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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Questions/Meta
An interesting take on ilovebees...
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Kakashi117
Boot

Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 27

 		An interesting take on ilovebees...
My friend found this article on Manning Selvage and Lee's, a PR firm's, website. It's interesting, and funny at how the author doesn't really understand what she is talking about:



Kerry's Halo


"The Pious Flea is now influencing the Operator's decision making. The Operator is trying to create a new body and to that end it is building…axons…What we know of the Operator's existence before the shipwreck is limited to memories that we have found."


Sometime around mid-August, my 15-year old son, Oliver, and his friend, Cosi, began racing out of the house with their bikes (normal) without first asking for food or money (abnormal). They were off, they'd say, to the National Mall at axon 277 to answer the phone. Or to axon 36 in Georgetown to answer the phone. Sometimes, they'd call us from their cell phones to tell us they were at axon 17 or 955 – waiting to answer the pay phone.

Actually, I made up those axon numbers. But the story's true. The boys raced all over Washington to answer pay phones at specific GPS coordinates to talk to some chick named Melissa who's the Operator who is mechanical except when she's real, and who may or may not give them telephonic clues about the shipwreck or the Pious Flea. Oh, and she'll only talk to you if you know her favorite game is hide-and-seek.

Generally, people think this Alternate Reality Game is a brilliant scheme by Bungie to build hype for its not-yet-released game HALO 2. The global frenzy began when the Xbox theatrical trailer switched from www.xbox.com to www.ilovebees.com. To make a long story less long, the Operator's program was almost destroyed in a shipwreck. But help came through the equivalent of a consultant. The consultant's repairs were slipshod, though, making the Operator's memory and personality worse. Another "consultant" called Pious Flea came in, dispensed with his predecessor, and is programming the Operator to get her groove back. Fast forward – suddenly, the Operator is phoning all over the world trying to, among other things, solve her hardware problems and find her lost crew. I don't know what happened to the Pious Flea.

Memory Loss. Shipwreck. Shoddy repairs. Outside programmers. Hide-and-seek. More programmers. Inconsistency and confusion.

All I could think of was John Kerry.

From the outside, the Kerry campaign is an unfathomable alternate reality. Kerry, the ultimate Operator who's mechanical, except when he's real. Kerry, who plays hide-and-seek with his own history. Kerry's shipwreck of a salute as he reported for duty in Boston. Kerry, in search of a crew to fix his hardware. Kerry, who has so many positions on Iraq that even the Republican National Committee can't keep track. Kerry, in search of the perfect Pious Flea to help him get his groove back.

In the case of www.ilovebees.com, it's a game. But the Presidency is no game. It's serious business. Americans have a right to know the precise GPS coordinates of men who want to serve as Commander in Chief. Americans have a right to understand the person's moral compass to determine if he's solid enough to stand strong in tough times. And our friends have a right to know that when we give our word, we keep it. Nothing illustrates the point better than Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Allawi's remarks before a joint session of Congress and Kerry's reaction from a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio.

Allawi, who lived in exile from Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule and who has survived numerous assassination attempts, said that nothing would embolden the terrorists more than to postpone the Iraqi elections scheduled for January.

"I know that some have speculated, even doubted, whether this [election date] can be met. So let me be absolutely clear – elections will occur in Iraq, on time, in January, because Iraq wants elections on time," Allawi told Congress. "For the skeptics who do not understand the Iraqi people, they do not know how torture and oppression feed our desire for freedom."

Evidently, Kerry is among the "skeptics." Kerry, the Associated Press reports, said that holding elections on schedule in Iraq is "unrealistic." He also said that Allawi had changed his "story" since Sunday (he hadn't) and was sent before Congress to "put the best face" on a Bush policy that has gone wrong.

While Allawi, who has lived under the worst sort of oppression and tyranny, sends his nation's gratitude to America and our allies for liberating Iraq, and while he assures us that American sacrifices to liberate Iraqis will "not be in vain," the Senator from Massachusetts who has lived only under the best sort of freedom, democracy, and wealth, was belittling him. Just as he has belittled our allies whose men and women bleed alongside Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What are John Kerry's moral coordinates when it comes to winning the War on Terror and keeping our commitment to brave, embattled allies? What are his moral coordinates when it comes to supporting those who fight for liberty over despotism? They seem to change with every new Pious Flea brought aboard his campaign plane. And that's simply not good enough.

In today's world – and in Allawi's Iraq – the absence of conviction to principle feeds terror. It signals a willingness to retreat in defeat, an option that Allawi says will never be on the table in Iraq. "We are fighting for freedom and democracy," he said, "yours and ours."

