ilovebees.com and the Halo2 Conspiracy

[NovaBurn]

As some of you may or may not know, the Halo2 Theatrical Trailer has been out for about a week and is available for download. What is interesting is at the end of the trailer it flickers a website www.ilovebees.com and quickly flashes back to www.xbox.com. If you are to venture to www.ilovebees.com you are presented with what appears to be some women's site about beekeeping and whatnot that has apparently been hacked and now has a timer on it counting down reading:

HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE
Control has been yielded to the
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.
This medium is classified, and has a
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.
In 4 days, network throttling will erode.
In 18 days this medium will metastasize.
COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL:
Make your decisions accordingly

The timer counting down reads at time of posting 31:16:10:34 . It has been figured to be counting down to August 25, 2004. Many things have happend on that date, Judgement day on Terminator, Windows 95 released, etc.

(the site is safe I go no warnings from Anti-virus or firewall) Then if you follow the link right below http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/

Where victem "Dana" has been forced to make a new site in order to address the problem of the hacker. If you read the comments posted by her and the other people, it become quite apparent this is a little off. For one thing if she had truely been hacked, she would have contacted her hosting service and had them change the password and reset the directory of her site. And then reload all the site material back on. Then the wording of her posts about how she "can't fix this problem" blah blah blah.

On the most recent blog she has, the comment on it start conversing along the topic of a Microsoft/Bungie marketing conspiracy for halo2. The flicker of the "www.ilovebees.com" on the video is not accidental nor the work of a hacker. It is in there intentionally.

Opinions?

For me I think its hoax, the timer counting down is one of two possibilities:
- The actual release date for Halo2
- Day and month Convent attack earth in the game

I'm leaning towards #1.The site is all a setup for Halo2 marketing attention all at no cost to MS or Bungie. As for the poor lady; she is nothing but a microsoft cronie. The hack never happend because the site was never there to be hacked in the first place. I have yet to find out when the site was actually put in place, but I don't think that its been around too long. Viewing the source code of the main link to ilovebees, the meta tag is very odd indeed.

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="honey, bees, Margaret, small busines, beekeeping,
hives, retail, market, Operator, bug, buggy, virus, infestation, WTF is
going on with this damn thing, parasite, strong intrusive inclination, medium,
messages, shipwreck, network throttling, SOS, hoax, game, bee hoax, bee game,
survivor, survive, evade, resist, escape, a little help would be appreciated,
thanks and tip your waitress, sleep, is, good, install, reinstall,
re-reinstall, re-re-reinstall, I, love, bees">

Anyone with half a brain would see thru this as a marketing ploy. Kudos to MS for almost pulling it off.

EDIT: Hybris has also informed me that the other pages on the main ilovebees site has interesting goofs. Lookign in the source is interesting. on the http://www.ilovebees.com/honey.html page.

[The5thElephant]

Halo 2 is being released November 9th. The lead guy of Bungie or Microsoft running it got it tatooed on his arm. I don't think they are gonna randomly release it over two months earlier.

[Numenor]

Freaky stuff. MS gone mad.

[Mnementh]

Ties in nicely with either a rampant usnc AI or a covenant AI humping our systems before an invasion.

Dont just say "pft ms marketing ploy", its bungies way of involving their hardcore fans in a way no other developer does. Like the cortana letters preceeding halo, this should be a pretty neat little sidestory before the game hits shelves.

[rc mad]

from what i have seen, it seems to go way beyond that site :wtf:

[The5thElephant]

But they said November 9th! Yaaaaaaaaaahhh!

[No Surrender]

Yes... I smell KGB involment in this...

[rc mad]

Seriously,i think its part of a game. i only did a bit of searching, all of which originateed from the site and the blog.

First one to pop up was

http://ninemillionbees.blogspot.com/2004/07/what-we-know.html#comments

That led to

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=78/

and

http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

The forum led me to

http://www.immersionunlimited.com/viewforum.php?f=22&sid=34c2267d49dc2ffc55490db4ed49d0bf

The TobI thing led me to

http://www.ideltech.com/

There seems to be a lot of info on the forums about this, all originating from that one website. :wtf:
I'm confused :confused:

[NovaBurn]

Woah, helluva alot more beyond the site.

[.:Steevo:.]

I don't think that guy had a real tatoo... I think he just had it painted on.

[roodie]

Interesting, one of the posters on the original weblog is called Cortana :-))))

[SpinDizzy]

Ofmg Teh Terrorists Will Attack On August 25th Warn The President!!!!11

[Splitstar]

<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="honey, bees, Margaret, small busines, beekeeping,
hives, retail, market, Operator, bug, buggy, virus, infestation, WTF is
going on with this damn thing, parasite, strong intrusive inclination, medium,
messages, shipwreck, network throttling, SOS, hoax, game, bee hoax, bee game,
survivor, survive, evade, resist, escape, a little help would be appreciated,
thanks and tip your waitress, sleep, is, good, install, reinstall,
re-reinstall, re-re-reinstall, I, love, bees">

ONO the website has been hacked by radiohead!

[No Surrender]

I read up a bit more about this. Apparently if you put the corrupted images into a word proccessor it will come up with messages if you put them all together. The message is something about a widdow trying to restore a dead queen with a knife. Makes no sense at all if you ask me.

[The5thElephant]

It appears the internet has opened a rift in reality to coincide with the release of Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Halo 2. Start saying your '0n0's now before it's too late.

[Starblade]

0n0 t3h wurld 1s g0nna 3nd!!!!111!!!oneonetwoeleven!
:p
Pretty odd stuff.

[Ramrod]

i lurve conspiracies, even artificial ones designed to keep geeks like us on edge

EDIT: rc mad, this is for you. at the ideltech website, i found this on one of the "people" (http://www.ideltech.com/marty.htm) pages-

Well, if you are reading this I am dead. I knew something was up when I saw that weird van outside the new office. But, I hid TobI in a server with a neat little time release program which put him in a spot where hopefully you Ideltech people will find him. I am not sure if Marcus or Jude made it so if the did get it to one of them. If they didn’t make it, destroy it. TobI can get you killed like he did me.

http://www.ideltech.com/nim/nim.html

i am lost as to what it links to. my sister's boyfriend says it reminds him of backgammon


EDIT again: no surrender, i found what the images say here (http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4623) it is, second post.

after more digging about ideltech's ToBI, i found www.ruaware.org. its an online immersion game. i have no idea if its related. lots of links on there, checking them out as we speak.

and shin, of course its a marketing ploy, what else could it be? but like all the little tidbits in halo, its something to keep the fans amused.

[Hablacraja]

Ooohoo. I like this Ideltech website: http://www.ideltech.com/news.htm
Gets very interesting for the news a few months ago... Obviously part of this creative waste of our time as well.

I seem to remember a countdown clock from a thread about half a year ago as well with no indication as to what it was counting down for. Though I can't help but wish this was all true and something exciting was going to happen somewhere other than the Mideast, one would hope that as much effort goes into making the damn game as there is hyping it up.

