I'll answer. I explained this a long time ago, but I'll apply my thinking to this new context. These are cards, which implies a degree of portability. The object could exist in the game and in real life, much like Halsey's Journal actually does appear in the game and in real life. The cards' existence inside the game is believable.

A machine you can use to watch or download video is hardly unbelievable.

What makes 343's so-called terminals "retarded" is that they are episodic cutscenes masquerading as found objects in the game world. Who in the game world made them? Why would they exist in the game world? To quote myself, "They’re easter eggs that break immersion while trying to deepen it. They’re terminals found in the game world, but they take you out of it."

Well then you'd have to apply that to the text terminals in Halo 3, no? and the audio logs in ODST, and the other video terminals in Halo Anniversary, and these cards-- what's the in-universe rationale for each of them? The audio logs and the pictures that go with them are obviously from the city's surveillance system. The Halo 3 terminals would be for data access, and so would the Halo Anniversary and Halo 4 terminals-- maybe in Halo 3 it seemed more like they were for data access because of the numbers and abbreviations in the left panel, but do you really think all these terminals-- including the ones with the audio logs-- wouldn't be capable of mostly all the same things in-universe? The only thing unrealistic about the Halo 4 terminals is the way the little spheres turn to ash after you download their data.

Why would you open a terminal except to view it in the moment?

Why does that not apply to cards?

And why would a terminal in the game world present an omniscient perspective?

It's fairly clear it's because they were made by the Forerunners and/or their machinery. It says when you get them they're tied to the Domain, which is supposed to be this nearly omnipresent, highly capable, possibly intelligent data network, although from what I remember the game never actually tells you what it is or what it's like.
Also, why would they have cards with this information? A database, a book, heck even a scroll I might buy, but now that you got me to think about it, using cards seems unrealistic, they don't even have holes where you could bind them loose-leaf.
Back to the first point, it looks like you get Grimoire cards for killing things and completing objectives and missions, and I haven't heard of anyone just finding them, which brings up the question of why that is the way it is, in-universe, and moreover you don't even see the cards in the game except as a little icon. So yes, they could exist in the game world and the real world, but as it stands they don't, in the game world they exist in name only.

Conversely, it seems more realistic to me that a character in a game might read Grimoire cards in a moment of leisure and not in a hostile environment.

Conversely to that, I feel confident in saying watching a video (actually watching it, not just looking in its general direction and listening) takes more attention than reading something, and can make it harder to hear other things, so someone in a combat situation would be more likely to wait to watch a video than to read something (though to be fair I would think they'd wait to watch or read anything that isn't very important to their survival).

That's why I think I agree with Xenos and TTL Demog0gue. Reading the cards you get to, in a sense, inhabit your character outside the game world, and get a flavor of the world without playing the game. When you return to the game world, you have a richer understanding of it.

This a good point, maybe a really good point, for the existence of the cards and for them being basically the way they are, and I agree with it. What it's not is a reason they shouldn't also be available in the game for people who don't want to load up something completely separate just to read a few paragraphs. You had a point about a hostile environment, but then why not let us read them in the area that's specifically not hostile, the Tower?

343's "terminals" would be fine if they weren't called terminals and they didn't use the game's mechanic of "accessing terminals" to unlock them.

This is a good point too, except the first time you access one Cortana says she's downloading the data for later review, and, again, there's no good reason to require the cards to be accessed separately from the game.

...pretty much this. I'll also add to it by pointing out the difference between video/audio and printed text. With the terminals, I wanted to be able to watch the cutscenes as I found them, right there, without having to leave the game to do so. With the Grimoire, the story is in prose in these little snippets and tidbits that, for me, make more sense to read on my own time later. I actually like that they're not interrupting my play session. I get the notice that I've unlocked another card (file away for future reference), I keep on exploring, and I come back to read more about this expansive universe later when I'm not squashing Fallen. That's kind of what I meant by 'format.'

Also, on a side note, Bungie's made it really easy to access the Grimoire; it's a top-level nav item. 343i made it way more difficult to find the terminal vids than they needed.

I'll answer. I explained this a long time ago, but I'll apply my thinking to this new context. These are cards, which implies a degree of portability. The object could exist in the game and in real life, much like Halsey's Journal actually does appear in the game and in real life. The cards' existence inside the game is believable.

What makes 343's so-called terminals "retarded" is that they are episodic cutscenes masquerading as found objects in the game world. Who in the game world made them? Why would they exist in the game world? To quote myself, "They’re easter eggs that break immersion while trying to deepen it. They’re terminals found in the game world, but they take you out of it."