There's no alternate reality about that.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:05 pm
Last edited by Kakashi117 on Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:21 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Phaedra
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Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
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 		Diplomacy
Perhaps, since the ilovebees crowd are people of varying and passionate opinions, and some are likely to be rather upset by this author's simplistic take and cooption of ilovebees for her own political agenda, it would be better to keep political writings off the forum.

We can discuss good and evil, religion, and many other things without creating rifts, but I think that this might divide us too much. I would suggest removing the article.
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:12 pm
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SpghEddy
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Joined: 24 Jul 2004
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 		In general, I've been disappointed with the press's take on I Love Bees. They just don't "get" it, and don't take the time to figure out what it is. Eveybody has to cast it in this stupid capitalist economic thought framework, and now people are finding even new ways to misrepresent it. Come on... it's not a hype machine, it's not an advertisement.... and it's not even the first ARG. I guess I should feel special for being part of an exclusive group that appreciates all that Bungie/whoever-the-PMs-are have been putting into this... but man, it bugs me when people are dismissive about something reall cool, just because they don't know what it is but they need to copy someone else's opinion.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:19 am
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TridenT
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Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 433
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 		I could've sworn I was reading a mother's outlook on her Beekeeper Son's activities, and perhaps was in for a humorous adage about how flinging oneself out the door with no food or money would be unwise... then suddenly I realized I was reading political commentary about something related to John Kerry.

But since I have no interest in politics, and adhere to a strict "Don't care, won't vote" policy, all I have to say is...

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:56 am
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		Personally, I think the ilovebees game is about the reunification of Germany, the state of free trade in the modern world, a scathing indictment of a violent society, a slippery slope argument for the personal use of handguns by citizens, a wry mockumentary detailing the pitfalls of vegan-carnivore marriages, a simple and elegant metaphor about gender issues and privacy law, and a secret cow level theme running underneath, delving into the life and times of Gallagher, the prop comedian.






You heard it here first.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:20 am
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grimcat
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 		krystyn, I believe you're forgetting the allegory of stem cell research as represented by the recurring theme of dancing robots.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:31 am
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Phaedra
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Joined: 21 Sep 2004
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 		Re: An interesting take on ilovebees...
Kakashi117 wrote:
My friend found this article on Manning Selvage and Lee's, a PR firm's, website. It's interesting, and funny at how the author doesn't really understand what she is talking about:

EDIT: I removed the article, like Phaedra suggested...


Thanks, Kakashi. I hope I didn't seem to harsh. It's just that lately I've realized that despite the old adage that you can't discuss religion or politics (or, by extension, ethics) at the dinner table, you can discuss religion or ethics...just not politics.

I was recently at a benefit dinner where a couple walked out (and withdrew their pledge to the charity) because a political conversation got started at the table.

But thank you for the heads-up, and if you find any non-overtly-political articles about ILB, please do post those.

In semi-related news, still laughing about the dancing robots comment. Very Happy
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:16 am
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Dragonrider
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Phaedra wrote:
It's just that lately I've realized that despite the old adage that you can't discuss religion or politics (or, by extension, ethics) at the dinner table, you can discuss religion or ethics...just not politics.


Agreed, most definitely. I won't even talk politics with my best friends, because we all disagree passionately. I don't want to be mad at my friends just because we got into an argument over which idiot is worse, no matter the election/politicians involved.

So thank you, everyone, for attempting to maintain the sanctity of Unfiction and ILB (even though I'm now REALLY interested in finding that article).
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:20 am
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Centipede
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Joined: 17 Sep 2004
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 		Now I'm curios about the article. Any chance of someone pm'ing a link to me?

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:24 am
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vpisteve
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Joined: 30 Sep 2002
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 		Well gee, I guess we'll never know. I would've liked to have read the article, but I guess we're not mature enough around here to actually discuss something.

Confused
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:38 am
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Lurking_Kouzou
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 		I'm also finding myself curious as to what the article says.... could someone PM me with the name of the article as well?

~K

PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:42 am
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vpisteve
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Joined: 30 Sep 2002
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 		Be curious no longer.

Warning: Political opinion ahead. Wink

All I can think of is Dana Donuts.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:03 pm
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aliendial
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 		Thanks, Steve.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:30 pm
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aliendial
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 		Hey - kids on bikes in DC! w00t! I know those kids! Ignore the last 2/3 of the article. Focus on beekeepers in action. Thanks for the post, kakashi!
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:33 pm
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devolver
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 		To paraphrase Comic Book guy:

Quote:
Worst. Segue. Ever.


Now I'm off to get a donut. Hmmm, donuts ...
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:02 pm
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