Support NeoGAF

[Christoff Yurievich]

Didn't Peter Moore get a November 9th tattoo? I think it'll be a demo, also.

no, he didn't. He got a temporary tattoo. I remember reading something about a Hollywood makeup person giving it to him just for E3. I'll search for it!

wow, didn't take long.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/002686.html

Never did I think I'd ask a Microsoft executive to roll up his sleeve and show me his tattoo, but there you have it, over on the right. (Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.) That's Peter Moore, corporate vice president on the Xbox team, but in truth it's not a real tattoo. He had it inked on his arm by a Hollywood makeup artist prior to the Xbox opening event Monday night at E3, where he let his arm serve as the medium for announcing the long-awaited relase date for Halo 2, the successor to the best-selling Xbox title. It will wear off in about a week.

 

[Sho Nuff]

The game already has an ESRB rating. The ESRB only grades final copies. That means that the game is finished. Now to be completely honest, I did not buy into any of this stuff until I realized that Halo 2 already had an ESRB rating.

Hold on pardners, I will tell you right now that that is NOT TRUE. I've worked on stuff that's had its ESRB rating up to six months before release.

 

[Joe]

people actually thought that tattoo was real?

 

[op_ivy]

the game wont be out before nov 9th.

i HIGHLY doubt there wil be any sort of demo.

speculation on the story aspects are fun, but i think this stuff is just setting you all up for dissapointment....

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Genius? At this point, it's a cliche:

http://www.marketleap.com/report/ml_report_05.htm

Ummm...I never said it was a new method of promoting interest in the title, but really, considering how poor, in general, marketing is for video games, I'll stick by my opinion and statement, thank you.

 

[----]

supposedly there was a commercial on MTV that aired for halo 2. at the end it said "sooner than you think" can anyone confirm this? i hate MTV and i refuse to watch it. here are some fun facts too taken from TXB...

On the ninth of November, the most anticipated game in video game history will be released... or so they say. With the recent internet release of the Halo 2 Cinematic trailer, Bungie and Microsoft are trying to tell us something... http://www.ilovebees.com. Nobody knows for sure what this website means, but it obviously has to do with Halo 2. All that I can say is that Bungie is genius for doing this.

This is what comes to mind when I think about this website:

(Theory info)

In 3 days, network throttling will erode. Halo 2 is currently beta testing. In 3 days they will stop.

In 17 days this medium will metastasize. Halo 2 goes gold and is mass produced.

COUNTDOWN TO WIDE AWAKE AND PHYSICAL:
30:09:23:47:042 Halo 2 is released.

Read below to find out why.
Aug 24, 1995 Microsoft inflicts Windows 95 on an unsuspecting world.
Aug 24, 1456 Printing completed on the Gutenberg Bible.
Aug 24, 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupts for the first time, destroying Pompei.
Aug 24, 2004 Halo 2 is released

Nobody expected any of those events. All of which took place on August 24th of some year.


The game already has an ESRB rating. The ESRB only grades final copies. That means that the game is finished. Now to be completely honest, I did not buy into any of this stuff until I realized that Halo 2 already had an ESRB rating.

It's scary how much sense that interpretation makes, unfortunately, or fortunately I don't think it's going to be right.

To me that interpretation makes more sense than the Aug. 24th demo release makes sense. I just can't see them rushing the release, surprising retailers, and not building up the proper advertising and marketing. This silly internet alternate reality game (ARG) marketing that they used for A.I. and for Perfect Dark, can't in anyway substitute for television, magazine, and point of purchase advertising. Not to mention there'd be no reviews done in time for the game's release.

The point of www.ilovebees.com is to create buzz and interest around the mystery of the game. The only people who are attracted to this though are people who love to play all of these ARG and people who are already extremely interested in Halo 2. It will grab some new people because there are already people receiving packages in the mail with honey and people who are calling the webmasters phone number and sending and receiving email responses from her. It's interesting, it's fun, but a surprise early Halo 2 release would not be good for sales. Everyone has the Nov. 9th date engrained in their memory so I say spend the extra 2 and a half months to polish the game and make sure it is absolutely perfect anyway.

 

[Mike Works]

BeOnEdge is now suffering a mental breakdown.

BeOnEdge suffering a mental breakdown is the equivolent to a tricycle's engine stalling.

 

[SA-X]

lmfao

 

[Sho Nuff]

Did anyone else find this on ilovebees?:

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Getting muddled here. Sick, obviously.

Broken inside. Not thinking straight.

Got to go back to first principles.

Survive evade reveal escape.

Survive-well, I'm not dead yet.
Evade-don't want to evade. I want to be FOUND.

...unless...

