When TheSurvivor2299.com first caught the attention of Fallout fans in mid-November, no one was quite sure what to think: Was it legit? Was it for a teaser? Was it for a new Fallout? Was it even for a game at all? Unfortunately, we learned late Friday night it was none of the above, and nothing more than a big fat fake.
As far as disappointment goes, this was right up there with the Half-Life 3 gag from this year's April Fool's Day, and for that, as a fan of the Fallout franchise, I have a lot of scorn for the person working behind the scenes. But at the same time, I also have to admire this person for the amount of work he did tying it to the series, and making it seem passable enough that he convinced so many that a new game was on the way.
The morse codes, cryptographic puzzles, the domain registration, hidden sound files, linking it to an employee who worked for the PR company that did advertising campaigns of Bethesda properties, the numerous references to Boston and the Institute, the telephone number that played the theme from Tranquility Lanes...
Just compile a few of those facets, and it would've been good. But all of them tossed together? It was a masterpiece, and Bethesda should consider hiring this guy for generating such a massive amount of hype.
But speaking of Bethesda, despite that the company had no part or control over the massive hoax, the company is taking a bit of blame for their refusal to tell fans that the site was an arrant fraud. If you take a gander at the twitter page of Pete Hines, VP of Communication for Bethesda, you'll see that since no one knows exactly who was behind the site, Fallout fans are targeting Hines instead.
Hines understands the anger, even going so far to accept a bit of responsibility, tweeting, "we could have done better and will learn and move forward. We don't claim to be perfect."
Visiting the site now, you'll be greeted with the message, "Remember, don't be mad at Bethesda! They are an awesome company. Special thanks to /r/Fallout the most amazing community on reddit for resolving all clues," as well as a link to a special site for the "real haters."
The site's early reveal could likely be the result of ZeniMax and/or Bethesda finally issuing some sort of warning to the site's developer, or perhaps he just had a crisis of conscience.
According to IncGamers, the developer of the gag site was likely "a member of the Fallout community who runs a Fallout Facebook page," as well as someone with a LOT of time on their hands.
"According to our tip-off last week, a hosting plan was purchased to run for under 30 days which is why the countdown timer was set to run out at a rather odd time and day initially. The alleged plan was to post a troll face or a trolling message on the site when the countdown reached zero. The individual said he was doing this 'just for fun.'"
Leaks are known to happen in the video game industry, as are some very dedicated, in-depth guerrilla and viral marketing campaigns. Admittedly, it was an exciting time for the last few weeks, but next time, perhaps we'll heed Bethesda's warning: "If you don’t hear it through an official channel like this, assume all rumors and speculation are false."