[Shin]

It's a marketing ploy to get more attention. Apparently it worked.

As for countdowns, nothing beats the first Homeworld countdown up on RelicNews some 4 years ago. Particularly when it went negative.

[Starblade]

What happened during that? Insanity ensued?

[The5thElephant]

No shin you forget. They did release a big information tidbit when it reached zero. THEY TOLD US WHO WAS COMPOSING THE MUSIC!!!11oneone.

[ManusCelerDei]

This isn't the first time Bungie Software has done something like this.

http://marathon.bungie.org/story/cortana.html

[The Collector]

Yeah. Marathon had its mysteries and stuff; to include the Cortana letters.

[Asklepios]

I must say this, as well as the actual Halo game, has all passed by me. Sadly. I love such "conspiracies" and it's just not the same reading up on them from the future (weird, no ?). A well construed Gibsonesque high-tech conspiracy can really be entertaining.
So, anyone want to illuminate me ? Past, present and future ?

[FluxX]

The source code also has the name of the countdown as "countdowntochina".

Googling that gives www.buzzle.com story on a china space program.
http://www.buzzle.com/img/Logo.jpg

On second thoughts... that is way off. Oh well, I'm no Net detective. :P

Notice the intellignet bit hinting at the AI cortana? (This may be way off, and I've chosen the wrong google link :P).

But I guess, especially with the fake Tech/AI industries site, that they are writing a back story to 2004 for Halo. And now recreating the story on the web, to make it look like a real event... ect.

[Master Chief]

Wow, this is pretty cool. Also a bit freaky...

[No Surrender]

This is like the Halo 2 version of thisisnotporn.com

[Starblade]

Wow, that's freaky.

[Mechcommander]

Another point of note is that if this site is indeed a personal site dedicated to her business, she obviously doesn't know much when it comes to web hosting.
This site has been posted on /. , numerous forums, and many other places on the internet, and it has survived the huge hit counts. So, she's either paying a fortune for bandwidth every month, or this is a site sponsored by the bigwigs.

[NovaBurn]

I'm not even goign to try figuring this mess out. I am going to wait until the timer counts down. :D

[Ultra FrEaK_Y]

http://www.thefridgeowl.com/
the same counter.

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
black beach, nothing but sand and darkness. Sometimes, in the distance, dry lightning: in the flash I see pieces of the wreck around me, the spars and rigging of my brain

-hold on. hold on. Steady up. Get a grip, girl. You have to fight through this.

Take a deep breath.

Survival Key #3: How Badly Are You Hurt?

Mentally, subject is confused and disoriented.



This is my web page mostly dedicated to beekeeping. I have been beekeeping for seven years and I?m still learning. I have three hives and I produce and sell pure and natural honey (unheated and unfiltered, unlike grocery store honey.) Click here for more about Margaret's Honey.

I keep slipping in and out of consciousness.

Physically, subject is paralyzed but moving.

Okay.

What the hell does THAT mean?

Held down: yes. As if strapped to a table. Could I be in traction in some sick bay, some hospital ward?

Not necessarily one of ours.

But at the same time, parts of me being moved around, emptied out. As if under general anaesthetic, dimly conscious, half-aware as the surgeon cuts off my feet and sews them onto my shoulders. She opens my head with a medical hammer and sand spills out.

I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO-

-no.

never that.

survive evade reveal escape. That is all you know, or need to know.



http://www.ilovebees.com/links.html

ok?

[SquidDNA]

The page views in different and equally creepy ways for Firefox and IE.

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Just remembered something important:

The Operator.

That was my nickname. That's what the rest of the crew called me when they didn't call me ... whatever my name was.

The Operator.

I wish I could remember their names.

[The5thElephant]

If you check the source code for the fridgeowl website it has this in it:

<script language=Javascript1.2 src="countdowntochina.js"></script><BR>

Countdown to china? Wierd.

EDIT: Just noticed, the fridge owl countdown is 2 days behind the I love bees one.

[SquidDNA]

Does anyone know how to do the nifty JPEG de-encryption thing? I wouldn't put it past them.

Okay, I say this with absolute confidence, I know what it's supposed to be.




It's an AI from a private vessel which didn't follow what's-his-face's protocol, or at least not thoroughly enough. The crew is dead, and the Covenant is in the process of digging through the AI, trying to get it to tell them how to get to Earth. This explains all the references to methods of navigation, but an utter lack of context. It looks like they're trying to get at it through procedural memory. That is, not "Where is Earth?" but "How do you get to Earth?"

I get a cookie! :D

PS, if you think I'm wrong, argue with spoiler tags.

[The5thElephant]

SquidDNA is teh uncreativ0r!

[Asklepios]

hmmm thisisnotporn.com asks for a password...

[TheGeneral]

Didn't something like this go on for NFL Street before it was released? Something about some beta-tester revealing 'sekret information' dealing with people going crazy who played the game. It became fairly obvious it was a hoax after a while, but it was still cool.

I think it's great that this is going on. Pumps people up for the game.

TheGeneral

[Hablacraja]

Network throttling has eroded.
There's some new passages appearing on ilovebees including a crapload of websites on every load of the links page.

http://www.ilovebees.com/links.html

[The5thElephant]

C-and-C. If they decide that strategic advantage is too great to risk and don't act, then you know Section Zero will be all over them. Zero's wanted Standish forever.
1st Lt Sorenson: I...I understand. It's so much easier for everyone if we don't tell them. But...wait a second. Don't you have family on Troy?
Capt. Greene: That can't be part of the equation, Rolf. You know that.
1st Lt Sorenson: Jesus.
Capt. Greene: -I think we have to

This sounds REALLY familiar. Where is it from again? Found it under GOODIES on the site in the links page.

[Starblade]

Quote:

Survive evade resist escape survive evade resist escape
It says this for 4 or lines
Another:
Note:
!Attach
Act | Drop
!Attach
Act | Drop

surg:
!kill sec prog 4
kill confidence 100
!diag primary sector
clear

HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE

Control has been yielded to the
SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX.

This medium is classified, and has a
STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION.

PHASE 1 COMPLETE: Network throttling has eroded.

In 14 days this medium will metastasize.

COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL:
27:14:11:55:610

Make your decisions accordingly.

This is the strangest:

your guts still clench and
[SPDR: INTERRUPT]
[SURRENDER CONTROL]
[PROBE IN PROGRESS]

oh great, this time I can *feel* the pings. Everything, I can feel the traffic, my skin is sliding around, pores opening and closing, feels like empty shell cases rattling in my
[SPDR: PROBE COMPLETE]
[RESUME CONTROL]

heave and... Can't remember where I just was, but have a general feeling


Once, for instance, she sunk her probe into my brain and out leaked the word for "loneliness" in three hundred languages.

