Talk:Halo 3 marketing/Iris

Iris is a notable alternate reality game (ARG) and viral marketing campaign for the video game Halo 3 (produced by Bungie Studios). Designed and implemented by digital independent agency AKQA, Iris involved thousands of players around the world and is notable for its widescale 2 month participation by the global Halo community. Detailed recording and analysis of events, messages, and content can be found at the popular ARG sites args.bungie.org, halo.wikibruce.com, Unfiction.com, Hushedcasket.com, and a group on the Bungie.net forums titled "CompoundIntelligence".

Overview
The game began on June 11, 2007, when a Bungie.net forum user named "AdjutantReflex" created a thread using gold text, usually reserved for administrators. AdjutantReflex or AR responded to random users' posts on the thread, using mechanical and cryptic wording to give the appearance of an artificial intelligence. This generated user excitement and culminated in the user's replacement which lead in to the next part of the game.

On Thursday June 14, 2007, ad Bungie.net user crazyBoy3 found a Halo 3 ad in the Circuit City circular. The ad itself contained the same Forerunner glyph that appeared in several other aspects of the game, as well as a link to a previously unknown page containing a web comic on the Halo3.com website. Shortly after this web comic was discovered, numbers were found hidden in the last three panels. When put together in order from first to last panel, the numbers formed the IP address to another website, 206.16.223.65. The website pointed to a counter that was a base-7 countdown due to reach 0 at midnight June 21, 2007. The countdown timer stopped at 001 012 034 053, which were coordinates for Mt. Elgon, a mountain found near Kenya in the African Wilderness, with connection to Halo 3 because part of the game is set in Africa near Mombasa, Kenya.

At 11:00 pm June 20, the frozen countdown website disappeared, replaced by an audio file and a link to a new website. After 100 people logged in and entered some information including a unique login string, "Server 5" on Halo3.com was opened to the public. On July 7, players who had been the first 100 to open "Server 5" started reporting that they were receiving packages from Microsoft. The package contained a Halo 3 T-Shirt, a copy of a S.O.T.A flyer, a printed version of the Halo 3 comic, and a slip of paper with a Xbox Live key redeemable for an Iris glyph gamerpic.

After the first server was released, it was found at args.bungie.org that there were several listings on Google by the name of "Flood Containment Control", the same name displayed on the "Slide_Ref070107.jpg", a Server one download. All the listings had the same phone number listed ((888) 778-5672) and displayed the same glyph common throughout Iris. Over the next few days the recording changed several times, giving different pieces of the same conversation. On July 10, the message on the flood containment control call number was updated. The new recording completed previous recordings. Numbers in the quote were decoded to a transmission log page: 206.16.223.65/9BK2R6, which lead to a new Bounce Path Control page. After the first 100 visitors entered their verification codes, an audio message was presented and the second server became unlocked.

On July 24 the Halo 3 website released a downloadable Iris fankit under the media section. The fankit contained two icons, and a picture. Also available was a bit of HTML code which shows the active status of Halo3.com servers At 3:00 pm July 26, by clicking various things in the media section of the Halo3.com website, people were able to gain access to Server 03 and enter the verification data needed to unlock it. Shortly after the discovery, the server became unlocked for everyone else.

Gameplay
The game is very similar to other ARGs, starting with small clues that then lead to other pieces of information and further clues.

Bungie.net forums
Bungie's official forums were the main staging point for Iris. "Adjutant Reflex" used this medium as its main means of communication with players in the beginning of the ARG. Thousands of ‘players’ all over the globe tuned in to what AR had to say and the game took its first turn when players found out that AR had been ‘terminated' by a second AI.

Society of the Ancients
Through the original IP address linking to the server one countdown, the players found a close website (206.16.223.63) called the "Society of the Ancients". Their website could also be found by following the alternate address listed on their flyer. The "Society of the Ancients" appeared to be self-styled historians and UFO researchers, collectively searching for conclusive evidence of a previously unknown race of technologically superior aliens, whom they believe visited Earth tens if not hundreds of thousands of years ago. These aliens, whom they refer to as "ancients," have been connected to the 'Gods' that were described in the halo3.com web comic, as the same glyph that was found there also appears carved into or hand painted onto a rock in a photo that can be found at the bottom of the evidence page. While the website does not specifically name them, these "ancients" are most likely members of the Forerunner race from Halo lore, because they are known to have used similar symbols for writing. Further, the metal servants described in the halo3.com webcomic have been connected to the Forerunner Sentinels due to a strong resemblance in structure.

The 206.16.223.63 IP address appeared on the cover of the September 2007 issue of Wired Magazine, along with a phone number (888.778.5672) leading to an out of service message for a fictitious telecom company called Ring Central.

