Re: New "world-first" coaster at Alton Towers 2013
I don't think the coaster being on the plans is weird either.
And perhaps it's a sign that the days of secrecy are long gone?
In the UK it's impossible to keep something like this secret. Utterly impossible. And it's funny that despite this, Merlin have chosen to go the secret route for years and years whilst in the US it's commonplace for parks to release the layout as a marketing strategy.
Maybe they've finally decided that drumming up hype with the use of the enthusiast community (as they have been with Swarm on Facebook) is the best way to go? It's essentially free advertising and a platform such as facebook means that every enthusiasts's friends know about Swarm too. You can't not know about it.
That said, maybe it is also fishy, but I find it funny that the person saying it's 100% definitely confirmed to be a Eurofighter would think that.
The idea of it being viral or a red herring I don't think is entirely impossible, but highly unlikely. Even if the plans for the buildings, for example, are real and the coaster is not... The effort involved in sorting out a layout that also is mobious-like in nature and that. Just no.
Furie is right, I think it's length is an interesting point in itself. It's really, really long and comprises of little gimmick, but instead a lot of what people just associate with coasters... Lots of upsidowny bits. The phrase "it's too short" is definitely the most common criticism the general public have of a coaster, and they even say it when a ride is long. But I also think of it as a pretty mindless criticism, it's typical British "I don't want to have TOO much fun, so I must criticise something". There's almost an awkwardness in admitting you like something before you know other people's reactions.