Our story is pretty similar to many, but here it is. My wife met a few people through an ARG website that we thought was connected to Halo3, turns out it wasn’t, but never-the-less, we met a friend that we began playing Halo 2 with waiting for the release of 3. We played with him almost every night, and we also met one of his good friends and his wife. This became a nightly ritual. Then halo 3 dropped and we all pretty much lived in the game. Since then we have exchanged phone numbers and send each other *chirps* to come play and talk regularly. One of them will even be coming out to the Dreams cruise here in Detroit and we will meet in person. We also have been trying to find a way to plan a trip out to CO to see them all. It's been an interesting turn of events that I know we are both very grateful for. These are great people, and I hope this relationship continues for a long time. While this new friendship has started between all of us, It also developed a close range set as well. I have a coworker that I talk to regularly during smoke breaks that also began playing Halo 3 and became ADDICTED. His g/f was never really into video games, but she started playing and he created a MONSTER. Since then, we exchanged gamertags and we all started playing together, now making our group of friends much larger. We started as 2 people just playing, then 5, now 7. We now talk to the second couple regularly; we even were invited to their home for their New Years party. I never thought a video game could create real friendships that actually would live outside of the game. I'm glad I was wrong.

Those of you who have actually used Halo to meet women...let's see some pictures....because the only girls I know who play Halo are big, fat slobs who smell like cold cuts. No offence.

Yes, I met my true love at a local Halo tournament back in 2002. We ended up playing each other in the 1 vs 1 finals and she kicked my ass! lol! But afterwards, we started talking and 6 hours later, I asked her out. We have been dating ever since. She loves Halo just as much as I do. She was a legit 37 in Halo 2 and she is a Colonel in Halo 3 right now where as I was a 45 in Halo 2 and a Brigidear in Halo 3. She is my dream girl and im her Spartan lover. I wanted to propose to her over Live but someone beat me to it and I decided to find a better time. We live like 3 miles away from each other so I will figure something out. Her Birthday is Sept 25, lol, so I got her a 360 and the Legendary Halo 3 for her birthday along with Gears of War and a few other games. She was so happy. lol. We are doing great, we are getting ready to go to the same college and have been talking about getting a place of our own. The next few years are going to be epic!!!

This could be interesting.

A simple story. I got my first console, a 360, about a year ago and played through Halo 2, tried going online and got pwned all the time - people doing magic trix with BXB or whatever, plus of course I sucked ;-) I live in SF, and my nephew and niece from Austin came out to visit last August, and stayed over - it turns out my nephew is pretty good at Halo so we all played, they took turns and even my niece enjoyed it. So for their birthday in October I got them a 360, plus the game - now we go online all the time together. They're 17 now (twins) and it's a really good way to stay close, be involved in their lives, and do fun stuff together without having to fly to Texas every weekend. They came out again for xmas this year, and stayed over - my nephew helped me rank up some in Team Doubles, and I made him coach me on my playing which he thought was a little odd but then he gave me some good advice (throw grenades more, remember to reload, don't die). I showed them Portal from The Orange Box and they LOVED it too. It's really good to hear their voices over the xbox - they confide in me sometimes about stuff they'd rather not tell their parents, so it's good for them as well. Thank you Bungie for a great way to stay close to my family!

Sorry if someone posted this already... I read to this one and then had to add my voice. Friends, yes you can make friends on Halo the same way you would in RL -- be a decent person in your IG voice (especially in the lobby). I have made a few, though I'm not a great player (yet) I am a team player who speaks out against the undesirable (reportable btw) elements... people seem to appreciate that, even when they aren't the target of slurs or vulgarity specifically. Someone mentioned the book "Everything bad is good for us," I agree the interviewer is the type of gatekeeper that needs to take a look at the world around him/her and realize that our qualities are measured and tested in many different ways these days. Those of us who play RTS games especially (ie Medieval Total War) have learned a great deal from these games. I knew a child who had great difficulty in a classroom setting due to family issues that their peers did not face. As such they were seen as unreachable and "slow" (not my term) by some. I learned they were great at Stronghold -- no small feat to run an agrarian community, balancing the needs of the peasantry against the needs of the monarchy and keeping it all running smoothly in the face of your enemies... oh did I mention the kid was 11? What's more is they could talk about how they achieved success (and it wasn't just by killing enemies). As for jobs, look at the credits in the back of the halo manual; the several hundreds of gamer critics that are publishing in magazines, newspapers and bcasting on radio (on top of the net of course); virtual environment designers find work in film -- name a big film in the pst 5 years that wasn't shot on a green screen; and finally for those looking for an entry level position, the guy at Target is a good example but I know for a fact that BestBuy employs people they call "extreme gamers" -- guess what they have to know all about? Because they are dealing with the gaming public they can't be someone that has read about games, they must be a gamer, preferable hard core, themselves. So Morpheus, watch the matrix again and open that mind of yours bud, I'm sure its a good one -- aim high (its where the snipers are usually hiding anyway!)

