unforum

[TridenT]

[CitizenErased]

[BoogiePOP]

I think there is a distinct set of people who are watching this right now.

You have the people who were strictly ILB players. The people who liked the viral ARG about Halo 2 but not necessarily play Halo or even like Halo.

Then there are the casuals (the ones that never played an ARG) who think this is interesting enough to make snide remarks about. These are the ones that never heard of ILB and only plays Halo for the multiplayer.

Finally you got the Halo fans, the ones who have bought all the books, went through each game looking for clues to the forerunners, and over-analyze the game.

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The fact is, at the moment, "Iris" is for the Halo fans. This is about the history of the Forerunners and potentially the Flood. This is not about a bunch of regular(ish) people living in the Halo universe. This is about literally the entire point of the game's story. What are the Forerunners? Who were they? Where did the come from? All I'm saying is if all you know about Halo is ILB, you're going to have a hard time enjoying this.

Yes there is nothing to do but speculate now, but as you said you found ILB after it was over when all the soundbites were unlocked, you weren't there at the beginning. ILB started around June, maybe early July. The actual puzzles and game did not start until the end of August. So what happened between June - August? Two months of speculation and being spoon fed tiny bits of story. Guess what? There were two countdown timers for ILB. So go outside and have fun, it's what you should be doing anyway than losing sleep over a game.

[Lokim]

I played along with ILB back when it was running - I wasn't active in the community, mostly because when the payphones started ringing I was 500 miles from any of them, heh. I'm also a game designer myself, and I have to say that there are a couple of critical differences between ILB and Iris so far:

1. Initially, people were suspicious that there was even a connection between Halo 2 and ILB. Obviously, that sort of thing would be harder (perhaps even impossible) to pull off this time around since most people were expecting them to do another campaign like this. Still, I think the distinction is important.

2. Advertising. I'll have to look back at the old Wiki archives for backup, but I'm positive that ILB never made a single reference to Halo by name for the duration of the game. It quickly became obvious that it was in the Halo universe because of the characters and conflicts, but they never once talk about Halo 2. In contrast, Iris already has portions of itself on halo3.com and, in the most egregious offense, advertisements for Halo 3 right underneath the content!

3. A sense of mystery. ILB never gave us anything that wasn't a puzzle...or wasn't at least a red herring for a puzzle, heh. Again, in contrast, Iris gave us "access" to this database to what end? We have a couple of pictures and text files that appear to be nothing except tidbits unto themselves. There isn't even really a sense that these will be useful later...they're more like window dressing.

Altogether, I think this points to something that's pure "viral marketing" as opposed to an ARG. That doesn't mean it can't still be fun, but I think we might do well to retard our expectations and prepare for the possibility that we aren't going to see the kind of interaction and fun we got from ILB.

[BoonIsha]

[camshaft]

Didn't MS announce in its press release that Frankie of Bnet was behind the writing for Iris? Because when I read that, I pretty much concluded that this would not be the sophistocated, puzzle-based operation that ILB was. Frankie doesn't strike me as the the type that can put together quality puzzles week after week.

[srsizzy]

I'm just going to say this. This game is dealing with far more people than ILB did. This is the final Halo game, and this "ARG" has been mass advertised in the matter of week. Penny Arcade has introduced it. It's up on Xbox websites, there's people out in cities handing out fliers. This has to be a different kind of game. They can't call payphones because then the other 5 million people will be left out of it.

Just think of it like The Lost Experience. They were dealing with A LOT of people, and so they had to make it so A LOT of people could play without feeling left out or like they aren't important. I still felt that way, because there are always core members who end up doing a lot more because they're at home all day and don't have lives, but that's just the way it goes.

Also, there already has been user interaction. AR on the forums, and now these 100 keys. They're rewarding players.

It's going to be way different than ILB, and a lot cornier, because they're giving us interactive flash pages as if what's on the screen is from real life. This AI system must be REALLY smart to subvert space from Microsoft and then invent Flash pages for us to look at, and like it all to a game. I mean, they're clearly not even going for something believable like S7, Lost Experience, or ILB.

It's just a different kind of game, still an ARG, but different.

[BoonIsha]

[Urk]

[Cash]

[BoogiePOP]

A sequel to ILB? This was never stated to be a ILB2, at any point. Thinking that this will be a straight sequel is setting yourself up for disappointment.

[klobbermeister]

from http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=77905

[FauxHammer]

I'll admit the bungie and microsoft logos plastered all over "in game" sites has dampened my enthusiasm for this game a bit. TINAG is all but shattered. Oh well.

However, we still have SOTA, which is very, very ARG-ish. Granted, it hasn't updated since we found it a week ago, but I think it has potential to be a lot of the things people seem to be missing in the game so far. A chance to get out on the streets, interact with characters, and do some sleuthing. For the record, I'd totally host a local chapter of SOTA in southern Arizona... and I've noticed a handful of folks already in my area!

And if the worst is true, oh well, I still get a cool insight into the halo backstory. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who found those text files of the Halo firing extremely interesting.

I'm going to try to resolve not to compare apples to oranges. Or Bees to Irises. I think that no matter what this game turns out to be, I'll enjoy it more if i'm not constantly comparing it to my nostalgic memories of ILB.

[Phyltre]

[Ranger D]