I wonder sometimes what the response from the GP would be if HHN slow played their announcements the way they did back in 2008, revealing some slight tweaking of the site every few days, adding games, etc. Would it excite a new generation of fandom? Would they say "meh" and go elsewhere after two minutes? Last year I was sending HHN announcements to my 16 year old daughter. This year she is beating me to it. So whatever they are doing is working for her.
Hard to believe that dozens of people sat online staring in unison at the wallpaper of the Storyteller's room, looking for clues "you can clearly see Jack right here!" "No, that looks more like Eddy!" "Look! They are using caps within the words. I've done some anagrams of the letters and..." That was so cool. I think that since the event has become so IP heavy, we can't go back to that. You can't slow play an IP like that. It must be released at a specific time and date according to a contract. The handcuffs of IP extend to the lack of online games, lack of announcement clues, etc.
Personally, I wish we did NOT have the house list in April. Universal did not have such terrible leaks way back when... Now the only speculation is which of the IP on the list is going to get Screamed. It would be nice if there was a real life "Black Mirror" feature that blurred out all of that. But my only option is to stay off these sites until late August. I actually did do that one year. Avoided all things HHN related until I got to Orlando. I cleared my browser cache so I wouldn't see HHN ads during Google searches. It was a total pain in the butt buying HHN tickets online ahead of my trip while avoiding seeing what they were presenting. I had no idea what was being presented until I hit the automated walkways heading from the parking garage into Citywalk and saw the giant banners hanging from the ceiling. And what was my reward for all those months of self-imposed torture?
"Damnit! Walking Dead is back again!" You just can't win...