Changes: I love bees

Revision as of 10:50, 12 February 2020

i love bees

i love bees (ILB) was an alternate reality game developed by 4orty2wo Entertainment as a marketing campaign for Halo 2 during the summer of 2004. The ARG utilised the website ilovebees.com as the hub for the marketing campaign. Ostensibly a beekeeper's personal site, the server appeared to have been taken over by an unknown artificial intelligence whose thoughts are scattered on the site.

Background

Countdown timer — The countdown timer on ilovebees.com

The site was first discovered by fans of the Halo series on July 23, 2004, within a subliminal message in the Halo 2 theatrical trailer.^[1]^[2] The message would lead viewers to a beekeeper's website that appeared to be hacked at first glance. The frontpage shows a floating counter counting down to specific time, all of which relates to the Alternate reality game. The first countdown ended on July 27, accompanied with the following message, "network throttling will erode." The subsequent countdowns displays "this medium will metastasize" on August 10, and "wide-awake and physical" on August 24. Currently, the countdown is counting down to the day the Covenant will attack Earth.^{[note 1]}

A message on the frontpage would direct the viewers to a blog of the beekeeper's niece, Dana, who seeks technical help to restore the site to its original state.^{[note 2]}

The game begins with the participating viewers to locate all of the payphones (or Axons as referred by Dana) across the United States. Participants who answered the axons at each countdown would be given a recording of an AI and be asked basic questions about the character. If answered correctly, an audio clip would be released and a number would be added to the counter of the website. The audio clips, when threaded together, formed an audio drama about the characters in the Halo Universe. When the number reached 777, the AI, as played by a voice actor instead of a recording, would begin to interact with the players through the payphones. The AI would question the participants on general subjects such as name and jokes.

After the game was over, the participants were given access to play Halo 2 multiplayer before its release at various sites across America. Access to these sites would be granted provided that the participants say "The Operator left a message for me," though not all hosts of these sites were aware of the marketing campaign. At each event, participants were given DVDs of the marketing campaign, containing all of the audio files, as well as deleted materials.

Trivia

Soon after ILB became popular, someone bought the domain name www.ilovepees.com and auctioned it on eBay. The person that claimed it made it a redirect to their own site because they knew they would get tons of traffic from ILB fans who would type in the address incorrectly.^[3] The site was finally sold for a price close to $40.
A player tried to answer a live call in the middle of Hurricane Ivan. The Puppet Master (Puppetmaster 2) broke character to tell him to run to safety: "Dude, it's a hurricane. Put the phone down."^[4]
The site says that the beekeeper has been beekeeping for seven years.
If you look at the ILB website the countdown ends at the year 2552, when Earth was attacked by the Covenant.
The subheading on Dana's blog references a novella by Franz Kafka, called The Metamorphosis
If you visit ilovebees.com now, it will redirect you to a page describing the ilovebees ARG on 42 Entertainment's website. The page contains a video clip about ilovebees, as well as links to other projects by 42 Entertainment as part of the company's online portfolio.

Gallery

Notes

↑ The countdown will not appear for Firefox users.
↑ Dana acted as the narrator of the Alternate reality game, describing events for those who were unable to participate in the game.

Sources

Related pages

[3] The countdown will not appear for Firefox users.

[4] Dana acted as the narrator of the Alternate reality game, describing events for those who were unable to participate in the game.

[slash1-1] Slashdot: Halo 2 Trailer Gets Subliminal, Halo Done Quick

[slash2-2] Slashdot: Halo 2 Website Puzzle Confounds

[5] halo.bungie.org: How Stupid ARE People, Anyway?

[6] Wired: I Love Bees Game a Surprise Hit

[1]

[2]

[note 1]

[note 2]

[3]