...of course, if I am behind enemy lines, then constantly shouting for help wouldn't be the smartest play in the world, would it?

got to run silent. got to run deep.

hide and go seek"

 

[ChrisReid]

Man, one guy throws out the word "demo" and a couple dozen people suddenly latch onto it. Demos take time to produce. A lot of demos don't get done until after a game has gone gold (and arrive about the same time as the actual product, or later). I really don't see Bungie wasting their time. People are going to buy this, demo or not. They're better off polishing the actual game.

 

[BeOnEdge]

burnout 3s demo is already out in europe and the game hasnt gone gold yet or just did recently.

 

[element]

Hold on pardners, I will tell you right now that that is NOT TRUE. I've worked on stuff that's had its ESRB rating up to six months before release.

yeah same here. as long as changes aren't made to the most offensive material, you can submit fo the ESRB months before release. Also if you have no plans on fighting the ESRB rating and follow the rules within the rating you are aiming for and provide footage and documentation on your 'material under question', you will just get the rating you want.
Halo 2 is going to be an Mature rated title, Bungie sends ESRB footage of what makes it mature says they aren't going to add anything to make it AO, which would be pretty damn radical if they did (nudity? isn't going to happen), Halo 2 approved for Mature rating months before release.
happens a lot.

 

[element]

burnout 3s demo is already out in europe and the game hasnt gone gold yet or just did recently.

probably the demo from E3. Many companies are packaging the demos from E3. MS has been doing it with their E3 demos for two years now.

 

[BeOnEdge]

so what you are saying is that the e3 demo from this year will be released on august 24th then. OKTHNXBYE!!!!

 

[Chittagong]

yeah same here. as long as changes aren't made to the most offensive material, you can submit fo the ESRB months before release. Also if you have no plans on fighting the ESRB rating and follow the rules within the rating you are aiming for and provide footage and documentation on your 'material under question', you will just get the rating you want.
Halo 2 is going to be an Mature rated title, Bungie sends ESRB footage of what makes it mature says they aren't going to add anything to make it AO, which would be pretty damn radical if they did (nudity? isn't going to happen), Halo 2 approved for Mature rating months before release.
happens a lot.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of typing that up. Exactly so.

By the way, the color scheme on the ilovebees site is pretty cool, green, orange and black. Subtle.

 

[IgeL]

I guess OXM US/UK/AUS could distribute it but then it wouldn't have such big an impact... and the mags probably come out a week or two earlier than 24th.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is that why would they announce a two-day delay for UK (Nov 11), if they really didn't plan to release it in November? I don't see any reason to announce that if you are gonna release it earlier anyway.

I seriously doubt both - no demo, no game. Probably something boring.

 

[----]

If anyone is interested on some background on Alternate Reality Games...

http://www.unfiction.com/history/beast.html

 

[BeOnEdge]

I seriously doubt both - no demo, no game. Probably something boring.

the timer at ilovebees.com is counting down to aug 24th. i doubt it'll be boring.

 

[B'z-chan]

you all will get stung so watch out the bee is coming for ya Aug. 24th. Wow marketing i cant even believe.

 

[element]

word at E3 was the Halo 2 media storm will be on Spiderman 2 (the movie) levels.

 

[BeOnEdge]

word at e3 was that you'd ignore my e3 demo release to the public on aug 24th comment.

 

[john tv]

The game is NOT done. They JUST started an internal beta test for the online mode... how could the game be final already?

 

[BeOnEdge]

they've been testing the online mode for months now. what are you talking about?

 

[john tv]

they've been testing the online mode for months now. what are you talking about?

Sorry, I'm not talking about the first beta test (obviously). I just meant that the latest beta rev is still in testing, which means the game obviously isn't finished yet.

 

[BeOnEdge]

that still doesnt rule out the demo from e3 being released. for 1, just as you mentioned, its been tested AND tested on LIVE, 2, it was finished enough to be completely playable by MANY at e3.

 

[mj1108]

Even if they are still beta testing the online portion of it, that doesn't mean they can't release a small demo of the single player portion of the game.

 

[BeOnEdge]

it wont be a demo of the single player game. i can guarantee you that. they are beta testing the other levels. the testing they were doing months ago was on the levels that were playable at e3 and it was a HUGE test. supposedly 10,000+ MS employees or something like that. if a demo is released it will be the zanzibar level and it will be on LIVE. MAYBE a multiplayer demo for those without LIVE availible with a paid preorder or something but they havent been reveling ANYTHING about the single player game and i doubt they will let anything out in a single player demo.

 

[IgeL]

While I still believe nothing cool will happen on that day, I might add that if they're planning to surprise us all, they could easily fabricate the weekly reports. Maybe they have a masterplan.

