[AXONS GO HOT] Survive. Evade. Resist. Escape.
Recoil42
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Yes, it's that time of the year again.
I was going to do this a couple days ago, but I thought it would be fitting to wait -- for today, the fourth anniversary of A-day, aka AXONS GO HOT, when telephone booths around the world started ringing, gamers picked up, and were swept up into the world of Melissa, The Pious Flea, and The Sleeping Princess, and soon with them, were introduced to the wise-cracking butt-kicking Janissary James, Jersey Morelli, Kamal, Rani, and Durga.
It was by far the most amazing marketing event I'd ever experienced, inside or out of the gaming industry, took on a life of its own, and eventually involved thousands upon thousands of gamers from communities all over the internet (our own weephun even played a vital role, deciding the outcome during a pivotal part of the story), spawned off dozens of parody sites, and was covered by news media all over the globe.
To this day, I've honestly never experienced any 'game' so emotionally engaging as I Love Bees was.
So join me, even if you've never heard it before -- especially if you've never heard it before -- and be sure to prepare yourself for easily one of the best radio plays ever written in the history of mankind. Get cozy, grab a drink and a snack, dim the lights, and turn up the volume.
Just remember, kiddo: For a quality experience, the girl had to be real.
Original unordered format: http://ilovebees.com/humptydumpty.html
HBO's 'unofficial' reorder: http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/ilb_reordered/
I was going to do this a couple days ago, but I thought it would be fitting to wait -- for today, the fourth anniversary of A-day, aka AXONS GO HOT, when telephone booths around the world started ringing, gamers picked up, and were swept up into the world of Melissa, The Pious Flea, and The Sleeping Princess, and soon with them, were introduced to the wise-cracking butt-kicking Janissary James, Jersey Morelli, Kamal, Rani, and Durga.
It was by far the most amazing marketing event I'd ever experienced, inside or out of the gaming industry, took on a life of its own, and eventually involved thousands upon thousands of gamers from communities all over the internet (our own weephun even played a vital role, deciding the outcome during a pivotal part of the story), spawned off dozens of parody sites, and was covered by news media all over the globe.
To this day, I've honestly never experienced any 'game' so emotionally engaging as I Love Bees was.
So join me, even if you've never heard it before -- especially if you've never heard it before -- and be sure to prepare yourself for easily one of the best radio plays ever written in the history of mankind. Get cozy, grab a drink and a snack, dim the lights, and turn up the volume.
Just remember, kiddo: For a quality experience, the girl had to be real.
Original unordered format: http://ilovebees.com/humptydumpty.html
HBO's 'unofficial' reorder: http://nikon.bungie.org/misc/ilb_reordered/
More reading material, should you be hungry for more, once you're done:
http://ilb.extrasonic.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Bees
http://bees.netninja.com/staticwiki/beewiki/
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/I_Love_Bees
http://ilb.extrasonic.com/index.php/Main_Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Bees
http://bees.netninja.com/staticwiki/beewiki/
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/I_Love_Bees
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also I totally missed the whole ILB thing. I guess it was interesting but I assumed it was just an ARG for halo?
It wasn't just an ARG. Think of it like a book-on-tape for the time between Halo 1 and 2.
There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
As fans did more and more work, little snippets of sound were unlocked, like puzzle pieces to be put together. People didn't understand, at first, but once they were all uncovered and put into order....
We got what turned out to be the real gem of ILB, taking the form of a radio play following four characters on Earth just before the Covenant 'invasion', explaining in part the events and storyline background of the game.
But the magnificent part is/was, it actually stands alone as its own piece of fiction. There are no characters from the game, no pieces of the Halo storyline that you have to know to "get it". It's not just some cheesy piece of corporate-sanctioned fanfic thrown together and tossed at the fans. The script was fantastic, the acting world-class. The characters.. I guarantee you'll start feeling for them not even halfway through, as events start to unfold.
It is, simply, an unbelievably awesome piece of sci-fi/cyberpunk that stands on its own and everyone should hear at least once, maybe more. Give it a listen, you'll see what I mean.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Maybe I'll go take a listen.
Best to listen in order or unordered?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Most people seem to disagree with me on this, but I think I'd go with original/unordered the first time simply because it tells you which character you're following at the time -- the story follows different characters at different times, so it's good to know -- the downside or upshot, depending on how you see it, is the storytelling is a lot more... "jolty" -- sometimes you'll be learning about events that won't make sense for a minute, until you get to the next character, and it reiterates what just happened from a different perspective. You, like me, might like that though.
The reordered version attempts to minimize that by placing the sections of the characters that best explains what just happened first -- it's more chronologically ordered, rather than being separated by character -- so it's a much smoother story.