[4]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Era|ILB|RW}}
 {{Title|i love bees}}
-[[File:Ilovebees_index.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The website of i love bees]]
+[[File:Ilovebees index.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The website of i love bees]]
-'''i love bees''', or '''ILB''' for short, was an [[alternate reality game]] developed by [[4orty2wo Entertainment]] as a marketing campaign for ''[[Halo 2]]'' during the summer of 2004. The ARG utilised the website [http://www.ilovebees.com ilovebees.com] as the hub for the marketing campaign.
+'''i love bees''' ('''ILB''') was an [[alternate reality game]] developed by [[4orty2wo Entertainment]] as a marketing campaign for ''[[Halo 2]]'' during the summer of 2004. The ARG utilised the website [http://www.ilovebees.com ilovebees.com] as the hub for the marketing campaign.
-Ostensibly a beekeeper's personal site, the server appeared to have been taken over by [[Artificial Intelligence|an unknown entity]] whose thoughts are scattered on the site.
+Ostensibly a beekeeper's personal site, the server appeared to have been taken over by an unknown [[artificial intelligence]] whose thoughts are scattered on the site.
 ==Background==
-[[File:Axon.jpg|thumb|Players wait at a payphone.]]
+[[File:Countdown timer.jpg|thumb|300px|The countdown timer on ilovebees.com]]
-The site was first discovered by fans of the Halo series on July 23rd, 2004, within a subliminal message in the ''[[Halo 2]]'' theatrical trailer.<ref name="slash1">[http://games.slashdot.org/story/04/07/23/1912259/Halo-2-Trailer-Gets-Subliminal-Halo-Done-Quick '''Slashdot''': ''Halo 2 Trailer Gets Subliminal, Halo Done Quick'']</ref><ref name="slash2">[http://games.slashdot.org/story/04/07/24/1814210/Halo-2-Website-Puzzle-Confounds '''Slashdot''': ''Halo 2 Website Puzzle Confounds'']</ref> The message would lead viewers to a beekeeper's website that appeared to be hacked at first glance. The frontpage shows a floating counter counting down to specific time, all of which relates to the alternate reality game. The first countdown ended on July 27th, accompanied with the following message, "network throttling will erode". The subsequent countdowns displays "this medium will metastasize" on August 10th, and "wide-awake and physical" on August 24th. Currently, the countdown is counting down to the day the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] will attack [[Earth]].<ref group="note">The countdown will not appear for [[Wikipedia:Mozilla Firefox|Firefox]] users</ref>
+The site was first discovered by fans of the Halo series on July 23, 2004, within a subliminal message in the ''[[Halo 2]]'' theatrical trailer.<ref name="slash1">[http://games.slashdot.org/story/04/07/23/1912259/Halo-2-Trailer-Gets-Subliminal-Halo-Done-Quick '''Slashdot''': ''Halo 2 Trailer Gets Subliminal, Halo Done Quick'']</ref><ref name="slash2">[http://games.slashdot.org/story/04/07/24/1814210/Halo-2-Website-Puzzle-Confounds '''Slashdot''': ''Halo 2 Website Puzzle Confounds'']</ref> The message would lead viewers to a beekeeper's website that appeared to be hacked at first glance. The frontpage shows a floating counter counting down to specific time, all of which relates to the Alternate reality game. The first countdown ended on July 27, accompanied with the following message, "network throttling will erode." The subsequent countdowns displays "this medium will metastasize" on August 10, and "wide-awake and physical" on August 24. Currently, the countdown is counting down to the day the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] will attack [[Earth]].<ref group="note">The countdown will not appear for [[Wikipedia:Mozilla Firefox|Firefox]] users.</ref>
-A message on the frontpage would direct the viewers to a blog of the beekeeper's niece, Dana, who seeks technical help to restore the site to its original state.<ref group="note">Dana acted as the narrator of the alternate reality game, describing events for those who was unable to participate in the game</ref>
+A message on the frontpage would direct the viewers to a blog of the beekeeper's niece, Dana, who seeks technical help to restore the site to its original state.<ref group="note">Dana acted as the narrator of the Alternate reality game, describing events for those who were unable to participate in the game.</ref>
-The game begins with the participating viewers to locate all of the payphones (or [[axons]] as referred by Dana) across the United States. Participants who answered the axons at each countdown would be given a recording of an AI and be asked basic questions about the character. If answered correctly, an audio clip would be released and a number would be added to the counter of the website. The audio clips, when threaded together, formed an audio drama about the characters in the Halo Universe. When the number reached 777, the AI, as played by a voice actor instead of a recording, would begin to interact with the players through the payphones. The AI would question the participants on general subjects such as name and jokes.
