- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
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While the ilovebees.com alternate-reality game probably won't reach its conclusion until August 24, the next update will occur when the "medium will metastasize" on August 10. However, two conclusions about Halo 2's plot can already be drawn. First is the certainty that a UNSC colony called Troy will be attacked by the Covenant before they invade Earth. This is clear from the references to the "millions of lives" in the Lt. Sorenson/Captain Green dialogue.
It is also likely that a new AI will be introduced in Halo 2. Given the parallels between hoax e-mails used to introduce Cortana before Halo and the AI rants on ilovebees.com, it is likely that the "Queen" and the "Widow" will be either two new AIs or an AI with a split personality. Readers of the Halo novel First Strike will also remember how Cortana battled a Covenant AI, which may also be a possibility.
One non-game-related conclusion can also be reached in the wake of the ilovebees.com affair: Viral marketing is effective, especially when applied to an audience starved for information. For the fraction of the cost of a national TV blitz, Bungie and Microsoft have generated a monstrous amount of buzz (no pun intended) among Halo 2 fans. The ilovebees.com site has become a self-perpetuating phenomenon, spawning thousands of discussion threads on hundreds of forums and creating unquantifiable office-cooler banter. For every cynic decrying it as a marketing hoax, there are two Halo 2 and/or ARG fans spending hours trying to uncover the clues hidden inside ilovebees.com. Somewhere, an advertising executive is laughing all the way to the bank.