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Topic: Should you be excited?

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Chrono_Cross

Do you get excited for games you have never played?


TotalBiscuit is great at what he does. More times than not, he brings great points to the table regarding this questionable industry. Just with his video above, he focused on the gullibility and ignorance of the consumer and the deception from gaming journalists and the developers (both AAA and independent).

I'll admit it, I've never played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I played the 'Ground Zeroes prologue' thoroughly but I never played the full game. From my personal experience, Hideo Kojima's productions have never disappointed me. I have faith in V but what about Alien Isolation? Should I pre-order a game I've never played? A game that is not finished? A game I know nothing about beyond a trailer, a gameplay video and hype?


Gaming journalism is absolutely terrible, too. NintendoLife is no exception in any way. These "journalists" write articles about their favorite game franchises and review games with nostalgic opinions. Which is awful in its own right. To add to this, the articles are more times than not contradicting rants that are so poorly written, the author should have put emoticons at the end of every sentence.

Of course, it doesn't end there. No, it gets much worse. There has never been a perfect website or magazine, but click bait is worse than biased articles. Phil Fish? Sorry to bring him up, but he's so recent I figured (almost) everyone can recognize where I'm going with this. IGN, Kotaku, Destructoid, Screw Attack, (GameInformer?), and NintendoLife are all video game websites ran by "journalists" who, time after time, report Phil's Twitter tweets. This practice is unprofessional and untrustworthy. You cannot trust the staff of a website that writes articles on outrageous individuals. There's nothing to benefit from Phil Fish's immature behavior and your time is being wasted just glancing at it. Let alone reading it and commenting below.


I'm one of the many that follows blindly behind the hype commercials bring.

'Game of the show!" - IGN "Best Wii U game!" - GameInformer "You will squeal like a little girl when you play this game!" - Gaming journalists

As Biscuit said, all of these AAA companies know what they are doing when it comes down to marketing a game. Throwing these quotes (quotes from E3. Not to be confused with reviews), or awards into some cinematic or appealing commercial makes fans and other gamers hyped for something they have never played. It tempts those individuals to go out to Wal-Mart or GameStop or Best Buy and spend $60 on it. Those awards are meaningless because those journalists that loved the E3 demo haven't played the full game either, yet they're telling you or whoever, that it's fantastic and you should be excited.

As consumers, we're not 100% guilty. I, for one, will not be pre ordering games or purchasing games without reviews (from sites I actually trust sorry not sorry NL ). Except Metal Gear Solid and Animal Crossing.

I love that stuff.


Do you pre-order games? What is your opinion of gaming journalism and AAA companies? Any points in the video I overlooked or is there something you would like to mention?

Comment below and let's have a mature, down-to-Earth discussion for once.

Edited on by Chrono_Cross

Just for you.
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cookiex

Tops wrote:

But isn't that exactly what advertising is supposed to do? It's nothing new and not limited to the games industry.

Exactly.

Hollywood uses Comic-Con and similar ventures to hype their movies (despite very rarely does anyone not attending the show ever get to see the footage they're so hyping up) and then make commercials like this:

When this ad for Guardains of the Galaxy came out, less than twenty out of the 200+ critics that reviewed the film on Rotten Tomatoes had published their reviews, and those that are let out early often tend to be biased.

Edited on by cookiex

cookiex
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unrandomsam

Difference is in others people are willing to forgo free stuff in order to be impartial.

The customer is the people paying for the advertising.

The print magazines I used to read used to just review the Japanese version. (No need for any embargoes just buy it).

I trust Morgan Sleepers reviews that is all. (Only because there a few games I was unsure of he rated that I got and I ended up really liking).

“30fps Is Not a Good Artistic Decision, It's a Failure”
Freedom of the press is for those who happen to own one.

19Robb92

Most of the times I shouldn't be, probably.

But why not? I like getting excited, it's fun while it lasts.

Looking forward to: No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again

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BearHunger

Yeah, I don't like hype. Media are made a much bigger deal out of than they need to be.

BearHunger

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Ryno

Getting so overly excited about the next big game (or DLC) coming out in the future is foolish and a waste of your time and life. Enjoy what you have at the moment before the day you look back and wonder where the heck your life went.

Edited on by Ryno

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Chrono_Cross

Tops wrote:

But isn't that exactly what advertising is supposed to do? It's nothing new and not limited to the games industry.

Of course it's not new. We're not solely discussing company approval of misleading advertisements.

We are also talking about gaming journalists and so much more.

19Robb92 wrote:

Most of the times I shouldn't be, probably.

But why not? I like getting excited, it's fun while it lasts.

There's nothing wrong with that. I get excited, too, but I've been trying to limit myself each year.

CanisWolfred wrote:

Then just ignore the hype. It's not that hard. I do it all the time.

Haven't you ever been convinced from hype?

Otherwise, you're pretty lucky. lol

Ryno wrote:

Enjoy what you have at the moment before the day you look back and wonder where the heck your life went.

Words to live by.

