It just popped into my head this morning — I honestly and truly think that some gamers are now living to be disappointed, that they cannot comprehend a new title doing anything but letting them down that snarking on the game beforehand and crowing a good “I told you so!” afterwards is where their true pleasure lies.
I mention this because whenever I get a little too peppy about an upcoming title, as is my wont, there are always spoilsports on around the ‘nets that can’t help but find fault with a game that hasn’t even been released, and chide us excitable types on setting expectations too high and getting caught up in the hype train and so on. After all, if we set our expectations and standards low, really really low, then we have a better chance of not being hurt, right?
It’s this kind of forward-thinking worldview that makes for great relationships. You’ve been hurt in the past, stung by a breakup or betrayal, and start to grow weary and cynical of what’s to come. You see any potential relationship as inherently flawed from the start, and go into it like a wounded animal who’s looking for one, just one reason to lash out and bolt. No relationship after that stands a chance — and, I guess, no MMO will either.
I’m not saying that we should all be wide-eyed, uber-innocent waifs who have cast off the bounds of realistic expectations, and forget lessons learned from the past. That’s just silly. We know that it’s virtually impossible these days for a game to fully live up to its marketing hype, launch flawlessly and be 110% polished from the start. It’d be great if it was, but it won’t be.
But let’s not swing so far the other way that we become the Ebeneezer Scrooges of MMO-dom, spitting out “bah humbug!” at these up-and-coming titles, forgetting the true joy of why we love this particular hobby. As I said in our recent podcast, getting excited for what’s coming is half the fun, and I don’t intend to let anyone rob me of that. I love looking forward to things — vacations, Christmas, new books, a day off from work, summer movies — and even when some are bound to not be as great as advertised, I’m not going to let it stop me from letting a belly full of giddy get to my head.
You sports fans out there — you know that the odds are against your favorite team making it to the championships on any given year, and yet you don’t slouch in your seat as you watch the games, just waiting to be let down. No! You want to reach high, as your team does; you taste the sweet juices of certainty that this will be THE year; you cheer them on, and win or lose, you discover that you had a pretty great run.
I spent the bulk of 2008 riding the highs and lows of hype and marketing for Warhammer Online, and then playing the game through another set of highs and lows. Even though I’m not playing it right now and have ultimately decided that it’s not the title for me, I don’t regret a minute spent getting worked up about its coming. I love the fact that Mythic was reaching really high with some of its ideas, and I cheered them on in doing so. It helped to while away some boring days of summer as I counted down the days until launch and thought about what I wanted to do in the game. It was fun. And I’m fine with doing it again — for Champions, for Star Wars, for whatever title catches my eye, sets its sights high, and asks me to believe that they can accomplish it.
Because you never know — they might actually do it. It’s been done before. People who are deriding other folks for buying into hype completely overlook that Blizzard is the KING of hype, and WoW’s pre-launch marketing campaign is unparalleled unto this day (people weren’t so much let down there, which is why this isn’t getting used as an example). What about LOTRO? I’m not going to waste months and years beforehand trying to turn a blind eye to the game, ignoring it until it releases simply because I’m scared of getting TOO worked up over it.
What cracks me up is that some people will complain about a game’s marketing no matter how they do it. Release too little information — complain. Too much? It’s overhyped — complain. Crappy trailer? It’s a fail, complain. Awesome trailer? No way gameplay is going to be like that, complain. Devs talk too much or too little? You can complain about either! It’s a free internet, after all!
So have fun feeling superior to us eager beaver anticipators, if you like. Go back to your mountaintop fortress, shake your fists at upcoming MMOs and revel in some of their failures. I’d rather live in Who-ville, frankly.
Angry at Tobold?
I am sorry to say, but everyone who is too excited about the SWTOR trailer baffles me. It is pure hype, not one bit of info about the game.
I’m glad I’m not nearly as jaded as representatives from this posting
I am pushing myself to hope for the hype, but I’ll likely wait a few months after release for new MMOs I want to try. I’m a bit worn out on hitting a MMO as it releases and the turmoil from getting it stable.
I was going to make a similar post Syp, you have saved me the trouble.
If the worst thing that happens to me this year (or so) is that TOR/STO/CO sucks, I will be very happy.
I’m totally stealing your Christmas tree, and all of the Christmas trimmings.
I think alot of the anti-hype has to do with being let down from past instances. Some people just keep quiet about the whole thing, and avoid information like the plague in an attempt to keep their hopes down so that disapointment wont be as hard or there at all. Others like you (or even myself) get excited about a title and want to know everything you can about it with the mindset that if you know everything about it, you know what to expect. Then there’s the other group which you mentioned. People who truly want to know about the game, and want all the info, but they blast any hype they see as a veiled attempt drive away the hype monster. It’s almost a pascals wager. “I want it to rock, but I’ll say that it wont live up to the hype, so if its good I can say wow, it’s what I really wanted, but if it sucks I can say I told you so.”
There are many companies that take advantage of pre-launch fervor for marketing. Don’t let yourself be a mouthpiece for some unscrupulous companies marketing propoganda.
Pre-game hype is one thing. Promoting features long after they have been cut from the game is another. So long as game companies can get so much free publicity for releasing a simple machinima or over-promising-under-delivering they will continue this practice.
