Monday 24 September 2012

Not Getting on the Hype Train

With Tokyo Game Show stuff filling up all the gaming websites that I usually browse through, I thought now would be a good chance to talk about game hype and why I don't bother with it 90% of the time.

First let's start with what I like to do.  I usually head over to one of the many sites that provide me with gaming news and information and check out announcements and stuff like that.  Once I learn that a upcoming game exists, that's it, I'm done.  For most games I don't ever read more into them than that. Sure, I might watch a trailer or two to see what it looks like, but I don't like to get behind these huge advertising campaigns that some games have and get super hyped for something before I've even had a chance to play it.

The reason I try to read as little as possible on upcoming titles is that a common complaint I hear is that a certain game "didn't live up to expectations" so I figure, the less you know about a game, the less expectation you have and then you don't get the pangs of disappointment when it sucks.  On top of that, if the game does end up being really really good, you feel extra happy for getting a pleasant surprise.

It's true that I don't do this for every game, but the majority of games I try to follow as little as possible until after they have been released.  I don't want a marketing campaign giving me preconceptions as to how awesome I should think it should be, I want to form my own goddamn opinion by actually playing the game.

So before I finish I just want to clarify that this doesn't mean I bury my head in the sand and ignore everything that's put out on a game after the initial announcement.  Reading news regarding a games development is not the same as following the hype but there is a very thin line.

I'm quite tired and I'm expecting to read this in the morning and getting a faceful of twaddle, but you're intelligent people, you know what I'm at least trying to say.



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