Reasons Why Halo 3 Needs Open Chat
1. It's too hard to talk
To chat in the Halo 3 beta you have to consciously press the d-pad to open up team chat. Pressing the d-pad isn't too difficult a task, but it forces the player to move their hand off the left thumbstick and out of the action even if it's for a split second. Most of the time the d-pad reach isn't possible given all the action that's going on. Simply put, we don't like the d-pad.

2. I'm so lonely
If you've played Rumble Pit you'll know what we mean. For ten minutes there is literally no interaction between players. There's no chatting, no trash talk, no "nice shot" remarks, no nothing. We like the social aspect of gaming on Xbox Live and not having any way to chat it up with other players sucks worse than Halo 2's Needler.

3. Where's the teamwork?
Playing team based games that involve strategy like capture the flag or territories involves a lot of teamwork. And as the result of reason number one, this just doesn't happen. Again, teammates are either too lazy or can't make the quick move to the d-pad to open voice chat resulting in Halo 3 team mayhem instead of actual teamwork. Open chat would allow for quick communication of strategy and defense in the heat of battle. It's a no-brainer.

4. We can still keep proximity voice
Adding open team chat doesn't mean proximity voice has to go away. Instead, allow open chat among all team members and reserve proximity voice for your opponents. Proximity voice would relinquish its team function and be used solely for eavesdropping on the enemy. See, we're all about compromise.

5. That's what the A-hole button is for
One of the biggest reasons Bungie doesn't include open voice chat is because of the ten year olds who either make a racial slur or swear every third word that comes out of their mouths. In other words, they don't want to subject players to the offensive banter of others. It's a very kind gesture Bungie, but isn't that what your new A-hole button feature is for? Bungie implemented a quick and easy way to mute any player in the game and it works quite well. So, open up the chat and give us the power to weed out the annoying kids using the new tools you gave us. A-hole button FTW!

6. You want options, here are your options
We understand not everyone wants to chat it up with each other, so that's why we're all about the options. Include an option to mute all game talk or even go one step further and allow us to super customize how our voice chatting works. Include options that'll allow us to choose what we hear through our headset or TV, turn open chat on, turn it off, hear the wind or shut off the sky. Options, options, options! But be sure to set open chat as default ... because that's how we roll.

So, we hope we either reinforced the idea or convinced you that Halo 3 can only benefit from open chat. It helps teamwork, the controls, and makes Halo 3 a much more social game. Please, comment on this post with your support for open chat and maybe, just maybe, Bungie will take notice. As we stand arm to arm, shoulder to shoulder, we share the same hope that this September open chat will be fully realized in Halo 3.