: The simple answer to me is that any Halo MMO you conceived *now* would be a
: whole lot better. 343i has a lot more control and while people may take
: issue with art or story direction, the universe is a lot more consistent;
: that consistency didn't exist the entire time this MMO was being
: prototyped.

Agreed. One could even go so far as to say that this MMO would have been a better fit back when it was first conceived because there was more wiggle-room to work with. The more games and external media that gets released, the more the Halo universe gets established and conflicts with Titan.

Except for Hunters in the Dark. When I read that book, my mental image of the characters and the scenes therein was in the Halo MMO's goofy artstyle.

: I understand the desire for an MMO "hero" art style,
: but I can't imagine 343 biting on that front now, especially not the
: half-naked witches.

Yet, somehow, impossibly, the AI characters are even more plausible. =(

: The other main advantage of making such a game now? World of WarCraft isn't
: the hot new thing; basically it seems like the issues you mention are a
: pretty direct consequence of "we have to do whatever WoW's doing in a
: sci-fi setting", and Halo was the property they saw as easiest to
: throw at it. Halo isn't as big as it once was, and in this regard I think
: that's a good thing; it'd be less prone to cash-ins.

On the other hand, MMORPGs allow a degree of freedom that is unavailable in the Halo universe. An MMO lets you roam free and explore the universe, join up and take quests from just about whoever doesn't have a grudge against your faction. That freedom doesn't exist for a lot of people in the Halo universe, especially not for the Spartans everybody would want to play as.

: With that said, in the back of my mind I do have the slight trepidation
: imagining some MS execs saying "free to play MOBAs are big now, make
: a Halo one" because an action RTS/MOBA is another genre that Halo
: doesn't naturally graft to as easily, but we'll take it as it comes.

What's so odd about that? You could mod Halo Wars into an MOBA with little difficulty aside from the obvious issues of not having the developer tools. And Halo Wars' base gameplay is about as debased from the mechanics of the universe as a MOBA would be.

Respawning heroes!
Senselessly tiered upgrades!
Random crap-tier units to throw at each other's bases in mobs!

: I did notice in this Gamasutra article about the news of the game they asked
: Claude to "interpret" leaked images, and he basically responds
: with a "fuck if I know, that's a Halo ring though" response :)

"None of those [specific] characters or creatures were EVER included in a Halo game."

That's the politest way I've ever heard anyone say "What am even I looking at?"