Halo3.com
Before the ARG started, Halo3.com had information on things that would be found in the Halo 3 game. On the main page was five locked "Servers". As the game went on clues led to the servers and at the appropriate time one hundred people would enter information and unlock another server. All Servers have followed the precedent of the first server unlocked. They all contain an audio file upon first unlocking. When one hundred people have unlocked the server, the public can gain access to the floating server. In addition, there are picture and text files to download if the user clicks on certain glyphs visible on the rotating machinery. One of the glyphs also always has a film with text and brief flashes of pictures.



Server #1
The first server unlocked contained the four downloadables and a video. "Slide_Ref070107" was a slide from a microscope showing proposed flood cells. "StarImage1" was a photo of multicolored celestial bodies with the symbol relating to the Society of the Ancients and the Cradle of Life comic. "Log5_Transcript" is a text file showing the words displayed in the server's "Video". "Array_Recorder_Data" is a text file which contains a transcript written in Forerunner computer code detailing the firing of the Halo array thousands of years ago to stop the spread of the Flood.

Server #2
The Second Server on Halo3.com was later unlocked.

Aside from images similar to the other servers it had a transcription reading:

"We may have been fools to think that all intelligence follows the rules we've set. The Flood is no idiot parasite.  It has a center, a Mind.  It spoke to us.  It has done this before."

But with the added split-second showings of other text, the full message reads "We may have been fools to think that intelligence follows all the rules we set. The flood is no idiot parasite.  No simple infection to be cured and cauterized.  It has a center, a mind.  And that discovery gave us a way to fight it.  But when the mind realized we had it’s measure.  It spoke to us.  Mockingly, dismissively.  It has done this before, elsewhere"

The text is accompanied by images (presumably) of flood cells under a microscope.

Server #3
The Third Server on Halo3.com was then unlocked. There are four downloadables: 801snpow (which appears to be a picture of a wall and if the colors are inverted shows an equation, which has glyphs carved into it), StarImage3 (which shows a star map with a glyph in the upper left corner), Log3_transcript, and content_overwrite.

It also contains a short video clip which contains the transcript as well as a few tantalizing glimpses of a Forerunner structure.

Server #4
The Fourth Server on Halo3.com contained four downloadables: unknown (a picture of the Boomerang Nebula),StarImage4, Log4_Transcript, and sample1000101 (which contains various strings of letters and numbers which correspond to DNA. The letters consist of the four bases of DNA: C,A,T,G, which stand for Cytosine, Adenine, Thymine, and Guanine respectively. The numbers stand for how many times that particular segment is repeated before the DNA pattern changes).

The video displayed on Server 4 also contained binary code, which scrolled underneath the written text in 3 groups. Members of Bungie.net worked at editing the video to read the binary code, and then decoding it.

5467K
One of the pages that belongs to Halo3.com is www.halo3.com/5467K. The page contains a satellite image of America with "targets" like: GAMESTOP 1961 Cobb Rd Prattville, AL 36066. The targets all appear to be toy or electronics stores which will be stocking Halo 3 on its release.

The Artifact Location
One of the pictures discovered after the opening of Server 4 was found to contain the text, "The Artifact Location." To some, using the words as a URL would load a page with flickering stars, a Forerunner icon, and a text bar, assumed to be a password entry area.

Typing "boomerang" into the textbox reveals 3 cities (New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles), each followed by the number 081607 (possibly the date August 16, 2007). Next to each city was a time, and were as follows: 21:00 (Seattle), 21:00 (Los Angeles) and 23:59 (New York). Also found next ot the cities were assorted grid co-ordinates.

The first (New York) is in Manhattan near Chelsea Park. The second (Seattle) points to somewhere near Harvard Ave, and the third (Los Angeles) points near Westwood blvd.

Server #5
An hour after the page updated, keys were entered and Server 05 was opened. There are four download-ables: Log5_Transcript, MB05032, and two pictures (one looks like a picture of Earth as a whole, cut and half, and the moon cycles, the other is a glyph). If a certain glyph on the floating device is clicked, a small flash video will play, and a few hidden lines flash up on screen. They appear to refer to the Forerunner plan to stop the Flood, as they appear to refer to the dead rising and no-one being left to reclaim it, both the outcomes of a Flood infestation of Earth. The use of the term Reclaim is also significant. Another line speaks of irony and discovery, and of a great adversary claiming all.

Cycle_response: The picture shows the four phases of the moon, as well as a cross-section of the Earth. The picture is almost certainly Earth in its Pangaea state, which was approximately 250 million years ago. If, according to the Halo 3 comic, the Forerunners aren't actually human, then the only logical explanation for this picture is that the Forerunners are 250 million years old, if not more.

End
It was confirmed in August, 2007 on the Halo 3 MSN homepage, that the "Project Iris" was finally over, but that its story would continue on into Halo 3. Iris Ended with the opening of Server 5 on Halo3.com on August 17 2007 2:15 EST.