If you know what ilovebees.com is all about, I’ll just say that I’m most likely going to whatever is happening tomorrow at 42.279270 -083.748764 and photos should appear on my Flickr space shortly after 10:59AM EDT. [via]
If you don’t know what it is, ilovebees.com is a marketing game for Halo 2. It’s not obvious from the site or the blog it links to, but if you watch the Halo 2 trailer http://www.xbox.com changes to http://www.ilovebees.com for a moment.
Microsoft did a similar game for the movie A.I. called the Beast. It’s sort of like a web scavenger hunt, with clues hidden in all sorts of places. For example, they hid text inside an image so that if you opened the image in a text editor you would see it.
Yesterday, a big set of lat/lon pairs showed up on the site, which the community has turned into real world addresses. One of those addresses happens to be 2 blocks from my office.
I don’t know what exactly is going to happen, but if it means a chance at playing Halo 2 I’ll be there. I feel a little dirty, playing into their marketing hype like this, but if you can’t have faith in Microsoft what has the world come to?
[Update 2004-08-23 10:35 PM] I went down to the location after work. While the addresses linked above say that it is at 324 S. Main St, an address I’m not sure even exists, my GPS put me somewhere around 304 or 306 S. Main St, somewhere between Subway and Mezzanine / Le Dog. I can’t be more specific because I got within 40 feet of where it was supposed to be and my GPS only had a 40 foot resolution. Also, it appears that the location may be in the middle of the street.
I’m not sure that I’ll be going after all. Some of the people on the message board are saying that it would break the plot of the game if something physical were to occur, and it’s likely that the people there will simply receive a clue to the ongoing game. Of course because it’s on the internet, other people are saying that anyone at those coordinates will be abducted by aliens and taken to their home planet where the abductees will experience emotions a hundred times greater than what you call love.
Still the interest/distance ratio works out in its favor, so I’ll probably head on over even though I’m not playing the game. Maybe if I’m lucky the message will be “The End Will Come At Sundown” or “Drink More Ovaltine.”
[Update 2004-08-24 9:39 AM] Yeah, I probably won’t go, it’s a phone call that is a puzzle for the game.
3 responses to “Halo 2 something in Ann Arbor”
This is terribly interesting… I wonder how many people will show up?
Is it Bring Your Own Xbox? These internet invitations are so hard to decipher.
It’s a good excuse for me to get off my butt and take a long bike ride… Tuesday is my day off anyways. Hopefully something will happen to make it worth my while.