Halo in my life? HALO IS MY LIFE!!! Hum, it's not true, but when I was playder toi Halo Combat Evolved, my life has change... ps: sory for the language, I am French...

Ok, so my story is that amazing but its helped me gain recognition. Before Halo 3 came out, nobody knew how much of a fan I was, but when Sept. 25th came, I skipped school (with my parents permission), and played Halo 3 for about 16 hours strait, stood up for a total of almost 35 hours, finished the fight, and so on. Well when I got back to school, apparently all my friends told the teachers I skipped for Halo, so just about every class of mine asked me how it was and I replied amazing, yata yata. Anyways, now i'm known as the "Halo Kid", out of all my friends and my peers. I'm the only one whos as obsessed with it ([i]was[/i]), and it has just got me known as the person to always defend the game, when someone talks down about it, talking good about CoD4 or Bioshock at the same time.

Met my fiance playing halo 2 and play halo 3 w/ her nearly every night!!!

A friend of mine was an alcoholic. It was a hard time seeing him like that since we grew up as kids. I didn't know how to really help him except just spend time with him. He wouldn't play sports or really go to the gym. One day i bought the xbox360 and and halo 2 (My other friends go me hooked). I introduced him to the multiplayer world and he loved it. He ended up saving money to buy his own 360 and halo 2. He now owns halo 3, plays multiplayer (and is pretty good at it) has maintained a steady job, has a kid and is alcohol free. I would say that halo pretty much saved him. Thanks Bungie.

I did not meet my wife on Halo, but it has given us something to do together. I have know my wife for 10 years or so. We have been married 1.5 years and been together for over 6. She knew I was a gamer. She knew I spent much of my time in front of the screen behind the controls of a Battle Rifle, a BFG, or a sniper rifle. She knew I played online with my friends. But one day she sat down with me and picked up a controller. We were at a lan party enjoying some games of Halo 2 and she wanted to play. I gave here the basic rundown of controls, objectives, and other vital info and let her play. Even thought the first night she did not get many kills we had fun. Time went on and I moved onto other games, then one day the "Beta" came out. I got my copy of Crackdown and we played. We spent almost every night on my 360 playing the Beta. Talking trash to my friends, having fun... Then the beta was gone. But she tried other games with me. As time went on and the Halo 3 came out she was a good player. So we got her a gamer tag of her own and we still play almost every night. And if I am in the mood for some COD 4 or some Mass Effect, she does not bail and go to the other room. She will sit in the game room and watch me play. Halo has brought us together and provided a media that we can both enjoy together, because God knows she hates to hear me talk about cars, beer, or sports. ThirdCoast27

Not exactly a happy story, but i lost my job due to halo 3. I stayed up playing it from midnight when i got it, and beat it at 7 in the morning. I knew i should have went to bed, cuz i had to work the next morning, but I couldnt resist the urge to pwn some n00bs online. So, i just didnt go into workt hat day, and i ended up getting fired. (Technically, I quit) And i dont have a job still to this day, all I do is play halo 3 and 3 occasionally. G/f pays the bills. The happy ending? As long as I make supper every night, and keep the house clean, my fiance will continue to pay the bills while I play halo.

I've met a lot of people using Halo's multiplayer. People I now consider best friends. Where's the Commando shoulder pads already?

Halo has kept a few of my real friendships intact; I met this kid when I went off to college. The dorms had a large LAN connection throughout the building so I plugged in my Xbox and wanted to see if there were any kids playing Halo: CE. To my surprise about twelve to fifteen kids were playing. I joined in and discovered that there was only one person of the same caliber of player; Katsumoto. I am kind of a shy kid so we played against each other throughout the first semester among the eleven other miserable players; dominating everyone except each other. During the second semester and after I had not made too many friends (school work and shyness), I was walking back to my room from the cafeteria when I passed a room that was full of people and I heard the Halo pistol firing. After stopping to gather my nerves I stood in the doorway watched a moment. I eventually asked, "Are any of you Katsumoto?" I played under the alias Id, as in the Freudian concept, and after realizing that I was standing in the doorway of Katsumoto's room I mentioned who I was. His replay was to stop playing his current game, lean back and swivel in his chair towards me, he looks at me and says, "So, we finally meet." After that moment we completely dominated everyone that came onto the LAN, until this character Jimmy Page appeared--. He was the only one that became any competition against us. Naturally we were opposed to him and always competed against him, until Halo 2 was released. After the release of Halo 2 the LAN died and Xbox Live became our medium for destruction. Xbox Live united the three of us and we became the center of a clan that had a small cult following and competed heavily after the ranks got reset the first time. We constantly played Halo 2 as a threesome until I left to go back home to follow a school career in Film, Skull (Jimmy Page) left to Alaska for Air Traffic control something, and REACH (Katsumoto) went to Portland for culinary school. Despite our moving away from the same dorm hallway we continued to game together, that is until Halo 3 got released. Skull and REACH continued but I was unable to get an Xbox 360. Just before Halo 3 was released REACH and I talked about making a montage for him, since I was in Film and whatnot. After Halo 3 got released and I was Xbox-less and after REACH had been having troubles with his Premium box he bought himself an Elite. I was on my way home from my grandparents, I was attending my grandfathers funeral, and I get a phone call from REACH and he offered me his Premium box for the cost of shipping. Now after I got the box fixed and bought a copy of Halo 3 we have continued to play. I am currently making some of the best Forge maps on Forge (I've seen). I currently am expecting my first child and most of my hometown friends haven't been extremely supportive. REACH and Skull have been there and are willing to play games with me regardless of my personal strife. Thanks Bungie, kyle. p.s. I am gonna release a Forge Map-Pack soon with a handful of maps that have taken a total of 200+ hours of work. The maps are used for for all types of games. Please Bungie, check them out. I will post them around the forums soon. I think you will enjoy them.

