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July 24, 2004
Bungie and Microsoft are messing with us
The good news is that the trailer for Halo 2 currently playing in theatres is now available for download. The better news is that there's a very high-res version available too (1920x1080).
The really strange news is that there is a subliminal message hidden within. The www.xbox.com in the Xbox logo changes to www.ilovebees.com for a fraction of a second. A visit to this site shows some strangeness that is indicitive of a weird promotional/alternate reality game like that done for AI.
A little investigation:
A quick Netcraft query shows the following:
13-JUL-2004
Windows 2000/Apache 1.3.19
16-JUL-2004
Windows Server 2003/Microsoft-IIS/6.0
17-JUL-2004
Windows 2000/Apache 1.3.19
If you look at the meta keywords on ilovebees.com, you'll see "bee hoax, bee game" among other words.
Update 24-7-04:
Both ilovebees.com and ilovebees.net are owned by Margaret's House of Bees. If you dig (domain information groper) ilovebees.net, you get the following:
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.135
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.136
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.140
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.141
ilovebees.net. 69.25.27.170
ilovebees.net. 69.25.27.173
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.133
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.134
Sounds like lil old Margaret knows how to configure a load balanced server environment. (or at least know enough to tell Rackspace she needs one)
Update 25-7-04:
It seems Bungie has a history of guerilla marketing. The whole thing seems to be indicating that the Marathon storyline will be part of Halo2.
Update 25-7-04:
There's now a netninja wiki dedicated to solving the i love bees mystery.
You can buy the t-shirt now too.
An interesting question is, what's to prevent some nefarious folks from hijacking the plotline and planting their own clues and story details? I suppose the same level of investigative work currently underway would uncover such a plot, but it could be interesting.
Weird.
Download the low-res version here.
Download the high-res version here.
There's a forum discussing it now over at unfiction.
Posted by jb at July 24, 2004 12:13 PM
