News The End of an Era

Yesterday marked the five-year anniversary of Halo: Reach: a game which was truly instrumental in bringing Halo's forge community to life. One of the biggest pieces of forge community history born during Reach's lifespan was a YouTube channel called TheHaloForgeEpidemic. What began as a way for [REDACTED] to showcase his talents as a mini game forger quickly evolved into a major community phenomenon. THFE map features become the most viewed forge content on YouTube and the channel thrived. With help from the talented commentator Bevans Law and the enterprising Oakley HiDef, THFE became a respected community group.

In January of 2012, I came on board in order to feature what we then called "competitive" maps on the channel. I eased in with big team battle maps because they were what I knew best. I soon began featuring a variety of core Halo maps and slowly began earning the respect of forgers from that side of the community. Around this time, Bevans departed from the channel and [REDACTED] ceased producing content for it. Since that time, [REDACTED] has had no direct contribution to the channel whatsoever. Instead, he sat back in the shadows: pulling the strings and taking 100% of the channel's (then considerable) profits for himself, despite generating none of them. To my knowledge, most of this money was spent on illegal drugs.

Oakley and I grew wary of [REDACTED]'s selfishness, but were driven by passion for Halo and the forge community rather than a desire to be paid. However, the thought of all of the money we were generating going straight into the pockets of someone who acted only as a parasite was unsettling. [REDACTED] was paranoid and wanted full control over the channel and all of the revenue generated. After a considerable amount of time, Oakley and I were granted a bit of freedom to make decisions for ourselves and we even received a small percentage of the money we were generating for a few months. Eventually, when the community began to dry up during Halo 4's life, Oakley chose to stop contributing to the channel rather than continue to deal with [REDACTED]. I pushed on, desiring to uphold the channel's legacy. I built a new team to maintain the channel and did my best to stay true to its origins. I was even able to divide what portion of the channel's revenue [REDACTED] didn't take for himself equally among them for a time. However, I constantly struggled against [REDACTED]'s paranoia and desire to push the channel in a more commercial direction.

Ultimately, I failed to stay true to THFE's legacy as my desire to provide informative, in-depth content and to feature only the best maps around clashed with [REDACTED]'s commercial intentions. As myself and my team strayed further away from the channel's commercial roots, [REDACTED] became more paranoid of loosing his free source of income. He attempted to make personnel decisions in order to bring new commentators onto the channel who would create dumbed-down content to appeal to a broader audience and maximize views. Naturally, this clashed with the ideals of myself and my team. For a time, I was able to override his poor decisions. As the community grew smaller with MCC's buggy launch, other channels scrambled to farm views and feature whatever content they could find. Meanwhile, my team and I stuck to our guns. However, motivation became more and more hard to come by and the team eventually fell apart. With only PA1NTS and myself creating content, the channel fell further behind the pack in terms of views. This did not bother us, however. We were, after all, committed to enhancing the forge community and to high standards of quality. [REDACTED] became increasingly worried of losing his grip on what had, in the past, been a money machine and decided once again to attempt to make personnel decisions. This time, without my permission and against my advice, he decided to bring on a former commentator from the channel's past. This commentator's skillset (or lack thereof) did not align with my vision for the channel, and PA1NTS and I finally decided we'd had enough.

THFE is, as of this day, defunct. If the channel continues to operate, know that it is but a shell of its former self; that it is maintained only to put money in the pockets of an individual who strangled the channel for years; that it is not done for the betterment of the Halo community; and that it is in no way a reflection of myself, PA1NTS, SOLIDSNAKEee, Master Debaytes, buddhacrane, Oakley HiDef, AbleSir Thomas, or any other entity that you should have a shred of respect for. It is no longer related to this website.

While I am sad to be put in a position where departing from the entity I have poured thousands of hours of working into over the past three and a half years and I am sad to see a piece of forge community history die, I am incredibly relieved to be free from [REDACTED]'s paranoia and parasitism. We had a good run. PA1NTS and I will be moving to the ForgeHub channel where we will continue to provide in-depth forge video content. You will find the Meet Your Maker contest winners as well as future map features and design talks there.

Now, let's look back on some of the highlights of this site's relationship with THFE.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with us and supported the team through our struggles against the channel's owner. What are some of your favorite memories of THFE?

 

Scripting magic

sure sure

 

Duck right now...

 

Duck right now...

I think three years of extortion and dealing with an over controlling asshat gives one plenty of reason to be salty.

