Can hype ruin your experience?

[Sir Boss]

Just take a look at the Total War forums. Everyone was so very, very, very excited for Total War: ROME II. but then... that launch man, that launch. To this day, a year, 15 patches, and a bunch of free content later, people are still so very sore over the launch. It was such a disastrous launch, expectations were not met by a long way. Avid fans left the series because of the game not meeting with their hype for it. Many that stuck with the game are not the same anymore, everyone's a little sore over the launch.
Hype can do very bad things.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

No.

Hype gets you hooked --- the experience gets ruined when the hype, which started a high expectation, doesn't match the final product in which you feel that someone lied to you just to get you to buy something.

It gets worse when you use great graphics and hand picked cut-scenes only to find the great graphics aren't found and the cut scene that was in a demo isn't even in the final game.

A good example of over-hype? Ahem.... " Lair"

 

[Super Cyborg]

It depends. I usually stay away from media and fan hype. I get really excited about Zelda, SMT, Xseed games, and other stuff because of past performance and how much I like it. Usually it's just excited to play the game, and not getting huge expectations. This never hurts me because usually I am very happy with it.

Fan hype is another thing. In cases of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, it was more people talking about an RPG that didn't get as much love as it should've because only being on PSP at the time. People said it had a great story and characters. It was enough hype to make me want to get it, because there was just enough talk about it here in there.

The main problem I have is when things are talked about way to much. The only thing that I probably won't watch at this point is Attack on Titan. For months, and even still, people talk about it as the second coming of Christ, and that it's so deep, and all this other stuff. It reminds me of the hardcore Bleach fans, and I know how that series is.

It really depends on the fan base and how the fans talk about it. If they are sane and not go over board, it's fine. If they blab on about how it's the greatest thing ever, that's a problem. This almost happened to me when someone linked a review of Kill la Kill saying it was the Citizen Kane of anime, based only on the first episode of the bloody series.

 

[bishopzz]

I think a lot of people take their expectations too seriously, you see this especially with sequels. If BioShock 2 were released before the original it would be considered a really good game, but instead many people consider it bad because it's 15% worse than the previous game. I tend not to have expectations for things, but when I do it doesn't really affect what I think about them.

 

[Pink Gregory]

See, I've never had a problem with hype; because hype doesn't translate to expectations for me, only just general excitement.

That and my uh requirements might I say aren't ever set in stone. For example, there are a few things I could pick out about MGSV that I would prefer to be different, but I'm still excited because my perception of how the game *should* be isn't set in stone. I don't think it ever should be.

 

[Guffe]

Yes it can.
There was a movie all my mates said was the best crap ever and so I decided to watch it.
Well I was expecting a lot more and so when it ended I was like "meh", nothing sepcial.

So I usually don't have any exepectations anymore for books, movies or games. I know what the next Avengers is going to be like, but I am not hyping anything. I'm going into the movie thinking I'll get a solid action/adventure movie out of it. Then everything else will be just plus. I do this with everything these days, lowering my expectation to mediocre or moderate.

Works for me.

 

[Pink Gregory]

playing as Connor just got dull. Connor himself could of been a interesting character but he didn't really have a arc or evolve and coming off the Ezio trilogy that was a disappointment.

I loved how his arc from child to adult was shown by him standing in a room and monologuing. Not even a cutscene, just standing in a room in his idle pose.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Can it? Sure, it definitely can. At this point, however, I think what we should be asking is "should it?"

