Hegemon wrote:

I believe AlphaOmega to be a fake game used as a cover for later transmission of message from Van etc...

I will provide a summary of my case, and would like the rest of you to post evidence both for and against. Please cite sources. If we can conclusively rule on Mindstorm Labs I believe we can make progress in a new direction.

Background:

This is circumstantial, but the lack of history for the company is troubling. No one I can find seems to know anything about Mindstorm labs, know anyone who works or worked there etc.

The Market & Advertising:

I am not an expert but it doesn't seem to me that an independent tabletop rpg producer would do very well in today's gaming market. It is my understanding that most table tops are produced by the major houses of the industry.

Further more, I don't believe that a fledgling company would be able to pull off such a large scale viral campaign for their first release.

Additionally, the sheer lack of press for AlphaOmega (their big upcoming release) is staggering. I've only found one or two site carrying their "press release". AlphaOmega has no official game website. Again no one seems to know anything about the game. None of the suppose beta testers can be found, nor have any come forward to reveal themselves.

The Site:

The site uses the www.w3.org format common to all the site so far, as well as using urchin tracker.

The site http://www.mindstormlabs.com/ is built in a very similar way to http://www.tritonenterprises.net, most indicatively the large main background image that is easily accessible.

The site contain relatively little news about the game, and dates go less than a year back for any event.

The newsletter has a sign-up section but only one previous release, and nothing after sign up.

The site has released 2 contact #s the first can be seen in the original whois for Tomm Mcglaughlin (I don't have a copy of the original who is) as well as the off site press release http://www.rpg.net/press/display-press?newsid=208

The new contact # appears on the main site.


The numbers:

The old contact number goes to voicemail leaving standard # is not available message. The new # however yields the message "Mindstorm Labs" then a beep. This is exactly the same as Triton Enterprises setup for voice mail.

Both Triton and Mindstorm host their voice mails on net zero private phone accounts http://www.privatephone.com/ The user name is pp then the respective number, the pin is unknown.

Neither message befits a real company. This is fitting for triton which we know to be a fake, but mirrored exactly in Mindstorm. There is no formal greeting, no request to leave a message, no in house directory or office hours. Nothing you would expect from an operational company.