Iris Is Officially Over...

[Hooligunn]

Well to be honest, I think it looks over now anyway and that's just pretty much confirmed my thoughts on the matter. Plus think about this:

No-one from Server 3 has had a package yet after such a long time. Servers 1 and 2 probably had their packages sent pre-finish to gather more interest. Server's 3, 4 and 5 had much smaller time frames of openings between them (especially 4-5, a mere 7 days). It would make sense that now ALL the packages will be dispatched together because the ARG is over, and the first 2 servers were just to attract the masses to their work it would seem. I guess that would help explain the lack of Server 3 packages even being dispatched right?

If someone checks DHL this week and their package has been dispatched (from any of the 3 remaining servers), then I'm 99% sure it's over.

[sharpsniper99]

Then wouldn't that mean that IRIS would have to continue after the game ships and releases? That wouldn't make much sense, in my opinion.

to be honest as a peice of advertising this iris cempeign has been terrible only the hardcore halo lovers could have understood anything

oh and hooligunn, i dont think anyone from the UK has gotten a server package at all - i asked 3 peaple over at unifiction, it doesnt look like were getting em mate

[Dalthanas]

Pretty sure it's done guys. An official MS release saying its over is pretty conclusive. They've never done anything to "throw us off" like that before. If their purpose is to grow the Halo fanbase through this marketing campaign, saying its over and then a week and half later going "FOOLED YOU! Just when you stopped watching, we posted new content!" just wouldn't make sense. Some of us forum dwellers would still catch it, but the broader audience they're trying to appeal to would have moved far on.

What I find most interesting is that they addressed why server 2 took so freaking long to open. Pretty funny that it was content on that kiosk disk from another company that caused so much distress and upset in the forums

Well played folks - I had a good time, despite being victim of the birthday bug on 2, a runtime error on 4 and a "Server Error. Please retry" on good ol' 5.

I'm hoping against hope that a lot of what we've seen will be explained either in the comics or the game itself. So many images are totally without real meaning, we don't know who was talking in the BPC and if that's the same person as the servers, what is the "ghost" thing on the images, Zune and SE XBox... so many questions.

I have a sinking feeling a lot of it won't be answered, though. When I read "50 people from over 20 departments" I feel as though it was more about "what can we pull off and put in here to make this interesting" as opposed to "how can we keep our continuity in check and feed useful stuff to the real diehards."

I don't say that as a negative thing either. It may not have been how I would have done things, but it's clearly what they set out to do. We can't really be mad that we wanted lemonade when all they had to offer the entire time was orange juice.

Anybody who wants to add me on XBL my gamertag is Dalthanas40 - feel free to do so. Maybe we can finish this fight together.

[Maimbot 9000]

I suppose it's only fitting that this campaign have an ending as satisfying as Halo 2's.

You know you've completely failed to engage the audience when every object or idea you present is met with "there HAS to be more than that." SOTA? Lunar calendar? Whatever those people on the FCC phone line were covering up? That equation, that book, that [fill in your own loose end]? Great work all around.

[Master D0rk]

I suppose it's only fitting that this campaign have an ending as satisfying as Halo 2's.

You know you've completely failed to engage the audience when every object or idea you present is met with "there HAS to be more than that." SOTA? Lunar calendar? Whatever those people on the FCC phone line were covering up? That equation, that book, that [fill in your own loose end]? Great work all around.

I sense a . . . small? . . . amount of sarcasm here . . .

I as well am disappointed. I didn't post much on this, but followed it from the beginning. While it was fun seeing the community pull together to solve the puzzles, I think Microsoft did a pretty piss-poor, half-done job with it.

I guess the answer for many of the unresolved questions is, it served it's purpose by helping to unlock a server - that was it's only purpose, and has no other relevance to the story. Except for the last note from server 5 - I think we will see a tie-in to the game somewhere in the ark.

[SinisterMinister]

I agree, many things could have been done better. I lurked off and on until Server 5, only end up waiting for the coordinates in TAL to be entered properly like everyone else (well, except you Seattle folks ) I thought TAL was going to be a three-part thing, where people in each city would have to combine what they found to get the answers; at least that would've encouraged the community aspect a little more than the prize-grabbing, which is what has really separated this from ILB; while I'm sure plenty of us were in it for the fun of the puzzles and the H3 backstory, when it comes down to it, it was just a race to be one of the first 100 to unlock. I'm sure some people find that aspect fun, I'm just not one of them.