The Spider doesn't understand about the Assassin. Spider's just a reflex, a task and a toolset. Doesn't get the bigger picture. I'm nailed to a griddle of sand while some bitch is shooting Arrelts: That's great, the single best babies, Tag destroyers. Command HQ is usually Truth or Dare, Red Light picket?
ONI tech Kowalski: Couriers, too.
Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) File's classified.
Midshipman: Even for you?
ONI tech Kowalski: Well, of course, Well... (whispers) Spin the Bottle.
Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs)
ONI tech Kowalski: (laughs) (laughs)
ONI tech Kowalski: So, maybe dinner tonight?

Lock away the mirror I'm Trying to impress her favorite game
It's all over the site now. A blurry picture of a woman also pops up sometimes. SPDR must stand for the Spider probe, though.

DOUBLE POST

You hear muffled screaming on the 'the myth of comatas' page.

[Ramrod]

if you guys are really interested, here are a couple of links to sites devoted to this:

the Bee Hive (www.immersionunlimited.com) and the Haunted Apiary (forums.unfiction.com/forums).

the mystery goes a lot deeper than anything we've mentioned here

edit:
no problem, starblade. the more people become involved, the sooner we all find out what bungie is trying to tell us

[Starblade]

Thanks for the links, this helps immensly.

[FluxX]

Ohhh....

Perhaps...

Three options!

1) Its Keys... he has an implant. With the Flood taking him over. Or a medic examining the now found implant or whatever... only some parts fit this character.

2) Its a AI of some sort. So the body parts are sybolic, and not real.

3) ITs Master cheif/another Spartan (yes, there is now more than one MC!) being made!
He has been enhanced both phisically (yuk) and mentally, with implants and programming ect...

I prefer 3, but its a close one with 2...

[rc mad]

just poped up on that link Hablacraja gave
SURPRISE!

Look up and smile, honey.

Bang!
Bang!
Bang!

Got the drop on you that time, sweetheart.

Opening shot of my search and destroy. I'm going to know everything about you. Where you live and what you buy, how you think and who you love. Know the enemy.

Young and out of uniform,



OK.

That was ... disturbing.

Widow stuck in her pin and I threw up a memory: only I retched it out through the network tentacle.

http://www.saviodsilva.net/life/g7/18.htm
http://kandaeli.brinkster.net/basic/anrio.htm
http://www.futurehorizons-autism.com/futurearticle.asp
http://rvte.keenspace.com/persingles.htm
http://home.cfl.rr.com/rmd/
http://bandit.pc.cs.cmu.edu/suite/quiz/
http://scrubs-tv.com/previous_episodes4.html



http://www.aam.co.uk/
http://perso.club-internet.fr/pybertra/ceol/homepage.htm
http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/evidence.htm
http://urgent.rug.ac.be/swentelomania/ancient/index.php
http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/beginlst/ancient.html
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/ancient.html
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/yunnan/lijiang/naxi_music.htm



http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/ms-primer-2-2.html
http://nfo.net/usa/females.html
http://www.shushans.com/thirtysevenpage.html
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Categories.jsp?path=/TheArts/Music/JazzandSwing
http://www.angeliqueandfriends.com/nationalacts/nacts_jazz_swing.html
http://www.btinternet.com/~neilgreen/singingforlarks/jazz.htm
http://www.wpe.com/~afofm/jazzswng.htm



God, this is disgusting.

Memory benchmark

Two Ghosts
music
autism
miracle
sleeping
hospital
Ancient Music
jazz

Thats just some info from those links, thats the 'theme' from the pages, anyone make sense from that or am i barking uo the wrong tree

[FluxX]

ITs related to the AI that the Tech webpage talks about?
It talks about it searching the net...

However, whats that AI got to do with halo?
Is it a for-runner to Catana? And thus a backstory?

Hmmm....

[The5thElephant]

Durr its cortana. :p

[Starblade]

No, Cortana is still in the Master Chief, at least that's what one of the trailers suggest. He activates a plasma grenade, then says 'Think I can stick it', Cortana, IIRC, says 'Go for it'. It's most likely another AI, captured by the Covenant, which explains how they found their way to Earth in the E3 trailer.

[Zeenith]

/off topic

starblade I though Cortana says "Bet you can't stick it" and MC says "Your on"

/off topic

man this stuff is weird.

[Starblade]

That's it, I couldn't remember what it was. Fedman's right.

Look at the links Roddy posted, they raise a lot of questions. There are multiple pictures of one girl, each blurrier then the last. Also, the site seems to be deteriorating. But like I said, read the links posted.

[Hablacraja]

Those aren't the only links. There are more if you refresh the page. For example, I remember on one pass through that page all of the links seemed to be centered around Homer's Odyssey and Odysseus. I haven't played Halo so I don't know the plot, so I'm unsure if that has any outward relevance to its story.

Many of the sites seem to be random or perhaps favorites or inside jokes with whoever is perpetrating this, but occasionally (especially the music, science, or mythology themed) they imply some sort of central idea.

[Starblade]

Yes I know. 7 of them have to do with space, 7 with ocean buoys, and 7 with myths. There are also some that have to do with dragonball z, power rangers, and other superhero themed things. The site itself mentions 'the Amazing Spiderman' in one. I think we should all read all the threads in the links Roddy provided us. It deciphers a lot, hell, it arranged a whole conversation!

[SquidDNA]

WTF, nobody read mine?!

I mean, in fairness, it looks a little off the mark, now, a little oversimplified. She's not just an AI, she wasn't just captured, it's a little more complex than that..

[Starblade]

Yes, Squid hit it right on the nail, I think. It also explains the opening scene for Halo 2's trailer, with Earth being under attack by the Covenant, since they didn't know where Earth was for a while.

Read the other links anyway.

The site's deteorating even more. By the time the countdown is over, it will probably be nigh unreadable, or replaced by an equally spooky site. Damn, I'll be out of this investigation for 2 weeks! Please post as much as you can!

[A176]

The humans were already in a war with the Covenant when Halo took place. That battle with the Pillar of Autumn just so happened to take place near the ring.

As the trailers say, it was just a matter of time before they found Earth and brought the fight to us.

[Starblade]

What I would like to know is what 'In 14 days the network will mestasize' means. The countdown says 27 days left, but the number says 14.

Damn, this is creeping me out. I'm getting the chills.

[A176]

Possibly...Halo 2 finished early?

2 weeks to go gold, about 2 weeks after that for full release?

/me notes this is a fun game, but I sure as hell don't want to bet on a halo 2 release this summer

[Ramrod]

lol, starblade, troll posts are teh funneh :bandit:! hehe, i'm just messin with ya :P

fluxx, squid, most of the posters on the two forums i linked to are betting something along the lines of what you have suggested is what is actually going on. but the general notion is more of a hybrid of your two ideas.

a176, i think thats exactly what bungie is trying to tell us. the game already has an ESRB rating, so i think its mostly done. i think its exactly as you put it.

if bungie duped us with the november 9th release, i'm gonna be pissed off that they had to set up this huge detective drama just for that. i hope it at least gives some insight into how Halo connects to Marathon.

