Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

More than a year and half after it’s release, Bungie released an enormous milestone this past Monday: It’s Halo 3 campaign kill count recently surpassed 10 billion Covenant kills. If you got through the entire news post, that’s 17,500,000 million kills on a daily basis, 730,000 killed per hour and 12,000 troops killed per minute. As fun as it is to note the rabid enthusiasm of some Halo 3 gamers, the way Bungie chose to enunciate on how big the kill count is are rather…disturbing for a milestone.

It starts with, “It’s been said that the UNSC lost nearly every ground war against the unholy conglomeration of alien species better known as the Covenant. Not this time. Not on our turf.” Note the subtle emphasis on ‘our’ here. And from then on, all subtlety goes out the airlock.

Were we able to lay the corpses of the fallen Covenant in some kind of gruesome, macabre ring around the circumference of the Earth, we’d have to make the trip some 456 times. Roughly speaking, that would be 11,363,636 miles of end-to-end Covenant. And that’s using a low estimate of six feet for each Covenant foot soldier.

Ah, you have to love estimates. What better way to say, “Hey, they’re all pretty much the same right? It doesn’t matter as long as it conforms to our stereotypes, right?” Also brings to mind the mass graves dug by the collective efforts of Hitler and Stalin during World War II. Ineffable pride on the number of dead? Check.

According to Robt McLees, If we were to skin the Covenant aliens felled upon Earth’s battlefield, there would be enough leather to upholster the entire state of New Jersey. Which would be easily be the most disgusting thing ever done in the history of disgusting things.

How delightful. The Nazis often gassed their concentration camp residents, if they didn’t die from disease. Sadistic pleasure mixed with disrespect for the dead and desecrating corpses? Double-check.

We’re glad we’ve got you by our side, soldier. You’re worth the weight of a hundred Covenant scum. Actually, the per player average puts the count right at 650 kills per player. Mighty fine work.

Here’s to ten billion more.

Species preference and ethnic preference are pretty much the same – as genocide often takes into account the utter lack of restraint needed in extermination (zero, if you’re wondering). Stating just how much the life of one soldier is much more valuable than that of a few hundred Covenant is especially a little iffy. Granted, most people would say, “It’s just a game”. But this wasn’t composed in the game – it was created by the staff at Bungie. While the games have that subtle anti-humanity stance, this is just full-blown hate-mongering.

As for the whole, “They’re not human!” argument: Last time I checked, we don’t take into account how human a terrorist or opposing soldier is when executing them. In that respect particularly, these details only resonate more. So, kudos to all Halo 3 players for successful play and making it one of the most popular online games of all time. Pebbles to Bungie for turning this milestone into genocide propaganda.