Arm The Flag prides itself on the fact that we are a very diverse group of gamers that all love to play. Due to the fact that we are so diverse we have 2 main categories of players: Laid back players, and Hardcore players. Both of these classifications of gamers means that they have very different mindsets. Laid back players like BTB games, they don’t care if they really win or lose, and they’re playing to have fun. Hardcore players love competitive gameplay such as MLG or BR starts, they strive to get their 50s, and they hate to lose. In order to serve everyone’s interests we have created (they’ve actually kind of been there for a while) 2 divisions. We have the Easy Company Divsion which is the laid back division. Most ATF members fall into this division. The new(ish) division is the Flagtacular Division. These are our hardcore “MLG type people” that love to win. Running this division as the General will be our very own Preacher. We haven’t decided on a captain yet so stay tuned. If you are interested in joining ATF hop on our forums and let us know!

Check out ATF’s very first radio show! AnTi, Destiny, and Shadow talk about Bungie’s big announcement as well as the Halo MMO news that has been floating around.

Hey every one, just a reminder that tomorrow is 9/25/08. It is the anniversary of Halo 3’s Release, and the day slotted for the Halo 3 Boycott hosted by Lower the Guns. This is a last ditch effort to try and get Bungie to realize how important lowering weapons over XBL is to Machinimakers. You can check out This Video made to help rally the cause, which also shows a comparrison between Lowered and Non-Lowered Machinima. So, see you guys on other games tomorrow!

ATF participated in their first clan challenge since they have made a switch over to a clan from a machinima only group. We had the privelage to play with some of the members of Halo3.Junk.ws, one of the largest and most known Halo 3 stats site. You’ll find their stat sigs on just about any Halo related forum on the internet.

If I could sum up the challenge in 1 word it would be domination. I only wish we were on the other side of the domination.

Game 1: Slayer BR on The Pit
Game 2: CTF on The Pit
Game 3: Slayer BR on Standoff
Game 4: Assault on Narrows
Game 5: Team SWAT on Blackout

Now you might be wondering why the hell I would be posting the stats when we got dominated sooo bady, but here’s why. Even though we lost we were having a great time doing it. It was nice to get out of the hassles of match making. Just remember if you want to challenge ATF we’re a little more laid back. Thanks H3J for a good time!

If you want to play with ATF or challenge us hop on our forums!

Weapon lowering has been a huge thorn in machinima maker’s sides since the start of Halo 3. When ATF was soley a machinima team we felt the pain just like everyone else. People tried to get Bungie to listen in the beginning, but they seemed to ignore the outcries from the community. There is a group of people who have rallied on Bungie.net under one banner, Lower The Guns, in one last attempt to get Bungie to allow weapon lowering on Xbox Live.

Their plan is to mount the largest boycott of Xbox Live history against Halo 3 on it’s birthday (9/25/08). Now I’m not one to think anything like this will work…especially with only a few hundred people, but I figure if more and more people throw their support in something might happen. So if you support Bungie allowing weapon loweing join their group Lower The Guns on Bungie.net and boycott Halo 3 on 9/25/08.

The new ATF Clan site is up! A huge thank you goes out to NyT the one behind the awesomeness! Check it out!

Let me be the first to announce our newest affiliate … The 9th Player.

These guys and gals are HUGE. It says so on their site so it has to be true. They even have an option when you post on their site to RICO (Hugefy) your font. I haven’t tried it yet (I’m a bit timid when it comes to that kind of thing) but it is a great idea none-the-less. These are a great group of people and I highly suggest that you check out their site and make some new friends.

They stole from us … now I’m going to steal from them … Paybacks a B*tch.

The 9th Player is an active, multi-faceted gaming clan and community. While we get involved in many different games on the Xbox tree-sitty, most of what we do centers around Halo 3.

T9P has been around in the community since late 2007. While the clan is relatively young compared to others, we have made a solid name for ourselves by holding true to the basic idea that the game can be more than simply thinking up comebacks to insults from pre-teens. Our clan prides itself in our sportsmenship, and our reputation for just being a fun-as-it-gets group of gamers.

I was first introduced to T9P through a lovely young lady named KTK8, the girl so nice they named her twice or something along those lines. She seemed nice enough to go and check out her site (Translation: ZOMG a girl on XBL … Maybe she will go out with meez), so I did and was met with a number of PMs from people swearing they had no knowledge of Firearms, Tobacco or Alcohol (Not sure why … 0_o … Apparently it has something to do with our name or something, but I digress).

I then proceeded to go all E.T. on them and demanded to speak with their leader guy. Turns out, Rugtoad (Weird name to some, but I have a guy named Goatrope on my Friend’s List, so I’ve seen what the XBL Random Name Generator can kick out), was a pretty cool guy, but his 360 bricked, which means M$ hates him, so I’ll reserve judgement until I speak to the guy in person. I hope to meet this Rico guy soon too and ask him all kinds of HUGE type questions.

In all seriousness though, The 9th Player is a great group of people to hang around with and play games. Their name had different meanings to all their members, but it all comes back to their community as a whole and how they all love the interaction with one another. Go check out their site The 9th Player, Register on their forums, meet some new people, make some new friends, and continue to just have fun and play the games we all know and love to play. See you all around.

I’m sure if you’ve been on our forums you’ve noticed a few changes here and there with a lot of additions of the word “clan.” As you may have guessed, or maybe not, Arm The Flag has made the transition into a full fledged Halo 3 clan. As we said when we announced when we were not focusing on machinima any more we will still make movies on the side. We decided that as a group of gamers that already played together that we would be better off forming ATF into an organized clan.

We see this as a chance to gain many more friends within the Halo community whether they be allied clans or new members. Halo sites are a dime a dozen and we figured that ATF wouldn’t make it far as a simple Halo community with no clan to anchor it. If you seek admission or wish to challenge ATF please visit our forums. Expect the launch of a clan site soon.

Please keep in mind that we are still in the transition stage and we’re still kind of running around blind folded. We should be settled in within a few days.

Keep it real guys!

It Has Begun

As promised, Bungie has begun its community out reach program of letting different Halo Communities run the Bungie Favorites for a period of time. The group kicking this all off is The Running Riot, a media based community that releases regular podcasts and hosts images and videos for their fans. They will control all of the Screenshots, Video Clips, and Maps in the Favorites for the next two weeks. To learn more, check out the latest Bungie Weekly Update.

ATF Interview: Destiny

Hey ATF what’s up! It’s the beginning of the new month which means one thing. An interview! This month I will be interviewing the one and only Destiny! She’s been with us for quite some time and has helped me with so many things whether it be graphics, writing up news stories, acting or more. She’s been a great addition to the ATF team and we hope to keep her around for as long as possible.

AnTi: Just for starters tell me a little bit about yourself. Who is the girl behind the battle rifle?

Destiny: The girl behind the battle rifle with the energy sword on her back is just a normal, hardcore gamer girl with a life. I’m a sophomore in New York as of right now and I deeply interested anything with computers, except for fixing them, you can do that yourself. Other than that, I love music, some sports, sometimes risks and just generally hanging with friends.

AnTi: What made you want to join ATF? I mean here we have a team full of guys and you were just ready and willing to dive right in. Is it our stunningly good looks?

Destiny: It was definitely all the guys’ stunning good looks that made me want to just DIVE in. But, my real answer is because I wanted to participate in Machinima, specifically Halo since it only works for Halo half the time. I wanted to be an actress and see if I could help a group, so I just stumbled across ATF in a HaloGrid post and I was like, I WANT TO JOIN! That’s about it, though everyone’s looks swayed me over

AnTi: I for one am glad you joined. We’ve all had a lot of great times. What is your most memorable moment that you’ve had with ATF?

Destiny: I’m not sure to be honest, I’ve had so many memorable moments with ATF. Everything from the fun times we’ve had with making our movies to just chilling with you or others in the PGL. Everything has had a special memory in my heart (Yes I will get touchy feely, so brace yourself men) and whatever happens in life from here and on, I won’t forget you guys for a while or in general. But I do have to say that the times in the PGL with Blackwater, Leader and/or Shadow, the best quotes there always come up and make my day, so I thank you guys and everyone else in ATF. I’ve had a blast with Josh sometimes in PGL, funny ass conversations with my bestest buddy. I love you guys *tearface*

AnTi: Awww…We all love you too How did you get your start in gaming? What drew you into Halo?

Destiny: Well, gaming general really started with Sonic on the Sega, but thanks to the influence of my brother, I got into other First Person Shooters and swayed away from my lovely RPGs. But I got into Halo not too long ago thanks to my brother, I actually started off with Halo 2, then bought Halo because I knew I was missing out on the storyline and I fell in love with it, I don’t think any other game really made me like it besides Kingdom Hearts. But mainly, I have to thank my brother, without him, no one would know me here.

AnTi: Sonic owns! That’s pretty much where I got my start too. On the good ole Sega Genesis. So when you’re not sitting on the couch pwning n00bs while eating Cheetos what do you like to do for fun?

Destiny: Well, for one, that is fun, I love my Cheetos. Other than gaming, I like to hang with friends, listen to all types of music, sing to the music, go on my computer and whatever normal 16 year old girls do.

AnTi: Cheetos are indeed fantastic. You mentioned you liked music, what kind of music do you like? Who are your favorite bands?

Destiny: I mostly like Rock and Metal, but I can admit some hip hop is alright, I only like two rap artists, Biggie and Tupac and I like Techno because it makes me want to rave. I can’t really say who my favorite bands are, they used to be Avenged Sevenfold, Dir En Grey, and Flyleaf, but I’ve gone away from them, but the current obsessions at this time are Fuel, Our Lady Peace, Sixx:AM, Cold and Nirvana since who can’t love Nirvana and Kurt Cobain. I like a lot of bands, if you want a list, then PM me, though it will be long.

AnTi: That is quite a list. Even though you’re only a sophomore you mentioned you liked computers. Any plans on what you want to study in college or where you want to take a future career?

Destiny: I will definitely get into Graphic Design or at least if they have a specific degree in Web Page Design, I’m taking that. I really want to get further into computers and I know I’ll be successful in it and do good in life while be happy. So I’ll be hoping for the best.

AnTi: I love computers too. I’m going to school for Visual Media Design which is similar to what you want to do. Ok this is the last question so I’m going to wrap it up with this. ATF has been around for over a year now and we’ve gone through so many changes. What do you think about the most recent changes and do you see yourself sticking with us for years to come?

Destiny: With the recent changes, I still love ATF and will support it 100% as long as it doesn’t disappoint me, which nothing has. I will stick with you guys as long as I can, I can promise you that, plus you guys need a girl to keep you under control, without me, ATF would be in madness with male hormones, that would just end in destruction, of everything.

AnTi: I couldn’t agree with you more. You do keep us from burning the site down…if it could happen we would. Trust me. So do you have any last words for our awesome community?

Destiny: Yes I do. Stay in school, don’t do drugs, keep it in your pants until she gets on birth control, babies don’t come from the stork, and THE FLOOR IS LAVA (yes I broke rule #18, but imagine me yelling it at you). Other than that, I love you guys <3

AnTi: Man that’s twice someone took my saying in an interview. You all better be off the floor!

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Well there you have it folks. You now know more about our wonderful friend Destiny. Check back next month for another interview!