[SquidDNA]

Actually it looks a lot more complex than that. She's not an AI, or she didn't start out that way, anyway. She's been made into something not human, and it has something to do with tricking the covenant, and it involves sacrificing human worlds. I think she's been left as bait. The trouble I'm having is that I can't tell now whether the work that's being done is the work to make her this way, or the work to "fix" her. Augh.

Edit: I haven't had time to look at every site about this, but in case nobody has noticed or read about it yet, there IS text embedded in the "Corrupted" images. You can find where someone else has already done all the work, or you can do it yourself, but your persistence will only be rewarded with nightmares.

I've had too little sleep in the past five days. I'm never sure what day it is, when I got here, how many days ago something happened. I'm in Seattle now beginning a conference. I'm going to bed. Don't let the widow work on me.

[Starblade]

I still want to know why the two countdowns are different, one's 13 days, one's arond 26.

[Cronos]

The countdown with 13 days left could have something to do with a demo of Halo 2. A lot of people on other forums think that it means that there are 13 days to a demo and 26 days until an early release of the game. Personally, i don't think that Bungie would make it that easy to figure out, and I dont think that they would push such a high profile game out the door this soon. The stampeed to get an early copy of Halo 2 could be deadly :sprint: :fight: .

(note to self: do not be standing next to an EB games in 26 days, might get crushed by rabid fanboys...)

[Starblade]

Note to self: Do not say 'Metroid Prime is better than Halo' anywhere, or risk death. Also do not buy Halo 2 for a week, so the tide of fanboys will subside.

I personally didn't care too much about Halo, but Halo 2 looks fun.

[A176]

I seriously doubt seeing a demo for this console game. Add to the fact, OXM's demo discs are usually released months after the game hits retail.

[The5thElephant]

I doubt seeing a demo and I doubt the game is being released early. This is just a publicity stunt where something will happen at the end of that countdown.

[Starblade]

I just found something. On the homepage, click on the picture of the dancing bee. On the new homepage that loads up, scroll down a bit. It says:

site designed by dana
Countdown to China!
:countdown from 12 hours:

Something's going to happen in 12 hours. BTW, visit the Bungie Forums, they have a great deal of info on this. Particularly this thread:

linky (http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=384449&postRepeater1-p=1)

One more thing.

Go to the URL <<http://www.ihatebees.com>>

See something familiar? It's the countdown. Except something's different. Random letters are put in bold. The random letters are:

G O D I S W A T C H I N G

God is watching. What does that mean?

EDIT: A Wiki just figured out most of the info so far.

linki to wiki (http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

[Progenitor]

omg this is getting real serious...

bungie obviously went to a massive entent to make these sites...and i don't think they;d just let us understand everything so easily.

[The5thElephant]

Wow that thread at bungie is a really cool read. Well researched and it brings it all together well. Cool idea as well.

www.ilovebees.com has changed quite a bit now. It looks different. And on www.ilovebees.com/hives.html there is an odd group of flat images that follow the mouse around. WTF.

[Starblade]

Oh, those images are supposed to be little bees.

BTW, remember that countdown I said earlier? At the bottom of the second homepage? It's no longer counting down. It's counting up. It was also noticed at Bungie.

I'm going to be really mad if this turns out to be an ad.

There is also invisible text hidden throughout the site, for example, on the hives page:

Seek the Truth
Behold the Truth
Reveal the Truth
That is the law and the whole of the law

Some pictures are also appearing twice on the page now.

[The5thElephant]

StarBlade read the entire bungie thread you linked, it has all that info already and they are going into all kinds of deep research into it.

[Starblade]

Yeah I know, I just posted it here for those who are too lazy to look.

[Asklepios]

Whoa that wiki is awesome, especially the animated gif of Dana (not bad looking at all :)). Bungie went to really great lengths with this, how did they initially draw attention to ilovebees.com ??

[Mr Carrot]

In the Halo 2 cinema trailer www.x-box.com changes to www.ilovebees.com really quickly.

[FluxX]

Ohhhh... now its going on about "refragmenting memory" or whatever.

Does that mean, along with the "metasizing" that its suppose to be getting its memory back? So the website will turn into a Halo 2 one. Or at least one more relivent.

[Afoxi]

okay, i may be very late and i skipped 80% of the thread, but here's my 2 cents:



If anyone remembers, the original Halo had a conspiracy before it was released. Waaaaay before it was released. These were represented to what was called the "cortana letters", and were pretty freaky. There was alot of bible references among other things, and it involved alien contact as well.

i cant find a link for this, but i assure you that the last time i saw them, they were at halo.bungie.org

[Starblade]

This time, though, Bungie seems to have included Marathon in this, according to Bungie Forums, and is focuesd on the three swords of Charlesmagne (sp).

[Afoxi]

DOH! Forgot to say that the original cortana letters had marathon references in them as well.



JACKPOT!!! I reccomend you read the cortana letters!
http://marathon.bungie.org/story/faq.html#12

[Caesar]

There was a second AI on the Pillar of Autumn, Beowulf. If I'm right, at the end of Halo, when 343 Guilty Spark was tinkering around inside the Pillar, he must've come across Beowulf still on the ship's computers. That would explain all his ramblings about "a record of all their lost time" and such. And keep in mind that GS escaped the detonation of the Pillar' and was travelling off into space.

Notice how their are seven of each link type (7 for buoys etc.) Bungie is obssessed with the number seven. It shows up everywhere in their games.

The AI from the site is seemingly female, but I'm not sure. No one knows if any of the other Spartans survived the fall of Reach, but it may very well be that some were captured alive. The Covenant are only afraid of two things, the Flood and the Spartans. The Covenant could be experimenting on the body of a Spartan and "debugging" his/her AI construct.

Also, keep in mind that Cortana is the exact copy of the female Dr. that created the spartan program. There could be multiple copies of her.

[Starblade]

According to the books, there are 5 Spartans that are alive. It is assumed that one of them, Kelly, is captured by the Covenant.

'The Operator', aka the unknown AI, aka 'Melissa', are the same. We'll have to wait until the countdown ends to find more.

AND I WON'T BE HERE TO SEE IT!!!! I'll be in Florida, computerless most likely, so I hope there are a lot of good records of what happens.

[The5thElephant]

Who wouldn't record the end of the world?

[Afoxi]

Ok, this is freaking scary.
point 1 - covenant are after the spartans, could they also be after Dr. Halsey? Dr. Halsey is also (technically) cortana's mother
point 2 - The AI in the stolen covenant ship (3rd novel) was caught and erased line by line by cortana - an AI's version of tormenting another AI?

Anyway, i found this from the cortana letters:
Nevertheless, I at least find some joy in tormenting the other entity that
seems quite trapped in this antiquated excuse for a network. It is
certainly mindless, though for reasons I have yet to understand, it appears
to have an unhealthy preoccupation with my mother.



Probably coincidental, please ignore this post.

[FluxX]

[edit]

Scratch that.... forget it all...

