unforum

[sam]

Has ILB worked?

[Platonix]

I'd say it has fulfilled all three goals. The second, not with me personally--I do not own an XBox and still do not intend to--but I've seen several people on this board saying they now want an XBox, or have gotten an XBox and Halo 1, just because of ILB. In fact, I blame my own continued lack of XBox desire solely on my general disinterest in all FPS games.

[daboking]

yes it has worked. I was not even going to buy halo 2, but thanks to ILB, I pre-ordered the special edition last weekend at best buy

[vector]

yeah....looks like im gettin the game...and an xbox....and xbox live.... DAMM YOU MICROSOFT! ::shakes fists in air::

...stupid company makein good games.... :::grumble::: bastards

[urthstripe]

I don't have an XBox. I can't say I haven't thought about getting an XBox just to get Halo 2, but I can almost guarantee that's not going to happen. At best, I'll get Halo 2 when it comes out for the PC. (Even though I don't even have the first Halo for PC, nor have I played that much of it.)

[l0rd0fm0rgul]

I have been planning to buy Halo 2 all along. I've had it preordered at EB for over a year now, so for me ILB didn't help me decide to get it. But it did increase my interest in Halo 2. I love the books because they show different viewpoints of the Halo universe, and this is just another form of that. It shows us the civilians perspective on the events that take place at the time of Halo and the books. On a side note, a friend of mine is planning on getting an XBox and Halo/Halo 2 just because of ILB. He wants to find out the rest of the story from the game, and he figuers he owes Microsoft/Bungie/whoever was in charge something for all the enjoyment he has gotten out of ILB. Imagine it: almost 11 weeks of entertainment from a simple website about bees!

[Ekim]

You mean has it work as an emotional rollercoaster ride week after week? Has it really hit home when some of the characters in the weekly .wavs died? Has it wrench my heart to hear the Princess' blood curdling scream as Melissa was deleting her code line by line? Yes, yes, I believe it has.

Promotional or not, this has been better than any movie or book I could have ever imagined. I've loved every minute of it. Huge props to the PMs and especially the voice actors.

The plot is all coming together right now, and Melissa is set to leave us on Sunday. Who knows what's going to happen, but if the recent events are any idication of the pure level of entertainment that will come of the conclusion, it will be a hell of a finale. I don't know how many people are going to rush out and buy an Xbox and Halo 2 come November 9th because of this ARG, but I'm very sure that even if they decide not to they had the time of their lives playing along.

Once again, thank you, everybody, who brought us this amazing piece of work.

[Vega]

It worked alright. It has grasped the attention of many...the interest of a little fewer, and the devotion of less still, but it's impact was made and the game did happen. They fulfilled their duty.

[chaotic_mind]

What now?

[weephun]

For me, it worked.

It brought me to this community which I love.
It got me involved to the point of getting complete strangers involved.

As for why? When asked that recently by a reporter, this is what I came up with:

t's true that the cliff-hangers and anticipation of the story do keep
me coming back, but that's true of any good TV series or book. What
makes this more than just any other good work of fiction out there is
that it is interactive fiction. You don't get to hear the story
unless you get out and answer the phones, and beyond that, you also
have the chance every week to do something to influence the story (my
revealing the location of the Sleeping Princess being a prime example)
and if you do a good enough job of that, you also have the chance of
being recognized as a character in the story. Every other work of
fiction I've ever enjoyed, I've enjoyed as /insert real name here/, either
reading a book or watching the screen. This time I got to be Lt.
weephun, a loyal member of the crew of the Apocolypso, and not because
I was just relating to that character as I've always done with Frodo
or Aragorn in my other favorite work of fiction, but because I truly
was the character Lt. weephun.

[Astald]

I can definitely say it worked for me. I was never much of a fan of Halo and never heard of an ARG, but this changed everything. Hearing so much information about the Halo universe prompted me to give it another try, but this time understanding so much more, and getting way more into the game then I was able to previously. Since then I have preordered and paid off Halo 2 in full, and think it was a wise decision. I think the game will be great, but I am much more excited to continue something that we started here.

[thebruce]

here's another question: how many people, after getting into ilovebees, have wanted to, or have, played through Halo 1 to get more story?
technically, that's a good way to see if it worked, because you don't really need to play through Halo 1 to really get involved with the halo universe... all Halo the VG adds to the plot that isn't already there is the experience of the flood, which really has no bearing on the human/covenant war... Halo itself was built by the forerunner, but the flood so far are pretty much self-contained in Halo 1. Obviously I'm pretty sure they make an appearance in Halo 2, but if ilovebees has made you want to play Halo 1, then I think it did its job... cuz it got you connected to the Halo universe enough to want to know everything about it and play their game

[daboking]

i did on certain levels, but mostly, it prompted me to read the books which i otherwise would not have been interested in (not my kind of reading choice, but it certainly helped in playing the game)

[skilletaudio]

I started playing Halo 1 because of this story, after avoiding it like the plague previously.
I am always wary of a game, or even movies and television shows, for example, that every frat boy I know says is Awesome, on basic principle.
But I like it, its good to flex the FPS muscles from time to time.

[sam]

Re: What now?