Edited on by Chrono_Cross

Just for you.
"I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear." - Freddie Mercury

Prof_Clayton

This is why I enjoy writing reviews of games I know nothing about. I see it in a press release, and almost completely ignore anything about the game. Once I play it, I then form an opinion on the game itself, rather than the ideas surrounding it. I don't care if it was supposed to be a hit at the moment, I just care if they game is fun, or not, and why I think so. This, I feel, allows me to give a full unbiased review. I'll also, somewhat hypocritically, google the company for background info on the game for an introduction or context when I have already formed my final opinion, but never another review.
If all gamers could do this too, that'd be wonderful. Except that'd be a large price to pay. When I'm buying a game myself, I always wait for reviews, not to see what the general reaction is to the game, but to see what the game is. Sure, I'll look at photos and previews, but mostly to get an idea of what it'll look like graphics wise, not what it will be.
As for people like Phil Fish, I seperate myself from them. I have no idea what he has done, except make Fez, and I don't care about his social life. I care about his games. If a modern day Hitler had made Mario Kart 8, I'd still have bought it just the same. Not because I support him, but because his game is fun. Media truly doesn't define what a game is, though it always tries its best to cover the reality behind itself, and this is why issues always arise. Give me games, and let me see what I think.

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TeeJay

Not even sure who this Phil Fish fellow is.

If you add me, I need to at least know you or I won't add you back.

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Ralek85

1.) What's the point about pre-ordering games anyways?
There are very, very few games, where demand actually exceeds supply for retail copies. Of course, the whole consideration becomes utterly pointless once you consider digital purchases. But even if you are stuck in the last decade, the only thing you get, is those preorder boni, which most of the time are rather worthless. Just don't do it, unless you are 100% you want that game.
For example, I played the Destiny alpha as well as the beta, I want it, I'm gonna play it, so are my friends, and to that end I'm going to preorder it in the next couple of days ... but not for those stupid boni though, but for the preload, so I can play on Day 1. Actually, preload is probably the best reason I can come up with to preorder a game ... quite telling ^^

2.) What are we really talking about, when we are talking about hype?
If hype makes you buy the proverbial cat in a bag, meaning preordering, then it is a bad thing, simple as that. Nothing short of a manipulation by the media-industrial complex, if you will. But it is still your choice in the end, you can still say no, I'm going to wait and see, like a rational human being. So be smart about it. On the other hand, if hype means getting people excited for a game, them counting the days until it's release, and then finally enjoying it all the more for it, then it is a good thing, since I still think, pleasant anticipation is one of the best kinds of joy in life. Unfortunately, if the games completely fails to deliver, the disappointment is all that much greater for it, but that is just life.
To misquote Wendt then, "Hype is what people make of it". Nothing more and nothing less.

3.) As for game journalism, the question seems besides the point, since there doesn't seem to be any (yet?)
There is a lot of entertainment and news media surrounding the actual games industry, but none of it subscribes to any basic journalistic principle. Actually, there was a discussion on this on Dtoid not so long ago, with among others, some of the editors. It was more about review scores really, but still, the basic idea of using a more or less common set of rules, a methodology really, seemed anathema to them, they wouldn't even acknowledge, that their scores imply comparability, despite them being used for that explicit purpose on a daily basis, especially on sites like metacritic. Honestly, calling any gaming-related site I know today something-something-Journalism is about as reasonable and apt as calling Fox News something-something-Journalism.

They both serve a purpose, that purpose is to entertain, and in doing so, they are also all acitivist in nature (although there are degrees to this). There is no objectivity here, not even intersubjectivity or a kind of peer-review, or any kind of aggregated average based on a common methodology. Most importantly, there is no journalistic ethos here, not even the most basic and common ones, like always marking opinion pieces as such (exceptions like RPS exist though), or always having multiple sources confirming any "findings", stuff like that.
Some may argue that not all of those "good practices" can be applied to games, and that is certainly true to a point, but so far I have seen little to no evidence, that anyonse is even bothering to try to do anything in that regard, anything at all, to even get somewhat closer ... Please don't validate it by calling it journalism, it ain't.

Another IMHO piece by me, Ralek, cheers and enjoy!

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sinalefa

@Chrono_Cross

Just out of curiosity, what are those sites whose reviews you actually trust?

Anyway, I don't preorder anymore, unless it is a game that I know I will love like MK8 or Smash Bros. Even something like Hyrule Warriors or The Evil Within have me waiting for reviews, as many as I can check. Games are too expensive as they are so I can usually wait.

I will comment in this thread, never being able to find it again.

Zanark

TeeJay wrote:

Not even sure who this Phil Fish fellow is.

I think he is the brother of Qwilfish.

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unrandomsam

Japanese3ds.com is quite good it is just some guy buying everything and writing if he likes it or not and a bit about it.

If I read a newspaper I never read the opinion. (But appreciate it is separated).

I trust Famitsu in comparison to itself when it comes to the scores. (Compare it to something they have reviewed I do like in the genre and that has worked out better than anything else for me - wasted £400 on mediocre 3DS games before I decided I needed to do something about it).

“30fps Is Not a Good Artistic Decision, It's a Failure”
Freedom of the press is for those who happen to own one.

CanisWolfred

Chrono_Cross wrote:

CanisWolfred wrote:

Then just ignore the hype. It's not that hard. I do it all the time.

