My hope is to build a friends list that matches the unforgivably non-existent clan list (I really hope this is a 1st party cert issue, like what killed it for Halo 3, and not just lazyness. The roster is awesome and seems build for it).

I've certainly been rescued from a few bosses when a man or two down by some invite spam. It would be really cool if we could set "needs help!" as a status visible on that screen, just like joinable fireteam is.

Such a great co-op game. Bungie solved the nasty internet performance of Firefight, Campaign MM and Spec. Ops but didn't solve the social/group forming side of it and I kind of expected them to. "Self organise" is not Bungie. Bungie is someone who engineers a solution so elegant you didn't realise it was a problem to be solved.

Is this really the company that broke such crazy ground with couch co-op, clan list and proximity chat in Halo 2 that nobody, not even them, are able to keep up?

Big ups to their sandbox and QA people though, the fundamentals are so good I've only missed one night of play since release, and I blame Oktoberfest for that. I hope the lukewarm reception dosn't stop them in delivering the evolving, improving product they indicate will make up for this.