Black-Aperture.com is a fake website

[-smash-]

I still see people clambering over the Black-Aperture.com website. I see a lot of websites reporting how the site is possibly real, but they haven't done any of the homework (or like a Senior in high school: they only did page 1 of 5). I want to put an end to it because the website is fake and is not operated or owned by Valve.
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This is the Who.Is report of Black-Aperture.com: http://who.is/whois/black-aperture.com/
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First, the registrar name "Network Solutions". It is consistent with sites like Valvesoftware.com, but that doesn't mean anything at all.
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The U.S. Department of Commerce created a program called InterNIC back in 1993. The InterNIC is a central database that contains all the registered domain names and the associated IP addresses in the US. Network Solutions was chosen to be the administrator of this network information center. While other companies (known as registrars) provide domain names and maintain DNS servers, Network Solutions still maintains the central database to ensure that there are no duplicates.
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Next, we have the domain servers. AKA, the servers that a website is physically hosted on. Black-Aperture.com is not hosted on the same servers as Valve's other websites...
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If you take a look at the Who.Is report, you'll see that the site sits on a server called NS65.DOMAINCONTROL.COM. This server appears to belong mostly to GoDaddy [click]. This means that the person who created this website is using GoDaddy for server hosting.
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Valve on the other hand has their own servers for their websites, for example NS1.VALVESOFTWARE.COM. Having their own set of domain servers is good for security, it is more convenient, and it saves the company money.
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Last, the fact that all of the logos and text have disappeared from the site since a few days ago. I suspect that Valve's legal team had sent a sort of cease and desist letter to the site owner because he was using copyrighted and trademarked material without the consent from the owners [Valve].
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I hope you guys understand this. This is definitive proof that Black-Aperture.com is not owned or operated by Valve.
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www.who.is.com
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http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question422.htm

 

[Acepilotf14]

Can't believe people fall for stuff like this.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Greetings to all the Google searchers who come find this threadd and get a double dose of this common sense.

 

[Barnz]

Why can't people just wait for Valve to announce the damn game?

 

[Shem]

Anyone with half a brain cell would have been able to determine the validity of the site. Barnz, people are sometimes so desperate for information that they will grasp for anything despite the overwhelming risk of being tricked. It's happened before and will happen again.

 

[ríomhaire]

All that popped into my head was "no shit sherlock".

 

[Hectic Glenn]

People are clever and they know Valve will announce their next big title through an obscure website rather than a large press event. Then they can put their alias on wikipedia for people to admire a thousand years later as if their discovery rivalled that of Newton or Galileo.

 

[ríomhaire]

Thing is though, whenever Valve finally do something like that and those people are right, they'll have been the exact same people who have been wrong every second week since 2007 when they declare again that this proves that HL3 is coming. They were wrong when the Portal 2 "surprise" was going to announced, they were wrong when they thought the Portal radio signals were transmissions from Mossman on the Borealis, they were wrong about the three surprises, they were wrong this time. When they finally get it right it will not be due to any skill in prediction. It will be a stubborn sort of stupidity that demands this answer until it is the right one. When this actually happens they will declare themselves geniuses who made some sort of great prediction.

 

[MFL]

 

[Quixoticism]

Ploy.

 

[MFL]

I just hope that whatever gimmick or technology they are developing is worth keeping it a secret this long. Preservation of intellectual property is really the only viable and rational thing I can think of to explain a complete blackout of media for this long with absolutely nothing leaking.

Addendum: If you are one of those lucky to have signed a NDA with Valve and know what's going on, well, **** you. I'm jealous and you are horrible people. Leak something already.

Bleh: Then again, maybe they just got tired of HL. I know I'm kind of tired. If my interest has fatigued, I can only imagine how it was for people who worked on it for over a decade. I feel for the team working on it, and our communities demands must seem really shitty to them. Then again, on this side of things, no feedback is just poor customer relations to me. *glares at him. he knows who he is, and believe me, it's appreciated that his name hasn't been read on any press releases for the past year* Keep up the good work Valve. You've created something really great over the past few years with Steam. We'll be waiting.

 

[Paulaner]

Why can't people just wait for Valve to announce the damn game?

We are in the world of viral advertising and alternate reality games. Plus, Valve likes to troll its fans. I have no doubt that HL3 will be announced in a very strange way. They did it for Portal 2, do you remember?

 

[Link]

Sorry, but whilst I agree that this clearly isn't valve, this is not PROOF. It is completley possible for Valve to own and run this site off thier own systems. I'm not saying that I think that this IS whats happening, just that we do not have PROOF that it is not. Strong evidence certainly, but it cannot be proved beyond all doubt that Valve are not behind this

[/nitpick]

 

[Naph]

Usually a Gabe Newell email of "Not us" in response to this appears.

 

[Barnz]

We are in the world of viral advertising and alternate reality games. Plus, Valve likes to troll its fans. I have no doubt that HL3 will be announced in a very strange way. They did it for Portal 2, do you remember?

You weren't around when Valve released HL2, were you? They also did an ARG game for Half-Life 2, and it was awesome.

 

[geek935]

.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Lol ... that's the company that handles the other end of domain registrations, not the "owner" of the domain. I think you're "pretty wrong" here, actually.

 

[Tee Kyoo Em]

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