IGNN–The Imaginary Game News Network

PROVIDENCE, R.I.–Ivan Stolipo talks a good game, and recently all the chatter coming out of his start-up, OmniGood Games, has resulted in a more than 10,000 percent increase in the company stock even though OGG hasn’t released anything except for upbeat press statements.

“What can I say? People are excited about our promise,” Stolipo told IGNN reporter Nell Chase.

The question in the minds of investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission is just what is OGG promising.

“They have no capital backing,” notes SEC investigator Marshal Cranz. “They have no assets. No office. No phone. And as far as I can tell the closest Mr. Stolipo has ever come to programming anything was when he set the clock on his microwave.”

And yet the expectations are astronomical for Stock Trader King—OGG’s first title—which is scheduled to be released as a Facebook app later this year. The most recent press release calls the game, “Farmville for greedy bastards” and it promises to make players “virtual millionaires over night.”

Cranz thinks it’s an online ponzi scheme. “They promise returns on something that will never exist and the stock goes through the roof. That’s wrong.”

Stolipo disagrees. “What has the SEC programmed recently?” he told IGNN. “Those guys wouldn’t recognize a game in development if it was stuck up their noses and smelled like a fish. Who says you need an office to program a game anyway?”

But the questions just don’t go away. IGNN has discovered that the most recent hardware Mr. Stolipo purchased was an Apple Lisa computer, which he obtained from Artichoke PCs and Pizza in Berkeley, CA.

“That Lisa was—I mean “is”—a fine machine,” Stolipo responded, when questioned about the development system he is using. “Ahead of its time, I’d say. And I would like to add that it is a tribute to our development team that they can generate such amazing results using vintage hardware.”

Just who belongs to that development team, however, raises further questions. “Stolipo’s company has no payroll, and according to his neighbors, the man lives alone with two cats.”

“The dev crew is in Russia,” Stolipo explained, laughing. “I pay them through an agency in Minsk.”

According to investment analyst Geoffrey Studebaker Grist all the SEC activity has just added fuel to the fire, increasing the company’s visibility, Google rank, and value. “If I was a suspicious person,” noted Grist, “I’d wonder if those SEC guys don’t have a stake in OGG.”

Time will tell, of course, as the game is due out in September. –Nell Chase