This last SDCC, I actually asked Mike (while Jerry was talking with a friend of mine) when we might hear something about Episode 3 and when it'd be coming out. He did express discontent with game making, and also went on to say that working on games had taken away too much of their time from other things, implying…

@Neocorey: Yeah, you know, I guess you're right. I mean, what would TF2 be like if they hadn't included the yellow team? I mean, sure, they only cycle into like one out of five matches, but just the other day I was in a Yellow Vs. Blue match, and I found myself thinking "man, at least I'm not Red today. The variety…

@Paladin58: But aside from skin differences, it doesn't sound like any of the factions are really different, mechanically. And in that case, why not have four factions, so you actually could have more than two teams on the battlefield? Three is just random and pointless.

@johnLD: She grew up, and while her father didn't let her grow up to date any cowboys, nobody remembered to mention international mercenaries.

@johnLD: Yeah, but that's exactly my point. Why not just have 2 factions?

@brendanhayworth:

@R0bster: That's also forcibly happened to me in Halo, when I'm in a team match and everyone on my team but one other person disconnects, and we'd both decide to stay and shoot it out while hopelessly outnumbered than incur the XP penalty of quitting. It can be a surprising bonding experience.

Ok, maybe this is a dumb question, but if there are only ever two teams on any map, why did they bother to create three factions?

@OW-Holmes—Upset with Polling: If so, I just wanna know when I get my Hexbox 666. I've got curses to invoke.

@Rachel Fogg: I assumed that it supported both interface technologies.

@frogloops: Of course, one must keep in mind that its actually unusual for the non 14-35 gaming/action-movie-afficionado demographic to know an AK from an H&K from a supersoaker. Its sort of like when you say "so, are you running windows 95, NT, 2000, or XP these days? Or did you get a Mac and OS 10+, like…

"... especially since the developer didn't even know what that was until way after they'd developed a working product."

@GtheMVP99: I think that they'll think that they had to sign an awful lot of NDAs to get into the beta.

Ok guys, I know you're trying to chill with the civies, but how could you do this and not try to use two nightsticks as drum sticks? I know I would...

@Zenister: I think that's his point. MMOs historically release FUBAR, and it tends to take 6 months of patches to work out the kinks. Microsoft might be anticipating this.

@Technodragon: Its like back before banks in the US were federally insured (a program which started as part of the fallout from the Depression). Let's just say that it was a lot more common to keep your life savings stuffed in your mattress, back then.

@mopo: Really, at this point, they just need to sit down and let every race play as every class. Its what they're slowly sliding towards anyway. Its like some sort of race-distinction-entropy.

@Jbourne37: I bet they're just packed with evil thetans, too.

@Durandal: Well, hardcore gamers are the ones who are more likely to run their machines 10 or more hours a day. And possibly more likely to try and squeeze their xbox into a poorly ventilated TV cabinet with three other consoles and electronics running hot next to it.

@Phantom_Photon: Well, there is the fact that 5,000 is a fairly small fraction of the install base, and having a comparatively small sample size can already put you on shaky ground, statistically. And then there's the fact that its also a poll not of random 360 users, but of a specific demographic- people with Game…