Sketch, Thanks for the reply. I understand the necessity of launching the site early to ensure a smooth rollout for the entire community come launch day; I can't imagine the complexity of producing and maintaining a site of this magnitude. I know I'll exercise extreme caution from now until launch and will likely avoid the tubes this weekend even though I'm eagerly awaiting the new Bnet. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] SketchFactor [quote]If there is the potential to be disappointed, why allow this stuff in advance of the launch? I know I won't be checking things out because I don't want any of the experience ruined, but for a company like Bungie that keeps their cards pretty close to their chest, I'm a little puzzled over this. Since the game launches, for all intents and purposes, on Monday night, does having these features available on the weekend prior really serve any purpose? Why not make the feature available on Monday along with the game...so there can be no leaks?[/quote] There are two issues here - one is that the game is going out to a lot of people starting this weekend. We want these people and media folks to be able to have the Bungie.net experience as they are checking out Halo 3. But the bigger reason is that we want a day or two to work out any kinks before a million-plus people all flood the site at once. Doing a gradual ramp up to the 25th makes it easier for us to manage the site and identify any potential issues before the rest of the world comes knocking on our door. Practically speaking, it's also nice for fans to get a sense of how it all fits together on the site so they can also ease into it and not be overwhelmed or lost on day one. It's not a huge deal - just don't come around this weekend looking at the service record for players and you won't find any spoilers. [/quote]