So… Are You Fallout 4 or Not? The Survivor2299 Hubbub

I remember when I was a little girl, my brothers used to play this dirty little mind trick on me to get me all riled up. They’d whisper fake words into each other’s ears, and as soon as I got close enough to barely make out what they were saying, they would both whisper (albeit slightly louder to make sure I heard): “Don’t tell Rachel.”  It drove me nuts. I just had to know what I wasn’t supposed to know!

This compulsion is the same reason the website Survivor2299 is such a hot topic right now. Be it Bethesda or some other company putting out the site, it’s a pretty great marketing strategy. What better way to get the word out about something than to hint at a big name, only to be all cloak and dagger about it? Everybody clings to the hope that they are part of something special, in the know, or even just that their desires are slowly coming to fruition. For gamers, that feeling usually revolves around a beloved game series, and Fallout ranks high on many gamers’ lists.

For those who were unaware, it was a website that had a Fallout logo, a timer counting down to December 11, 2013, and nothing more. It began as any mystery, with a leaked trailer that looked like it may be a Fallout 4 reveal. Then the website started seeing lots of traffic, and the countdown got everybody talking. Speculations, conspiracy theories, and more have sprung from every corner of the internet, and most recently, a code:

VGNR [CAP] – ***? – LET- GRZ XJG XRS FWZZR GOS UIEG SII GZVZI || GRZ SAW XRS SAZZ XJG DZVB GRZ XUJIZ

Translated to:

My dear sister. I’m heading to the institute. God knows what happened to this place now. This old bastard will help us. He must help us. -0321-

There were even reports of temporary messages, such as an advertisement for Fallout shelters, and a toll free number to dial. When people dialed the number, Fallout 3 music came on. The number (877-260-2299) has since been disconnected, and another Overseer quoted reference temporarily popped up on the screen at one point, though I sadly missed all of these.

Let’s review some of the facts: ZeniMax has never used GoDaddy on any of their sites, nor have they hosted any of them from Poland. We know this. We also know that the Whois information may show Bethesda, but that is incredibly easy to fake, and the website source indicates a different designer altogether anyway. We know these things because many of us have spent way too much time overanalyzing it, and any code geek will tell you that there is a certain amount of unique flair (almost like an accent, or a fingerprint), to every individual’s code. We keep digging in hopes of uncovering the website’s deep, dark secrets before anybody else.

That being said, it’s not a far stretch to also believe that Bethesda went out of its way to taunt us, and throw layers of questions at us through outsourcing their website code, or where they host their domain. At the same time, it’s also not a far stretch that it’s some dude with too much time and money, sitting in his basement trolling the world, or some other company just dancing atop the border between originality and copyright infringement to generate interest in their new game. That’s what makes this website so frustrating yet exciting in the same breath!

The truth is, we’re going to find out more on December 11th either way, and the internet dwellers everywhere are eating this up, tidbit by sweet little tidbit. When you get right down to it, the fact remains that Survivor2299 has gotten so much attention from this, even if it isn’t Fallout 4, it’s going to still get more people to that website than another no-name game or event could have done without teasing the Bethesda brand in the way it did. I for one am truly interested for the big reveal, and hope that no matter what it is, it’s something I can waste countless hours entertaining myself with.