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343 Guilt O' Lantern

Results are now up.

Go see!


The History

The idea of pumpkins carved in Halo forms was started by Bungie, in 2003. The winning pumpkins were pretty cool. We followed suit in 2004, with the first annual Guilt O' Lantern contest. It was, by most accounts, a success. Then, again, in 2005. Looks like it's a tradition at this point.

The Contest

The rules are basic, and the same as last year: Carve the coolest Halo-related pumpkin you can think of. Please the community, win a prize. Check out the pages above for examples of what's won in the past.

The Prizes

Every year, we've had really cool prizes. We had some really cool plans this year - but they didn't work out. Folks didn't go hungry, though...

First Prize:

$150 Gift Certificate, to the store of the winner's choice*

Second Prize:

$100 Gift Certificate, to the store of the winner's choice*

Third Prize:

$75 Gift Certificate, to the store of the winner's choice*

Legacy Prize (if winners already won last year)

$25 Gift Certificate, to the store of the winner's choice*

Store list: The Bungie Store or EB Games/Gamestop

The Rules

1. Your picture must reach HBO HQ by midnight, Eastern time, October 31, 2006.

2. Your picture, if digital, must be at least 640x480 pixels.

3. Your picture cannot be digitally altered. If we even THINK it's digitally altered, we'll toss it. (Yeah, we stole that rule from Bungie. It's a good rule.)

4. Your picture must not have been entered in the 2003 at Bungie.net, the 2004 contest at bungie.org, the 2005 contest at bungie.org, or sent to us any time before October 10, 2007.

5. To win one of the three main prizes, you must have a mailing address within the continental US or Canada. (Sorry about this one. The box is NTSC Region 1; you couldn't use it with normally-available games in Europe anyway.) There will be, however, a non-North-America prize if we get entries from elsewhere. I hate leaving the rest of the world out.

6. new rule for 2006 You can enter as often as you wish, but you can only win once. If two or more of the top three pumpkins are made by the same person, the third-place prize will go to the fourth-place finisher. (If all three pumpkins are made by the same person, actually, prizes will go to fourth and fifth-place finishers.)

7. new rule for 2006 We will put together 'Legacy Prizes' - if winners from previous years win again this year, they'll still get something - but they aren't eligible for the top three prizes. It's only fair - 5 of the 6 prizes given out in the past two years went to a total of 2 people.

The Judging

Entries will be judged by the Halo community. Images will be put up in a gallery, starting in early November, and will be accessible for voting for one week. Votes can be cast by anyone with a valid email address (but if we suspect ballot stuffing, we're tossing ALL your votes - again, don't even give us a REASON to suspect you). Winners will be announced sometime around mid-November.

This is a pure popularity contest - make a pumpkin everyone thinks is the coolest, you'll win.

How to Submit Your Entry (or entries):

You have two options for getting your contest entries to us:

  1. Upload them to us on the web, using this page.
  2. Send us a photo (or a CD, if you must) in the mail (the address is given below)

After you have done one of these two things, you need to send us an e-mail at lantern@bungie.org. Include the following information in your e-mail:

  1. Your name (or your online handle if you don't want us to use your name)
  2. The e-mail address where we should contact you
  3. How you sent your entry to us (was it an upload, or in the mail?)
  4. Where we can find your entry -- if it was an upload, give us the filename of the upload. If you sent it in the mail, tell us what the return address on the package is.

Make sure that you include ALL of the information that we ask for. Incomplete entries will be discarded. (All of the information in the email should ALSO be collected via the upload interface... but problems have occurred in the past, we're being thorough.)

If you're sending us a photo or CD, mail it to:

343 Guilt O' Lantern
56 Deerfield Lane
Bethany, CT 06524

Good luck!



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