Comments on: pepsi blue buzzzzzz

pepsi blue buzzzzzz

seanyboy — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 02:46:56 -0800

I love bees (via slashdot)

By: quiet

quiet — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:56:15 -0800

Viral marketing doesn't work - tell everyone you know

By: Jase_B

Jase_B — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 04:03:36 -0800

Get this - I was thinking of what new FPP I could post on Metafilter. Currently I'm listening to Metallica on my headphones. I thought, "how about a front page post which simply says "I love Metallica" with links to Metallica fan pages?" I thought this as I loaded Metafilter, took a sip from my beer, finished my sip then looked down and saw a post nearly identical to the silly FPP I was thinking of - "I love bees".

By: Jase_B

Jase_B — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 04:05:10 -0800

Oh, and by the way, no, I would never have actually made an FPP about Metallica fan pages. I was just enjoying the music! (On second thoughts, I have no idea why I even bothered to tell you all)

By: TungstenChef

TungstenChef — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 04:24:32 -0800

More best of the web?

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 04:36:08 -0800

I've seen a heck of a lot of scorn poured on this over the last few days... people seem far more annoyed by it than they have been by previous viral marketing efforts. Is this just, uh, a meme too far?

By: adrianhon

adrianhon — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:04:53 -0800

reklaw: I have a bit of an interest in this and these sorts of marketing efforts/games - what have these people been saying about this, and where?

By: reklaw

reklaw — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:19:59 -0800

adrianhon: the slashdot post that this FPP was "via" and the links to various discussion boards in the comments there are probably a good place to start...

By: adrianhon

adrianhon — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:41:41 -0800

Oh, I know about the discussion boards and the slashdot post. What I meant was what and where this scorn was. I think most people are aware that the game is 'just' a marketing stunt (in the same way that normal games are 'just' here to generate money); what I am wondering about is whether people dislike the game or its vehicle, and if so, why. For example, in the slashdot thread there are many people implying that since it's a marketing stunt, it's not worthy of any attention. This is not particularly surprising since the vast majority of these viral marketing efforts end up being rubbish. However, the AI game (aka The Beast) by Microsoft and Dreamworks SKG was a marketing stunt aimed to promote the movie, but it also happened to be an incredibly playable, enjoyable and innovative free game. I don't know much about this 'I Love Bees' game yet, and from first glance it doesn't seem to measure up to the AI game, but if people are dismissing it because it's 'just' a marketing stunt, that would be a shame. Here are a couple of slashdot posts in the same vein: one, two.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:51:30 -0800

Okay, I'm getting a link to Halo 2, a broken Wiki page, and someone's weblog. Maybe it's just too early, but could someone humor me and explain this? I don't get it.

By: adrianhon

adrianhon — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:58:34 -0800

XQ: If you watch the new trailer for Halo 2, then at the end of the video when the X-Box logo comes up, you'll notice that the 'www.xbox.com' blurb beneath fuzzes for a second and turns into 'www.ilovebees.com'. If you go there, then you find a very peculiar broken webpage. On that page is a link to a weblog at ilovebees.blogspot.com. There, you can find a bit more about what is supposedly going on, and you can also contact the blogger concerned and ask her questions. The whole thing is a game to promote Halo 2. Exactly what Halo 2 has to do with bees is not entirely clear (some kind of stuff to do with AIs is the current theory). I don't really know whether the game is any good yet - it hasn't been running for very long. People suspect that it is being run by the same folks who did the AI game I mentioned above - if so, that means the game could potentially become very good. So far I am unconvinced.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 08:31:44 -0800

Shame the wiki was broken, because that's where you'll get most of the info. It seems fine now. The address is http://bees.netninja.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page. It's worth going through this to see how far people have come with the puzzle.

By: Voivod

Voivod — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 09:50:11 -0800

Bungie has a history of playing these kinds of PR games. Marathon was the only Mac video game I played, and Halo is the only console game I've ever played start to finish, but I'm still pissed about the Microsoft sale...

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 09:58:31 -0800

I EAT BEES.

By: Steve_at_Linnwood

Steve_at_Linnwood — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 09:59:53 -0800

WHAT ABOUT TAPES?

By: Danelope

Danelope — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 10:11:54 -0800

what I am wondering about is whether people dislike the game or its vehicle, and if so, why. I get the feeling that this "promotion" is going to attract more than its fair share of flak, due primarily to the fact that it is attached to a console game rather than a film. Gamers have a deserved reputation for being antisocial morons with a penchant for inflated ego and irrationality. (SEE ALSO: Penny Arcade Forums) Someone's already been shitting on the Wiki, replacing whole pages with nonsense like "SUCK MY COCK METAFILTER ELITISTS" every 15 minutes. I doubt the Wiki (in its current incarnation) will last much longer, Cloudmaker help us.

By: darukaru

darukaru — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 10:28:52 -0800

It'll all show up on Marathon's Story eventually anyway.

By: mmcg

mmcg — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 10:36:47 -0800

The Unfiction Forums are a great source for information, if the wiki seems to be getting iffy. To see some good examples of 'the scorn,' check out the comments on the latest post at ilovebees.blogspot.com. It's seems like a lot of people are just focused on making sure that everyone else knows they haven't been duped by Microsoft/Bungie/whoever. The conversation also seems to tend towards Halo vs. Metroid Prime flame wars, which is really fantastic in terms of the suspension of disbelief. Most of these people are missing the point of these games. I doubt anyone playing along has any question that all of it is fake, but they still participate because there are nifty puzzles to be solved and an interesting narrative to follow.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 12:36:12 -0800

QUONSAR SHOULD BE FILLED WITH ANGRY BEES.

By: johnny novak

johnny novak — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 13:23:53 -0800

A SPACIOUS Hive well stock'd with Bees, That lived in Luxury and Ease; And yet as fam'd for Laws and Arms, As yielding large and early Swarms; Was counted the great Nursery Of Sciences and Industry. No Bees had better Government, More Fickleness, or less Content. They were not Slaves to Tyranny, Nor ruled by wild Democracy; But Kings, that could not wrong, because Their Power was circumscrib'd by Laws.

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 17:06:37 -0800

Novak, do you know the beloved, well-fam'd beeswacky?

By: johnny novak

johnny novak — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 02:10:12 -0800

no - who s/he?

By: inpHilltr8r

inpHilltr8r — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 15:49:34 -0800

Gamers have a deserved reputation for being antisocial morons with a penchant for inflated ego and irrationality. s/Gamers/Teenagers/ with the caveat that most gamers never really make it past age 15.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 17:46:31 -0800

QUONSAR SHOULD BE FILLED WITH ANGRY BEES. Okay, but I get first whack at the angry-bee filled quonsar pinata.