Geek Dad stays up late to buy/play Halo 3

Posted under A Geek Dad's Life, Blog Posts, Software Design

Yes, I am a geek dad.  I waited in line at midnight for Halo 3

And then I stayed up until 3am playing it.

It certainly wasn’t the rush that I remember for Halo 2, either emotionally or in terms of the number of people who stood in line with me. 

When is a line a line?

I had such a great time with Halo (1) that I really anticipated the first sequel three years ago.  Late one cold night on November 9th, 2004, I stood outside the mall in 28F degree weather for three hours with a hundred other idiots waiting for the security guys to open the door.  The EB Games outlet didn’t have enough copies of the game, so some of the people went home empty-handed.

This time around, the WalMart here in town had only 25 people “in line” at midnight with 150 copies of the game available for sale.  There were two guys that had been “in line” since noon. (Do two people standing around the electronics department really constitute “a line?”)  I was ninth in line, and I got there around 10pm.  We sat on some bar stools that we swiped from the home furnishings department and watched “We Are Marshal” on the high-def TVs.  Thanks to Wal-Mart for being cool about it.

Enviable Fanaticism

Regardless of what you think (or don’t think) about the Halo franchise, you must admit that the fanaticism heaped upon a piece of software by the Halo-faithful is enviable.  What would it take to get my users to love my applications as much?  Why would my users stay up until midnight on launch day to install an update of our software?  Its no secret that we (software builders) can learn a lot from successful games.  Halo is just a good piece of software that is pleasurable to use.  Dissect the game to find what makes it pleasurable, and you find attributes such as “intuitive,” “rewarding,” “reliable,” “surprising.” 

Notice that NOWHERE in that list will you find “easy-to-use.”  When you are building software for fans, the software needs to be intuitive by having workflows that match the missions.  If it is intuitive, the software will become easy-to-use after the training period.

I’m with you, but I’m not with you

Sure, I’m an idiot for staying up late on a work night, standing around a WalMart electronics department for hours, waiting to play a stupid game.  Still, is it OK for me to think that I was the coolest guy in the line?  Seriously.  Holy moly, were there some real champions in that line.  There were lots of big foreheads and small hands.  I don’t know what that means, but there was definitely a pattern emerging. I am left wondering if everyone else in line thought the same of me (except for my handsome good looks and giant man hands.)