TOR devs still need to explain how they plan on addressing Jedi balance or if they just intend on 90% of the players rolling Jedi on day 1. Sadly most gaming media outlets are content to copy and paste press releases directly from game companies and rarely ask pertinent questions.
But, if I expect it to be absolutely horrific, when I get to playing it (I like trying new things even if I doubt I’ll enjoy them) I can only be pleasantly surprised!
Interesting replies.
Remember when games used to be for fun?
@ Werit
Games are still for fun (if they weren’t, they wouldnt be my major past time). But its a part of the entertainment industry, so theres a growing amount of sensationalism that is being put into the market. Something we have to put up with, but dont have to take stock in.
Games used to be fun when I was young and I wasn’t torn between a dozen or so other hobbies and RL responsibilities.
Hype is fun when you’re caught up in the moment but lame when and after you get burned.
Believing corporations, media, and gov’t was fun when I was naive and didn’t know the meaning of “hidden agenda” and “greasy palms.”
The world needs cynics as much as it need hopeless optimists and dreamers. Without the former, greed, corruption, and deceit would overtake us all. Without the latter, we would never progress as a civilization.
There’s my lunch time philosophical quota for the day!
Yya, I’m back to being excited about World of Darkness thanks to Uncle Syp!
No one forces us to pre-order or play on launch day. If you can’t control yourself with the ‘hype’, don’t blame the corporations, it is your own fault. Buyer Beware as they say.
Am I alone in being able to look forward to something without feeling disappointed if it doesn’t work out, for something as trivial as a video game?
Lots of good comments here, and it makes me want to try to be less of the grump I’ve become thanks to previous MMO disappointments. However, there’s one *incredibly important* reason why I don’t think I can ever be the eternal optimist – being lied to sucks.
As a matter of principle, I hate being lied to and I really hate being lied to and then have to try to be okay with it. It’s like taking a bite of a sh!t sandwich, gagging, and then telling someone it tasted great (just so they’ll take a big sh!tty bite of that disguisting sandwich). That’s how I feel when I fall for the marketing hype around anything, not just online games.
I guess some people are okay with that, since the excitement before the sh!t sandwich really floats their boat. But please, please, PLEASE keep in mind that every time you take a bite of a sh!t sandwich, swallow, say it was good and go back for more you’re encouraging marketing gurus to continue to cook up sh!t sandwiches for their next victims.
On the other hand, if you get angry and say “hey, this isn’t good… it’s a damn sh!t sandwich!” and punch the guy who gave it to you square in the nose, there’s a good chance you won’t have to eat as many sh!t sandwiches in the future.
We’re all consumers, whether it be MMOs, other games, cars, appliances, homes, television and other media, etc. If we don’t stand up as consumers and refuse to eat these sh!t sandwiches, we’ll be eating them for a long time to come.
Sh!t sandwich count: 8
I hope Syp will approve my sh!t sandwich rant.
Whoops! That puts me up to 9…
What’s wrong with striking a nice pragmatic balance?
Or in other words, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
@werit If my blog, its title, and its fare didn’t make it obvious, I’m with you.
As far as what you wrote Syp, I’m sure I needed to clarify since I was one of the people saying not to set expectations so high. unwize has it right – being pragmatic doesn’t mean being a giddy fanboi or a grumpy hater. it simply means being realistic.
I allow myself to be excited and awed by new stuff that comes out like the SW:TOR trailer. I think it’s great and neat and amazing. But I also know it for what it is, which is a cinematic designed to elicit such feelings.
I share your feelings about the perpetually cynical out there. You see many of them out there – predicting failure for a game even before it is out of the game – and hedging their bets – if the game is great, they are pleasantly surprised, and if it’s not, they get to tell people they told them so. In short, it’s the drive to be right on the internet and be recognized as such by its peers. Thankfully, that’s not any of the commenters here.
There’s nothing wrong with being a realist. An idealist sees the glass half full. A pessimist sees it as half empty. And a realist sees that there’s at least a drink in front of them :p
@ Frank – Takes all views, and that has a valid point. But I was thinking about your MMO Love Affair article, which is why I mentioned why past relationships don’t always mean the future ones will be the same. Maybe we’ll change, maybe the game cycle will.
Personally, I’m rooting for the new Star Wars MMO because I know some of the people on the team. I hope they become wildly successful. But, I can understand why people are cranky, and it’s not just being a curmudgeon. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, you whippersnappers!)
The problem here is threefold:
1. Marketing fatigue. The game’s not going to be out for a year yet, right? Why start the hype machine now? Most of the old hands have seen this before, and have been bit by overblown expectations.
2. Lack of information. As was pointed out, the trailer had very little gameplay information. Unless everyone is going to be able to command a ship to ram into a Jedi temple… Releasing a “teaser trailer” then everyone drooling on command ties into the previous point of being sick of marketing.
3. Clogging up the channels. Everyone’s going on about the info-sparse trailer, so other games are going to find it harder to get attention. Games that might be interesting and releasing earlier than next year. Almost every MMO-related blog I read has talked about the game, so it can get tiring to read it “one more time”. (I know, QQ about business and all that, but that doesn’t mean people have to like reality.)
There may be more reasons, but there are three I can imagine.