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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Iris (Halo 3)
[META] Why This Is A Marketing Campaign, Not An ARG
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Alzheimers
Unfettered

Joined: 02 Aug 2004
Posts: 339
camshaft wrote:
Frankie doesn't strike me as the the type that can put together quality puzzles week after week. Very Happy


Hey! I think my track record can speak for itself.

camshaft wrote:
...Frankie of Bnet...


Oh, Nevermind then.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:00 pm
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gott_sei_dank
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Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 191

 		So it is filler, and my wild spec about altering or more likely making sure the future isn't changed so MC can do his business in Halo 3 might be for nothing.

So what, I wasn't expecting ILB2, and I think Bungie didn't want it either. Enjoy it for what it is or don't bother with it, but I can gurantee people will be saying that Halo 3 isn't as good as 2, just like the people who said 2 wasn't as good as 1.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:04 pm
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Cash
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Joined: 15 Jun 2007
Posts: 26
Location: Anchorage, AK
srsizzy wrote:
This has to be it 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.

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


I live in Alaska. During the entire run of ILB, only *one* payphone was located here, in a state thats twice the size of the next largest state. The axion went live on my one day off from work and school, so I took it as an omen and drove 300 miles to where that payphone was located. When I got there, I found a 14 year old who lived up the street camping out in front of the phone. Of course I let him answer the call when it came, but I was still a little disappointed on the drive back. When I got home, I went to the forums and found similar stories to mine, of people making treks at all hours, hoping to help the story progress. Even though I couldn't be a part of the hunt, for the most part anyway, their excitement and determination was contagious, and being able to share that experience by proxy was just one of the components that made ILB such an amazing thing.

Not everyone can answer payphones, not everyone is willing to dive through lines of code in search of hidden text, and that's fine. With all the fan sites that went up shortly after the game began, it was easy to stay caught up. The game itself was fun on multiple levels, instead of trying to be mildly interesting on all levels, such as the Lost experience and Iris. As far as I am concerned, The Lost Experience was a wasted experience. Lost is a universe without continuity thanks to poor gimmicky writing, so frankly I had no expectations at all for any backstory or characters introduced there. The puzzles themselves were neither original nor puzzling, and the characters were just paper cutouts taken from the background of a few flashback scenes. I didn't care about them in the slightest. That's what happens when you try to please everyone: you wind up pleasing no one. What's worse, you wind up disappointing and upsetting the very people who deserve to be pleased the most through their loyalty and devotion: the core fanbase.

I was hurt for Jersey when he found out his mom was cheating on his dad. I rooted for Jan when she kicked the tar out of Thin Kinkle and Monster Anne. I was pissed for Kamal when Sophie blew him off for Aiden. I was mad for Rani when Standish tricked her into revealing herself as an agent for the old man. And in the end, I was happy for Durga when she finally put the pieces of herself back together, and remembered all the people she has been. The clues, the hidden text, the puzzles and the easter eggs were all interesting, but what made ILB worth playing was the joy in uncovering the pocket of universe that contained all these people. Listening as all their seemingly unrelated by deeply involving lives were all brought together in the end by the very events that set up the opening sequence of Halo 2.

Why does Iris upset me? I've waited two years to find out what happened to Durga and Jersey, to Kamal and Sophie. Did Rani make it to her family's bunker? Did Jan join the fight with the other Spartan 1.5's? What happened to the survivors of the initial attack? I didn't wait this long to find out nothing I didn't already know, to put it bluntly, and that is exactly what we've gotten so far with no real promise of anything more. The Ark came to Earth, survived the Halo activation while shielding the Earth as well, or didn't shield it, but was able to bring about a second evolution of mankind. Awesome... I already saw this story on Stargate. They had Ancients too that had a thing for big rings. In the end, it all boils down to frustration caused by knowing I waited on pins and needles for days as that goofy timer ran down, only to be treated to a lame starmap, a youtube mashup video, a biology slide that looks no different from the hundreds I looked at in Bio lab last year, and some text files that revealed nothing new. Fun Fun.

