I noticed on Macgamer.com, a story about the Thai Government imposing a cerfew for online games read it here.

What do you guys think?

Over on Sector7-Halo.com, their holding a quiz to test out your Halo knowledge. It's a pretty tough quiz, I only got 25 out of 45 right. Good luck!

SketchFactor at bungie.net wants your help. The folks at Bungie are starting to outline how Bungie.net will work with Halo for Mac/PC and Halo 2, read this for the full details. If you think you don't want to help out, then I won't tell you that you can win a prize!

Submissions must be in by 7/14/03

Over at Bungie.net there is a contest to contribute to the UI in Halo 2. Read all of the details here!

Earlier this year, unnoticed by us here at Rampancy (fancy that) the long-standing disputes over the ownership of the source code for the popular Hotline chat and pira.... err, file-sharing client and server seem to have come to an interesting conclusion, with the open-sourcing of the code for Hotline 1.x and the publication of the protocol specifications. The new project has been renamed OpenSprings. Apparently the code is available either under GPL or a commercial license. The commercial version of the app is still being maintained by HotSprings, Inc., which apparently now owns the code.

Personally, we at Rampancy are still using the very excellent FrogBlast clone for OS X, having abandoned the official Hotline application after it was no longer possible to close or hide the ad-banner-bearing toolbar. However, if you're game to give it a try, you can download the newest version, 1.9, of the official client and server from the Hotsprings, Inc. download page. Versions are available for OS X, Mac OS Classic , and Windows.

Incidentally, Rampancy still operates its own Hotline...err, HXD server, at hotline://rampancy.net.

Ryan Mhaddy Matthews wrote in today to let us know that the Junkyard gaming site is holding a contest where people can guess the release date of Halo for the PC and the Mac, with prizes to be announced later.

Raptorv22 wrote in to let us know that the first Halo 2 clan (at least that we knew of) has now opened its doors: the 67th Raptors. Go take a look.

After eight years doing Damage and Spin and donning the Online Asbestos Suit for Bungie, Community Guy and Keeper of the Bungie Way Matt Soell has decided to leave Bungie. Friday, April 25, 2003, was his last day. He wrote about his decision in the HBO forum:

Before the juicy conspiracy theories start, I'd like to state for the record that there's no intrigue or drama behind this decision. No political machinations, no long-simmering rivalries, no epic struggle between the forces of light and dark. My reasons for leaving are pretty mundane. It's just time for me to do something different.

The rest of the community team will be picking up my slack, and they're committed to doing cool stuff for you guys. With any luck, you won't even realize I'm gone.

Working at Bungie is probably the best thing that's happened to me. I've learned a lot and enjoyed myself immensely. I've had the honor of working with some of the most intelligent, creative, fun people on the planet.

Matt will be sorely missed, especially by those longtime members of the community, as well as the administrators of all the fansites he helped out over the years.

Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO who posted the news. There is also an item posted by Gawyn at Subnova.