Superintendent (Viral Campaign)

Were you looking for the Superintendent, New Mombasa ' s Urban A.I.?

The Superintendent (also know as the SI) is New Mombasa's urban infrastructure AI and a Bungie-created profile on Bungie.net. The Superintendent has the profile name of what appears to be seven vertical bars: |||||||. Viewed in a serif font, these bars are actually four capital I's followed by three lower-case L's. The Superintendent appears in a green box and has green text, the only such profile on Bungie.net known to date.

Origin of The Superintendent
The Superintendent made his/her first appearance on Bungie.net on 5/29/2008 at 5:44 PM PDT. Since then the Superintendent has been making regular posts. The Superintendent's post are normally brief, always in caps lock, and usually inform forum goers to KEEP IT CLEAN!

However, If one checks the Superintendent's signature, it does say "Keep it clean!" but in lower case. This is most likely laziness or forgetfulness on the part of whoever created it.

Multiple Superintendents
There is so far 6 Superintendents, and a seventh that may or may not be involved (he lacks Superintendent status and the special avatar, how ever was made at the same time as all the others) each of them has a different variation of the original Superintendent avatar. Each of their names are made up of multiple upper case I's and lower case L's.

The other Superintendents to date were found by Exiled Legend who found several after using combination's of I's and L's and then later, Ruc360 who discovered a few when trying different member IDs.

Avatar
The Superintendent's avatar is a circle with two eyes that appears to be holding a plunger and giving a thumbs up. The avatar has been seen on Bungie.net web cam and Frank O'Connor has been photographed wearing a shirt with the the Superintendent avatar.

Originally several different avatars were found for each of the different users, however since the 9th of June all the Superintendents avatars have returned to the default image and no emotions seem to be present.

On July 3rd, the default Superintendent avatar was spotted in Bungie's "And on the Seven7h Day..." ViDoc.

On the Bungie Day '08 theme the Superintendent is on the "Games" blade.

The Superintendent has also appeared in several acceptance videos made by Bungie in response to awards being given to them by various organizations.

Speculation to the Superintendent's Identity and Purpose
Since the debut of the Superintendent there has been some speculation as to the true identity of the Superintendent, his role on Bungie.net, and the possibility of the Superintendent's involvement in another ARG. In a thread started by Bad Time 2 Die various points have been made for the purpose of the Superintendent.

Possible Identity
It has been speculated that The Superintendent is Frankie. There is little evidence supporting this theory, and like many other Bungie mysteries, Bungie has not revealed any details.

The only evidence supporting Frankie as the Superintendent has been the photo of him wearing a shirt with the Superintendent logo.

Also, two Bungie.net News Posts were posted by the Superintendent, and both "Related Stories" were old posts by Frankie.

On 6/15/2008 Luke Smith was also photographed wearing the Superintendent shirt at the MLG tournament in San Diego.

On 7/3/2008 Bungie issued a contest called Recon Road Trip where an unnamed Bungie employee wearing a Superintendent T-shirt in public may be found. The person who finds this employee will be issued Recon Armor if they have their copy of Halo 3. This article was posted by Luke Smith.

Possible Bungie.net Role
It was speculated that the Superintendent is a "super mod", but because of Bungie's heavy advertising on the Superintendent, this is definitely not the case.

Possible ARG
It has also been speculated that the Superintendent may be the start of another ARG. So far this has proven to be unlikely because the Superintendent has yet to post anything other than simple Bungie.net tips and warnings to keep things clean. Support for the possible involvement of an ARG lies in the distinctness of the Superintendent's color, similar to the appearance of AdjutantReflex.

There is also a "broken" superintendent, who's avatar is the default. But he is still a legitimate Superintendent.

Sightings
The Superintendent has made several appearances.


 * On several Bungie employees, most notable Luke Smith and Frank O'Connor.
 * On an unknown man during the E3 demonstration of Halo Wars.
 * On the Recon Road Trip.
 * As a sticker on Joseph Staten's cell phone.
 * The Bungie logo at the top of the Bungie.net homepage occasionally flickers the Superintendent for a fraction of a second.
 * In the "G-Phoria GOTY Acceptance Speech" video and the "Thank You, Edge" video.