I met a girl once, Immediately I knew she was special. Not too long after we started flirting a lot and thinking of seeing each other in RL. But, honestly my friend became jealous and asked her out before I did. I was very depressed she meant a lot to me. They dated for awhile, when it was all over, she told me that she thought of me every day she wasnt with me. I miss her still.

Back when Halo 2 was first released, I got xbox live a little while after. My brother had a friend of a friend's gamer tag that we wanted to add to our friendlists at the time. We entered the gamer tag, but to no avail, it would not work no matter what way we had entered it. Me and my brother finally gave up after futile attempts. After a couple weeks or so, we had befriended a Canadian. I lost contact with him a few years ago, but this Canadian was in a clan named PzC. We hung out with him, and eventually joined his clan. We joined a party with all the clan members, and out of shear luck, the guy we tried adding earlier to our friend list was in there. We had totally written his name down as perfectcrime, when his gamertag was ThePerfectCrime. So now we think it's funny and ownage that we had met online through Canadians, when he lives just down the road in Georgia. I also started my web designing career tinkering around with Halo fan sites, and tricking sites. :P Not to mention my totally awesome girlfriend plays Halo with me :D!! [Edited on 01.03.2008 12:05 PM PST]

I met my lover on Halo 2 after a year we decided to hook up. I’ve been with my lover ever since.

I have met very much people who suck and i have to thank halo(3) -now i know how stupid and really nooby people can be XD I havent met any girlfriend, love, very good friends or stuff like that cus thats not real life But halo brought lots of fun to me and i nearly became a rul0r of the world. [Edited on 01.03.2008 11:55 AM PST]

Not at all love related, but I started tinkering around with the web because of my interest in Halo. I decided to start a site about Halo tricking, and it gave me a reason to start dabbling in website construction. In the midst of this tinkering, I learned that I really enjoyed coding and the geekery that goes along with it. Long story short, over the course of a few years I immersed myself in programming, and took a huge risk of changing careers to do something I loved, even though I had little experience. I've now been doing .Net/MSSQL programming for 2 years full time, and tell everyone it's one of the best (and scariest) decisions I've made. In a very real way, it wouldn't have happened without Halo. Thanks MC! :) JH [Edited on 01.03.2008 11:54 AM PST]

I would always try to get my twin brother to play videogames with me. He refused. He always died quickly and got frustrated. He had begun to hear a lot about Halo 3 and decided to try to play with me. He got addicted and could not stop. We played hours everyday when we both got home from work. He got so excited the first time he got more kills than me. I showed him how to check his stats. He moved away recently and the first thing he did in his new place was buy a 360, XBOX Live and Halo 3. He recently send me a text message that said "3-9 last night?" He has been checking my Halo stats on his own to see how I am doing. Today he gets his internet set up and we will be back at it. It brought us closer together. I miss him.

When entering a new college dorm four years ago, it was very comforting to find that half the guys in the building would play Halo:CE over the school's LAN. I can't even count how many people I still talk to and hang out with years later that I met in the dorms. This only grew with Halo 2, and now we all play pretty constantly online in Halo 3. The consistency of Halo's re-playability and fun from person to person made it very convenient common ground when thrown into a building filled with strangers. [Edited on 01.03.2008 11:49 AM PST]

What can I say, I have used the "want to play halo" as apposed to "want to watch a movie" aka "lets have dirty nasty covenant relations in bed" and yeah it does work. P.S. Thanks for the kick ass background music boys! LoL [Edited on 01.03.2008 11:57 AM PST]

Oh, I have a second one. I had a best friend in middle school, but me and him grew apart from each other... I started dating his younger sister, and got her into Halo. Me and her were playing together one night and he joined our party cause it was his sister. thats the first time me and him have talked in years!

My best friend and his sister are playing Halo 3. We all hang out and play Halo 3 all day long. So far, I own a LARGE country, where we worship God wearing RECON armor. Jesus is a flaming Ninja giving candy to small children. We all laugh and play all day.

The first time i got laid was when i let my GF beat me in Halo CE.

I live in Eastern New Jersey and me and my local friends met a group of fellow teens from Philidelphia Pennsylvania. This summer when most of us have our licenses, we are travelling there to meet them... it should be interesting :)