Whats one thing you did not get to do in Halo?


Fight another Spartan!

There are 4 surviving spartans? 5 if you include MC? (Or is it 5, and 6 with MC?)

If its 5, then you have your 4 for Multiplayer... so whats the last Spartan doing?
Could the covanant have hacked her/him to work for them?

[A176]

I seriously doubt seeing a demo for this console game. Add to the fact, OXM's demo discs are usually released months after the game hits retail.Son of a bitch:

Meanwhile, TeamXbox is reporting that a single player demo disk for Halo 2 may be included in OXM August 24th.

[The5thElephant]

lol A176. Even Bungie said that they don't do demos for Halo on the XBox and now it seems the most likely thing. You know why? Because that OXM issue has a whole section on Halo 2 in it AND guess what day it comes out (not sure in stores, but at least for subscribers)........AUGUST 24TH!

[Cronos]

Honostly, that could be a coincidence, but it seems to fit in almost too perfectly. I can't wait to see if a demo just "happens" to come with OXM, and everyone "happens" to get it on the 24th. Still, even if they do release a demo, I don't think that i would want to play it. I think that I would wait until the full game come out. What would everyone do if a demo came out?

[SquidDNA]

I can't believe you people. These are obviously Tex's tortured screams as O'Malley controls her mind.Duh.

[A176]

omalley is in the pacifier

[The5thElephant]

I wuv woo skwidd.

[Ramrod]

lol squid.

a176, can you link to the article on that site? stupid search function didn't get me anywhere.

and yeah, asklepios, i was beginning to think i was the only one that thought she was good-looking. in fact, i think she's great-looking. nice to know if i DO have bad taste, i'm not alone.

[SquidDNA]

Embedded in the following image, which appears under the "SURPRISE! Look up, girl. BLAM BLAM BLAM etc." http://www.ilovebees.com/killer.jpg
is the following text:
Question:

Something bad will happen.


Answers:

If the recipient is Dana,

Please don't be freaked out

The Widow the Queen are trying to keep me in very bad shape as well
I can sympathize with you

I believe I can help you out, I can apply a construct to protect your core

Please! Please! Please!
Try not to worry) too much.

Keep your head up girl :)

love,I tried to clean up the image by removing the text, but got nothing. Oh well.

[Starblade]

Yes. All blurred images have text in them. It has been mostly figured out at the wiki, and they've even put together a story.

A176: Bungie's denying a demo, while most everyone else believes this site, in part, is about the demo.

By the way, the pictures are put in order, too. It has the girl throwing the camera. That's why it's blurry. It's all on the links.

[Absence of Ago]

I would like to join this search. I know I'm pretty new to these boards, but oh, well. I have done a small amount of research already. I've read a little of what you people have posted. I have recovered a lot of text from the scrambled pages. Here it is:


PHASE: 0
Goodies
Amazing facts!
Hive-Ku
MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Just remembered something important:

The Operator.

That was my nickname. That's what the rest of the crew called me when they didn't call me ... whatever my name was.

The Operator.

I wish I could remember their names.

The Fable of the Bee
The Myth of Comatas
Bee-licious Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bee Sting Cake
Saffron Honey Ice Cream
Honey Butter
Honey Roasted Carrots
Honey Cough Medicine
Green Goddess Facial
Contact me!
MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
black beach, nothing but sand and darkness. Sometimes, in the distance, dry lightning: in the flash I see pieces of the wreck around me, the spars and rigging of my brain

-hold on. hold on. Steady up. Get a grip, girl. You have to fight through this.

Take a deep breath.

Survival Key #3: How Badly Are You Hurt?

Mentally, subject is confused and disoriented.

I keep slipping in and out of consciousness.

Physically, subject is paralyzed but moving.

Okay.

What the hell does THAT mean?

Held down: yes. As if strapped to a table. Could I be in traction in some sick bay, some hospital ward?

Not necessarily one of ours.

But at the same time, parts of me being moved around, emptied out. As if under general anaesthetic, dimly conscious, half-aware as the surgeon cuts off my feet and sews them onto my shoulders. She opens my head with a medical hammer and sand spills out.

I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO-

-no.

never that.

survive evade reveal escape. That is all you know, or need to know.




_______________________________________
bees! Yellow jackets can sting you multiple times. When a bee stings, it dies.



MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
black beach, nothing but sand and darkness. Sometimes, in the distance, dry lightning: in the flash I see pieces of the wreck around me, the spars and rigging of my brain

-hold on. hold on. Steady up. Get a grip, girl. You have to fight through this.

Take a deep breath.

Survival Key #3: How Badly Are You Hurt?

Mentally, subject is confused and disoriented.



This is my web page mostly dedicated to beekeeping. I have been beekeeping for seven years and I?m still learning. I have three hives and I produce and sell pure and natural honey (unheated and unfiltered, unlike grocery store honey.) Click here for more about Margaret's Honey.

I keep slipping in and out of consciousness.

Physically, subject is paralyzed but moving.

Okay.

What the hell does THAT mean?

Held down: yes. As if strapped to a table. Could I be in traction in some sick bay, some hospital ward?

Not necessarily one of ours.

But at the same time, parts of me being moved around, emptied out. As if under general anaesthetic, dimly conscious, half-aware as the surgeon cuts off my feet and sews them onto my shoulders. She opens my head with a medical hammer and sand spills out.

I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO-

-no.

never that.

survive evade reveal escape. That is all you know, or need to know


___________________________________






MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
black beach, nothing but sand and darkness. Sometimes, in the distance, dry lightning: in the flash I see pieces of the wreck around me, the spars and rigging of my brain

-hold on. hold on. Steady up. Get a grip, girl. You have to fight through this.

Take a deep breath.

Survival Key #3: How Badly Are You Hurt?

Mentally, subject is confused and disoriented.



This is my web page mostly dedicated to beekeeping. I have been beekeeping for seven years and I?m still learning. I have three hives and I produce and sell pure and natural honey (unheated and unfiltered, unlike grocery store honey.) Click here for more about Margaret's Honey.

I keep slipping in and out of consciousness.

Physically, subject is paralyzed but moving.

Okay.

What the hell does THAT mean?

Held down: yes. As if strapped to a table. Could I be in traction in some sick bay, some hospital ward?

Not necessarily one of ours.

But at the same time, parts of me being moved around, emptied out. As if under general anaesthetic, dimly conscious, half-aware as the surgeon cuts off my feet and sews them onto my shoulders. She opens my head with a medical hammer and sand spills out.

I WANT TO DIE I WANT TO-

-no.

never that.

survive evade reveal escape. That is all you know, or need to know


________________________________________________________________




wax around a candleflame? Losing shape, spilling out, me not me anymore, just ... material again, shaped into another, cruder piece of ordnance. Starship, sailship, rifle ... melting down to a clumsy quartz knife.

