2REMEMBER WINDOWS CODE

I'd say it's more like a little gift to ARG fans and hardcore Halo 2 fans to tide them over until November 9. You could also argue that ilovebees, with its fairly hardcore appeal, is not a blatant grab for more media space for Halo 2 - you may have noticed a little bit of non-ilovebees media coverage of Halo 2 in the last few months. But the time and effort obvious in the game to date definitely warrants your attention as much as the latest press release and set of screenshots. The cynics will say that ilovebees is nothing more than the wheeling out of Microsoft's latest marketing weapon. If you recently saw some crazily dressed people saluting and having their picture taken near a public phone they were playing the game. Players have now become recruits for the mysterious force controlling the Website, interacting with it via email and voicemail and receiving transmissions on private lines.

The game isn't over yet though, rather it has kicked up a notch. (All Bungie fans should know of their 7 fetish.) An enthusiastic group of ARGers old and new have kept it up in the weeks since August 24 and hit 777. (No pun intended.) Seventy-four axons went hot on the first day but an indicator on the main links page revealed this was only 74 of 777. But it soon became obvious that this was not going to be a sprint, but a marathon. The beekeepers were certainly on the ball early on and within a few days the initial page of soundbites were unlocked. These phones (or axons to use in-game speak) would ring at the specified time and need to be answered to 'go hot.' When the required number of axons went hot the codeword revealed a professionally acted and produced soundbite fragment to be downloaded.

2REMEMBER WINDOWS CODE

(And judging by the hammering that all 'bee' sites took a lot of people showed up!) The code referred to GPS co-ordinates locating pay phones all over the US. My initial thoughts were it was leading to some sort of IP address puzzle but the 'beekeepers' were well in front of anyone who just showed up on August 24. Each axon included a PDT time and a two-part numeric code. A list of cryptic codewords was released, each with a set of 'axons' attached. What did happen was that the game began in earnest. Personally I was hoping for an announcement of Halo 3 as a launch title for Xbox 2! Obviously none of these theories came to pass. Bungie would release Halo 2 over two months ahead of schedule on the 24th. A single-player demo would be released with OXM (IGN was able to refute that one easily by talking with its editor). The original countdown sparked a number of theories on what would actually happen on August 24 on forums all over the Net. On the same day the Halo 2 trailer premiered, members of the ARG community were Fedexed jars of honey with cutout letters leading them to the website and the countdown.

In reality (the commonly accepted version of it) ilovebees is another entry in the relatively new phenomenon of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs).

Outside the Game But of course Microsoft isn't usually that big on advertising either bee keeping Websites or making public pleas for assistance on Internet security. The whole point of the blog was an open plea to anyone reading to it to offer some assistance on the hacker activity. A link on the front page of took the curious to the blog of Dana, the designer of the original site (don't give up your day job, Dana) and niece of sweet old Aunt Margaret. The most noticeable hacker message was a countdown to 'Fully wide awake and physical' on August 24, 2004. Website graphics were corrupted and strange seemingly non-bee or honey-related text was overlayed over much of the site. At the time of trailer premiering, appeared to be a bee-keeping Website ('Margaret's Honey') that had been the target of some kind of hacker prank. 'I love bees' first came to the attention of the gaming masses with the release of the Halo 2 cinematic trailer.

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