 

Wow, [REDACTED] really sounds like a sith lord. It's unfortunate to see THFE go down like this, but hopefully a better future awaits. THFE was originally what got me involved in forging and subsequently its community back in 2011. I had always had an interest in design and seeing all of these impressive maps showcased on youtube really provoked that interest. Just like all new forgers, I sucked, but honestly a lot of the (minimal) improvement I've found came as a result of interacting with several THFE members and by extension, forgers they played with. I remember the first map I posted on Forgehub was an invasion map on Headlong Anniversary, an invasion map I had built with the invasion theory videos in mind. I received feedback from Able, and Yardbird, (and on the site Flyingshoe), and in retrospect I probably deserved a brutal slamming of my poor effort... Yet all of the above forgers were incredibly friendly and pointed me in a better direction with a level of tact that I think this community sometimes lacks. The members and content were and still are in my mind, a pretty damn good representation of a good community. Personally I strived to design a solid halo map that could be appreciated more widely by getting it featured on the channel, and while that wasn't so successful, it was fun. So I'd just like to say thanks to all those contributing members who see this. To put it in its most apt and corny phrasing, you made Halo a better place, keep going.

 

It's sad to hear that one of the guys who inspired me to start forging turned out to be so greedy and inconsiderate...

Among all the Halo YouTube channels out there, THFE was always my favorite for putting out quality, varied content and avoiding the kind of clickbait seen on many other channels.

I've always loved your videos, Duck, mainly because I can tell you really care about the franchise and the community (forge community especially). The way you present
your design talks and map features shows you're not just in it for the views.

We survived Halo 4, we survived the Master Chief Collection's despicable treatment, and we'll survive this. Time to go unsubscribe from THFE and find that Forgehub channel.

I'm really looking forward to what comes during Halo 5 from this dedicated
and passionate community that I can truly say I'm honored to be a part of.

 

Duck right now...

No. Just no.

 

To everything, turn, turn, turn.
There is a season, turn turn, turn.

 

I am [redacted]*

*Stevo

 

Well this is sad. But quite enlightening. I didn't expect to learn today that THFE was being run by a poor man's Walter White. Nevertheless, I'm glad you guys are still gonna be making Halo vids.

Spoiler

Me after removing THFE from my "Recommended Channels"

 

Spiteful this is not aimed at you whatsoever. No worry's with that. The owner of THFE was using the other people to generate him free revenue as he wasn't doing any work. They just finally stopped working for THFE and left.

 

Spiteful this is not aimed at you whatsoever. No worry's with that. The owner of THFE was using the other people to generate him free revenue as he wasn't doing any work. They just finally stopped working for THFE and left.

No dude i mean this. "As the community grew smaller with MCC's buggy launch, other channels scrambled to farm views and feature whatever content they could find."

 

I just saw the video uploaded by "The Epidemic" and was quite confused until I came here. It's really disheartening to find out all this Redacted stuff was going on behind the scenes but I'm glad you guys here are still committed to quality. Just switched subscriptions over to Forgehub and I'm happy to see such a relic of the Halo community come back into the light. Best of luck to those of you still remaining, Forge on.

 

iSpiteful Ah okay. I wouldn't worry to much about that. This is somewhat true with some channels involving forge out there. Whether this is aimed at yourself is debatable. But the main point is that if channels feature unfinished content or less polished maps which some have done, that makes it okay for forgers to start making unfinished maps in the public eye and lowers the quality of maps in general so I can understand this sentiment

 

No dude i mean this. "As the community grew smaller with MCC's buggy launch, other channels scrambled to farm views and feature whatever content they could find."

I was merely acknowledging a trend across several YouTube channels, not speaking about any one in particular.

 

Reach was 5 years ago? Holy shit.

That's shitty to hear you guys got conned out of a bunch of money, but at least any attempt he makes to restart that channel for himself will be met with some kind of backlash.

Speaking of drugs, you guys should watch Narcos on Netflix if you haven't already. Great show.

 

I feel like I know who [REDACTED] is. I remember being in a lobby with him and AJ Yusi(what happened to him again?), thought he was cool.

 

Wow. I am stunned. I've been fangirling over THFE since the Reach days. I remember when I was a mere squeaker with the hopes of one day having a map of mine featured (Which eventually happened, and I once again state my gratitude for). It's unfortunate to see such a community wide pinnacle fall into the clasp of corruption, and I'm sure non of us will ever be able to truly understand just how unbearable it was working with the [REDACTED] figure. Thank you for the years of community content that has been provided by the hard work from the real THFE members, and may the community continue to grow as we sadly stem from a seed that has since gone sour, for as a dear friend of the community once said,

"It's not ogre- it's never ogre."