Contact
On June 18, 2008 at 9:52 Am PDT, IIIIlll, the Superintendent, posted in the Superintendent Discussion thread by station "PLEASE REMAIN CALM!". Duardo, attempting to contact the SI, replied with "Why? Is there something wrong?" at 10:58 AM PDT. Duardo then sent the same thing via PM to the SI.

At 11:10 AM PDT, IIIIIII replied to Duardo via PM with "IN CASE OF FIRE, USE STAIRS".

Superintendent Misspells "KEEP IT CLEAN"
The Superintendent has frequently replaced letters in the phrase "KEEP IT CLEAN" with numbers. The first instances of this were when he replaced the K with a 0.


 * Misspelling #1
 * Misspelling #2
 * Misspelling #3
 * Misspelling #4

Since then, he has also replaced other letters, as shown here:


 * K7EP IT CLEAN
 * KE1P IT CLEAN
 * KEEP IT 1LEAN
 * KEEP I8 CLEAN
 * KEEP IT CLE0N
 * KEEP 0T CLEAN
 * KEEP IT C0EAN
 * KEEP IT CL3AN
 * KEE4 IT CLEAN

Combined, the phrase becomes "0714 08 1030N".

It was believed that he was writing out a date and time. This appears to be 07/14/08 10:30 which was when Microsoft's slot at E3 2008 was. Fans were excited to hear the announcement at E3, but were taken by surprise that there was no announcement. Instead a mysterious page substituting the Bungie.net homepage with a countdown to 7:07:07 AM, July 16th, 2008.

Cancellation
At 7:00 PM, Pacific Time, Bungie fans were disappointed to hear the bad news delivered by Harold Ryan that Bungie's publisher, Microsoft, delayed what would have been an announcement during the week of E3. The message, which replaced the SI homepage until late in the morning of July 16th, can be found here.

Reappearance
On September 19, 2008 at 7:07PM PDT, a News Story entitled "KEEP IT CLEAN" was posted on Bungie.net. The following was posted by "IIIIlll" otherwise known as the Superintendent.

 <\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE

<\\> CLASSIFIED SIGNALS ARCHIVE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A]

<\ OPENED PER OFFICIAL REQUEST [DARE.V.500341(S1)]

\ SOURCE: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE A.I. [SUPERINTENDENT]

\ RECIPIENT: PROWLER “TOKYO RULES” [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] >> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: “EMERGENCY” “DATA” “CORRUPTION” >> (...) ~ QUERY RUNNING >> (..) >> (.)  \ VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLOWS...


 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMERGENCY!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER--!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We know. Personnel are en route. Can you--”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “DETOUR! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “--put Kinsler on the line?”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: [UNITELLIGIBLE > DOG GROWLING(?)]
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Sorry, what?”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “BE A HERO! REPORT VIOLATORS!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Oh, come on... ”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “METROPOLITAN EMER--!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I need you to upload your--”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “PARDON OUR DUST!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER] “--logs for the last twenty-four hours!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “KEEP IT CLEAN!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: [UNINTELLIGIBLE > PROFANITY (?)]
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We're sending a team, alright?”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Until they arrive, all additional comm needs to route through me.”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Repeat and acknowledge.”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “OBEY POSTED LIMITS!”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “YIELD TO UPHILL TRAFFIC!”
 * [COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “I'll take that as a ‘yes’...”
 * [SUPERINTENDENT]: “PLEASE REMAIN CALM!”

\ ~ QUERY COMPLETE

\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>"

On September 22nd 7:07 PDT the Superintendent posted another News Story entitled "PARDON OUR DUST". The following was posted in the story and is a communications exchange between a UNSC admiral and captain.

