XBL Could Help Halo Speed Running Go Legit
Any game that continues to have an active community after other games have passed it by technologically usually does so because it is extended and used in ways that weren't necessarily originally intended.
Sometimes this is done by adding in features missing from the original-- such as the options for Internet play created by adding TCP/IP code to Marathon through the Aleph One project, or to Xbox Halo using tunelling programs like PfhorSlayer's Aquaduct.
In some cases it's using the game engine and content as a basis for completely new creative works, like the much-heralded machinima series Red vs Blue, based in the Blood Gulch level in Halo.
Sometimes it's done by modmakers, who create new skins, weapons, vehicles, levels and even entirely new scenarios in an old game engine, breathing new life into it.
Sometimes it's a much simpler process that doesn't really require any technical changes at all, but comes from playing an old game in a different way.
One of the oldest types of this kind of "expansion" is speed running-- ignoring most of the normal goals of gameplay for the sake of completing a level as quickly as possible.
The first speed runners I remember seeing were in the original Quake game, where a group known as Quake Done Quick posted the best speedrunners' times in small, downloadable files that you could put into your game recordings folder and play back at your leisure. The simple ability of the game to record the actions of players and monsters in-game in a small file that could easily be transferred on the Internet-- similar to facilities that existed in other Bungie games, like Marathon and Myth, made the whole speed running process easy and accessible to lots of gamers. Even those without the high-speed, low latency Internet connections could participate in speed-running contests. And the legitimacy of entries could be judged without putting onerous requirements on each participant, since the recording files were generally small.