Microsoft’s Master Plan

I received the original Xbox as a gift in May 2002 because of one game: the original “Halo.” Series developer Bungie Studios and its corporate parent Microsoft are receiving flack from Seattle Times columnist Brier Dudley over the final installment’s $10 million ad campaign.

The narrative within the ads features a memorial to the human race established after series protagonist Master Chief is captured in battle by the Covenant alien forces. The end of one ad, titled “Believe,” shows a Covenant Brute holding up Master Chief as a prisoner of war. The camera shows a close-up of a grenade in his hand, then shifts to his visor which shines in a simulated eye wink. The story was written by an advertising agency who had no knowledge about actual game spoilers (so if you think I just ruined it for you, don’t worry). In another ad, a human veteran of the battle tears up when remembering MC’s sacrifice.

EDIT: Here is the believe ad.

The complaint from Dudley is that the protagonist is portrayed as a Christ-like hero in war, and the campaign is a subtle approval of the U.S.’s current operations in Iraq.

Which is just ridiculous. Let’s examine Dudley’s rationale for such a claim.

He argues that the ads draw a parallel between the “Halo” protagonist and Jesus Christ, because the fictional war veteran calls M.C. “the man who gave the world faith” and made humanity “believe again.”

I buy that part. But the Jesus Christ archetype has been emulated in art, literature, and popular culture for years. “The Matrix” did it. “Star Wars” did it. Now “Halo 3″ is doing it. In an ad. That the game’s creators didn’t write.

“The ads zoom in on anguished faces of soldiers in a battlefield diorama,” Dudley says.

Is this even noteworthy? When does a battlefield not contain anguished faces?

He also says he doesn’t “think Microsoft is trying to send any subliminal, pro-war message…,” then:

It seems risky for a global company to even lightheartedly link spirituality and military themes during a U.S. war in the Middle East that has outraged much of the world.

If there is no “subliminal…message,” then the basis for “risk” does not exist.

Frank O’Connor, lead writer at Bungie, explains it perfectly in Dudley’s original editorial.

“We are the latest in a long line of people exploring the same themes. It’s just that we didn’t stop doing it because there was a conflict in Iraq; we didn’t stop doing it because there was a war in Bosnia — those things are external to what we’re doing,” he said.

~ by Jason on September 18, 2007.