unforum

[Scumbag]

As I've said quite a few times, your issue is that you're seeing ILB as something other than a Bungie Puzzle.

What does one do in a Bungie Puzzle? I've put it in my sig, but there are (IMO) 4 major steps. Its kinda circular.

Wait for new information.
Receive new information. For the Letters, it was getting a new email. For ILB, its waiting for a countdown to end, or seeing what an Axon will do when it goes hot.
Interpret the information.
Connect the information to previous Bungie games. This is the 'reward' - a richer knowledge of the Bungie games.

In a Bungie puzzle, you wait until you get something new. Then you get it and analyse the shit out of it. Then, you wait until you get more. What more were you expecting?

[Prokaryotic-Cell]

It could just be me. After all, this is the very first ARG I've ever played. (And yes, I did play because I was one of the guys that woke up early in the morning to go to a phone booth in Davis, CA but there was way too much traffic coming off the causeway up in West Sac that I arrived late)
It's very difficult to be patient you know? Someone said earlier that this game may not be for me and they're probably right. Someone said earlier that the story is the prize and that's correct as well.
However I just wish that we were thrown a bone here and there once in a while. Because its true that if we were to fill up the whole 777 bar then it might take us at least a month. And at that rate, what's to keep us from just waiting until the game is released?
I don't want to give up.

[vpisteve]

Geez, Scumbag, get over the "Bungie Puzzle" thing, please! This is clearly an ARG set in the Halo Universe. You'd have to be a blind monkey to think anything else at this point. No boundaries, no rulebook (except for the obvious avoidance of asshattery), we just have to wait and see where it takes us.

As with most good stories, it's not necessarily the destination as much as it's the journey. Anyone who's in it for the prize is missing the point.

That said, a good puzzle should have a good payoff. I think things are just getting started.

[Scumbag]

[Moe The Sleaze]

Reward This

[MrDoug]

?????

[MrDoug]

[blemansk]

What we need is a win button, or I guess in this case

www.ilovebees.com/win.html page

[vpisteve]

[Starman]

Here's how I see it:

Live it now.
Play it later.
Win the game.

THAT is the reward.

EDIT: The last time I did something like this was the summer of '85. This girl I was dating bought a book which had clues in it which pointed to a treasure chest. Nobody found the clue on time, but someone eventually did find it.

Mike

[fireball]

If you think there are no rewards, you should go back and re-read Dana's last blog entry.

The Community is the Reward.

The most beautiful thing about ARGs is meeting a whole lot of extremely intelligent people, and working together to solve a problem. By playing ARGs, I've met some fantastic people, made some great friends, and even had some fantastic get-togethers in RL. Here I am every mroning, talking to people in Austrailia, Britian, Holland....people I would have never been rewarded with if it hadn't been for the game. Making the 90 minute drive down to Macon and meeting some other people with a similar interest...that was fun! exciting! rewarding!

Did I expect anything for it? Nope. I even told the people there that this was all still pre-game...the fun hasn't even begun!

So, if you're looking for your reward....we're it!

[chaotic_mind]

I think the unfolding story is it's own reward. And, for me, the .wav was it's own reward for waiting till august 24.

I must admit, I do wish it went faster. But, then, we might miss something.

Luke P.

[Alzheimers]

I think the dissapointment expressed here can be traced back to the amount of hype we all put on the date "August 24th". There were predictions from everything from Demo disks to Dancing Robots.

And when that day hit, we took to the streets in search of the next big thing in the story. I mean, if this was the day were were told to wait for, something big would happen, right?

Well, depends on your definition of "Big."

Did we flood their poor servers (both of them!) until they bled? Yes.
Did we bring UNF and the Wiki down like a ton of bricks? Yes.
Did we coordinate a massive, country-wide hunt to solve the puzzle? Yes.

And when we did all these things, we were given ... audio files. Clips, glimpses into the further meanings of the situation we're in. But what of these clips? They're out of order, they make no sense?!

So we put these files together, and we put together a clear picture of what these clips meant ... and what?

Where's the cookie? What was the point? Be sure to drink your ovaltine?

Sort of. We were expecting, with the promise of "Countdown to Physical" and "Axons go hot:" something ... more. An answer, a reward, a pat on the head and a wink and something that made us feel like we acomplished something.

Was the WAVs themselves the reward? We interpreted them as more puzzle clues, which lead --- straight back to where we were August 23rd.

And that, as the defining moment of the ARG so far, is why everyone is caught between scratching their heads or twiddling their thumbs. Was this the reward? Was this IT?

As someone who has only been on the periphery of ARGs for a while, participating in this event held an aire of anticipation rivaled by Christmas Eve. While visions of sugar plums and AIs danced in our heads, we were the good little children waiting for the big day to arrive, only to find the wrapping paper still on it's rolls and big boxes filled only with packing peanuts and bubble wrap. Where are the toys? Where's the goodies? And so we search on, obedient to the thought that perhaps our gifts are still hidden somewhere, in a closet or a hidden .HTML document. For some, perhaps the bubble wrap and packing peanuts were enough. Just waiting to open those boxes, irregardless of what lay inside, was present enough for them.

Me? I'll keep searching.

[Danzilla76]

I'm definitely enjoying the game aspect of this. The waiting is annoying, but it's helping me think about these things more deeply than if information came quicker.
I am getting a bit tired of the boards where new people are post-crazy and repeating info over and over. But I keep looking for new info that might help me out and everyone else.
I am willing to admit that I was hopeful that there would be a Halo 2 demo release on the 24th. However, I am smart enough and realistic enough to have known that it wouldn't happen.

I've said before that I've never ARG'd before, but this is teaching me patience in a way that I've never been able to be.

The great thing about this game is that it makes you rethink how you think about things and how they relate to everything else in the game.

BTW, I even sent an email today to SP asking if she can do anything about the Axons that we can't get to go Hot. I'll post a response in Interaction if I get one.

[Lutzie]