Ok Look, here is the best Article to Sum everything up.
Letter to XBox and Halo fans
By now, most of you have seen the mess of a page that's over on
www.ilovebees.com . As most of you know, the URL for this page was flashed up for a moment at the end of the Halo 2 trailer. Since then it's been slashdotted, and discussed on dozens of online forums and fan pages which you have probably already seen.
This letter is to explain what you are looking at when you load up
www.ilovebees.com
WTF is this?
www.ilovebees.com is fundamentally an advertisement. It is probably being run by Bungie, and Microsoft is probably involved. I say probably because nobody can be completely sure who is running what here. It's the nature of the beast. One purpose of
www.ilovebees.com is to drum up hype and anticipation for Halo 2.
The other purpose is to provide a very different kind of gaming experience. To some people
www.ilovebees.com appears to be the "Trailhead" for a new ARG, or Alternate Reality Game. These games are like interactive stories and mysteries, or maybe an online version of Myst. A series of fake websites have been created - with fake webmasters; webmasters friends; e-mail accounts; AIM, MSN and Yahoo Messenger accounts and so on. These websites have been filled with puzzles and hidden depths and the aim of the game is to unravel the mysteries surrounding these websites.
Microsoft has a history of dabbling in this. They were part of the first major game of this type, the webgame created for the movie "AI: Artificial Intelligence." That game ran for several months and built up an interesting story that complimented what happened in the movie. Players cracked passwords, talked to characters from the movie, read their blogs and were even able to attend live events and phone up game characters for live chats. The game phoned them and sent them e-mails. The game twisted to react to the actions of its players, and in some cases players inspired storylines that the game masters (or "Puppet Masters"/PM's) incorporated into the plot.
The opening mystery here is "what has happened to Aunt M's site?" This will probably balloon into a much more important mystery that needs to be handled, if the ominous warning on the ilovebees homepage is to be believed. There are some clues on the page already about where these corrupted graphics, strange text and the ominous warning are coming from. For example, you may have noticed that some of the graphics are corrupted. Try saving a corrupted graphic file to your computer's hard drive and open it with notepad. You may be interested to find some readable stuff hidden in there...
In other words, this is the start of a game where there is a mystery and you play detective. One whose plot seems to tie into the Marathon/Halo back-story. (although it is set in present day) If you enjoy puzzles or you really get into the Marathon/Halo back-story (read the novels etc) then you may want to play this. If you only like Halo for the great action and multiplayer and the story doesn't matter to you, you may not find this as enthralling. That's okay.
But if you're up for something as cerebral and involving as an ARG, I recommend you play. If only because this is your only chance. ARG's cannot be repeated, and once it's over all you can do is read about what happened.
What is the connection to Halo2?
The most obvious indication that this has something to do with Marathon/Halo is the end of the trailer. Some people have also found indications that Bungie could have something to do with it (the number of 7's) but that could be purely co-incidental.
Beyond that, we have a few indications that the plot of this game will tie into the Halo world, but not many indications that it will tie into the specific plot of Halo 2. There has been a lot of speculation that the countdown timer is counting down to either the early release of Halo 2 or the release of a multi/single player demo. It's possible but there is no proof for this at all, just speculation.
Most of the connections people have found have been plot oriented - an AI, space navigation, rampancy etc. With the Network Throttling eroded, we have found new ties to the Halo World - specific ship names, character names and organizations have appeared in the ARG that are shared with Halo.
It is possible that the plot of this ARG will directly tie into the plot of Halo 2. But it's also possible that it will have nothing to do with the plot of halo 2, instead being based solely on Halo, the three novels and/or Marathon. Remember, ARGs can last months and this one has only been running for two to three weeks. These are currently only possibilities.
So don't count on getting advance information about the plot of Halo 2 through this game. It's possible but currently, All Signs Point to No. If it follows the path of previous ARGs, this game will have a story which is connected but not directly related to the Halo/Marathon storyline.