I've basically said all I've got to say on the matter at this point. Things may indeed improve, but I'm not going to hold my breath, and I honestly hope that whomever penned this 'Alternate Reality' had nothing to do with the story of Halo 3. If I'm this disappointed in something that cost nothing other then my time and attention, image the holes I'll be putting in the wall if the same thing happens after putting down 60-80 dollars. MP is nice, but I play Halo for the story and characters, not to get my face humped by a 13 year old with ADD.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:19 pm
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Falagard2
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Joined: 22 Apr 2005
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 		I Love Bees was awesome for players. It was less awesome for Bungie, Microsoft, and Halo because it was so far removed from the Halo game. This is obvious by the fact that some people didn't even know ILB existed as the ARG was running, and some people still don't know about it. ILB was viral marketing, and it was fun, but it wasn't as explosively huge as they wanted it to be. I'm also sure it cost a lot of money to run that ARG.

What I expect happened was that the marketing people wanted this ARG to be more obviously linked to the game, so people know it exists by simply visiting the halo3.com, and so also the story of the ARG relates directly and immediately to the story of Halo.

For quite a while the link between ILB and Halo wasn't even established.

I do agree, however, that the 3d flash animation of the Forerunner robot was pretty cheesy and poorly done, and that generally this ARG has been run badly. I personally don't care if Iris is not ILB, but I don't necessarily care if there is a direct link to Halo, if the AI takes over the Bungie website or the Halo website. What I don't want to see is things like the 3d flash animation.

It could have been done much better, for example, as a set of video feeds without the fancy interactive flash animation. If they had a pre-rendered video of the 3d robot giving the same messages to the viewer, it would have been much better.

Is the damned birth date entry really required in this case? If it is, can't it be more subtle - even part of the game somehow? The AI does a background check on you because it only believes people who are over 17 are capable of helping it, or something to that effect?

Are the Bungie and Microsoft logos really required? Isn't it obvious enough - it's not like people are just going to stumble upon a 206.x.x.61 IP address without knowing what it's about.

Actually, I got myself pretty worked up while typing this Smile

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:25 pm
Last edited by Falagard2 on Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:28 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Ranger D
Unfettered

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 522
Location: Nor Cal
Cash wrote:
srsizzy wrote:
This has to be it 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.

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


I live in Alaska. During the entire run of ILB, only *one* payphone was located here, in a state thats twice the size of the next largest state. The axion went live on my one day off from work and school, so I took it as an omen and drove 300 miles to where that payphone was located. When I got there, I found a 14 year old who lived up the street camping out in front of the phone. Of course I let him answer the call when it came, but I was still a little disappointed on the drive back. When I got home, I went to the forums and found similar stories to mine, of people making treks at all hours, hoping to help the story progress. Even though I couldn't be a part of the hunt, for the most part anyway, their excitement and determination was contagious, and being able to share that experience by proxy was just one of the components that made ILB such an amazing thing.

Not everyone can answer payphones, not everyone is willing to dive through lines of code in search of hidden text, and that's fine. With all the fan sites that went up shortly after the game began, it was easy to stay caught up. The game itself was fun on multiple levels, instead of trying to be mildly interesting on all levels, such as the Lost experience and Iris. As far as I am concerned, The Lost Experience was a wasted experience. Lost is a universe without continuity thanks to poor gimmicky writing, so frankly I had no expectations at all for any backstory or characters introduced there. The puzzles themselves were neither original nor puzzling, and the characters were just paper cutouts taken from the background of a few flashback scenes. I didn't care about them in the slightest. That's what happens when you try to please everyone: you wind up pleasing no one. What's worse, you wind up disappointing and upsetting the very people who deserve to be pleased the most through their loyalty and devotion: the core fanbase.