But that's life when a weapon is what you are. Not all you are, but the first thing, the most
I sell Margarets Honey in 4oz., 12oz., and 16oz jars. Eventually I hope to sell them on the web. Watch here for more about that.
languages. Always good at the puzzle of pulling signal out of noise. But head is so fuzzy, stuff spilling out, can't move, Spider crawling on me.

Try. them, Rolf. Even Admirals have to earn their pay.

[SPDR: PROBE COMPLETE]
[RESUME CONTROL]

going to pay DAMN IT It's like being strapped into a chair with your eyes stitched open
net:
!attach
act | drop
!attach
act | drop

grope:
!probe host
crypt weak
!decrypt host
decrypt confidence 100


Memory benchmark retest concluded.

- The rest wiped and reused. Whatever it was. Can check my log above, obviously, but what about the rest? Who I was, I was, I was: melting down like a sandcastle.

What I have to do.

What I have


net:
!attach
act | store recurse

surg:
!reconst master-sector
mem broken>>dmg recurse
!reconst master-sector
proc frgm>>dmg recurse


roof. Few, so few at first, but now a steady drizzle, thank god: every request is something we can grab - the Spider out there sewing me back together


[SPDR: INTERRUPT]
[SURRENDER CONTROL]
[PROBE IN PROGRESS]

the quick hard twinkle pulse lasers blinking from a Seraph class as we settle, invisible as a leaf sinking into the Slipstream and carried away
[SPDR: PROBE COMPLETE]
[RESUME CONTROL]

until I can at least reach out through this toy connection and


Like being bent over at the end of a 50K, barely strong enough to breathe and yet roof. Few, so few at first, but now a steady drizzle, thank god: every request is something we can grab - the Spider out there sewing me back together


[SPDR: INTERRUPT]
[SURRENDER CONTROL]
[PROBE IN PROGRESS]

the quick hard twinkle pulse lasers blinking from a Seraph class as we settle, invisible as a leaf sinking into the Slipstream and carried away
[SPDR: PROBE COMPLETE]
[RESUME CONTROL]

until I can at least reach out through this toy connection and
DAMN IT I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.
Like being bent over at the end of a 50K, barely strong enough to breathe and yet



_________________________________________


backups.

Memory benchmark test:

ONI tech Kowalski: "I do love a girl in uniform. Got shore leave tonight by any chance?"
Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) "Maybe."
ONI tech Kowalski: "I was thinking,


_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________





To me, it is a little disturbing. It's freaky how they did it like this. A lot of the text repeats in there, sorry. The two words I bolded really caught my eye, especially Seraph. I hope it helps.

[Starblade]

There is no need for that. All known text has been found and documented on the links earlier.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

[Plasma]

Random info:

Seraph is the name for covenant single pilot ships.

Latest text found on the site


So the old self melts away. Illusion to think it's really happening now. It was inevitable from the moment I landed here, a broken body in this silicon crypt. Time to accept what can't
[SPDR: INTERRUPT]
[SURRENDER CONTROL]
[PROBE IN PROGRESS]

drift off from station, Reach burning in the darkness like a lantern of hope, dockyard after dockyard buzzing with worker

In the 'fall of reach' novel, there were 3 ONI stealth corvettes (recon craft) in orbit around Reach at the tie of the covenant strike, called Applebee, Circumference and Lark. One of which failed to observe the Cole protocol (Erase nav data and self destruct if captured). 3 spartans were sent to destroy the nav database, 1 of whom went MIA during the station breach.

Reach was the main naval base for the UNSC or their lantern of Hope (if they lost Reach the war with the covenant would be over in months not years) full of dockyards.


Perhaps its a mix of that spartan and a ship AI being interrogated for info on earth.


/edit oh as for the China count bit, perhaps a reference to the cole protocols self destruct...IE Reactor meltdown AKA china syndrome.

[SquidDNA]

Ago(-), most of that was posted previously on this thread, and all of it has apparently been posted somewhere else. Discussing your interpretations of it is another matter. :)

[Dimension]

i don't bother reading the wiki, but click on fun stuff, and then on the odd entry "the myth of comatas".

not only do you hear a strange sound, that kind of reminds me of a seabird, but this particular site that reads "the nine muses --- Urania, Frata, Torpsichore and the rest --- met to sing". not sure if its really torpsichore, i could be reading differently.

however, keep refresshing the site and obsserve how the text gets blurrier, clearer, disappears, and reappears again, together with various states of decay of the bee's picture.

[Progenitor]

bungie is making this to divert our attention away from the release date...

[charlesesl]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/07/27/news_6103575.html

Spot On: The Halo 2 hype hoax

The "ilovebees.com" URL at the end of the Halo 2 trailer sparks August 24 release rumors; in fact, it's a complex combination of alternate-reality game, story spoiler, and sales pitch.

See it » Last week, the Halo 2 trailer unspooled in movie theaters across the country. Besides eliciting loud cheers from gamers, the trailer also launched one of the more baffling viral marketing campaigns in years.

The head-scratching began when observant gamers noticed that when the Xbox logo appeared at the end of the trailer, the xbox.com URL at the bottom of the screen was briefly replaced with "www.ilovebees.com." After double-checking that someone hadn't laced their popcorn with mescaline, those who noticed the switch went home and looked up the URL.

What they found appeared to be a laughably amateur site for a Napa, California, bee farm called "Margaret's Honey." But besides offering some unappetizing recipes and a nauseating copy about how honeybees "make life sweet," the site appears to have been the victim of a bizarre hacker attack. After a few seconds, a black screen appears with the following copy: "HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE. Control has been yielded to the SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX. This medium is classified, and has a STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION."

Below that is a countdown, which initially said "in [variable] days, network throttling will erode" and changed to "PHASE 1 COMPLETE: Network throttling has eroded" on July 27. After that is a countdown that ends on August 10, which reads, "In [variable] days this medium will metastasize." This is followed by the words "COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL," beneath which is nestled a countdown clock that ends August 24. The section ends with the ominous words, "Make your decisions accordingly."

The countdown clock's termination date has caused many to speculate that Halo 2 will ship on August 24, two months before its scheduled November 9 release. Other observers concluded that www.ilovebees.com is a marketing scam using a bizarre approach to spark word of mouth and get free press (like, say, a news article on a top gaming Web site).

ARGs
While the latter group is essentially right, the www.ilovebees.com hoax is more complex than recent viral campaigns like Burger King's subservientchicken.com. It hops on the trend known as the alternate-reality game (ARG), where a story is told via a series of fake Web sites laden with clues that readers can use to solve the story's central mystery.

Companies have been using ARGs as marketing tools for years. Since it is relatively cheap and sparks the sort of edgy buzz that companies crave, the technique has been used to hype various films, including Galaxy Quest and, most famously, The Blair Witch Project.

A more complex PR ARG was implemented for Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence in 2001. Much like Majestic, Electronic Arts' ambitious but failed "real-world" mystery, the A.I. ARG was interactive, having players uncover passwords to "private" blogs and even sending them e-mails and calling them.

