History ARG / ILoveBees

''I Love Bees'' is an AlternateRealityGame created by 42 Entertainment to promote ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''. The game took place on www.ilovebees.com, and was in-universe an amateur beekeeper's personal website that had been taken over by artificial intelligences from the future. The plot took place in two timelines, one in the present year 2004 and the other [[MeanwhileInTheFuture simultaneously in 2552]].

* FamousFamousFictional: When the SPDR is rebuilding her mind, the Operator quotes Literature/TheBible, IsaacNewton, Rene Descartes, Louis XIV, AlbertEinstein, Crick and Watson, and the Journal of Higher Dimensional Physics published in the year 2079.

* IronicEcho: "Sorry, kiddo. For a quality experience, the girls have to be real."

* MeaningfulEcho: In reference to "[[KissMeImVirtual slut bots]]," Jersey flippantly says, "For a quality experience, the girl's got to be real." Later, upon making Durga confront the reality of being the {{transhuman}} form of a dead little girl, he says, "For a quality experience, the girl had to be real." In Melissa's farewell letter to the players, she says, "It's been the last, best kind of quality experience. You made the girl real."

As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' ExpandedUniverse, Creator/Bungie's initial official stance was that no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe. However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon", demonstrating this by incorporating plot elements into ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were subsequently placed into other works, and the ARG currently exists at least as LooseCanon. (See [[http://www.halopedia.org/I_love_bees#Canon_status here]] for a thorough rundown.)

As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater [[ExpandedUniverse Halo EU]], Bungie's initial official stance was that no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe. However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon", demonstrating this by incorporating plot elements into ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were subsequently placed into other works, and the ARG currently exists at least as LooseCanon. (See [[http://www.halopedia.org/I_love_bees#Canon_status here]] for a thorough rundown.)

->''"I've been thinking a lot about bees."''\\

-- '''Durga'''

The audio drama consists of recordings taken by Durga in 2552, explaining what's going on in the future. Durga is adopted by a boy named Jersey, who realizes he has [[BigBrotherIsWatching “God's own spyware”]] and uses her to spy on the hot girl down the hall, Jan. In doing so, it comes to light that her family is a ''lot'' more interesting than first apparent. Durga goes on to spy on several other people she finds interesting and eventually assembles them into her “crew”. She takes her crew to a military base to deactivate the alien artifact, which will potentially keep the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Halo]] from activating, and the action causes the AI fragments to return to the future and merge back together into Melissa. Everyone lives happily ever... no, wait, then The Covenant invades Earth as ''Halo 2'' begins.

As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater [[ExpandedUniverse Halo EU]], Bungie's initial official stance was that "no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe". However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon", demonstrating this by incorporating plot elements into ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were subsequently placed into other works, and the ARG currently exists at least as LooseCanon.

As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater [[ExpandedUniverse Halo EU]], Bungie's initial official stance was that no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe. However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon" and incorporate plot elements into ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were placed into other works, and the ARG exists at least as LooseCanon.

As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater [[ExpandedUniverse Halo EU]], Bungie's official stance was that no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe. However, after 343 Industries took over, certain technology elements and plot references were snuck into other works, and the ARG exists at least as ''very'' LooseCanon.

* CanonImmigrant: While Bungie originally stated that ''I Love Bees'' took place in an AlternateContinuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, with various elements from it showing up in ''ComicBook/HaloGraphicNovel'', ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', and the 2011 edition of the ''Halo Encyclopedia''.

* EverythingsWorseWithBees: The Operator hates bees and has horrific hallucinations of being covered with them. They stem from her last human memory: a doctor approaching her with a black-striped syringe full of yellow liquid and promising that it would be "just a little sting".

* CanonImmigrant: While Bungie originally stated that ''I Love Bees'' took place in an AlternateContinuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, with various elements from it showing up in ''TheHaloGraphicNovel'', ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', and the 2011 edition of the ''Halo Encyclopedia''.

* CanonImmigrant: While Bungie originally stated that ''I Love Bees'' took place in an AlternateContinuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, with various elements from it showing up in ''TheHaloGraphicNovel'', ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', ''HaloReach'', and the 2011 edition of the ''Halo Encyclopedia''.

* CanonImmigrant: While Bungie originally stated that ''I Love Bees'' took place in an AlternateContinuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, with various elements from it showing up in ''TheHaloGraphicNovel'', ''Halo3ODST'', ''HaloReach'', and the 2011 edition of the ''Halo Encyclopedia''.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Kamal's chatter plays a message from his mother in which she talks about his father's digestive trouble and warns him to watch his diet, in front of Kamal's love interest Sophia and roommate Hiroyuki.

* BreatherEpisode: Jan and her dad going out for ice cream. [[WhamEpisode And then, shortly after, Jan gets kidnapped.]]

* {{Expy}}: Standish is very similar to Colonel Ackerson.

