Emails are coming from all over about an apparent Halo 3 Viral marketing campaign. Instead of keeping their virulent paws to the internet, this time they are taking it to the streets as well. Folks are being accosted on the streets by people with signs and flyers regarding an ancient alien race. The people carrying these signs are wearing t-shirts with a glyph that has appeared on a Halo 3 email from Microsoft and posted to the Halo 3 forums by administrator Adjutant Reflex as his avatar.

MTV's Game Drop got a first hand experience with this right out in front of their offices in Time Square where members of S.O.T.A (Society of the Ancients) were busy littering the NYC streets with flyers and eating soft pretzels. When questioned, the members seemed to know nothing of Halo 3, but were more interested in talking about invaders from space. Not too far fetched for Times Square, but similar acolytes were been spotted by Kotakuite Adam K. in Vancouver, BC. My guess is that there are more of this same ilk in other big cities around the country. Going to the URl printed on the bottom of the flyer, SocietyoftheAncients.com, takes you to a bizarre website with pictures of crop circles and Stonehenge, looking like something you might see featured on "In search of..." with Leonard Nimoy.

But, is this really the best way to promote a game? People on the streets will think they are just another group of crazies and players who are into Halo enough to recognize it as a marketing campaign are going to buy the game anyway. So who is the target audience for something like this?

I have posted Adam's copy of the flyer after the jump, but GameDrop has the full details including photos of the flyer passers and comparisons of the mysterious glyph from several different sources. Go see it for yourself and unravel the "mystery." Flynn De Marco

"This Will Be A Good Place to Begin." Halo 3 Viral Marketing? [GameDrop]

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