I was hurt for Jersey when he found out his mom was cheating on his dad. I rooted for Jan when she kicked the tar out of Thin Kinkle and Monster Anne. I was pissed for Kamal when Sophie blew him off for Aiden. I was mad for Rani when Standish tricked her into revealing herself as an agent for the old man. And in the end, I was happy for Durga when she finally put the pieces of herself back together, and remembered all the people she has been. The clues, the hidden text, the puzzles and the easter eggs were all interesting, but what made ILB worth playing was the joy in uncovering the pocket of universe that contained all these people. Listening as all their seemingly unrelated by deeply involving lives were all brought together in the end by the very events that set up the opening sequence of Halo 2.

Why does Iris upset me? I've waited two years to find out what happened to Durga and Jersey, to Kamal and Sophie. Did Rani make it to her family's bunker? Did Jan join the fight with the other Spartan 1.5's? What happened to the survivors of the initial attack? I didn't wait this long to find out nothing I didn't already know, to put it bluntly, and that is exactly what we've gotten so far with no real promise of anything more. The Ark came to Earth, survived the Halo activation while shielding the Earth as well, or didn't shield it, but was able to bring about a second evolution of mankind. Awesome... I already saw this story on Stargate. They had Ancients too that had a thing for big rings. In the end, it all boils down to frustration caused by knowing I waited on pins and needles for days as that goofy timer ran down, only to be treated to a lame starmap, a youtube mashup video, a biology slide that looks no different from the hundreds I looked at in Bio lab last year, and some text files that revealed nothing new. Fun Fun.

I've basically said all I've got to say on the matter at this point. Things may indeed improve, but I'm not going to hold my breath, and I honestly hope that whomever penned this 'Alternate Reality' had nothing to do with the story of Halo 3. If I'm this disappointed in something that cost nothing other then my time and attention, image the holes I'll be putting in the wall if the same thing happens after putting down 60-80 dollars. MP is nice, but I play Halo for the story and characters, not to get my face humped by a 13 year old with ADD.


I couldn't have put it any better, Cash.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:27 pm
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Cash
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Joined: 15 Jun 2007
Posts: 26
Location: Anchorage, AK
gott_sei_dank wrote:
So it is filler, and my wild spec about altering or more likely making sure the future isn't changed so MC can do his business in Halo 3 might be for nothing.

So what, I wasn't expecting ILB2, and I think Bungie didn't want it either. Enjoy it for what it is or don't bother with it, but I can gurantee people will be saying that Halo 3 isn't as good as 2, just like the people who said 2 wasn't as good as 1.


The only difference is the amount of people saying it, and also the only thing that matters.

I remember seeing one or two threads of people not impressed with the game while ILB was running. So far today I have seen at least three on every forum I've visited so far.

If they didn't call it an ARG, maybe I wouldn't feel disappointed. You don't tell someone you're treating them to a steak dinner, and then pull into the McDonalds drive thru. Yeah, both have beef, but they are hardly the same thing.

Both Iris and ILB are ad campaigns, but only one is an ARG. The other is a spinning flash game with T-shirts, protest signs, and newspaper ads.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:28 pm
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
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 		It is what it is.



Maaaaaan. Brownie
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:31 pm
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Falagard2
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Joined: 22 Apr 2005
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Quote:

I've waited two years to find out what happened to Durga and Jersey, to Kamal and Sophie.


Nice post Cash, but I'm surprised you expected that you'd hear more about those characters. When that ARG was over, I realized that I'd heard the last of them, and came to terms with it back then. I hoped I would get to hear more about them in the future, but I never expected it.

Personally, I believe ILB had a better story than anything else we've seen from the Halo universe, including the games and the books.

I actually have a small piece of me that hopes the Halo interactive games that Peter Jackson / Weta Interactive are working on will have at least a cameo from some of the ILB characters. That would be the ultimate fan service Smile

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:32 pm
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Jordan117
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
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Location: Alabama, USA

 		The only reason I want this to even approach the level of ILB, is because I got *so close* to getting involved with it. Y'see, I've been to unfiction before. Back in 2004 the movie The Manchurian Candidate was released -- it was this subtle, creepy, conspiracy-type story involving this shadowy multinational corporation. Turns out the corporation had a website. A website with a password-protected "private extranet" and many mysterious links.

So I followed along in the forums as people tried to unravel it over several days. Turned out to be either a dead-end, or a hopelessly unsolvable mess. Either way, the game died, and I left.