Haven't you ever been swept up by the ol' hype train before?

Otherwise, you're pretty lucky. lol

Once or twice, but so what? People have a tendency to want to be accepted, so they do things others do just to be accepted. People get excited because others are excited and want to be excited too. It's just freakin' human nature. That said, if you don't like it, it's one of those human nature things that's easier to catch with a little experience. So if you don't like it, you just gotta catch yourself. But believe it or not, there are plenty of people who like being hyped.

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Chrono_Cross

CanisWolfred wrote:

Once or twice, but so what? People have a tendency to want to be accepted, so they do things others do just to be accepted. People get excited because others are excited and want to be excited too. It's just freakin' human nature. That said, if you don't like it, it's one of those human nature things that's easier to catch with a little experience. So if you don't like it, you just gotta catch yourself. But believe it or not, there are plenty of people who like being hyped.

I agree wholeheartedly.

I don't get hyped for every game that releases but I have narrowed it down from, let's say twenty on average per year, to a low, low six.

sinalefa wrote:

@Chrono_Cross
Just out of curiosity, what are those sites whose reviews you actually trust?

That's none of your business.

Just for you.
"I'm just a musical prostitute, my dear." - Freddie Mercury

sinalefa

@Chrono_Cross

Way to encourage a "a mature, down-to-Earth discussion".

I will comment in this thread, never being able to find it again.

LzWinky

Gaming journalism is absolutely terrible, too. NintendoLife is no exception in any way. These "journalists" write articles about their favorite game franchises and review games with nostalgic opinions. Which is awful in its own right. To add to this, the articles are more times than not contradicting rants that are so poorly written, the author should have put emoticons at the end of every sentence.

If the review is thorough on the game's good points, then I don't see why it can't be nostalgic. Most of the time, I read reviews on games in franchises I am comfortable with just to see if it holds up to the other games in the franchise. However, I would agree with the point that maybe there should be a separate recommendation for newcomers and nostalgic players.

Of course, it doesn't end there. No, it gets much worse. There has never been a perfect website or magazine, but click bait is worse than biased articles. Phil Fish? Sorry to bring him up, but he's so recent I figured (almost) everyone can recognize where I'm going with this. IGN, Kotaku, Destructoid, Screw Attack, (GameInformer?), and NintendoLife are all video game websites ran by "journalists" who, time after time, report Phil's Twitter tweets. This practice is unprofessional and untrustworthy. You cannot trust the staff of a website that writes articles on outrageous individuals. There's nothing to benefit from Phil Fish's immature behavior and your time is being wasted just glancing at it. Let alone reading it and commenting below.

To single out gaming journalism is just as foolish. Every form of media is guilty of this crap. Someone controversial says something, and the subsequent journalists report on it. I am in no way endorsing it, just pointing out it's common throughout the world. And who can really blame these people. Users, viewers, etc. eat this stuff up and make a big deal out of it. For me, I don't really care about Phil Fish or Zoe Quinn because journalists and gamers want everyone to make a big fuss about it.

As Biscuit said, all of these AAA companies know what they are doing when it comes down to marketing a game. Throwing these quotes (quotes from E3. Not to be confused with reviews), or awards into some cinematic or appealing commercial makes fans and other gamers hyped for something they have never played. It tempts those individuals to go out to Wal-Mart or GameStop or Best Buy and spend $60 on it. Those awards are meaningless because those journalists that loved the E3 demo haven't played the full game either, yet they're telling you or whoever, that it's fantastic and you should be excited.

Yeah, I think this garbage is bad, though some developers (especially indies) actually quote reviews that I remember being written. Someone quoted Corbs' review a couple of years ago. Though again, most companies do this to hype their product. Hollywood and electronics companies are the worst when they hype about the crap I really shouldn't care about...

As consumers, we're not 100% guilty. I, for one, will not be pre ordering games or purchasing games without reviews (from sites I actually trust sorry not sorry NL ). Except Metal Gear Solid and Animal Crossing.

To each his own really. If you feel comfortable preordering a game you will like, go for it! Don't preorder crap if you are being pressured. You CAN say no to Gamestop and these publishers. Remember Alien Colonial Marines.

Do you pre-order games? What is your opinion of gaming journalism and AAA companies? Any points in the video I overlooked or is there something you would like to mention?

Comment below and let's have a mature, down-to-Earth discussion for once.

I preorder games from well-established franchises that I know I will like. Heck, most of my preorders from Gamestop are games I already decided to get.

As for gaming journalism and the gaming industry, I know it's mostly bad and I often discuss this crap they are doing. But honestly, I just want to play my damn games and forget this crap.

As for missing points, I don't think we discuss the POSITIVES of the gaming industry. There are positives as far as the eye can see, even past the doggeypoop that is the AAA publishers:

1. Nintendo cares about making games that are fun, not full of pointless cinematics or graphix
2. Some indies are still innocent. They also make games we want and are honest and receptive of criticism.
3. Some journalists want to report the positives of the industry.
4. Some developers actually care about the "art" of gaming over making money

Current games: Everything on Switch

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