I mean, I'm sure we all have stories about stuff we are excited for turning out to be not so great. I'm sure we also all have examples of stuff where we, whether we were hooked in or not, came out and didn't match any of the re-release hoopla. I'm not really sure there's any excuse at this point for totally getting suckered into something. Now, I do feel it's good to be excited for things and to anticipate them. It's important to not just be super cynical about everything. We should maintain a healthy level of suspicion and make our decisions based on fact and prior experience rather than what the marketing guys are telling us.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

This may be an aside comment from the original OP's intention but I think in AC3, the character of Conner was undercut because his name " Conner" was given to him by the old assassin master because he couldn't go around using his tribal name, the thinking behind that being the rest of the colonialists would see him as a vagabond rather than a respected member of the colony. So right there he was forced to hide his Indian identity whereas Ezio was more or less a highly educated Italian from a well known family name whom could have access to the power structure and be out and about without the stigma of his heritage and race. --- but aside from that, you are supposed to believe the continental army would mount up and allow him to lead them into an engagement with the British Army. Ok... next.


--- ahem back to what we were discussing. Clips and polished scenes with graphics of which will not be seen in the final game will most def automatically drop the experience by 3 stars.

 

[FPLOON]

Nope... because I go into everything with the same kind of indifference as I would normally do when meeting someone new for the first time... I mean, of course there are some games/movies/shows/etc. I was going to enjoy regardless of hype and shit like that, but for the most part, I don't let the hype get to me because I'm already at the mindset I need to be overall...

With that said, I can't wait to own both Kingdom Hearts II.5 HD ReMIX and Adventure Time Season 4 on Blu-Ray when they come out on their respected dates! Fucking hyped as fucked, dood!!

 

[Dark Knifer]

I generally avoid hype usually by only watching raw gameplay footage if any. I have yet to play destiny for example but it looks like exactly what I expected. A fairly decent halo-esque shooter with a borderlands loot system. The only thing I didn't see was that the loot system was poorly thought out but since I avoid hype I never buy anything at launch so most things like that are patched out by the time I get it.

But it absolutely can ruin your experience if your expectations are unrealistic, which I've done years ago. Learned my lesson now.

 

[Timmaaaah]

As for AC3, well I love the series and I was looking forward to seeing how it would all end (I'm not naive enough to think they'd stop, but I wanted to see the end of Desmonds story, which I liked in the previous games) but not only was Desmonds send off a disappointment as well as head scratchingly stupid, but playing as Connor just got dull. Connor himself could of been a interesting character but he didn't really have a arc or evolve and coming off the Ezio trilogy that was a disappointment. I told myself I was done with AC after that game, then they announced the next one would feature Pirates, god damnit.

I feel your pain. AC 3 made me physically angry. The entire ancestor story may as well have not existed in that game. Ezio and Altair's stories advanced the 2012 plot and seemed to be linked thematically with Desmonds journey. Connor was just pointless really.

 

[Timmaaaah]

I think there's a flipside. Sometimes hype can make things better because they highlight the positive qualities of a game. Then there's Yahtzee who kind of acts as the ultimate anti-hype. His reviews have almost completely ruined what would otherwise have been rather enjoyable games. His nitpicks end up goldbluming parts of games that I might have otherwise not noticed. One game in particular being Dishonored. Once I noticed how incredibly lifeless all the NPCs and characters were I COULDN'T STOP. Though the terrible acting from the villain at the beginning was bad enough for me to laugh.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, it can cause me to have warped expectations or to apply harsh standards.

To this day I am agressively unimpressed by Planescape Torment. I suspect that would be different if the game's reputation had led me to expect an outmoded RPG with some cool ideas and a decent setting, Y'know, as opposed to the lofty pinnacle of storytelling in video games that will forever change your innermost soul.

 

[jakeyjakey]

Yes! Firefly was a huge disappointment. I was expecting something along the lines of Buffy (Joss Whedon also created that) and what I got in Firefly was totally different. I also expected elements of a western because everyone said that's what it was like, and it wasn't like that at all.

 

[Elijin]

If you're expecting the second coming of christ in entertainment form, and instead you get something which is simply an okay way to spend some down time, you're going to be both extremely disappointed and highly critical of it.

So yeah, definitely.

Just look at Destiny. Functional game, fun gunplay, decent overall experience.....and largely trashed everywhere because it was expected to be the next big thing that re-defined the market, instead of just being an unremarkable but fun game that it turned out to be.