Editing Alternate reality game

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An '''alternate reality game''' is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions. ''Halo'' has had three ARGs: [[i love bees]], [[Iris]], and [[Hunt the Signal]].

==I Love Bees==
{{main|I Love Bees}}

During the summer of 2004, the website [http://www.ilovebees.com ilovebees.com] was used as a publicity site for [[Halo 2]], with the site being pointed to by adverts for the game during movie trailers. Ostensibly a beekeeper's personal site, the server appeared to have been taken over by an unstable [[Artificial intelligence|A.I.]] whose thoughts are scattered on the site.

The front page had a counter counting down to July 27, 2004 (when it says "network throttling will erode"), August 10, 2004 (when "this medium will metastasize"), and August 24, 2004 (at 8:06 am, when it will be "wide awake and physical") - many thought something big would happen related to ''[[Halo 2]]'' on these dates, however it was only related to the ILB game. Currently there is a counter counting down to the day the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] will attack [[Earth]], over 500 years in the future.

==Iris==
{{main|Iris}}

''Iris'' was a ''[[Halo 3]]'' viral marketing and public relations campaign. It was designed to give people more information on how the great conflict behind the ''Halo'' franchise all began, as it builds up to the climactic conclusion of the series on September 25, 2007, the release date of ''[[Halo 3]]''.

The campaign ran for several weeks throughout the summer and promised to be a compelling experience to uncover valuable information. Users who helped to unlock key information were awarded with t-shirts and other small prizes. Unfortunately, Microsoft would not say whether there would be any other rewards for participating.

==Section III ARG==
{{Main|Section III ARG}}

The Section III ARG was a campaign that spread out through ''[[Halo 4]]'' and ''[[Halo: Spartan Assault]]''. It was a forum-based campaign that also spread into chat groups.

The campaign lasted for two years, giving fans a look into the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]]'s [[Office of Naval Intelligence#Section Three|Section Three]] and also insight into the experiments they did. Users found glyphs that led to codes being discovered for use on [[Halo Waypoint]] (now only on the [[Xbox 360]]). While the users found codes, an [[AI]] that was originally meant to help them turned against them, giving the puzzles for the ARG.

==Hunt the Signal==
{{main|Hunt the Signal}}  
''Hunt the Signal'' was a competition related to the [[Hunt the Truth]] marketing campaign for ''[[Halo 5: Guardians]]''. During this competition, which was open from May 5 to May 22, 2015, teams of four competed to solve several puzzles and challenges. The winning team would have characters in ''Halo 5: Guardians'' made in their likeness; the first team to complete the competition did so on May 16, 2015.

This competition was promoted on YouTube and in movie theaters during a Ford F-150 advertisement, as well as at the end of episode six of ''Hunt the Truth''. Canonically, the contest served as the efforts of an [[Unidentified AI]] tasked with probing weaknesses in [[Spartan-II]]s and their [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark VI|MJOLNIR Mark VI armor]] by [[Jameson Locke]] as per [[STOLEN GAUNTLET]] protocol during the latter's search for [[John-117]] and [[Blue Team]]. However, cut content that was discovered during the contest suggest that the ARG was originally meant to promote ''[[Halo: Reach]]'', relating to [[Catherine Halsey|Dr. Halsey's]] work on a [[Babd Catha Forerunner vessel|Forerunner artifact]] and [[Cortana]], but had been abandoned and latter re-purposed for ''Halo 5: Guardians''.

[[Category:Game genres]]
[[Category:Alternate reality games| ]]