[Maimbot 9000]

I don't want to sound like a complete whiner--the little hints we got at Forerunner thinking were really intriguing, and I'm excited about Halo 3 in a way I wasn't expecting. So from that end, this campaign was a complete success. I'm just really frustrated that none of it led anywhere. "The artifact location" in the Boomerang Nebula? Is this going to be followed up in the game, or was it completely meaningless? What did the star images add up to? Etc., etc. I wanted more of a puzzle, not "Look at this! Maybe it means something, maybe not! Hmmm? Now forget that and look at this! Isn't it shiny?"

[MIKEAWESOME]

Just to get my two cents in.

eccramer is a legit guy, I know he wouldn't forge something like this (also, anyone reading this, please don't do searches on his dad's info. That's pretty off-limit's and OOG. Breaking into people's personal records isn't cool)

This all seems like it'll be "wrapped up" in terminals in Halo 3, as to how much is wrapped up in there, it definitely remains to be seen, but it would explain why Frankie and the other writers were the ones to do this; they had the most connection with the story-line and knew what information in those terminals could be answered by this Viral Campaign.

All the sites that were given to us had, basically, served their purpose; SOTA, FCC, Jonas, all of 'em were simply intended to lead us to the servers. The only real loose ends that point to dates after the timeframe suggested in this internal article are the product of speculation or mis-quotation.

Case in point, people saying the Eurogamer article says this ends September 26th. Let's look this over quickly, shall we? In Europe (where this site directs its attention) the game is released on September 26th, which, going by what information we have from Servers and what we have from Halo 3 (via anything from Achievements to Articles; without giving any spoilers); all signs seem to point to Halo 3 being the culmination of this Viral Campaign.

I say "Good Riddance." I've got school in a week anyways.

[sharpsniper99]

All the sites that were given to us had, basically, served their purpose; SOTA, FCC, Jonas, all of 'em were simply intended to lead us to the servers. The only real loose ends that point to dates after the timeframe suggested in this internal article are the product of speculation or mis-quotation.

thats what annoys me most - rather than give us a story to follow they simply create random situations

What happened to AR? and why was he in our time in the first place?
thats why im so disapointed, what happens to Sota - did they ever discover anything forerunner?
Who were the FCC peaple, and what exactly were they trying to clean up?
and so on

to be honest the reason im dissapointed its over is because i expected a stage where SOTA - FCC - Jonas volman - AR etc all linked up - and the purpose of opening the servers explained.

its most dissapointing because it seems as though they had planned this arg to be more than it was, the sota sign up .pdf and the 510 member count on sota.com made me think there might be more to the arg - and well the pdf must prove that initially there was going to be more to it

but now it seems all that is gone and sota etc was reduced to be random unrelated stepping stones to servers - it would be the equiveleant of say a terrible unrelated plot device just to further along the story - I.E in prison break a guard randomly giving the main character a pick lock to escape his cell - and then having no further mention of why the guard gave it to him - it just happened to further the story

if that actually happened many prison break fans would be lost and confused, and im personally irritated with all the random leads that led to nothing.

that all sounds very bitter - but ive enjoyed the arg loads - but storyline wise its been terrible, now im just hoping those terminals in halo 3 explain a lot of the stuff that happened in this arg

[ii otnemem ii]

All the sites that were given to us had, basically, served their purpose; SOTA, FCC, Jonas, all of 'em were simply intended to lead us to the servers. The only real loose ends that point to dates after the timeframe suggested in this internal article are the product of speculation or mis-quotation.

*snip*
but now it seems all that is gone and sota etc was reduced to be random unrelated stepping stones to servers - it would be the equiveleant of say a terrible unrelated plot device just to further along the story - I.E in prison break a guard randomly giving the main character a pick lock to escape his cell - and then having no further mention of why the guard gave it to him - it just happened to further the story

if that actually happened many prison break fans would be lost and confused, and im personally irritated with all the random leads that led to nothing.

...or like in 24, when... um... anything ... happens...
I mean, I don't think there is any mention of SOTA or the FCC in the Halo Bible -- they were definitely just plot-furthering devices... but the thing is the things they led to, the servers, didn't fill in the plot, but more built on the character of the Forerunner and their state-of-mind as well as the state of emergency they were in. They collectively are a much more beautiful and meaningful character, IMO.