+The game begins with the participating viewers to locate all of the payphones (or [[Axon]]s as referred by Dana) across the United States. Participants who answered the axons at each countdown would be given a recording of an AI and be asked basic questions about the character. If answered correctly, an audio clip would be released and a number would be added to the counter of the website. The audio clips, when threaded together, formed an audio drama about the characters in the Halo Universe. When the number reached 777, the AI, as played by a voice actor instead of a recording, would begin to interact with the players through the payphones. The AI would question the participants on general subjects such as name and jokes.
-After the game was over, the participants were given access to play ''Halo 2'' [[multiplayer|multiplayer mode]] before its release at various sites across America. Access to these sites would be granted provided that the participants say "The Operator left a message for me", though not all hosts of these sites were aware of the marketing campaign. At each event, participants were given DVDs of the marketing campaign, containing all of the audio files, as well as deleted materials.
+After the game was over, the participants were given access to play ''Halo 2'' [[multiplayer]] before its release at various sites across America. Access to these sites would be granted provided that the participants say "The Operator left a message for me," though not all hosts of these sites were aware of the marketing campaign. At each event, participants were given DVDs of the marketing campaign, containing all of the audio files, as well as deleted materials.
 == Trivia ==
-[[File:Ilovebees.png|thumb|The page showing the countdown timer on 0.]]
 *Soon after ILB became popular, someone bought the domain name '''www.ilovepees.com''' and auctioned it on eBay. The person that claimed it made it a redirect to their own site because they knew they would get tons of traffic from ILB fans who would type in the address incorrectly.<ref>[http://nikon.bungie.org/news.html?item=10131 '''halo.bungie.org''': ''How Stupid ARE People, Anyway?'']</ref> The site was finally sold for a price close to $40.
-*A player tried to answer a live call in the middle of [[wikipedia:Hurricane Ivan|Hurricane Ivan]]. The Puppet Master (Puppetmaster 2) broke character to tell him to run to safety: "Dude, it's a hurricane. Put the phone down."<ref>[http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/65365 '''Wired''': ''I Love Bees Game a Surprise Hit'']</ref>
+*A player tried to answer a live call in the middle of [[wikipedia:Hurricane Ivan|Hurricane Ivan]]. The Puppet Master (Puppetmaster 2) broke character to tell him to run to safety: "Dude, it's a hurricane. Put the phone down."<ref>[https://archive.is/20120605041205/www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/10/65365 '''Wired''': ''I Love Bees Game a Surprise Hit'']</ref>
+*The site says that the beekeeper has been beekeeping for [[List of seven references in Halo|seven]] years.
-*It has been said that after all of the Halo 2 commotion settled down, the ILB website was abandoned and taken over by an unstable AI, causing the website to go haywire.
+*If you look at the ILB website the countdown ends at the year 2552, when Earth was attacked by the Covenant.
-*The page http://ilovebees.com/reconstruction_archive.2.0.html shows the countdown timer on 00:00:00:00:000 and with different text.
+*The subheading on Dana's blog references a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella novella] by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka Franz Kafka], called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis The Metamorphosis]
+*If you visit ilovebees.com now, it will redirect you to [http://www.42entertainment.com/work/ilovebees a page] describing the ilovebees ARG on 42 Entertainment's website. The page contains a video clip about ilovebees, as well as links to other projects by 42 Entertainment as part of the company's online portfolio.
 ==Gallery==
 <gallery>
-File:ILB.gif|Corrupted preview of the website
+File:ILB.gif|Corrupted preview of the website.
 File:Axon.jpg|Players wait at a payphone.
-File:DVD.PNG|The DVD disc of i love bees
+File:DVD.PNG|The DVD disc of i love bees.
-File:Ilovebees.jpg|DVD menu of i love bees
+File:Ilovebees.jpg|DVD menu of i love bees.
+Ilovebees2014.png|Current status of ILoveBees  as of April 9, 2014.
 </gallery>
 ==Notes==
-<references group="note"/>
+<references group="note" />
 == Sources ==
+{{Ref/SourceList|Columns=2}}
-<references/>
 ==See also==
 *[http://ilovebees.com i love bees website]
 **[http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ The ilovebees weblog]
-*{{HaloWiki|i_love_bees|''ilovebees'' on '''Halopedia'''}}
 *[http://bees.netninja.com/staticwiki/beewiki/ ilovebees Wiki]
 *[http://www.thebruce.ca/ilovebees/ theBruce's ilovebees compilations]
@@ Line 73: / Line 74: @@
 *[[Transmissions]]
 *[[Iris]]
-<!-- [[Category:I Love Bees]] -->
 [[fr:I Love Bees]]
-[[Category:Promotional Material]]
 [[Category:Websites]]
+[[Category:I Love Bees]]