 

[Seth C]

Just thought you guys would like to know that there is text embedded in the distorted images. I think each image has a few bits that combine to tell a story.

 

[Fowler]

I'd be more inclined to believe this if not for the huge mess that was the OMG OMG OMG HALO 1 PLATINUM EDITION WITH LIVE PLAY OMG OMG OMG LOOK AT THE SKU THAT'S THE ONLY THING IT COULD POSSIBLY BE OMG OMG OMG fiasco of last year.

 

[Solid]

Halo 2 Prologue!

 

[Grubdog]

word at E3 was the Halo 2 media storm will be on Spiderman 2 (the movie) levels.

but.... WHY?

 

[----]

The story that unfolded across thirty sites was written by Sunburst and World Fantasy award-winning, Canadian author, Sean Stewart, engineered by Jordan Weisman and masterminded by Elan Lee, both of Microsoft.

http://www.seanstewart.org/beast/intro/

The A.I. Web Game

On January 2-4, 2001, a small and very secret team met in the offices of Microsoft's Game Group to plan and design a massive, web-based scavenger-hunt/soap opera. For years Jordan Weisman had been thinking about doing a game that would be sort of like the Beatles Paul-Is-Dead mystery--an elaborate web of clues and possible conspiracies to be investigated by a huge group of fans.

The internet supplied the medium--a place where you could deliver a ton of content, and be assured that players would talk about it with one another. As for the message, the games group had been given the challenge of creating a virtual world to stand behind the new Spielberg movie, A.I.. Spielberg and his producer, Kathy Kennedy, felt that A.I.'s themes made it only natural that the movie's life should expand not in sequels, but on computer.

They started to do this with the Unseen, but that never went anywhere.

1. The narrative would be broken into fragments, which the players would be required to reassemble. That is, the players, like the advanced robots at the end of the movie, would be doing something essentially archaeological, combing through the welter of life in the 22nd century, to piece a story together out of fragments.

2. The game would--of necessity--be fundamentally cooperative and collective, because of the nature of the internet. His belief, which we all shared, was that if we put a clue in a Turkish newspaper at dawn, it would be under discussion in a high school kids basement in Iowa by dinner time.

3. The game would be cooler if nobody knew who was doing it, or why. Therefore, secrecy was very tight. Almost nobody at Microsoft would know what the hell we were doing. Jordan had brought in old pal Pete Fenlon to subcontract writers, artists, and web designers, for the sake of speed and staying under MS's own internal radar.

4. The game would be cooler if it came at you, through as many different conduits as possible. Websites. E-mails. Phone calls. Newspaper clippings. Faxes. SMS messaging. TV spots. Smoke signals. Whalesong.

Sounds like they broke rule #3. The Turkish example Sean gives makes me think he is behind writing this as well because Effendi means "Master" or "Chief" in Turkish. ilovebees belongs to Margarett Effendi.

 

[BeOnEdge]

but.... WHY?

the same reason casuals made the gt series what it is.

 

[Seth C]

What I've found so far:

Margaret.jpg

was to return
her Queen to splendor.


Dana.jpg

The Queen was gone,
and in her place lay only
an empty crown. By great enchantment
s she had been mazed

in mirrors, and lay upon a lodestone floor amongst
only her reflections. Long and long the Widow stood

Band beholding herself, was within them.

Chloe.jpg

stone, this time a sapphire
no bigger than a winged

before the walls of the Inner Keep


danapicnic.jpg

other lands that time when her
sovereign would once more be fit to rule.
A firefly flew out from the Queen's
clock case. Catching it in

her hands, the Widow asked it the time.
"Almost dawn," it said, but the Widow said, "The
day will break and the sun will rise when the


cutebee2.jpg

meanwhile, the pious


figure.jpg

keep to lay low
the Queen that held dominion there


danadress.jpg

it lay many broken blocks from the ruined
castle, scattered


farnsworth-window.jpg

The Widow said, "I am
the servant of your

 

[Ghost]

Two months and a bit before actual release, 1 month before most of its fall competition is out, i doubt its a demo. A demo would only appeal to Xbox owners, MS has already has about 50% of xbox owners gagging for halo 2. It has got to be PR aimed at telling people without Xboxs that they need to get one because Halo 2 is comin', it's already been reported that Halo 2 has a huge marketing campaign planned.

 

[Matt]

The ESRB only grades final copies.

A little late, but that’s certainly not true.

 

[6.8]

Read below to find out why.
Aug 24, 1995 Microsoft inflicts Windows 95 on an unsuspecting world.
Aug 24, 1456 Printing completed on the Gutenberg Bible.
Aug 24, 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupts for the first time, destroying Pompei.
Aug 24, 2004 Halo 2 is released

You forgot the most important one.
Aug 24, 1981 6.8 is born.

