Rothbart’s Rant 76 - "Crafting Indisputable Rumors" Edition (Now with 100% more prizes!)
by Sean "rothbart" Workman (http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/rothbart/)

http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/proof_needed.jpgI’ve ranted about rumors before, but today I want to take a much more narrow look at a very specific kind of rumor. I’m going to take a look a the type of rumor I call, an Indisputable Rumor. I want to analyze how it’s crafted, look at some reasons why it might be crafted, and how to have some fun by making up my own rumor!

Your ordinary garden variety rumors are fairly easy to dispel. They’re typically something like “Mr. X said <insert what he said>” which leaves the possibility of walking up to Mr. X and asking him point blank “Did you say that?” At that point the rumor is immediately turned into fact, or fiction (unless Mr. X works for the PR department, in which case he’d likely say, “We neither confirm nor deny rumors.” followed by a canned pitch for their products.)

Indisputable rumors don’t have such a cut and dry confirmation/debunking process. These are the rumors that people could yell from the rooftops and frankly, all you could do would be to yell back because, even though they haven’t proved they’re right, you’re completely unable to prove they’re wrong.

Read on for an example of an indisputable rumor and learn how to make up your own!

An example of this type of rumor would be: “Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to Xbox 360 12-14 months after release on the PS3.” If you look at the wealth of actual information on the topic, it can’t be proven, or disproven.

The group of people who are sure the rumor was false, will quickly point out that Konami has said they are not working on MGS4 for the 360 and Kojima himself said he isn’t working on a 360 version.

Those sure that the rumor was true point out that they may not be working on it yet or that they may in fact have a completely different team working on it. When you add in the fact that this rumor can’t be proven wrong until up to 14 months after MGS4 is released, you start to see how rumors can be crafted in such a way that they’ll linger around for a very long time.

So we can better identify indisputable rumors, I’ll attempt to outline some of the characteristics I’ve identified.
While not entirely necessary, the “good” rumors, always have a tidbit of truth or something people strongly desire.
Specific people are likely not named or if they are named, they’re not as integral to the validity of the rumor, as it may first appear .
They are almost always grand in scale, (be it a large software title or something to do with an actual hardware platform) but rarely do they pertain to unimportant stuff people wouldn’t care about.
Rumors have a long time frame so that whether they are ultimately proven true, or false, people will no longer care, or remember in the first place.
They sometimes contain, what could be considered unbelievable specs and/or revolutionary features that may “never see the light of day.”
They may focus on partnerships or licensing deals that multiple companies are involved in, complicating the ability to ever see any freely available information on the topic.
Keeping all of this in mind, I’ll make up one right now with absolutely minimal effort on my part. I assure you, this is as “off the cuff” as it gets. “Samsung and Microsoft have formed a partnership to bring an extremely powerful portable gaming and multimedia device to market but the project is indefinitely on hold due to licensing issues between Samsung and Motorola.“You cannot definitively disprove that. Sure, there are individuals who know whether or not that’s true, but they don’t have the means, or likely the authority, to speak out and undeniably disprove that rumor. If enough people catch on to a rumor like this and start spreading it, before you know it, you’re likely to find it popping up in a lot of unexpected places.

Your assignment is to craft your own indisputable rumor and to post it to at least three different online communities. Work out a couple rough drafts on your own before posting (and don’t give away your secret plan!) Make sure your final draft gets posted in the Sarcastic Gamer News forum thread for this article and I’ll dig something special out of the Sarcastic Gamer “goodie-bag” for the best rumor produced. You might even see your rumor published on Sarcastic Gamer's front page (on a Friday of course!)

There are many rumors for SSBB, so I thought what the hell why not, I'll make up my own.
Viewtiful Joe and Okami confirmed for Brawl!

I have heard from a reliable source of mine over at Nintendo that Viewtiful Joe and Okami will be playable characters in SSBB; this source also claims that Items and other characters will appear in the game as ATs (assist trophies), Such as the Joker from Viewtiful Joe and other characters from Okami. My source also tells me there will be stages from both games in Brawl, however they did not reveal any specifics.

Link to rumor on Smashboards post: http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=137852

It was said today by an unnamed source that Microsoft is entering the handheld market. With a projected 1-2 year wait, Microsoft has only revealed this statement "We are already competing to overtake the iPod, so why not enter handheld gaming as well? It was an obvious decision to all of us." Personally I can't wait to see what a portable Xbox would look like. More as the situation develops.

Because I was really bored here's another undisputable rumour. All though, is it just rumour? Who knows....

Microsoft adopts Blue-Ray
-----------------------------------------------------

Microsoft is, like many other companies, abandoning the sinking ship called Blue-Ray. A Microsoft employee let slip earlier this week Microsoft is working on a plan to include a Blue-Ray Drive in a future update of their gaming console.

We had the chance to talk to a leading developer of this project.

Why the sudden change of heart?
It’s not exactly a ‘sudden’ change of heart. We have been working on this project for half a year now. Microsoft just didn’t want to come forward as long as the format war hadn’t been decided.

So, the war is over? HD-DVD is dead?
The HD-DVD-format is certainly not dead. The 360 will keep the add-on HD-DVD-drive for consumers who are still interested. But we do think Blue-Ray has more possibilities and is here to stay.