What map was yours

 

I initially was going to write some nostalgic heart felt comment about how I have been here since the halo reach toyfactory video and at that time this channel helped bring fun to me and my friends when I was only 10 and 2010. How I would have so much fun playing all your custom maps and trying to get into custom games. Watching yardbird and ablesir Thomas make invasion maps and tutorials on how to make because I didn't have a hard drive to download them, bad because of that watching you videos over and over to try and exactly recreate the map...and failing every time. It's thanks to you guys that I play halo I played halo 3 and was amazed but wasn't a big fan but custom games solidified my title as a halo player and for a while my YouTube account was named theprohalogamer or the tphg because it looked like thfe. But I know feel betrayed. A large part of my child hood though now wasn't only spent having fun but I also gave a drug addict free money unknowingly. I feel horrible and stupid. It all know makes sense now. When I asked to get a youtube account my mom wouldn't let me at first because she said you guys could be bad people, she was right. Now that I think about it you guys were always changing commentators and were never open about the channel. I've been learning about the collapse of the Roman Empire and the second Rome or Byzantine empire. The western Roman Empire became weak and corrupt and fell like the bad side of thfe is in the middle of doing and the eastern Roman Empire went on to become the Byzantines like the good side of the thfe is going on to become but join forge hub. I know a few other lines can be drawn but I don't want to bore you guys with a history lesson. All I'm trying to say is to anyone including the former thfe members is that history really does repeat itself even in strange and like this, so always make sure you know who your working for. So any ways if [REDACTED] who I assume is [REDACTED] sees this I want to say fuck you. You have soiled my memories of halo reach custom games, and to former thfe cast members I wish you the best in your halo adventures. If I have any details wrong please let me know.

 

I initially was going to write some nostalgic heart felt comment about how I have been here since the halo reach toyfactory video and at that time this channel helped bring fun to me and my friends when I was only 10 and 2010. How I would have so much fun playing all your custom maps and trying to get into custom games. Watching yardbird and ablesir Thomas make invasion maps and tutorials on how to make because I didn't have a hard drive to download them, bad because of that watching you videos over and over to try and exactly recreate the map...and failing every time. It's thanks to you guys that I play halo I played halo 3 and was amazed but wasn't a big fan but custom games solidified my title as a halo player and for a while my YouTube account was named theprohalogamer or the tphg because it looked like thfe. But I know feel betrayed. A large part of my child hood though now wasn't only spent having fun but I also gave a drug addict free money unknowingly. I feel horrible and stupid. It all know makes sense now. When I asked to get a youtube account my mom wouldn't let me at first because she said you guys could be bad people, she was right. Now that I think about it you guys were always changing commentators and were never open about the channel. I've been learning about the collapse of the Roman Empire and the second Rome or Byzantine empire. The western Roman Empire became weak and corrupt and fell like the bad side of thfe is in the middle of doing and the eastern Roman Empire went on to become the Byzantines like the good side of the thfe is going on to become but join forge hub. I know a few other lines can be drawn but I don't want to bore you guys with a history lesson. All I'm trying to say is to anyone including the former thfe members is that history really does repeat itself even in strange and like this, so always make sure you know who your working for. So any ways if [REDACTED] who I assume is Darth human sees this I want to say fuck you. You have soiled my memories of halo reach custom games, and to former thfe cast members I wish you the best in your halo adventures. If I have any details wrong please let me know.

It's cool to hear these fond memories of the channel. THFE really is a piece of community history. You shouldn't feel bad for having supported the channel. That you were indirectly supporting someone in screwing over the people who upheld the channel is not your fault. I wish that myself and others had not participating in supporting this individual, but we became attached to THFE's subscriber base and what it stood for, even if it was ugly behind the scenes. That attachment has made it difficult for me to step away, despite knowing that I was feeding a parasite by maintaining the channel. I am confident that this was the right time to finally wash my hands of this mess, however. We can remember THFE fondly for what it was, not for what it becomes, and move on.

 

iSpiteful Ah okay. I wouldn't worry to much about that. This is somewhat true with some channels involving forge out there. Whether this is aimed at yourself is debatable. But the main point is that if channels feature unfinished content or less polished maps which some have done, that makes it okay for forgers to start making unfinished maps in the public eye and lowers the quality of maps in general so I can understand this sentiment

Perfectly said Martian, spiteful you defiantly can't talk... especially when you started featuring garbage maps and recently even just copied a video that you placed on vanguards and posted it too your channel.