Halo 2 Website Puzzle Confounds

redune45 writes "The Halo 2 Theatrical trailer ends with the normal Xbox logo, but it also briefly replaces xbox.com with ilovebees.com. Going to ilovebees.com it appears that the site has been 'hacked', adding to the mystery. The 'owner' of the site set up a separate blog with a post talking about the error. There is a huge thread on the Bungie.net forums on the same issue. The WHOIS information for this site shows that it was first registered on June 14, 2004. But no obvious clues other than that are available. What is going on here?" There's at least one Wiki set up to gather clues. We also mentioned this in an earlier Halo story.

Viral marketing

[BWJones]

A case of viral marketing? Move along....

They're just trying to create a buzz

[Anonymous Coward]

It's guerilla marketing [wikipedia.org], plain and simple, just like Sci-Fi's recent attempt with M. Night Shyamalan's new movie. You're reading about it, so it's working.

fileplanet

[selderrr]

this advert-article reminds me of how much fileplanet sucks... And to think that when this community started years ago, it was so promising ! They are the RealPlayer equivalent of free downloads. A billion buttons for payed services, and a tiny hidden one somewhere for a free download. I really despise these guys !

ARG?

[Psionicist]

A new ARG perhaps? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Reality_Gam e

Well DUH

[Have Blue]

OF COURSE it's a promotional stunt. That doesn't mean it can't be fun and engrossing to explore the site and try to figure out what's going on.

Confound Delivery

[Goldfinger7400]

From the writing on the bees' website it looks like an AI construct that had gone into the first stages of rampancy.

Conclusion:
a) The server hosting a page about bees got fed up, spontaneously developed advanced intelligence and went nutty.

b) This marketing is cleverly drawing attention to the fact that Halo 2 will revisit the AI plotline from Bungie's Marathon series (http://marathon.bungie.org/story/).

Note also that similar tactics were used when Halo was early in the works (when it was going to be a Mac game), mysterious e-mails were sent from someone named Cortana, with an e-mail address that could be traced back to workstation 49 (7?) in the bungie offices.

Re:On the first screen of ilovebees.com

[jomas1]

The same text shows up in Firefox. The thing about this ploy that is most unrealistic is how the website is not slowing down at all despite the number of slashdotters who must be viewing it now. I'm sure ilovebees.com was set up to handle this kind of traffic.

Re:re-inactment of a simpson episode

[signe]

Yes. Just like the game preceeding the A.I. movie release. It's just a shame that the game was so much better than the movie.

Most of the people playing the game know it's a marketing gimmick. It doesn't make it any less fun to solve the puzzles, though.

-Todd

Re:fileplanet

[DrSkwid]

ya, how dare they want to eat, outrageous

Re:They're just trying to create a buzz

[KillerCow]

It's guerilla marketing, plain and simple, just like Sci-Fi's recent attempt with M. Night Shyamalan's new movie. You're reading about it, so it's working.

I think the first clue was from the post:

The Halo 2 Theatrical trailer ends with the normal Xbox logo, but it also briefly replaces xbox.com with ilovebees.com.

Hmmmm... an unknown website address showing up at the end of a piece of marketing material? Hmmmm... the website has nothing to do with what was being promoted. OH! It's been hacked! How intriguing! There must be something interesting going on here. I am so gullible. Wait! No I'm not. I recognise this as publicity. But I will still talk about it so that the marketers get what they want. Doh! I guess that they won in the end!

The headline should read: "Microsoft marketing gimmick tries to create buzz. Not just astroturf [wikipedia.org] anymore."