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[LOCKED] [META] Urban Hunt vs. I Love Bees - Player Count
Moderators: Giskard, imbri, ndemeter
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GloryFish
Boot


Joined: 20 Aug 2004
Posts: 44

 		[META] Urban Hunt vs. I Love Bees - Player Count
I started playing the Haunted Apiary two days before phase 1 completed. Since then I've become increasingly involved in the storyline and I'm now actively trying to help solve puzzles. It's incredible. This is my first ARG but it definitely won't be my last.

There is one thing that bothers me. The Apiary has become increasingly popular over the last week or so. When we hit our crucial date of August 24th the interest in the ARG exploded. Our wiki went down, the #beekeepers channel is flooded 24/7, and the forums are nearly incomprehensable. I would guess that 70% of the total ARG traffic is trout realted info. Most people are being very patient with the newcomers, however it has become exceedingly difficult to have any meaningful exchange of speculation.

I used to enjoy cruising the wiki and chatting about my latest idea on irc. Now I cringe at the thought of wading through pages and pages of forum posts to find the one bit of info I haven't seen before. I know I'm not the only one feeling frustrated.

This brings me to my current point. I am very jealous of the Hunters! As a diversion in what I laughingly call a "dry" period in the Apiary I wandered into the Urban Hunt forum. I read the guide (better than ours by the way) and spent a few minutes in the forum. What I noticed right away was a neat easy-on-the-eyes list of puzzles and topic. The posts were on-topic and relevant. It looked like heaven compared to the digital sludge I had been wading through for the past eleven hours or so.

As much as I look forward to the culmination of the ilovebees.com game, I look forward to the next ARG I participate in. Hopefully it won't be flooded by a mass of Halo fanatics who are more interested in a nonexistant demo disc than they are in solving what has, so far, been a compelling story.

So, Hunters, know that at least one beekeeper has seen your good work and regrets missing the trailhead. Keep working, happy gaming!

-Jay

edit: minor sp
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:33 am
Last edited by GloryFish on Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:47 am; edited 1 time in total
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konamouse
Official uF Dietitian


Joined: 02 Dec 2002
Posts: 8010
Location: My own alternate reality

 		<blush> I like my threads organized Smile

One of the big differences between these two games is probably the type of game: ILB is more like a publicity stunt. Urban Hunt appears to be an ARG in the original sense of the word. And so far, we have not found any official "commercial" tie-in (except for the self-published Dead Poems book).

We had a similar experience with Metacortex (never any official ties to Matrix). It attracted a large host of Matrix-fanatics who swore it was an officially sanctioned ARG from the movie producers. Some of them ended up enjoying the ARG for the sake of the puzzles and community spirit of UF. The rest just left.

I suspect a similar result from ILB. Just like yourself.

Welcome to the Hunters!
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:42 am
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Wishi-san
Unfettered


Joined: 20 Oct 2003
Posts: 602
Location: UK. Southwards.

 		Come in and play, UH is lovely Wink

And don't forget to get your copy of Dead Poems ordered! heh
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 8:24 am
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StercusMaximus
Decorated

Joined: 19 Nov 2002
Posts: 204
Location: MA

 		Re: [META] Urban Hunt vs. I Love Bees - Player Count
GloryFish wrote:

So, Hunters, know that at least one beekeeper has seen your good work and regrets missing the trailhead.


I've seen this sentiment a few times, and 9 times out of 10, it's never too late to join an active ARG. It might take a few hours of browsing through our posts or reading our guide, but I am positive that a new player would be able to catch up pretty quickly.

And the Hunters are quite lovely people, and I am sure that anyone there would be more than happy to bring you up to speed.

SM
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:09 pm
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RobMagus
Unfettered


Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 469
Location: Vancouver, BC

 		*raises his hand and waves hello*

I write the Guide so that new players can get up to speed. If you have any questions, just ask and we'll help you out.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:40 pm
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Pixiestix
Resident Angry Midget


Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 2465
Location: Tomorrow's Talk Studios

 		All About UH!!!
I too started as a lurker beekeeper. I don't like HALO, and certainly after watching people play for hours upon hours, never realized it HAD a story line… But the author web comic I read is an obsessed beekeeper, so I finally started to check it out. I couldn't get caught up, no one could agree on almost anything, and aside from waiting for phone calls - how boring - there was nothing to do. I used to LARP, and I've tabletop-lean-larped. I enjoy losing myself in the game. I told my boyfriend I needed to find something to obsess over that was worth the obsession {unlike ILB} so I looked around the forums a bit to see what was currently going on. I stumbled upon UH first, and never left. It took less than two days to get fully caught up, and realizing that even though it seems months have gone by since this game started, I was not far behind, the story, it seems, is almost just beginning. Rob's guide helped enormously {suggestion to anyone just starting, treat the guide as you would a walk-thru, do everything in order as it comes up, then read the forums to see what if anything isn't on the guide.}

That makes two ex-beekeepers converting, right?

PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 3:57 am
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Tien_Le
Charter Member


Joined: 22 Sep 2002
Posts: 878
Location: corner of no and where

 		welcome
Welcome pixiestix and gloryfish. So glad you're getting the chance to see how ARG's are played. UH is a shining example of a well-constructed, well-played trip through an alternate reality.

Yes, While Ilovebees has potential to be a fun game, the forum and chat are completely nuts. Even still, it is possible to avoid all that and still play the game.

I rely solely on the "Announce" group and the wiki, which has recently been cleaned up. Try going here to get your ilb updates: http://qube.netninja.com/beewiki/ or have the announcements delivered to your email: http://www.argn.com/archive/ilovebees_moderated_announcement_list.html

Honestly, UrbanHunt isn't so far into its story that you can't easily read the guide/wiki and be completely up to speed.

Also, if you want to be informed about any new games, go here to sign up for those announcements: http://www.argn.com/index.html

[edit]Updated wiki link. -bill
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:14 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Playing Ilovebees
The number of people playing ilovebees can be overwhelming, but it is a good thing we had a number of people playing so that the axons were all covered. I wouldn't give up on it yet-- the quality of the writing alone makes the story worth following.

Another way to keep up with things is to check the quick reference section of the forum. There is a guide by Rowan, a brief summary by me and Thebruce has compiled all of the text in an easy to read format.

I manage to play this game with very little interaction with the board, but I am glad that people do read, spec, argue and post. One of the best qualities of the ARG community is the diversity of the players and their varied opinions.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:17 pm
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sequoya
Unfettered


Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 548
Location: Land of haggis, kilts, neds and Irn-Bru

 		Re: welcome
Tien_Le wrote:


Honestly, UrbanHunt isn't so far into its story that you can't easily read the guide/wiki and be completely up to speed.



I just want to second (or third, or fourth maybe Smile ) this statement - I really think it wouldn't take long to catch up in UH. The guide is very well written (thanks Rob!) and there's always a manageable amount of people in the chat room available to answer questions from new players if necessary. And I would very much welcome any new players who want to join us hunters. I sometimes get the feeling we miss the odd thing because we simply don't have enough people looking at it and speccing things. More eyes would be very useful.

Join us! Very Happy
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:19 pm
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PsychoticKitten
Boot


Joined: 21 Aug 2004
Posts: 62
Location: In my own reality

 		I was on i love bees until I found out it was just a promotion. I humoured it and kept watching, then decided to find out if there were more of these "args" out there. Delighted I found UH which was much more in depth and NOT a huge ad. XD I prefer it on this side.
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 05, 2004 11:23 pm
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vpisteve
Asshatministrator


Joined: 30 Sep 2002
Posts: 2441
Location: 1987

 		I've been watching this thread for a while, and it's always sort of made me uneasy. I guess it's just that I don't like seeing lines being drawn between players/games the way they are, which is pretty pointless, if you ask me.

There is no us vs. them, unless someone chooses to make so. It doesn't matter if it's Game X vs. Game Z, or Madden vs. ESPN, or X-Box vs. Playstation, or even Purple Forum vs. Plaid Forum. Different people have different preferences, and that's absolutely fine, but discussions about which is 'better' really serve no useful purpose, imho.

I know it's fun to play these things, and when you do, you take on a certain ownership or loyalty to what you're doing, which is great. Critique of something that your involved in is fine, but let's please try to avoid any further discussion along these lines, as it's really only divisive.

I need to add, that I think Urban Hunt is great, and I'm not meaning to diss the hard work of the players and pms. It's all good! Very Happy

I'm gonna lock this thread, only because it really should've been over in the Urban Hunt forum anyway. Plus I want the thread topic to sink away.

No harm, no foul. Now, go have fun, and stop worrying about other people's sandboxes. Wink
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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:15 am
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