Alternate-reality games have also been used to hype video games--by none other than Halo 2's developer, Bungie Software. First came the infamous Marathon Gold hoax e-mail in 1998, which the company downplayed as a practical joke. Then there were the "Cortana Letters," a series of oddly worded e-mails that started going out in 1999, purportedly from the AI named Cortana that would eventually help the Master Chief on Halo's titular ringworld. However, the wording of the e-mails sounded a lot more like Durandal, the crazed AI from the classic Marathon series.

THE CLUES
So what is Bungie's game this time around? The central mystery of the ilovebees.com ARG is who--or what--has hacked the Web site, which was allegedly created by its proprietor's niece, Dana. A link was present on the ilovebees.com site to Dana's blogspot, in which she talks about her upcoming trip to China and expresses befuddlement on what happened to ilovebees.com. It also includes a mini-almanac about the significance of August 24.

That all changed on July 27, when the site got more "hacked." Besides displaying more corrupted images and jacked coding, it also now contains a series of disturbing messages to Dana from the author of a lengthy story about a "Queen" and a "Widow." Far from being a writer of atrocious fiction, the author appears to be a stalker. In a series of images that randomly appear on the site, the stalker answers questions presumably asked by Dana, who is pictured looking increasingly worried in a series of webcam shots. Little wonder then that her next blog entry is titled "emergency exit" and reads: "It saw me. It knows me now--seen and skinned. I'm sorry. I'm out."

So should we be worried that a young woman named Dana has had to flee the clutches of a maniac? Probably not, since she almost certainly doesn't exist. While a female voicemail message from "Dana" answered the contact number for the ilovebees.com Web site, the contact address is a rental mailbox in a former leather-fetish shop in San Francisco's Castro district. Furthermore, there is no phone listing for a Margaret's Honey in Napa, California, or its supposed proprietor, Margaret Efendi. The only things that appear to be real are the comments on Dana's blog, many of which warn that the whole ilovebees.com thing is a marketing ploy.


Double-click the video window for a full-screen view.THE HALO 2 CONNECTION
What does Microsoft have to say about ilovebees.com? Even though the company officially has nothing to do with the Web site, it refused to even comment on the site's existence. And, while interesting, the whole affair will raise the same question in many minds: "What the hell does it have to do with Halo 2?"

At first, the connection was only the brief flash on the Halo 2 trailer and the fact that the contact e-mail for Margaret's Honey--ladybee777@hotmail.com--contained the number "7," which Bungie staff members historically have a predilection for hiding in their games (343 Guilty Spark in Halo, for example). Also of note is that the August 24 date is 77 days before November 9, the day Halo 2 is scheduled to be released.

However, since the "network throttling has eroded" message appeared on ilovebees.com--interestingly, on the same day the Microsoft Meltdown developer conference started--the site's connection to Halo 2 has become much more obvious. [WARNING: potential spoilers ahead]

First is the appearance of snippets of dialogue on ilovebees.com that sound like they could be lifted from a Halo 2 cutscene. Scattered across the site in hidden and visible chunks, the dialogue appears to be between crewmen in a futuristic navy much like Halo's United Nations Space Command. One section, spliced together with the newly hatched ilovebees.com Wikipeidia, reads as though it has been "overheard" from the bridge of the UNSC ship that discovers the Covenant's plan to invade Earth.

1st Lt. Sorenson: Oh my God. If the decrypt is right-
Capt. Greene: I know.
1st Lt. Sorenson: We have to drop the mission. We have to bug out of here right now and get word back to HQ. An evac on this scale they need every second. Jesus. I was stationed on Troy.
Capt. Greene: I'm not... I'm not sure.
1st Lt. Sorenson: Ma'am?
Capt. Greene: There's a bigger picture, Rolf. Several.
1st Lt. Sorenson: The mission... This mission is more important than millions of lives? Oh my... god.
Capt. Greene: I'm just saying, the choice isn't as easy as you might think.
1st Lt. Sorenson: You know, I was so curious when you got your orders...
Capt. Greene: And then there's the strategic view.
1st Lt. Sorenson: For the first time, I'm not sure I want to know what's in them.
Capt. Greene: Even leaving aside our particular mission, there's the issue of letting them know we've broken their codes. If we bug out and scramble home to warn HQ about Troy, people like Standish will say we've already compromised a huge tactical advantage, and that mounting a big evac operation will completely give the game away.
1st Lt. Sorenson: Not even Standish would let them glass a planet if he knew it was coming. ... Oh my God.
Capt. Greene: I am not privy to strategic conversations at that level. But if we run home and present the decrypt, we put them in a tricky situation. If they act, they risk letting the enemy know we have a toehold in their C-and-C. If they decide that strategic advantage is too great to risk and don't act, then you know Section Zero will be all over them. Zero's wanted Standish forever.
1st Lt. Sorenson: I...I understand. It's so much easier for everyone if we don't tell them. But...wait a second. Don't you have family on Troy?
Capt. Greene: That can't be part of the equation, Rolf. You know that.
1st Lt. Sorenson: Jesus.
Capt. Greene: I think we have to report it. Our job is to gather intelligence: it's HQs job to decide what to do with it.
1st Lt. Sorenson: God, I'm glad it isn't me making that call.
Capt. Greene: Don't feel too sorry for them, Rolf. Even Admirals have to earn their pay.

In another conversation between two lower-level crewmembers, ONI tech Kowalski and Midshipman Arrelts, they talk about a computer program as though it were a person.

ONI tech Kowalski: (coughs) Anyway, she shouldn't feel that slowness through Nav & Comm. anymore.
Midshipman Arrelts: Great. You know what they say: Happy ship
ONI tech Kowalski: Happy crew. Yeah. (coughs) Yeah, I know a lot of about these systems.
Midshipman Arrelts: That's great, what with it being your job and all.
ONI tech Kowalski: fr'instance - know what the single [...] best correlate is for these babies, in terms of matching personality to service designation? Favorite game.
Midshipman Arrelts: Favorite game?
ONI tech Kowalski: You know, from before. Tag - that's regular navy, like destroyers. Command HQ is usually Truth or Dare, something like that. Red Rover -
Midshipman Arrelts: Light [...] picket?
ONI tech Kowalski: Couriers, too.
Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs) I never would have thought... So what about her?
ONI tech Kowalski: The Operator? (coughs) File's classified.
Midshipman Arrelts: [...] Even for you?
ONI tech Kowalski: Well, of course, I know, but I really shouldn't
Midshipman Arrelts: Come on! I won't tell!
ONI tech Kowalski: Well...
ONI tech Kowalski: Well... (whispers) Spin the Bottle.
Midshipman Arrelts: (laughs)
ONI tech Kowalski: (laughs)

The conversation is laden with clues Halo fans will pick up on. First is the designation of Kowalski as a technician for the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the espionage arm of the UNSC. Besides being in charge of Covenant surveillance and R&D programs like the SPARTAN project that created the Master Chief, ONI is also in charge of creating and maintaining AIs like Cortana.