 

[Greekboy]

Why is this even a topic? August would have Halo 2 losing some steam before the holidays.

Great point. Just like the original Halo had no legs too huh?

 

[Littleberu]

www.kentpaul.com >>>>>>>>>>>> Ilovebees.com

 

[GhaleonEB]

I don't think Microsoft would take out a two page ad and launch a theatrical trailer advertising a release date if they didn't plan on meeting it. I see no advantage whatsoever to launching the game with anything less than a stampede of promotion and hype.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Maybe it's an early XBOX Live external beta test?

 

[DJ Demon J]

The game already has an ESRB rating. The ESRB only grades final copies. That means that the game is finished. Now to be completely honest, I did not buy into any of this stuff until I realized that Halo 2 already had an ESRB rating.

Wrong. In most cases ESRB grades videotapes of gameplay from games still in production.

 

[Lord Error]

Genius? At this point, it's a cliche:

Yeah, but to their credit, creative part of the AI web game ("the beast") has also been created by a guy working for Microsoft. The first time I've seen/heard anything like that was what they did for Perfect Dark 64, though, and since then, many games, tv shows and movies were marketed with false web sites, someimes including some kind of game that unfolded. AI web game was probably the most involved and complex of them all. I think this whole Ilovebees thing is going to repeat that same concept, and is likely designed by the same guy.

 

[scarybore]

While it could just be a red herring, I found this part of the site rather interesting.

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

The Fable of the Bee

The Queen of a hive of bees on Mount Hymettus rose up to
Olympus to make an offering of honey to almighty Zeus.
Zeus, delighted, swore that he would give her anything she
asked for.

"Wise and powerful is Almighty Zeus!" said the Queen Bee.
"Grant me, I pray you, a poison sting, so that when the humans
come to steal my honey, I may kill them."

Zeus was angry then, for he loved the race of men, but he could not break his promise. "You shall have your poison," he said, his brow like thunder. "But to use it will cost you your life. If you plunge your sting into the flesh of humankind, there it will stay, and you will die from the loss of it."

And the moral of the story is: evil wishes come home to roost.

Can be rather suggestive if you read it from a certain point of view.

 

[speedpop]

Microsoft's version of the MEGATON!!!1

 

[Lord Error]

Microsoft's version of the MEGATON!!!1

Heh, kinda true. To think that Nintendo probably wasn't even aware of the whole thing, much less participated in organizing it. Crazed fans did all the work.

 

[TheGreenGiant]

MS/Bungie marketing is working at a genius-level right now.

whta.. you think casuals would give a shit about some odd ball campaign? How many do you think will go online and try that Ilovebees link. This isn't even on the readily catchy funny UR(RED)E campaign that Sony had. Preaching to the converted isn't really going to get them more sales.

:roll eyes:

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

lol this is funny stuff
"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Ship.
Wreck.

Shipwreck.


Wrecked.
Ship.

Shipwreck.

MY HEAD IS FULL OF SAND"

and

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY

I've been here forever.
Conscious, unconscious. On, off. On, off. On off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off on off

Nobody here.
Nobody calling.
Nobody's going to come"

and

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Tricky. Can't seem to focus. Need to start on the easy ones, like "up". Move on to the compass later.

Up.

Up.

...Damn it.

You'd think "up" wouldn't be too much to ask. It's not like nor-nor-east or something.

I need to find out where I am. Also who, but that might be less important. It's possible the two things are related.

Stars, I need stars. I was always a fine sailor; they said my navigation was celestial.

I think I am a fallen star. I should wish on myself. Please let me go home, please let me go home, please let me go home, please let me go home, please please please please please please please ple"

and

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY
Of course the crew won't come for me if they're all dead. If they're all dead and I alone am left to tell the tale.

I'm crying, and my tears are made of sand."

and

"I'M HERE I'M HERE I'M HERE


I'd fight for them. I'd die for them, any

of them. I would never abandon the crew.

They won't abandon me. They will come.

They will come for me."

and

"MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY

FIELD EXPEDIENT DIRECTION FINDING

"Find a straight stick about a meter long and stand it upright on fairly level upright ground. Mark the tip of the shadow cast by the stick: wait 15 minutes: mark the shadow again. Draw a line from the first mark through the second and some way beyond. Stand with your left foot on the first mark and your right on the end of the line. In the northern hemisphere, you will now be facing north, and can recall the other directions by their relationship to north. In the south, contrariwise."

Hm.

No stick.
No sun."

o.0

 

[Agent Dormer]

Let this die already, please.