Slashdot Mirror
I Love Bees Coming to an End
With the gold status of Halo 2, the ILoveBees performance will soon come to an end. Wired has an article discussing the meme in depth, and going into details about what exactly it is. If you haven't had a chance to experience the phenomenon yet, the article does a good job of laying it out. (Though the performance finale doesn't come until Halo 2's launch day.)
Dude, I hate to tell you this - but 'meme' doesn't mean what you think it means.
People just like to say "meme" I think. Sounds deep.
The word 'meme' comes from some outdated bogus theory that the same ideas that drive genetic traits also drive ideas. While people would agree that there is superficial similarities, the ideas of memetics have largely been discredited for decades... only to have the word 'meme' resurrected by a bunch of "postmodern" pretentious weenies that seem to think that the word meme is hip.
Yeah, that really explains it.
Rather than making people jump through a bunch of stupid hoops to hear an mp3 clip, why not just put the audio drama thingy online in one single downloadable file and let us listen to it? This is just fucking dumb and people who get into it are idiots for falling for geurilla marketing bullshit.
Now i know the ignorance level is at an all time high here at slashdot these days, but every single comment i just read full of it.
"i went to that dumb website when it started, and its dumb. Its still dumb now. This advertisement is Dumb. Sorry i missed out on all the DUMB"
While yes, it does amount to marketing, its way more than an advertisement. The sheer level of involvement in the people who produce an alternate reality game is enough to peak your interest. Try going to http://www.argn.com or http://www.unfiction.com and learning about what I Love Bees actually is and then bewilder us with your obsessive commentary.
I don't see why everyone is so up-in-arms about this thing. It was an alternative-reality advertising campaign for Halo 2. If you didn't get anything out of it, it probably wasn't for you. If you're a rampant conspiracy theorist like me, then you probably found it interesting. If you got into the story, answered some payphones, etc, then it was definitely meant for you.
;)
If you followed it every instant of every day, forfeiting sleep, food, and work time for the purpose of tracking it, then it probably means you need to get a significant other.
I'm not the one investing a significant portion of my precious life into AN ADVERTISEMENT and saying "oh, but the characters in the advertisement seem so real!".
This is like getting involved in the old Maxwell House serial commercials where that couple met and fell in lover over coffee over a number of years of commercials - and actually being attatched to them and shit. It's sad and pathetic and I'm really afraid of what is going to happen with MTV and other groups get ahold of this idea. We're going to have twelve year olds spending all of their school time day dreaming and playing on their cell phones, texting each other to try and figure out some Pepsi and Snickers candy bar alternative reality game.
Just don't buy the book and wait for the movie adaptation if that's your cup of tea.
A lot more people probably checked out the story seeing they might get involved in its unfolding.
--
I for one welcome our new alternate-reality "majestic"-type puzzle making overlords.
Then again, I've played Myst IV.
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
For those of you who don't understand this kind of marketing:
Two kinds of people will talk about it. First kind being those who "played" the game, with the second kind being everyone else going "wtf". In all cases, they will mention the game it advertises. Case in point, Slashdot just advertised Halo 2 for free, while pretending to be talking about something most people don't care about called "ILoveBees".
Best kind of advertising gets people talking about the product. It's easy to go from a conversation about "it's just a (dumb) market campaign" to "Halo 2, that's coming out?!". Same thing with the subservient chicken website.
Move on, nothing to see here.
Burn Hollywood Burn
You're telling someone that on slashdot...think about it...