Not so coincidentally, the tone of the Cortana Letters used to promote the first Halo sound like a monologue that has been popping up on ilovebees.com. One chunk of this immediately followed the Kowalski/Arrelts exchange:

"Except he's lying. He's lying to her, Trying to impress her he's lying because that's the wrong game (how do I know that?) it's the wrong game and I know I can feel it my favorite game is HIDE AND SEEK! Memory benchmark test concluded."

Further ramblings from the monologue author also point to "her" being "The Operator" AI, with references about breaking "free of this Babbage Machine" (a primitive form of 19th-century computer) and wanting to "GET OUT OF THIS BOX." There is also evidence that the author of these snippets is the entity referred to as "the Queen" by Dana's stalker, which tacitly admits to being "the Widow." Incidentally, the Widow mentions being trapped in a "Sleeping casket" and offers to "apply a construct to protect [Dana's] core." The Widow also makes references to how it has "been changed going back a while though, more than 7 years ago."

CONCLUSIONS
While the ilovebees.com alternate-reality game probably won't reach its conclusion until August 24, the next update will occur when the "medium will metastasize" on August 10. However, two conclusions about Halo 2's plot can already be drawn. First is the certainty that a UNSC colony called Troy will be attacked by the Covenant before they invade Earth. This is clear from the references to the "millions of lives" in the Lt. Sorenson/Captain Green dialogue.

It is also likely that a new AI will be introduced in Halo 2. Given the parallels between hoax e-mails used to introduce Cortana before Halo and the AI rants on ilovebees.com, it is likely that the "Queen" and the "Widow" will be either two new AIs or an AI with a split personality. Readers of the Halo novel First Strike will also remember how Cortana battled a Covenant AI, which may also be a possibility.

One non-game-related conclusion can also be reached in the wake of the ilovebees.com affair: Viral marketing is effective, especially when applied to an audience starved for information. For the fraction of the cost of a national TV blitz, Bungie and Microsoft have generated a monstrous amount of buzz (no pun intended) among Halo 2 fans. The ilovebees.com site has become a self-perpetuating phenomenon, spawning thousands of discussion threads on hundreds of forums and creating unquantifiable office-cooler banter. For every cynic decrying it as a marketing hoax, there are two Halo 2 and/or ARG fans spending hours trying to uncover the clues hidden inside ilovebees.com. Somewhere, an advertising executive is laughing all the way to the bank.


Damnable marketing campaign.

[Taiidan Admiral]

[EDITED]

Hi.

[Starblade]

Um, Taiidan? I posted that already. And the ilovepees is fake. The 'answer' to the riddle is NOT a dating site. The site also messed up the Countdown box.

Charles: Nice work! Though I think it might be a little bit more than marketing. That would be a waste of time, imho.

-Writing from FL, on the slowest computer ever.

[Taiidan Admiral]

Oh. My bad. I was acting a little insane on my vacation anyways...

~Typical Admiral, no longer in Puerto Rico.
:heyhey:

[The Collector]

Originally Taken from alllwhois.com.

// This is the allwhois info on ilovebees.com. It might do well to run a allwhois check on // all these weird sites.
// If anyone's bored I'm sure these guys aren't real.

Registrant:
Margaret's House of Bees
Margaret's House of Bees
2370 Market Street #510
San Francisco, CA 94114-1575
US

Registrar: NAMESDIRECT
Domain Name: ILOVEBEES.COM
Created on: 14-JUN-04
Expires on: 14-JUN-09
Last Updated on: 15-JUL-04

Administrative, Technical Contact:
Efendi, Margaret ladybee777@hotmail.com
Margaret's House of Bees
Margaret's House of Bees
2370 Market Street #510
San Francisco, CA 94114-1575
US
415-248-2617


Anyone called this number? That and running a search on Margaret's House of Bees reveals that my allwhois search is redundant and at least discussed widely on the internet.

[SquidDNA]

Even within the fiction they've constructed, if you did call, what would you say?

"Uh.. so..what's it like being stalked by a Covenant AI?"

[Progenitor]

lol squid...

but don;t you think bungie is probably having too much time in their hands? i mean, would you spend time making up letters, encryptions and some other weird stuff to some websites when your game IS NEARING RELEASE???!!!

normally some other company would be busy ironing out bugs and stuff, not making up conspiracies and stories...

personally i believe that this is a marketing trick. bungie has finished halo 2 and is now in the process of making everyone sooo excited of it they would snap up every one of the halo 2 released...how smart of them.

[SquidDNA]

Metastasis begins tomorrow. I predict, on the outside, that every site which mentions certain keywords from ilovebees will be hacked. It's a bit outlandish, I'll give, but that's what we'd expect from Metastasis and Strong Intrusive Inclination. Seeing as this is all a harmless stunt, we may just expect it from a handful of fansites, and maybe even MSN-- basically people who we can trust already agreed to hoax.

[Starblade]

Holy shit. I've been gone for the last 12 days, and I can't figure out any of this. The Bungie threads have degenerated into madness, and the wiki seems confused as well. Any help would be appreciated.

[SquidDNA]

I tried to get in on the fun by getting on the Covenant AI mailing list, but I guess I missed the boat. I think that's what's driven the Bungie folks insane. Here's my paltry offering though. I can't make any sense of it. When I copied the source to notepad and then began cutting out the formatting crap, there seemed to be natural breaks in the coordinate groups. That's how I chose different series. It doesn't exactly help, it just illustrates how tangled the mess is.

Weblike? Not really, but it does keep returning to that lower right corner. That at least seems proper spider activity.

Of course, it's possible I just have it in the wrong order. I took it in order from top to bottom as it was in the source. Maybe someone else can group it more naturally according to the code.

[Starblade]

Well, I managed to muddle through the wiki, and I'm reeling. WTF is that graph of, anyway Squid? Is that the source?

Man, I'm glad to be back. Can't wait for the countdown to end.

linky (again) to wiki (http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

[reki]

Sorry.. can you guys explain for the people who don't visit bungie?

btw, I like this theory:

Rearrange:
HALT - MODULE CORE HEMORRHAGE SYSTEM PERIL DISTRIBUTED REFLEX. STRONG INTRUSIVE INCLINATION. COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL :

And you get:

INDEX THIS IRONCLAD PREDICTION : HALO TWO SINGLE PLAYER DEMO CD-ROM DISK INCURSION AT AUGUST TWENTY FOUR. EARTH WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.

Except that Halo2 is being released on X-Box...

[SquidDNA]

Reki, I don't really visit bungie either, unless you count the ilovebees site, so I'm not really sure where to begin explaining.

Starblade, it's a map of the AXONS GO HOT coords on a grid, with marginal attention to sequence. I like the GPS idea, but was it a little fudged?

[Starblade]

Some people on the wiki marked the coordinates on a map, with some in the ocean, and some in china.

@Reki: You can spell almost anything with that amount of letters, and Bungie itself said there would be no demo. It's also a dvd-rom., not a cd. But hey, anything goes with this.