ilovebees.com

7 Responses to “ilovebees.com”

1. jay Says:
   July 28th, 2004 at 1:17 pm

   Can you say “publicity stunt?” I am certain that it is just one of a long line of publicity campaigns designed to fuel the hype engine that Microsoft and Bungie will roll out before year end. And although I am looking forward to playing Halo 2, I am not so forward looking to the media onslaught that is only now just beginning. Cheers! =)

2. clader Says:
   July 28th, 2004 at 2:34 pm

   Of course it’s a publicity stunt. The site was brought to the publics attention via an advertisement. But just because it’s publicity doesn’t mean that it’s not an engaging and fun _game_.

   Prior to the halo add, several members of the ARGN (alternate reality gaming network) recieved honey bear bottles of honey from an anonymouse sender (read bungie) with paper letters in the honey, that when rearanged spell “ilovebees”. This being the official queue that this is a game with a goal.

   Personally, i find the concept of ARG’s really facinating. Internet (or otherwise) based games that blur the line between reality and game raise the bar when it comes to a players involvement in the game world. The assumption that this is an ARG, implies that there, in fact, is something to figure out or discover and that there is a goal. the fact that figuring out what the goal is is part of the game makes it all the more intriguing.

   I’ve been reading up on this a lot, and tomorrow actually, I plan on heading down to the Market street adress in SF of the Marge’s Honey business to see whats up.

   It’s even more fun when you realize that certain reply posts to the ilovebees.blogspot.com blog entries are actually part of the game clues, although they’re mixed in with general public comments of the otherwise clueless.

3. Dan Says:
   July 28th, 2004 at 3:11 pm

   Sure they’re “viral marketing” or whatever you want to call it, but as clader suggests, they really are pretty darn fun.

   Back in 1995, I came in second place in the Johnny Mnemonic net.hunt and ever since then I’ve loved this kind of stuff. Granted, that contest was to promote a movie - and so was the wickedly clever game supporting Spielberg’s AI, documented at Cloudmakers, but someone’s got to pay the bills…

4. jay Says:
   July 28th, 2004 at 4:50 pm

   I’m sure these ARGs are fun to participate in, I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. Maybe I’m cynical, maybe jaded, maybe it’s just because I dislike Microsoft so much. My real purpose for commenting was simply to thank Dan and Desiree for the linkage. =)

   I’ll try to do better next time. =P

5. Dan Says:
   July 28th, 2004 at 5:18 pm

   Hey, no problem - normally I’m no fan of Microsoft myself, but this has been pretty entertaining thus far.

6. ColdForged Says:
   July 29th, 2004 at 9:37 am

   Go Dan, go Dan, go Dan! Snazzy seeing “ExtraSonic” all over the Wiki .

   I admit, I don’t have the head for details required to penetrate these things. I think it’s a very interesting way to generate interest from a community that otherwise might not give a poop about Halo 2 (if that’s what it is about which it appears to be).

7. Jonathan Says:
   November 4th, 2004 at 12:06 am

   Gracis

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