Personally I think the smoother storytelling is detrimental, because half the fun is the jolty storyline, uncovering what is happening as you listen in the originally ordered version -- whereas the reordered version just lays it out for you. But if you have trouble liking/enjoying complex storylines that jump all over the place (took more than one viewing to 'get' The Matrix?) I'd definitely go with the reordered version.
If you like sci-fi/cyberpunk you will. Halo barely enters the equation, it doesn't have anything to do with Halo other than passing mentions of Smart AIs, the Spartan program, and The Covenant. In other words, it takes place in the same fictional universe. It's definitely independent enough that even if you haven't played a single Halo game, you can enjoy it. Take what you will from that.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Do you like a good story? An audio drama, no less? Then you might like this.
Yeah, this was a pretty damn cool thing. The PA ILB thread even spawned The Bees Knees, PA's nonstop Halo Party Boat. I swear to god, ninety percent of the fun I got out of Halo 2 was purely because of TBK.
So hello to all TBK past and present, but especially those of us that were there at the beginning.
edit: And listen to them in order, unless being confused is awesome to you on some level.
I hated Halo 2 because of this. Halo 2's story was a complete disappointment after ILB. My personal feeling is that ILB is too good to be associated with Halo, but I'm in a super tiny minority, obviously.
I'll listen to it unordered first, as people have been saying.
I maintain all viral marketing should look up to ILB
also because of so many imitators a law was passed that they now have to disclose that an ARG is an advertisement, so you can't even get really immersed with the company logos on the sites
thanks dick
I had books to read
I can't help but get teared up during some of the later sections.
the more you know
EDIT: RTFT
EDIT 2: So this came in perfect timing for me. My flight to PAX leaves tomorrow and I have a load of changes and waiting around to be done. This'll keep me very nicely entertained. I didn't realise there was so much to it.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I honestly forgot how funny some of it is.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
No I totally agree
ILB was great on it's own, but also got me incredibly psyched for Halo 2
The story, the puzzles, the community interaction involving thousands of players and telephone conversations with the actual characters of the game, leading up to a massive gathering at specific spots around the globe and a great sci-fi radio drama
And then Halo 2 came out and it was decent, but I quickly realized no game could ever live up to what the ARG set up, much less a game like Halo 2, and ILB really did become an entity that was much larger than the game it was advertising
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
There were two, I believe, within a half hour of where I lived at the time. I had to go out of town. Yep, that blew.
I expect novel content, or more things to be explained, and then Bungie went and ignored ILB and all of the backstory and characters that've been created just so we could play as the fucking Arbiter.
The only ARG I've played all the way through, and definitely the best.
Knowing what I knew ahead of time, I had a reaction that surprised me.
JERSEY: You gotta do something Durga! Get her out of there!
DURGA: I'm on it.
JERSEY: Call the cops!
DURGA: I can do better than that.
That last line. I knew exactly what it meant. And I started to laugh and get teared up at the same time. The word "better" just seemed so fucked up. Something about the beauty and horror of the protective (maternal?) instinct (both in Durga and Gilly) just struck me.
Some art makes us happy. Some hurts us. There can (I stress can) be value in both.
I don't mind being hurt for the right reasons.
Indeed. My favourite articles of any medium are probably the things that make me hurt.
A very Long Engagement, The Time Traveller's wife...
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Ta muchly.
...Maybe this name I chose years ago was a bad idea. everyone seems to be making a fuss recently. :P
No. It was honestly an outstanding piece of storytelling, and something I was completely gripped by from start to finish.
edit: SO late to this, but my point still stands..
edit: While I'm here though, I want to say a few words for the forgotten side. Everyone talks about the audio-logs, and they are indeed awesome, well-acted and tell a great story. Everyone seems to overlook the other side though, where people were pulling out all the other logs and transcripts from the site, the story about the Princess and the tower, or the little girl that got lost. The entire thing was captivating and so atmospheric. The audio logs are only a part of that.
Wait 'till you get to the part at the end with Jersey and Durga...
(major spoiler, don't read it if you haven't listened to the whole thing, it's a powerful scene and you wouldn't want it ruined, trust me)
He finally turns it off, and.... you just hear silence for a minute, punctuated by the blare of the sirens, and then... "Oh."
I know it's coming, and when it does, I really don't know if I'll be able to stop myself from tearing up. That scene gets me every time.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
I get chills. It's not even a teary moment for me, it's just this horrible, inevitable chill. Love it.
Oh... oh no. There was no week twelve when I downloaded this. I know. I have the audio files backed up on a DVD. There was no week twelve when I made that DVD. There is more to I Love Bees that I haven't heard.
I don't even know if I want to. I liked that the story as I knew it left so much hanging. I'm going to have to wait a little bit to listen to this.
Axen: Use spoilers please.
Hey there, babysitter..
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
Smack them so hard, they run for cover.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412799/fullcredits#cast
Listed in the Halo 2 credits on IMDb.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
http://www.ilovebees.com/MIA.html
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER