IPs to keep an eye on.

[MulletedOne]

http://206.16.223.62/ -"Directory Listing Denied" -Like the server page prior to the countdown.
http://206.16.223.64/ -"Directory Listing Denied" -Like the server page prior to the countdown.
http://206.16.223.66/ -"You are not authorized to view this page" -like 206.16.223.61 prior to the Server (Next server perhaps?
http://206.16.223.67/ -"Directory Listing Denied" -Like the server page prior to the countdown.

This are the four interesting IPs in the 60-70 range, there are four servers left, coincidence?

(Hey, I was right when I said that 206.16.223.61 would be of importance when I joined)

[sharpsniper99]

fantastic nice one - i just checked http://206.16.223.63/ is the sota website and yeah its likely that the others will be used in this arg, great job!

[Sable]

Can't find a lot of good WHOIS information, but all of those addresses resolve to belonging to Microsoft Corp.

I think you're right about .66 opening next - "not authorized" is a IIS message indicating there IS content there (a flash page, an index.html, whatever) but it's blocked against the world from talking to it. "Directory Listing Mode" usually means there's no root default file (index.htm or whatever), so the next mode is directory listing, which is specifically disabled. That says to me that there's either nothing in those, or they haven't been finished yet.

This doesn't feel very ARGy to me. It feels very much like they've totally lost sight of the "This Is Not A Game" aesthetic that made ILB work so well. I know MS is doing this one internally, and that might be the problem. It's frustrating.

[ODST Epsilon]

Can't find a lot of good WHOIS information, but all of those addresses resolve to belonging to Microsoft Corp.

I think you're right about .66 opening next - "not authorized" is a IIS message indicating there IS content there (a flash page, an index.html, whatever) but it's blocked against the world from talking to it. "Directory Listing Mode" usually means there's no root default file (index.htm or whatever), so the next mode is directory listing, which is specifically disabled. That says to me that there's either nothing in those, or they haven't been finished yet.

This doesn't feel very ARGy to me. It feels very much like they've totally lost sight of the "This Is Not A Game" aesthetic that made ILB work so well. I know MS is doing this one internally, and that might be the problem. It's frustrating.

I do believe that is part of the overall feeling of disappointment that I've noticed from people. There's no suspension of belief like we had to do in ILB. I mean at the very beginning, people thought it was actually all real and only once the stuff about the AIs and all that came out people were like "Ooooh, this is a game" but by then, we were so into it that no one really cared about having to fake it.

But from the beginning, Iris was so blatant and in our faces. The posts on the forum had the yellow text of an admin and the custom avatars and stuff. If they wanted people to be really into it, they should've used a normal player account and have them go about it that way, or do something that made people think "Hmm...maybe this is something." I guess it's a little too late for that, and ever since the MS PR person was like "We're going to take Halo fans on a story this summer" or whatever, I've had a slightly sour take on everything because it's just not what I wanted for a marketing ploy. I've got all the time in the world, give me a puzzle and I'll solve it. Give me a website to decipher and I'll do it. Give me a pay phone to find and I'll find it. Don't create expensive Flash sites and cryptic messages that have no bearing on anything and then do nothing for 2+ weeks.

[SpartanSeraph]

The pacing of the whole thing seems to be really off. It's possible that MS is just screwing it up, but remember - Frankie is behind the whole thing. With a person from Bungie running it, I'm inclined to stay optimistic and see what happens before I get dissapointed.

[DjRS]

I too belive there is something we have overlooked... But what, that is the real question !?

Well I wouldn't say nothing has happend the last couple of days.
Infact weird things has happend and puzzles me a great deal...

[TtheHedge]

A game is a game, no matter how you look at it. Perhaps this frustration and disappointment is part of the game in a sick and twisted way. Perhaps they set it like this so we would react like this so we would overlook something or miss something meaning. Perhaps it's all a ploy to make us misinterpret things we already found, who knows?

It's a stretch, but you never know, this is a ARG.

[The Se7enth Prophet]

I'm pretty sure this topic is about the IP range, not about whether or not this is an ARG....

However, the IP range has been noted. Everything on the 206.16.223.xx server is owned by Microsoft. We've been working on the assumption that those are all going to be included in this.

Good job for finding them yourself, though!

[Corbob]

The pacing of the whole thing seems to be really off. It's possible that MS is just screwing it up, but remember - Frankie is behind the whole thing. With a person from Bungie running it, I'm inclined to stay optimistic and see what happens before I get dissapointed.

I think Frankie just wrote the plot for Iris. I don't think he has a hand in running it. Although, the timing is a little convenient that all this down time has occurred when Frankie wasn't there to write the Weekly Update. Hmmm.. Suspicious much?

[Kurk]

i'm thinking that we're not looking at the bigger picture here, bungie may be attempting to overwhelm us with information that perhaps has no real value of relevance simply to distract us from something much more important