What Was It?
For all of us, the Help! game was many different things: a community, a place to hang out when we were down, a place to meet new people, discuss the Beatles, and celebrate (and play) their music. But in corporate and corporeal terms, what was the Help! game?
How It All Began
In 2000, presumably to mark the dawn of the new millennium, the Beatles released a CD containing all 27 of their #1 singles, appropriately titled 1. With that release, it was decided to take the leap into the digital market by establishing a web presence at TheBeatles.com. There was a section for each song, and under each song was a specific promotional tool (or "New Feature," as the website called them) related to the Beatles aimed at promoting fans getting together. Under "Help!" was what the site itself called "the Beatles game."
"The Beatles game" was put together by K L E B E R, which describes itself as an "award-winning, indefatigable web design/development studio specializing in representing music, media & fine goods on the internet since 1997." In plain English, that means when a record label or a band was looking to establish an Internet presence in the early days of the digital world, and they wanted top-of-the-line development and sleek production, they went to K L E B E R, and the Beatles, new to the digital realm, were no different.
When approached by Apple, several proposals were put on the table, one of which was our beloved chat room/game, dedicated to the memory of Canterbury schoolteacher George Duncan, of whom the gamers know little, but we presume he was a great Beatles fan and to him many thanks for indirectly inspiring this project.
The Team
The winning proposal was conceived by the final team that executed the product, with a little help from James Tindall, Lloyd Thomas and Dorian Moore, and partly inspired by previous chat/games of similar ilk as Mobiles Disco, or anything created by Sulake (Habbo Hotel was only a Finnish concern at the time, and did not go global until after the success of the Help! game, to which it owes an indirect debt). The final team who did all the work: Hawken King (graphics design), Dan Sayers (game/server programming and sound design), Chris McGrail (guidance), and Caroline Coyne (credited as the "Kleber Mum," which indicates some kind of supervisory or guiding role). Dan's job, later automated, was to switch the music, but in the early days, when a moderator was needed to take care of business with the chatters and establish ground rules, Dan would fill that function, and because of the different color of his speech bubble and the lack of a visible presence, he came to be known and much beloved among the community as "The Voice."
The Launch
On November 13, 2000, with the release of 1, TheBeatles.com was launched, and with it the Help! game. The free-standing helpgame.net URL that held the game was only licensed until October 18, 2002; it was designed to be a short-lived promotional tool. Instead, it took off like a bat out of hell! The maximum capacity of the room and game combined was 40 people, and in the first days following its inception, it was immediately filled to the brim. Gradually, this lessened; over time, the game would never be regularly filled again (unless there was an error, but more on that on another page).
What The Community Meant
What resulted from the gradual separation of wheat from the chaff, and additions to the chat and game for clarification, was a close-knit community of regular visitors that shared a love of the Beatles. They mastered the game; they developed friendships; they became an informal family. In truth, while the Beatles normally shunned digital media for most of the 21st century, this chat -- and game -- came the closest to a concept one of them held dear. (Ironically, it was reportedly an entirely different Beatle, George Harrison, who championed the concept of the chat and game, possibly inspired by his son, who also had similar influence on later game projects such as The Beatles: Rock Band.)
In 1969, Beatle John Lennon announced the concept of total communication, also known (informally) as "bagism." John's concept involved everyone around the world wearing a bag over their face and body, so people could come together and converse with each other without having any preconceptions based on color, race, age, gender or sexual orientation.
This digital format where people had to create avatars and play the game, and possibly create something that didn't resemble them in real life by any means, allowed for the perfect realization of just that concept. The only information participants knew about each other was what each individual chose to share, much like John's concept. People from all over the world participated on a regular
basis, including some from Australia, the United Kingdom, parts of Europe, Canada, the United States, and many, many other places. Many people became close friends and sometimes met in real life; at least one real-life marriage resulted from the game as well. Perhaps the Beatles were right: maybe love really is all you need.
With George championing it and the game being the perfect realization of John's concept, which at its core I'm sure none of the Beatles would disagree with, the Help! game ultimately proved to be the best outlet to promote Beatles awareness, music, and knowledge for a younger generation, and a place that felt like home for the older generation. All these years later, the Beatles still bridge the generation gap! Amazing.
Gradually, K L E B E R began taking more and more of a "hands off" approach once the automated song change was in. The worst problems were scrollers and blockers (more on that on the "Glossary" page). However, their presence was keenly felt by the community, who appealed to K L E B E R. Members of the game were named moderators and given the ability to "boot" (or remove) those who caused trouble.
All too quickly, a year had passed. It was November 13, 2001, and the game was celebrating its first anniversary. The enthusiastic community, much like a high school graduating class, threw a little ceremony called the "Helpgame (sic) Emmys," with such categories as "Nicest," "Most Annoying," and the like. Tally up the votes, and the person with the most was the winner. Not everybody agreed with their nomination in a particular category, but everyone agreed with the winners. A splendid time was guaranteed for all.
Unfortunately...
As George himself said in one of his most famous songs, "All things must pass away." Unfortunately, the first thing to go was him. A couple of weeks after the game celebrated its first anniversary, George Harrison tragically passed away due to lung cancer. The person who was allegedly the game's biggest champion and defender was gone. And when George went home, for some people, it was like all the air left the room.
The game survived past its original expiration date; K L E B E R renewed the domain license with Apple's permission based on the continued success of the game. But as time went on, the regulars fell away. People advanced past the Help! game and found something else to do, like Habbo Hotel, or later innovators like Coke Studios. Some people just let life get in the way. Sure, the regulars all still logged in occasionally, but "once in a blue moon" isn't enough to rate the game's popularity. As graphics designer Hawken King put it, outside of the niche audience, the game was "never publicized and virtually unheard of." If you didn't already know about the separate URL, speaking as a game player, you would have to chance upon it through TheBeatles.com, which was about as likely as finding a needle in a haystack.
Gradually, as time went by and new projects came along, the 1 portal was relegated to a subsection of the website and eventually removed completely. The Help! game was gone long before this event, due to the lack of regular attendees, who had been largely replaced by foreign speaking players who didn't know the game's purpose and didn't care to learn it, using the site for cyber dating and meeting up in the bar area. The regulars who logged in now and then just assumed that the game would be always be there, and you know what happens when you assume. By 2005, the game was gone, and it can truthfully be said that we didn't know what we had till it was over. The Help! game lives on now only in the memories of those who played it regularly.