<\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE <\\> TAC-OPS LOGISTICS DATABASE [ONI.SEC.PRTCL-1A]

<\ * PRIORITY! * RESOURCE RE-ALLOCATION REQUEST

>> SENT: [DARE.V.500341(S1)] >> RECEIVED: HEAVY CRUISER “SAY MY NAME” [SMN.ACTUAL]

\ PARTIAL VTT TRANSCRIPT AS FOLLOWS...


 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “The situation on the ground isn’t my concern.”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I understand, Admiral. But I need --”
 * [EXPLOSION (4.0098s)]
 * [SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > PANIC(?)]
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Empty archer pods six through twelve!”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Ready the MAC, and come about!”
 * [SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > INSUBORDINATION(?)]
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “It may have passed us, Lieutenant, but it’s still in range.”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Come about. And shoot it in the ass.”
 * [EXPLOSION (2.3482s)]
 * [STATIC (3.8761s)]
 * [SMN.UNKNOWN]:[UNINTELLIGIBLE > COMPLIANCE(?)]
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Admiral, about my squad?”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ve forwarded their NCO’s name to your --”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Enough, Captain!”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive this attack..."
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “I will deploy per my orders from Fleet HQ!”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Sir. I don’t report to Fleet.”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “And the men I want? Now they don’t either.”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Please. Read my request.”
 * [STATIC (2.8179s)]
 * [EXPLOSION (3.0194s)]
 * [STATIC (7.4501s)]
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Didn’t think you S1 types ever left your cave.”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “Desperate times...”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “Alright, Captain. You’ve got your squad.”
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “If I survive the attack."
 * [EXPLOSION (2.9016s)]
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]: “And right now? That’ll take a genuine act of God.”
 * [DARE.V.500341(S1)]: “I’ll see what I can do.”

\ ~ REQUEST COMPLETE \ DATABASE CLOSED \>


 * On September 24th 07:07 PDT Bungie.net was updated with a new intro, similar to the one from the first appearance, which counts down to 12 hours. When the countdown reached zero the Halo 3: Keep It Clean teaser trailer was released, a trailer whose events were shown from the Superintendent's point of view.

Halo 3: Recon
The Superintendent appears to be the supporting AI character in Halo 3: Recon, in a similar capacity to Cortana and her precursors in Marathon. In the trailer he aids the ODST by redirecting him away from the passing Brute patrol by using civilian warning signs on billboards. It is likely, in his own corrupted position as a civilian infrastructure AI, he will attempt to aid the player through the civilian infrastructure of New Mombasa.

Trivia

 * In recent ads made by Bungie, there are times at the end of the ad, when the label for Bungie appears, that the message "Keep it Clean" will flash up for a second.
 * It is likely that the Superintendent is an A.I., as he is referenced as Urban Infrastructure A.I. in IIIIIII's post. It is further speculated that the Superintendent is a Dumb A.I., due to its purpose as an Urban Infrastructure A.I. for New Mombasa, simply monitoring the city.
 * [SMN.ACTUAL]'s comment to [DARE.V.500341(S1)] that he “Didn’t think you S1 types ever left your cave,” may suggest that the protagonist of Halo: Keep it Clean is a member of the Spartan-1 Program, and is serving as an ODST. S-1s have been known to resume "normal" careers after their tours of duty as Spartan-1s. S1 could also mean ONI Section 1. At this point, the exact meaning behind S1 is a mystery, along with the Superintendent's relationship with this individual is as yet unknown, but most likely S1 refers to Section 1 of ONI, since very few Spartans, even Spartan I's have ever been made officers.
 * In the US Military, S1 refers to the administrative segment of a command staff.

Links

 * The Superintendent's Bungie Profile


 * Bungie.net Superintendent Discussion.
 * Superintendent Group
 * Multiple Superintendent #1's Bungie Profile


 * Multiple Superintendent #2's Bungie Profile


 * Multiple Superintendent #3's Bungie Profile


 * Multiple Superintendent #4's Bungie Profile


 * Multiple Superintendent #5's Bungie Profile