Halo.Bungie.Org

Lore & Background

Claude Errera and several friends created bungie.org for Bungie's other games, including Marathon, in 1998. Before that, Errera had been involved in other Bungie-related sites. Halo.bungie.org began as blam.bungie.org on May 22, 1999, after information about what was to become Halo leaked soon after the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1999. At the time, little was known about the new project other than that it was set on a ringworld, so the site founders took aliases from Larry Niven's novel Ringworld; Errera assumed the name 'Louis Wu'. Though the Halo megastructures turned out to have more in common with Iain Banks' Orbitals, the aliases stuck. The first Halo trailer was unveiled in July 1999, and the site was renamed. Errera and the other founders searched the web for information and provided a place for fans to discuss and contribute.

Reader's Guide

Halo.Bungie.Org is significant as the most widely read Halo fansite, receiving about 600,000 page views a day in 2007. It is unusual among large non-commercial sites in having no paid advertisements. The site covers game news, rumors, strategy, fan-made machinima, stories, art, contests, and forums. In its early years, fan-submitted material was scarce but later ballooned, making constant maintenance a challenge. Errera attributed the site's longevity to providing fans not just news but a place to share their love of the franchise. Bungie has a strong relationship with the site, calling it the ultimate Halo fansite, and it is listed as a source on Bungie's project pages. Bungie employees frequent the forums, and the site often receives promotional items for contests. The site has conducted fundraisers for Hurricane Katrina relief (raising nearly $11,000) and established the Brian Morden Memorial Fund after a community member's death from cancer.

Did You Know?

• The site was originally called blam.bungie.org, based on the project's development name before it was called Halo.
• Claude Errera's pseudonym 'Louis Wu' comes from the protagonist of Larry Niven's novel Ringworld.
• Halo.Bungie.Org has no paid advertisements on any portion of its pages.
• The site raised just under $11,000 for Hurricane Katrina disaster relief through eBay auctions.