memories are of Halo (and Halo PC) and Halo 2.

I remember when I was younger, my family went on some vacation and, for whatever reason, I didn't go with them. So I did what any normal 14 year old would do and had a giant LAN. 15 of my friends came over with TVs and Xboxen and we LANed till six in the morning. You guys remember the huge 6-hour CTF games on Blood Gulch? You'd end the game with 300 kills and feel like your eyes were falling out, but just the fact that you just spent that much time with some of your closest friends was, for me at least, really rewarding. Or sitting down with a buddy of mine to run through the entire campaign on Legendary on split screen, that was cool too. Warthog launches, object-overload, all the people who have come and gone from these forums over the years. I haven't been active much, but I've always been here lurking.

I didn't play as much Halo PC as I did Halo on the Xbox, but I remember how much fun it was playing on my dad's laptop because my computer couldn't handle it. I'd have an ethernet cable running the stairs into my room, getting on my mom's nerves because she hated how it looked, but I was playing Halo on the HBO server with some of the guys I'd looked up to since I first came to this site -- Louis Wu, Shishka, KP, all those guys. I remember doing CTF on Battle Creek, shotguns only, no shields. It was frantic and insane but it was awesome.

Halo 2 came out in 2004 (I kept the sticker on my TV) and I was a little older then. I was old enough to go to MLG Meadowlands, which was absurdly fun. We didn't do well at all, but we played on the main stage there and everyone got to watch us win those games, I'll never forget that. Meeting the pro players was intimidating, but watching them play was, for a 16-year old Halo fanatic, very cool. I remember getting in the elevator to go up to my room at the hotel, and Lil Poison and his uncle got on the same elevator as me. I didn't talk about the tournament much with them, as the kid was half my age and twice as skilled, but that was a cool experience.

It was because of this forum that the Daily Herald got in touch with me to do a piece on Halo 2. I talked to the reporter on the phone for our interview and they sent a photographer to my house (that's one of Heather Cristofaro's paintings -- Blood Gulch Blues -- on the wall above my bed, I got the second one -- Sheila was Here -- when it came out too. Both number 22 of 150)

I'm 25 now and don't game as much as I used to. That didn't stop me from getting a Spartan insignia tattoo or going to the midnight launches for the new games and I still have every single one of my limited edition (or Legendary edition, where applicable) Halo goodies. I got Halo 2, Reach, 3, ODST and 4 on launch day, I have all the books on my bookshelf, I randomly find myself humming the Gregorian monk chant (I have all the soundtracks too). I grew up with Halo, it's been part of me since I was 12. I don't have time to go into all the LANs or really late nights on Live with my clan on Halo 2 or all the lame montages I made by recording onto a VCR, but I've been here for everything.

While I'm at it, thanks Lou and the entire HBO crew for sticking around for us. I guarantee this game franchise wouldn't have been as big for me, or for many others, without your hard work.