eon8 pwns Internets ... Halo 3 fans cry

by Joystiq Staff { Jul 1st 2006 at 12:45PM }

If you've been paying attention to the Internet lately, you may have stumbled across this thing called eon8. The site had a mysterious countdown and ambiguousness that left many conspiracy nuts scratching their collective tin-foil hat heads. Everything from theories about terrorist ties to Halo 3 "bees" hysteria sweeped the entire Web community.

Well, now everyone can calm down a bit because the countdown is over. So, what was the purpose? The purpose was to make you think there was a purpose. The folks at eon8 describe it like so:

The purpose of this project was to determine the reactions of the Internet public to lack of information. We were amazed to discover that the site was instantly linked with terrorism, simply for the fact that it seems mysterious. Evil was the number one first impression people had of the site, in spite of the fact that there are no threats on the site.

So, HA! Take that Internet and Halo 3 fanboys. You just got punk'd!

[via ARGN]

Tags: eon8

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Crushed @ Jul 1st 2006 12:50PM

Some people thought it would be Duke Nukem Forever... or the end of the world.

Seriously, anyone who thought it'd be Halo 3 was an idiot. Bungie wasn't the first to do viral marketing for a game.

Iggins @ Jul 1st 2006 12:52PM

You should probably change "folks" to "guy", considering there was only one person (as shown by his saying "when I say 'we', I mean 'me').

T-Bag @ Jul 1st 2006 1:04PM

eon8? I rest my case.

Flack_The_Jack @ Jul 1st 2006 1:12PM

I didn't find out about the site until maybe a few days ago. I did make sure I was there last night to see what happens, and "pwn'd" is a good choice of word to describe what Mark (it was Mark wasn't it???) did. I commend him on his total success, anyone who can dupe that many people deserves...soemthing very Free and Inexpensive.

antaeus @ Jul 1st 2006 1:13PM

www.seeyomommanaked.com has a countdown but no one cares to see what its for...wierd.

video game master @ Jul 1st 2006 1:21PM

I'm guessing I wasn't the first person to report this ^^;

B @ Jul 1st 2006 1:30PM

One word:owned. I hate the idiots who created the NEDM at YTMND.

thrillho @ Jul 1st 2006 1:37PM

www.seeyomommanaked.com has no countdown... uh, I heard from another poster. I didn't check the site or anything, I get jokes...

Dave Silva @ Jul 1st 2006 1:46PM

Silly question: What's that image on the post supposed to reference? I don't quite get the text that was shopped onto it.

Osiris @ Jul 1st 2006 2:09PM

www.meatspin.com has a count up.. Good website actually.

Jerry Seinfeld @ Jul 1st 2006 2:15PM

I heart conspiracies.
Too bad it wasn't serious.

Yoshi9 @ Jul 1st 2006 3:17PM

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!!

obo @ Jul 1st 2006 4:22PM

"If you've been paying attention to the Internet lately"

I have and didn't hear about it until Slashdot said it was nothing. Who hyped this, just YTMND? Is that all it takes to get blown out of proportion these days, is to be a YTMND fad?

Melissapants @ Jul 1st 2006 5:14PM

Re: no.12

Pretty much. YTMND's community has grown VERY quickly, especially over the past year or two.

Apparently people thought it was the end of the world because the site's IP address matched that of some terrorism webpage; I thought it was just some viral marketing.

Franklin @ Jul 1st 2006 5:22PM

4 8 15 16 23 42

Dallas @ Jul 1st 2006 5:26PM

God, I hate Ashton Kutcher.

Interesting experiment, though. Glad to see so many fanboys' hopes crushed.

Xiath @ Jul 1st 2006 5:39PM

I didnt find out about this until last night about 2 hours left of the countdown. I had nothing else to do so I waited to see what happend (by wait I mean keep the page on a tab and then web-surf/play games) and talked to my friend who told me about it. He started saying how excited he was when there was about 45 min left and I said semi-jokingly "watch it turn out to be nothing." Then when it ended and I found out I was right, I started to laugh in his face so hard.

Amos @ Jul 1st 2006 6:10PM

I never even heard of the Halo theory until this article...seems a little over-biting to the 3 people who might've come up with it, too :P. Biased much? Most I saw talking about it (a precious few, at that) thought it was supposed to be some crack-pot "end of the world" counter. I guess you could conisder it a "punk"...just not a very good or funny one.

Rizzy @ Jul 1st 2006 6:16PM

5'd for NEDM

Indepth @ Jul 1st 2006 6:47PM

Never heard of this.

Mitsuo Yuikihiro @ Jul 1st 2006 9:49PM

#9, that picture is one that Mat(the guy that did Eon8) posted in his explanation once Eon8 has successfuly launched.

Truthfully, I though it could have been anything. Then my crazy side came up with this explanation. It was actualy a terrorist count down till when the sent out a very powerfull virus to the government computers and had all the nukes launched to the points on that one map, thus sending us into total apocolypse. And then meracously all the shoes that survived were 6" heels and we had to learn how to wear them in our post apocolyptic world because the radiation poisoning made us forget how to make non-heel shoes! that would suck for the guys and yet rock! Anyways, that was MY theory, not no gay theory about a craptastic game.

Intellectualdiot @ Jul 2nd 2006 12:55AM

Wow, you stay away from the internet from a relatively brief period of time, and you miss something like this ha.

This is a rather interesting social experiment though, certainly more interesting than any (lame) Halo 3 or Duke Nukem Forever viral marketing tactic. I'll have to do some boning up on this.

vadermaggot @ Jul 2nd 2006 1:45AM

Sweeped should be swept. First day stuff.

Keyser @ Jul 2nd 2006 2:53AM

DONTT GOT TO MEATSPIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zero_ @ Jul 2nd 2006 5:57AM

Hah! I love the results and how he worded it: "Evil was the number one first impression people had of the site, in spite of the fact that there are no threats on the site."

That is so true, and yet so sad...

Catastrophic @ Jul 2nd 2006 6:13AM

I thought that people thought it was linked to Duke Nukem Forever? LOL JOYSTIQ GOT PUNK'D.

o0nac0o @ Jul 2nd 2006 12:14PM

NEDM? I didn't know anyone else beside me loved New England Dancing Masters.

http://www.dancingmasters.com/

AJ @ Jul 2nd 2006 6:26PM

For anyone with the time to waste on it; this is apparently the UK localisation of the Halo 3 ARG:
http://www.psbellamy.com/aboutme.html

No idea where the other localisations live.

V1L3 @ Jul 2nd 2006 8:39PM

I'm so bummed. I only came across this the day after it happened, so I missed out on all the fun... :( Some of the YTMND's about it were freakin' hilarious (my personal favourite being this onem which reveals the TRUTH behind the conspiracy http://umbrella8.ytmnd.com/).

I think most people were smart enough to know that it was probably going to be nothing, or just some stupid viral advertising campaign. Still, it also shows that HAD it been some kind of computer virus, how completely and utterly ill-prepared we are, even when they give us a freakin' COUNTDOWN.