I really like that Pokemon Black thing just because it kind of hits the correct note of probably-bullshit-but-just-maybe-not which characterised most of the actual game rumours that I can remember. Like TOMB RAIDER NUDE PATCH which actually got into some 90s magazines or all those Pokemon things about the truck or the SS Anne or whatever. Playable Yoshi in Mario 64 / hidden base in the Dam level of Goldeneye. Yeti in San Andreas woods. I remember during the pokemon craze thing in my school someone told me that in America (fabled land~) there were also games like Pokemon Green and Pokemon Rainbow and Pokemon Everyothercolour which just hadn't made it over here and I was sceptical but still wasn't able to rule it out entirely!
I wonder if this is just something that comes with the territory of any popular stuff (PAUL IS DEAD) or if videogames specifically are good at bringing it out, maybe because the presence of glitches/cheatcodes/warpwhistles etc makes it harder to distinguish between ridiculous rumours or maybe because a lot of games are weird mixtures of uh functional mechanical elements and atmosphere to the extent that it can be hard to figure out which is which (I'm thinking especially of stuff like Link To The Past where random clumps of grass would look like an eye or a dragon or an arrow or whatever but this would only occasionally mean something).
Also it's probably just my own feeling as a 90S KID but I think if this is the case then it's probably more associated with games which are basically just toys to fool around with rather than ones which are trying to put you through some kind of more carefully "designed" experience, the analogy I'd give is between Goldeneye 64 where enemies just stand there as you wander around this empty base destroying goofy models for no reason and peering at stuff through a sniper scope vs Medal of Honor for the PSX with that bit where you grab a machine gun emplacement and then tons of nazis come rushing out at you to mow down and just a general focus on putting the player into scripted events etc. Like I say this is tendentious argument / not to be trusted coming from old man "n64 life" thecatamites but I do think the whole thing of strange suspicious rumours are based on some knowledge of the artificiality of the game world or detachment from it rather than immersion in a crafted experience. This isn't me complaining about current games particularly btw since I think there's a lot of room for it in sandbox shit / roguelikes and so on as well.
edit: ahahahahaa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM9b8jW8rBE goldeneye remake for wii does exact same thing as medal of honor in that instead of just possibly stumbling on sniper rifle and getting option to use it on dorks in a tunnel you're explicitly told to kill everyone in the tower, find rifle, use it on guys suddenly rushing towards you. i can't talk about this without sounding like TheIrateGamer001 or something but im playing the old goldeneye right now and it really is full of empty space / quietness / lack of directions to the point where more action-packed stuff like the tank level doesn't work at all and that's what i'm enjoying about it so its p funny to see this is exactly what got taken out!
edit2 holy shit that video aaaaaaa