Halo 2 conspiracy theories?

[Failsafe]

Bungie and Microsoft released a theatrical Halo 2 trailer to play at movie theaters.

You can see the trailer here http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vaul..._theatrical.wmv

Watch at the end when the xbox logo comes up, the url underneath changes for a split second to http://www.ilovebees.com which appears to be someones site about bees thats been hacked, there are a lot of refrences to Microsoft and Halo on there including a countdown to August 24th.

The release date has been set for Nov 9th, so i don't know what could be happening on the 24th?

Its gets odder http://www.cafeshops.com/ilovebees.12518390

[Failsafe]

Supposedly its called ARG (alternative reality gaming), its a new kind of computer gaming. Its kind of like myst, but on the internet. That ilovebees site is full of clues that eventually will lead to another web-site with more clues. one example: some of the jpg files on the page is kind of fucked up. if you ope them in a text editor there is some cryptic message in there.

here is a link to a forum for the ARG-players share their findings and discuss the clues:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?c=15


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Ok, here is a letter written by one of the people at the unfiction.com forum, it should explain things a little better;




Seeing all the confusion and apparant misinformation in the non-ARG boards, I thought it might be useful to write a short letter to explain what people are seeing when they log in to ilovebees.com .

Are there any comments and criticism, before I get this letter to metastasize?

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Letter to X-Box and Halo fans

By now, most of you have seen the mess of a page that's over on http://www.ilovebees.com . As most of you know, the url for this page was flashed up for a moment at the end of the Halo 2 trailer. Since then it's been slashdotted, and discussed on dozens of online forums and fan pages which you have probably already seen.

This letter is to explain what you are looking at when you load up http://www.ilovebees.com


WTF is this?


http://www.ilovebees.com is fundamentally an advertisement. It is probably being run by Bungie, and Microsoft is probably involved. I say probably because nobody can be completely sure who is running what here. It's the nature of the beast. One purpose of http://www.ilovebees.com is to drum up hype and anticipation for Halo 2.

The other purpose is to provide a very different kind of gaming experience. To some people http://www.ilovebees.com appears to be the "Trailhead" for a new ARG, or Alternate Reality Game. These games are like interactive stories and mysteries, or maybe an online version of Myst. A series of fake websites have been created - with fake webmasters; webmasters friends; e-mail accounts; AIM, MSN and Yahoo Messenger accounts and so on. These websites have been filled with puzzles and hidden depths and the aim of the game is to unravel the mysteries surrounding these websites.

Microsoft has a history of dabbling in this. They were part of the first major game of this type, the webgame created for the movie "AI: Artificial Intelligence." That game ran for several months and built up an interesting story that complimented what happened in the movie. Players cracked passwords, talked to characters from the movie, read their blogs and were even able to attend live events and phone up game characters for live chats. The game phoned them and sent them e-mails. The game twisted to react to the actions of its players, and in some cases players inspired storylines that the game masters (or "Puppet Masters"/PM's) incorporated into the plot.

The specific mystery here is "what has happened to Aunt M's site?" This will probably balloon into a much more important mystery that needs to be handled, if the ominous warning on the ilovebees homepage is to be believed. There are some clues on the page already about where these corrupted graphics, strange text and the ominous warning are coming from. For example, you may have noticed that some of the graphics are corrupted. Try saving a corrupted graphic file to your computer's hard drive and open it with notepad. You may be interested to find some readable stuff hidden in there...

In other words, this is the start of a game where there is a mystery and you play detective. One whose plot seems to tie into the Marathon/Halo back-story. (although it is set in present day) If you enjoy puzzles or you really get into the Marathon/Halo back-story (read the novels etc) then you may want to play this. If you only like Halo for the great action and multiplayer and the story doesn't matter to you, you may not find this as enthralling. That's okay.

But if you're up for something as cerebral and involving as an ARG, I recommend you play. If only because this is your only chance. ARG's cannot be repeated, and once it's over all you can do is read about what happened.


What is the connection to Halo2?


The most obvious indication that this has something to do with Marathon/Halo is the end of the trailer. Some people have also found indications that Bungie could have something to do with it (the number of 7's) but that could be purely co-incidental.
Beyond that, nearly nothing is known for sure about how the game ties into Halo 2. There has been a lot of speculation that the countdown timer is counting down to either the early release of Halo 2 or the release of a multi/single player demo. It's possible but there is no proof for this at all, just speculation. In fact it's entirely possible that the game is completely unrelated to Halo 2.
Most of the connections people have found have been plot oriented - an AI, space navigation, rampancy etc.
It is possible that the plot of this ARG will directly tie into the plot of Halo 2. But it's also possible that it relates to Marathon, or the general back-story behind Marathon and Halo. Remember, ARGs can last months and this one has only been running for a week or so. But these are currently only possibilities.
So don't count on getting advance information about the plot of Halo 2 through this game. It's possible but currently, All Signs Point to No. If it follows the path of previous ARGs, this game will have a story which is connected but not directly related to the Halo/Marathon storyline.

We can't be sure of anything this early in the game. This might not even be a proper ARG - it might be a pseudo-ad that runs for two weeks and then ends. There might not be any puzzles. Half the fun of ARGs is not having a clue at what you're looking at or where it's going to take you. If uncertainty sounds like fun, you might like this.


Who and what are real, and who and what are fake?


There has been some confusion on this point.
Dana, Aunt M, "the Operator" "The Widow/SPDR" http://www.ilovebees.com and http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ are part of the game. They are currently the only parts of the game known.
Comments by people other than Dana on http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ are not known to be part of the game. Until more named character appear it should be assumed they are made by players.

Just because you know a person is not real does not mean you should not treat them with respect. Remember you are trying to get information out of these characters. If you keep telling them that they're fake and asking them about Microsoft, Bungie, Halo2 and Keyes they will just start ignoring you. Talk to them like real people, have some imagination and you will find this game easier.

The next line is important.
Xnbomb and SinVraal ARE NOT FAKE. They are real players who have played multiple ARGs in the past. They are real people and they don't know much more about Halo 2 than you do.

Remember: anyone posting to a public message board as Cortana, Keyes etc is more likely a fan of the Halo universe than an ingame character... treat them as you would any other user playing this game. If they are actually CLAIMING to be Cortana or anyone else from the game they are probably a hoax.

Some people have searched the net for Xnbomb and found pages relating to Metacortechs. That's a good start, you have the right idea but it's a dead end. Metacortechs was the name of a previous ARG based on The Matrix, and it has nothing to do with IloveBees. Xnbomb played that one too.

http://thefridgeowl.com/ is a hoax, apparantly set up by Something Awful forum goons. Nothing to do with the game, sorry.


Recommended links for more information


If you really want to find out more about ILoveBees.com I suggest the following links.

Unfiction forums for this game - http://caedmon.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?c=15
Unfiction is a website and series of message boards dedicated to this kind of online game. Many of the most serious players will gather here. The UFers are very good at scouring a site for information. So if you've found something new, there's a good chance 40 other people have, so please check before posting.
Above the message boards you will see links to guidelines, a quickstart guide and a general ARG tutorial.
The Quickstart Guide - http://mirlandano.com/quickstart.html
The Wiki - http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/
Most of the information players have discovered is in this Wiki. It's a great way to get acquainted with what puzzles have been solved and what the results were.
IRC Chat rooms on Unfiction - server irc.chat-solutions.org
#ilovebees is a good room for letting newbies getting caught up with whats been happening
#beekeepers is the other room, for puzzle solving and speculating.

[Big Booger]

Now that was a mega post.