What we're saying here is that ARGs are usually pretty crazy to begin with, but some of them go the extra mile. Like ...

An alternate reality game (ARG for short) combines the best elements of viral marketing, role playing games and being an insane person who can't tell fantasy from reality. Basically, ARGs ask the players to pretend they're living in a carefully constructed parallel universe that can include fake websites and phone numbers and even real objects hidden throughout the world ... usually for the sake of promoting a two-hour movie.

5 Halo 2 -- I Love Bees

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In 2004, members of a gaming community received large and completely unsolicited jars of honey in the mail, apparently from someone related to the website ilovebees.com. This was the beginning of the most bizarre viral marketing campaign ever, which was intended to promote a video game about gritty space marines. What do bees have to do with Halo, you ask? Nothing, until this game came out.



Although a sick Master Chief calms right down when you make him a proper hot toddy.

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Around the same time as the unexplained honey jar incident, the first trailer for Halo 2 was released, and fans noticed that, for a split second, the xbox.com address at the end was replaced with ilovebees.com. So the website was somehow linked to the game, but how? It appeared to be the blog of a completely ordinary bee enthusiast named Dana, which had recently been hacked and filled with strange messages, corrupted data and a series of mysterious countdowns.

Via Geekosity

Most of the bee blogs we frequent look like this all the time.

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As the players decoded the "corrupt" data, they learned that the "hacking" was actually the result of a rogue AI named Melissa attempting to collect itself in the website's server. From her blog posts, the players learned that Dana was becoming exasperated (which is understandable given that she's paying for the hosting and all) and tried to erase the artificial intelligence, causing Melissa to lose parts of its memory. A virtual catfight ensued, with the AI Melissa leaving threats on the website and capturing webcam images of Dana to freak her out. At this point Dana's character fucked off to China out of sheer terror and left her readers to figure out how to deal with the AI.