Why would you open a terminal except to view it in the moment? And why would a terminal in the game world present an omniscient perspective? Conversely, it seems more realistic to me that a character in a game might read Grimoire cards in a moment of leisure and not in a hostile environment. That's why I think I agree with Xenos and TTL Demog0gue. Reading the cards you get to, in a sense, inhabit your character outside the game world, and get a flavor of the world without playing the game. When you return to the game world, you have a richer understanding of it. At no point are the objects' integrity as found objects undermined.

343's "terminals" would be fine if they weren't called terminals and they didn't use the game's mechanic of "accessing terminals" to unlock them.

Ahhh this isn't exactly what I'm asking about. I'm not asking why these cards are better than the terminals- its not why one piece of content is better than the other per say (even though I agree with most of your points on that); that's apples and oranges.

It's the method in which they are accessed. You should not have to leave the game in order to consume this in-game content.

From every dead ghost I found that I could revive, I would see the title of what I unlocked and want to read about it in that moment. I couldn't. I also gather these were important supplements to the plot, "The darkness", "Golden Age", "Traveler1,2,3" come to mind, as well as some of the other species ones I found.

Yeah, you can pull em up on your phone (well, I can't because my phone is ancient) or the website, but you should be able to pull them up in your inventory and read them too.

Especially if you are going to argue the plausibility of them in the real world (i.e. they are card) than what possible strain can they be for my titan to carry when in my inventory I have numerous pieces of armor, weapons, materials, and a pocket rocket bike?

Sorry man, I'm not buying it.

I should't need to be asked to leave my TV to go fill in story gaps for the game I am playing, even if it is just as close to me on my phone or whatever. It was dumb when 343 did it, and it's not any less dumb to me here, if that is the way it's going to work.

If you want to drive traffic to your site or increase your app downloads though...

(Again, maybe this will change by the time it's out)

How is that acceptable to you while the terminals were not?

TV screens are made for movies. Watching the terminal movies should be done on a TV. Having to stream them through waypoint makes then look like ass compared to a properly compressed video file on a disc. Therefore, using waypoint to watch terminals sucks.

Reading on TV screens sucks. Therefore, it's completely fine to read cards on a phone, especially when you can vertically hold the phone and swipe to go trough cards that fill the whole screen.

Basically what I said, but better. :)

How is that acceptable to you while the terminals were not?

TV screens are made for movies. Watching the terminal movies should be done on a TV. Having to stream them through waypoint makes then look like ass compared to a properly compressed video file on a disc. Therefore, using waypoint to watch terminals sucks.

Yes. We know this. 343 was lampooned (and rightly so) for this practice. Yet it will continue with MCC and H2A.

Reading on TV screens sucks. Therefore, it's completely fine to read cards on a phone, especially when you can vertically hold the phone and swipe to go trough cards that fill the whole screen.

Nope, gonna call bullshit on this and everyone else that says reading on a TV is harder (except for people like GV who are still playing on SDTVs with this gen of console).

-You're reading all the time in destiny
-you're reading about your guns
-you're reading about your armor
-you're reading about your items
-you're reading about your missions you unlock in explore
-you're reading about your missions on the star map
-you're reading about other players when they are near you
-you're reading about multiple notification all over the game, pertaining to you and other players

This text is fairly small and occurring all the time in the game.

Even if you are sitting really far back from your TV (and I honestly doubt that most of you are sitting that far back), you are still able to interpret this info, some of which doesn't hang on screen very long.

So trying to say it makes more sense to read these cards on your cell phone (which is even smaller, even if it is right in your face)is not flying with me.

Same with saying it's easier to swipe with your hand to browse through the cards- you can just as easily do this with your controller in the inventory area on your console of choice by pressing L1-R1-L2-R2-RT-LT or whatever.

The best example I can think of at the moment is Metroid Prime. If you've never played it, that game requires you scan essentially everything to learn more about it and the results come back to you in journal logs that you can read at any time (In the middle of battle, when things calm down, from pause etc). It worked there- why not here? What's the big road block? Is Bungie worried it can't trust it's own players to read about what they put in? Shouldn't be, because they're trusting that they'll pull it up on their phones or computers.

And back to that- Let me make myself clear that it's FINE you can pull them up on your phone or via the web at any time- great actually. You can be out in the real world with your friends etc and talk\share BUT, that doesn't mean that should be the only option. They should be view able in game.

But Rev, no one's gonna read that in the heat of battle!

I hear ya- not everyone likes to live as dangerously as I do- make them only readable in the tower after you download\translate them just like the engrams(?) you find.

Seems pretty simple to me.