I will limit my reporting to the complete facts of fully completed finds here from now on.
Thank you for your objective self-assessment! It is
crucial that "theories" are clearly separated from facts. It is also important to separate the "what" from the "why".
In the context of searching for new "secrets" or "easter eggs", there is nothing more egregious than making factual statements that are not based in fact.
For example: "Bride and groom are Spartans." There is
nothing supporting this. It's a wedding album on Flickr. At the very least, you need to qualify statements like this as your personal theories or postulations. For example: "Perhaps the bride and groom represent spartans." This little change in wording is the difference between stating something as a possibility and stating something as fact. You really have to be careful when you state something as fact (i.e.
this thing IS this other thing) because if you can't prove it, people may interpret that statement as a lie. If you recast your statement as "I believe this thing may represent this other thing" then at least you are not "lying"- even if you are wrong!
Now I certainly don't feel that you are lying and I don't believe that you mean for your assessments to be interpreted as lies. In my humble opinion, you just need to be a little more careful about how you present your ideas. You seem to have a great enthusiasm for finding secrets, which is wonderful! I just have a sinking feeling that you may be misdirecting that energy by not being more discerning about how you make connections.
For example:
I did a search for "ER" on Flickr and I got
this bear. If I am inclined to find a way to make this photo
mean something to Halo fans, I might make these possible connections:
- The brutes are (sometimes) furry humanoids. The bear is a furry humanoid. I think the bear represents a brute!
- The bear is waving. Your player in Destiny can wave to other players. I think the bear is acknowledging other players! Aka us!
- The Epcot Center in the background is a big sphere. The Traveler from Bungie's upcoming Destiny game is a big sphere. I think the Epcot Center represents The Traveler!
- The Epcot Center is not too far in the distance. Destiny will be released in the not-too-distant future. I think this is a reference to the impending release of Destiny!
From these "connections" I could conclude: I believe the image represents Bungie calling on game players to say farewell to Halo as they move toward the future of Destiny!
Obviously, none of this is true. Not only do I lack justifiable reasons for associating a furry bear costume with a brute, I lack any tangible result in Halo as a product of making these associations. In other words: It's Just A Bear. (IJAB!)
Likewise, I Googled "Atarigen" and found
this gentleman playing the Super Mario Bros theme on piano. Should I conclude that you are that gentleman? Or did I just get this search result because the page contains a reference to the website "www.
atari.gen.tr/"
Occam's Razor will not always be true, but it's a great guideline.
When something unexplainable
actually happens either in-game or in real life, we consider it a "phenomenon". Scatcycle discovered such a phenomenon in ODST which we dubbed "
Zombielites". There were many theories bandied about regarding "what this meant". We were hopeful that there might be some cool secret in ODST involving an Elite standing up and coming to life, perhaps being "repaired" by a Huragok. We though there might be some merit to this, since there is apparently some code which is making these guys stand up.
Nope.
To date, it's a cool little phenomenon that you can try and test yourself. It's a proven
phenomenon. It may possibly be a "glitch". By itself, it is not an "easter egg". In my opinion, the first criteria for a phenomenon to be considered an easter egg is that it must be hidden. Easy enough. I posit that the second criteria for a phenomenon to be considered an easter egg is that it must have been
intentionally placed.
There is nothing supporting the notion that the Zombielite behavior was intentional. I believe the simplest explanation is that the physics engine is affecting an object that would normally be blown across the map, but was coded to stay in a generally fixed location- resulting somehow in a little of both. No clear intention. Ergo, it's not an easter egg.
On the other hand, the
morse code in Data Hive discovered by Sep7ember
is an easter egg. It was clearly placed intentionally: the morse code needed to be recorded by the audio team and placed in the level. Furthermore, when you decode it (per a standard convention: morse code), the results are long-standing references to Bungie lore. It was hidden. There is a clear demonstration of intention; furthermore, the results indicate a clear association with Bungie/Halo. Ergo, it's an easter egg.
As far as NER 1204 goes, I have not yet devoted any time researching this Halo 4
phenomenon other than to read your posts. The barricade texture contains the following text:
N.R.- 0709
E R - 1204
R R - 1015
The first thing that stands out to me is that it looks like a list of initials for people and their birthdays (July 9, December 04, October 15). I'd go down that simple path a lot sooner than I'd look at table placement in a random wedding photo on Flickr!
Thanks for joining, and thanks in advance for your continued enthusiasm and willingness to share ideas with the community. I hope we can have a positive affect on your Halo exploration!
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