You know, we really shouldn't be trying to come up with a name to describe ourselves. The name we come up with should be applied directly to our content, like a record label or a brand name. The distinction might seem subtle, but I think it's an important one to make. We don't really want to obscure authorship. It should be very clear to the end user that these maps were produced by individuals and teams of individuals. The goal of the label is not to share work, so much as it is to cause chain-reactions of interest. To get our maps to the level of popularity and polish they need to be to qualify for considerations in playlists.

As a matter of fact, playlists are the whole reason I suggested the idea. We're much more at the mercy of popular opinion and level of exposure than we ever were with Halo CE. We can't just make stuff and figure someone will probably slap it on their dedicated server. We have to work the system to give the stuff we work on a fighting chance. As individuals, our chances of success would rely too much on the size of our friend list and dumb luck than I would be willing to accept.

It's funny, because I never really cared about how popular my maps were. It was fun to release them, but I always chuckled when others seemed to live and die by how many people were playing their stuff. But I guess somewhere deep down, I must have cared that someone was playing, because the thought of using Reach's Forge without this kind of support mechanism just seems futile.