I read today’s Penny-Arcade comic.
The commentary that went along with it was interesting. Particularly this:

I couldn’t help thinking about the Goddamn deathmarch the people over at Bungie have been in for what has got to be going on eight years now. I guess I shouldn’t invent motivations for them.  As people are bored by the time we have created the third panel of a comic, we may represent a statistical abberation. Maybe they still like Halo.  You know?  Maybe they are unstoppably enthusiastic.

That brings me back to the distant past. I played the Marathon game when it first came out. It was great. What sucked me in was the great story that was revealed as you played it. That quality has continued on at Bungie, even when they were bought out by Microsoft.
I don’t know if they still enjoy making Halo, or if Microsoft has them chained to their computers in some slave galley making its way around Peugeot Sound.
But I do remember a comment that was made by them after they had released the third Marathon game.

Imagine a painting of a horse, a marvellous white stallion. This stallion happens to be lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, dead. And Bungie employees are standing around it in a semicircle, beating the horse with various blunt objects. The painting is titled “Marathon 4.”

Irony? Prophecy? Karma?

In an interesting parallel, I was going through some old notes I had at work. I ran across a quote from one of the founders of the company.

“That’s why I would make a terrible product manager. I’m supposed to be the customer’s advocate when I’d rather just whack them with a big stick.”

The gentleman who send that in 2001, is now the product manager.