We can't be sure of anything this early in the game. This might not even be a proper ARG - it might be a pseudo-ad that runs for two weeks and then ends. Half the fun of ARGs is not having a clue at what you're looking at or where it's going to take you. If uncertainty sounds like fun, you might like this. Smile
Who and what are real, and who and what are fake?
There has been some confusion on this point.
Dana, Aunt M, "the Operator" "The Widow/SPDR"
www.ilovebees.com and
http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ are part of the game.
Comments by people other than Dana on
http://ilovebees.blogspot.com/ are not known to be part of the game. Until more named character appear it should be assumed they are made by players.
Just because you know a person is not real does not mean you should not treat them with respect. Remember you are trying to get information out of these characters. If you keep telling them that they're fake and asking them about Microsoft, Bungie, Halo2 and Keyes they will just start ignoring you. Talk to them like real people, have some imagination and you will find this game easier.
The next line is important.
Xnbomb and SinVraal ARE NOT FAKE. They are real players who have played multiple ARGs in the past. They are real people and they don't know much more about Halo 2 than you do.
Remember: anyone posting to a public message board as Cortana, Keyes etc is more likely a fan of the Halo universe than an ingame character... treat them as you would any other user playing this game. If they are actually CLAIMING to be Cortana or anyone else from the game they are probably a hoax.
Professor James Steele is not an in-game character. He is a character created by a fan in an attempt to persuade Dana not to mess with her site. You should not bother trying to look for clues in his posts as he is a player like you.
Some people have searched the net for Xnbomb and found pages relating to Metacortechs. That's a good start, you have the right idea but it's a dead end. Metacortechs was the name of a previous ARG based on The Matrix, and it has nothing to do with IloveBees. Xnbomb played that one too.
http://thefridgeowl.com/ is a hoax, apparently set up by Something Awful forum goons. Nothing to do with the game, sorry.
www.capitallism.com is also not an in-game site
The various Cafepress shops are all fake and contain no relevant clues. They have all been set up by enterprising Halo or ARG fans.
Things that have been discussed already
There are some topics that have been discussed to death at unforums already. The most notorious ones are...
Numerology (3's and 7's) - Most people are aware that 3's and 7's are the calling card of Bungie. We don't need to hear about any more sightings.
Hidden Text - Please check the Wiki (link below) or search the board before posting any hidden text you have found to the forums or chatrooms.
Cafepress Shops/T-shirts - As noted above, these are fake and not a part of the game.
Time to China - Both the name of the JavaScript function and the counter in the archived, uncorrupted home page.
Hacking hotmail/voicemail - Dana has requested that we do not do this, and repeated attempts have failed. General opinion is that this out of game and illegal.
Anagrams - Being open-minded I won't say that anagrams such as the "INDEX THIS IRONCLAD PREDICTION" are definitely wrong. (just probably) But we have already heard about all of the anagrams known. Please check to see if an anagram has not already been posted. This goes for the Single Player Demo Release too.
Please check to see if the info you are bringing is new or if it has already been posted on the boards. Use the Search or check the Wiki
Recommended links for more information
If you really want to find out more about ILoveBees.com I suggest the following links.
Unfiction forums for this game -
http://caedmon.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?c=15
Unfiction is a website and series of message boards dedicated to this kind of online game. Many of the most serious players will gather here. The UFers are very good at scouring a site for information. So if you've found something new, there's a good chance 40 other people have, so please check before posting.
Above the message boards you will see links to guidelines, a quickstart guide and a general ARG tutorial.
The Quickstart Guide -
http://mirlandano.com/quickstart.html
The Wiki -
http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/
Most of the information players have discovered is in this Wiki. It's a great way to get acquainted with what puzzles have been solved and what the results were. There is also a guide to the Story so Far on here.
The Beelog -
http://bees.netninja.com/wordpress/
A moderated blog which acts as the low-volume, "confirmed-only" way to get into on what has been discovered. If you don't have much time to play but want to keep up with whats happening, this may be a good choice.
IRC Chat rooms on Unfiction - server irc.chat-solutions.org
#ilovebees is a good room for letting newbies getting caught up with whats been happening
#beekeepers is the other room, for puzzle solving and speculating.