Actually, they already are…

and…

Halo: Combat Evolved was originally released on the Xbox back in November of 2001. It’s superb multiplayer play, smart AI, great physics and revolutionary vehicle gameplay (you can drive, or gun or be a passenger in the warthog the main Halo vehicle) made it, erh… makes it, one of the best first-person shooters around. As said on Wikipedia…

“Halo” is widely considered to be one of the best first-person shooter games ever, rivaling such classics as GoldenEye 007 and Half-Life.

But that’s not really important. What is important is how web-based video distribution is changing the web — and a few other small things like movies, TV, DVDs, etc.

As an example of how things are changing, let’s consider a videogame review and tip site. Even as late as last year, if an individual or small organization wanted to start such a site, it would be heavy with text and pictures, but completely devoid of video. Video creation, production and especially distribution was expensive and costly. However, all of that has now changed. Digital camcorders and video-capable point-and-shoot cameras are cheap, production tools are available free on the net and with services like Video Google, hosting is now free.

Think about how much more engaging video is than text or even audio (like podcasts). As an example, here’s about the best you could have done last year in creating a simple tip for Halo.

It’s possible to “jump” the flag over the chasm in Halo’s Boarding Action map by laying down a plasma grenade on the edge of the opponent’s flag level, grabbing the flag and jumping over the grenade. If you time everything right, you will be killed by the grenade blast, and the flag will be hurled across the chasm to your flag level.

Laying down the plasma grenade

Jumping, dying and launching the flag

Flag on your level after respawning

Hopefully a teammate will grab the flag and score, otherwise you will have to quickly retrieve the flag when you respawn, before the flag is automatically returned, and score.

The text and pictures get the point across, but now it’s possible to really show how this trick is done with video.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is clearly priceless. Oh, and just for fun, here’s another example of how to score quickly on Halo’s Damnation map.

Not the best video quality, and kind of esoteric, and the sound levels are all over the map (hey, I was just hacking stuff together quickly), but with a little effort you could make a kick-ass review site… or a cooking show… or a documentary… or even a full-length movie.

Zoinger says, 2006… the year the distribution bottleneck for video ends. If you’ve got business in movies, TV, DVDs or anything else having to do with video, you’d better be getting it.

It ain’t pretty, but it works…

P.S. The last thing you want while gaming on a PC is to suck up CPU cycles to capture video. Obviously, this avoids that pitfall.