Can you tell us some more about the possibilities of the format?
First of all, the Blue-Ray movies are becoming more and more popular. The consumers get what they ask for.
Second of all, the game developers have been complaining the normal DVD’s do not have enough disc capacity to fully get the most out of the system. The extra room will be primarily used for storing high definition graphics, so developers no longer have to choose between graphics or game-play. Normal DVD’s will still be released, but with a resolution up to 720p. So, if you want the full gaming experience, this item is certainly worth it.
We’re also talking to developers for adding premium content to the Blue-Ray-Discs.

If you want to read more about the Blue-Ray update: stay tuned for future updates….


After this, I got sick of presenting BS as if it were real, so I kinda got off track. This should not be included if you want to convince anyone this interview is real :p.

Those are certainly ambitious plans. But won’t the cost scare customers off?
We thought about that too, and we figured the people who are willing to pay 50 dollars a year for a Live subscription, would also be interested in this package.
And besides, if Sony can release a pricy console, why can’t we?

Speaking about Sony: some people have been calling you rip-offs because you supposedly supported HD-DVD and turned tail once things went down-hill. What do you think of this?
People who say that are Sony fanboys, and as such have no credibility whatsoever. Ignore them.

Errrr… Okay, that seems to be a sore subject… Let’s get back to the 360. Will the drive be just an add-on or built into future models?
We were thinking about first releasing it as an add-on for an unreasonable amount of money.

Did you just say ‘unreasonable’?
Yea, all the 360 fanboys will get it, no matter what the price is, so we decided to make it as high as possible. We’re money whores after all.

If you want to read more about the Blue-Ray update: stay tuned for future updates….

What is this Blue-Ray of which you speak? A third high-def movie format?! :D

What is this Blue-Ray of which you speak? A third high-def movie format?! :D
It's Microsoft, they renamed it.

It's Microsoft, they renamed it.

Touche! C# and J++ say "Hi!"

A very reliable source from the Microsoft design team has informed me that Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing the Xbox mobile, a hand-held gaming system, in spring of 2010. The product will have a 2 gb storage capacity and an optional “hard-drive mini,” it will also contain a powerful wi-fi connection. The first game to come out with it will be, no surprise, a reconstructed Halo 2. Microsoft refuses to release any more information due to the fact that they are still trying to fix their newest problem for it, called the Red Ring of Death Mini.

Today a reliable source from Epic Games has informed a small few memberes of the gaming comunity that Unreal tournament 3 may include cross platform play, for an unspecified sum of money a premium version of the game could be purchased which not only alows 360 owners to play with PC users but also the PS3, this would be the 1st time this kind of mechanic would have been tryed. Although sony has tried before to establish this kind of connection with microsoft they have always failed until epic threatened to withdraw UT3 from microsoft. if this information is true then it could mean a new era of gaming and a whole new competition for the average gamer

This thread must mean that viatorphy was making up bullshit about how he knew that something 'big' was going to be announced on the next podcast.

A very reliable source from the Microsoft design team has informed me that Microsoft has announced that they will be releasing the Xbox mobile, a hand-held gaming system, in spring of 2010. The product will have a 2 gb storage capacity and an optional “hard-drive mini,” it will also contain a powerful wi-fi connection. The first game to come out with it will be, no surprise, a reconstructed Halo 2. Microsoft refuses to release any more information due to the fact that they are still trying to fix their newest problem for it, called the Red Ring of Death Mini.

THIEF!!!!

Games For Windows comes to Steam

Sources within both Microsoft and Valve have said that for the past few weeks, the two companies have been discussing the possibility of merging Steam and Games for Windows Live. This comes after the failure of Microsoft's scheme to bring the success of Xbox Live to the PC. Although details are still unknown, it has been stated that a deal has been made between the two companies which involves Games for Windows being added to the Steam program.

It is believed that this will allow the two companies access to each other's associates, so we may see Steams games catalog grow exponentially when this change occurs. This change also brings about questions as to whether we may be seeing a version of the Steam client coming to Xbox Live

Rumors have also sprung up that this may be the start of a take-over of Valve by Microsoft, although the sources state that there has been no discussion of this, and the deal is in no way foreshadowing this.

This thread must mean that viatorphy was making up bullshit about how he knew that something 'big' was going to be announced on the next podcast.

Wrong.:rolleyes:

THIEF!!!!

Hey, I posted it first. Look at this

http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/2008/01/rothbarts-rant-76-crafting-indisputable-rumors.html#more-1947

(it's at the bottom) I just had to wait for him to get the forum up.

:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p

Rumors have surfaced of the possibility of cross-platform play in Rock Band, via Harmonix's own multiplayer network inside the game. The network is still in the beta phase and is invitation only, but is advancing more steadily than expected. My source inside EA tells me to expect a surprise announcement no later than May.


:-/ i'm not very good at this.

Just a reminder... the deadline to enter submissions (for the contest) is Thursday, January 24th at 12:00PM PST (ie. noon). The winner should be announced the next day.

noteable sources from within the sarcastic gamer team have recently realesed the statement confirming that it is not actually rothbart in his avatar