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LATimes: Why this UCLA professor thinks she inspired the video game 'Halo'

RedAssedApe

Banned
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-halo-halsey-cortana-20170628-htmlstory.html

A brief friendship that began with an online chat and an awkward date may have inspired one of the world's best-selling video games.

For two decades, UCLA associate professor of pediatrics Patricia Dickson remembered nothing of her college flirtation with Jason Jones, who went on to create the sci-fi shooter "Halo." But as memories Dickson said had been repressed flowed back in recent years, she has come to believe central ideas and characters in the entertainment franchise, including Dr. Catherine Halsey and the artificially intelligent assistant Cortana, reflect her preferences and personality.

Jones acknowledges his long-in-the-past relationship with Dickson, but denies her assertion that she served as his muse.

I'm not real big into the Halo lore so I have no opinion on this but kind of a interesting albeit weird read. haha
 
LATimes: Why this UCLA professor is remarkably full of herself

..or maybe she's just lonely and wants to rekindle an old fire. Kind of like messaging an ex on Facebook five years after you last saw each other, but with a bit more flair.
 

nded

Member
Is she saying that kidnapping children, subjecting them to potentially crippling/lethal procedures and forcing them into military service is a reflection of her preferences and personality?
 

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
I can see why Jason didn't want more than a friendship.
 

Inviusx

Member
The connections went on:

Her: Messy dorm desk with cold cups of coffee.

Halsey: Days-old coffee on a desk scattered with papers.

Her: Snow globe of New York City on the desk and a Matterhorn-shaped piggy bank on a friend’s desk.

Halsey: A snow globe of the Matterhorn.

Her: Gave him a Rachmaninoff classical music tape.

Halsey: Listens to the same concerto.

Her: Favorite numbers were 7 and 11.

Halsey: Assists the main character, Master Chief John 11-7. (Jones said 7-11 reminds too much of the store, Dickson recalled.)

Her: Favorite goddess is Athena, born from the head of Zeus.

Halsey: Gives birth from her brain to Cortana.

Her: Atheist raised in private school who considered herself more intelligent than her parents.

Halsey: Atheist, went to elite academy and smarter than her parents.

It's a fairly harmless article but this made me LOL.
 
Wouldn't Jason Jones have been gone by the time Halsey was introduced in Halo 4 anyway?

Halsey's first appearance in the games was in Reach, but she was conceived as a character during the development of the first game and was featured in the Fall of Reach novel, so she's been a fixture of the series from the start, even if the games didn't show her until later.
 
"I was always carrying exactly two things, one in each hand," recalls Dickson. "One time both of my hands were full and I just casually elbowed Jason. It looked like a lightbulb went on over his head."
 
LATimes: Why this UCLA professor is remarkably full of herself

..or maybe she's just lonely and wants to rekindle an old fire. Kind of like messaging an ex on Facebook five years after you last saw each other, but with a bit more flair.
Why the direct attack on the woman as if she has harmed you in some way? Posts like these are scary.
 

TissueBox

Member
Lol that title made me crack a laugh in the open air but you never know, I guess; would be a kinda sweet thing if it was at least partially true. Anyways I'll go read that article now.

EDIT: Well that got a little dark. o_o Hope she's okay lol.

But the sweetness returns by the ending paragraph. Indeed it would be cool that that's where Halo kind of all began, somewhere between a bunch of code and the story of a young man who a girl developed a lingering crush on after thinking she'd found her 'hero'. Deluded, maybe, but who isn't at that age? I think Jones can make for a decent John-117 stand-in at the right angle. :p
 
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