* FeminineWomenCanCook: Sophia. Also Gladys, in contrast to Gilly.

** The corrupt cop attempting to renegotiate with Aiden.
** Jan's 'there's always a bigger dog' speech.
** Kamal telling Hiro to punch the button sequence in reverse to have the opposite effect.

* GirlNextDoor: Jan to Jersey.

* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Kamal, in love with Sophia, girlfriend of Aiden. Despite Kamal initially being worried about Aiden attacking him, it turns out Aiden's a really decent guy, though, and most of the tension comes from Sophia simply being in a relationship with someone already.

* MeaningfulEcho: In reference to "[[KissMeImVirtual slut bots]]", Jersey flippantly says, "For a quality experience, the girl's got to be real." Later, upon making Durga confront the reality of being the {{transhuman}} form of a dead little girl, he says, "For a quality experience, the girl had to be real." In Melissa's farewell letter to the players, she says, "It's been the last, best kind of quality experience. You made the girl real."

** Melissa means "bee" in Greek.

* OvenLogic: A microwave should be just as good right?

* FunWithAcronyms: System Peril Distributive Reflex or SPDR is pronounced "spider".

* FutureSlang: "Ghosting", "refuse", "flash" etc.

* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Jan, implied.
* TheIllegal: Sophia.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Kamal frequently needs a beer, even though he hates Earth beer.

* MeaningfulName: Melissa means "bee" in Greek. Also, Zaman means "time period" in Arabic, which is relevant to a time travel story.

** Two characters spying on him agree with the sentiment. Because the players are supposed to count as people in the same universe, by observing them, we effectively spy on spies of spies of spies.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Janissary James, in a protagonist version.

* TheSlowPath: When the wormhole closes, the SPDR gets left behind in 2004. Being simplistic, it's willing to wait 548 years to return home, though.
* SpyVersusSpy: Herzog and Standish pit Rani against each other in an internal version of this.It results in numerous people ending up dead, including Herzog.
* StalkingIsLove: Jersey with Jan.

* {{Technobabble}}: Done by Kamal.

* ThirdPersonPerson: For some reason, Monster Ann refers to herself in third person.

* ActorAllusion:
** Kamal's line “People think time is a river that flows in one direction, but time is an ocean” references the line "Many people think that time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time and I can tell you: they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm" from the Prince in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Both characters were played by the same actor: Creator/YuriLowenthal.
** In the original version of Rani's introduction, she would have scoffed at Sarah John's baby name choice of Dorothy Jane, an allusion to Rani's actress Olivia Burnette's role on ''Series/TheTorkelsons''.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kamal is voiced by Creator/YuriLowenthal, aka [[Manga/{{Naruto}} Sasuke]].

* LethalChef: Kamal.
* LifeImitatesArt : The chatterboxes are effectively just tablet computers, with the predicted eventual implementation. This was written close to a decade ago.

* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Kamal wonders this about Sophia in reference to Aiden.

** In the original version of Rani's introduction, she would have scoffed at Sarah John's baby name choice of Dorothy Jane, an allusion to Rani's actress Olivia Burnette's role on ''TheTorkelsons''.

''I Love Bees'' is an AlternateRealityGame created by 42 Entertainment to promote ''{{Halo 2}}''. The game took place on www.ilovebees.com, and was in-universe an amateur beekeeper's personal website that had been taken over by artificial intelligences from the future. The plot took place in two timelines, one in the present year 2004 and the other [[MeanwhileInTheFuture simultaneously in 2552]].

** Kamal's line “People think time is a river that flows in one direction, but time is an ocean” references the line "Some say time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but I have seen the face of time and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm" from the Prince in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Both characters were played by the same actor: YuriLowenthal.

* BitterSweetEnding: The assembled team seem to have saved the world, and been united with their family, or otherwise reached a happy end, despite their losses. And then the Covenant turn up.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kamal is voiced by YuriLowenthal, aka [[{{Naruto}} Sasuke]].

* RealWomenNeverWearDresses: In-universe example: Jan doesn't like it when you compliment her domestic skills.

* TheSixthRanger: Rani Sobeck.

* TechnoBabble: Done by Kamal.

* TheAce: Yasmine, and Jan. Drives at least two of the plot threads, leaving them BlessedWithSuck. They're the best, which means that ONI wants to snatch them up for the Spartan Two programme.
* TheCasino: Kamal's first job for Aiden is helping the owner of one of these find out how people are counting cards as a group. He plays the illegitimate business man, and seedy thuggish part completely straight.
* TheIllegal: Sophia.

* SpyVsSpy: Herzog and Standish pit Rani against each other in an internal version of this.It results in numerous people ending up dead, including Herzog.

* ActorAllusion: Kamal's line “People think time is a river that flows in one direction, but time is an ocean” references the line "Some say time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction, but I have seen the face of time and I can tell you they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm" from the Prince in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime''. Both characters were played by the same actor: YuriLowenthal.