What kills me is that the Manchurian game was announced in this site's rumors section on THE SAME DAY as people started receiving the ILB honey jars. To think that I wasted my time on that dead-end movie crap just as one of the greatest ARGs of all time was beginning... kinda makes one desire a second chance, no? Sad

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:33 pm
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TridenT
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Joined: 29 Aug 2004
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 		Alas, we're left with the age-old conundrum:

Want in one hand, Brownie in the other, and see which one fills up first.

Believe me, I would LOVE an extension of ILB as much as the next Beekeeper (look at the thread where we're all Flood'ing back) but I came to this game 99% assured we would see nothing of the sort. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

Besides, having followed the voice actings of the people who played the ILB characters, I know many of them are currently working other projects right now.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:40 pm
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klobbermeister
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Cash wrote:
MP is nice, but I play Halo for the story and characters, not to get my face humped by a 13 year old with ADD.


Cash, I've quoted you in my sig!!! Wink
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I play Halo for the story and characters, not to get my face humped by a 13 year old with ADD. - Cash

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:46 pm
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Phyltre
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Joined: 17 Jun 2007
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 		I think we need to come to the conclusion that I Love Bees is probably over, and put it behind us. And maybe not necessarily think of this thing as an ARG since I haven't seen Bungie or anybody official use that term yet.

This isn't ILB, won't be ILB, shouldn't be ILB. It's something else that stands on it's own merits, and we're all free to like it or leave it.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:47 pm
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Shadowkiller
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Anton P. Nym wrote:
Just a note in reference to the eventual ILB comparisons; at this same stage in the ILB game folks were bellyaching about the lack of puzzles too. Honestly. So absence of puzzles so far doesn't mean the PMs won't insert them later.

As to interaction, well, remember that on the Halo 3 "insider" site there was a permission field for them to access your cell phone. Shocked No guarantees that you'll be getting phone calls from rampant Monitors, but I'm thinking we're a long ways away from seeing everything that'll be on offer in Iris yet.

-- Steve is content to wait patiently and see what else becomes available to us.


Exaclty. ILB originally wasn't supposed to have the puzzles it ended up having, put the user feedback the PMs got made them start adding some of the more difficult puzzles. As long as the PMs are paying attention and made a flexible game there shouldn't be any problems as things get rolling.

Also, lets not forgot. ILB only had 2 updates a week. 1 to gives us the new puzzles, and then the phone calls went out that unlock the recordings. This game has been updated almost daily. So there seems like there will be a bit more content then ther was in ILBs, so we may not even have gotten to the true game yet. The countdown on the ILB website seemed to last forever while people were trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:49 pm
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mogbert
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 		Another point of view
I fall in the category of the people that like ARG's but I never played much Halo. I totally missed ILB's, but read up on it afterwards. I was looking forward to finding obscure lnks hidden in steg'd movies, mapping glyphs overlaid on maps and punching the resulting coordinates into a web browser to get the next clue. I was pretty excited.

But this isn't even close to an ARG I'm afraid. It does seem to be a viral marketing game, with only a little more interactiveness then the standard countdown found on many web pages before a games release. The SMBB webpage actually seems to be doing more for marketting then this campaign. Stock photos, Adobe paths left in the photos, and the worst... "Use your MicroSoft Live account to help unlock this A-L-I-E-N server! WooOOOooo!"

Maybe after this is all said and done, I'll read up on it, Since I'm not going to Vista any time soon (or getting an X-Box until the ones around me stop dying) I can't play these games.

However, I don't want to rain on peoples parade, and if this gets more interesting later, I'll be back.

In the meantime, "Drink your Ovaltine!"

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:52 pm
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TridenT
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 		"Buy teh Haloz."
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SP wrote:
Which is the enemy of mankind, crunchy peanut butter, or smooth peanut butter?
...
I'm sorry, Iron Chef Mike, the answer is Hippopotamus.
Best. Quote. Ever.
XBL Gamertag: RokaR

PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:52 pm
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