How is it your faith in trailers lately?

[Igor-Rowan]

Last week I realized I typed something that I should have realized how stupid it was, but the typer's remorse came way too late. I said: "If the trailers are to be believed, [...]", which at this day and age is becoming a bit of a double-edge sword.

We all remember Dead Island and how misleading that trailer was, regardless of your opinion on the actual game, but in your opinion has things improved since them? BecauseI think the reason why people are not seeing the point of E3 anymore is that they're showing pre-rendered trailers that my not even be in the final game, and considering that we already see tons of them at YouTube and such, why go the extra step of putting a whole conference about this?

The gameplay booths are where is at and since VR really intends to take off, they need less showing and more experiencing, because you need to wear the headset to experience and trailers are not gonna do it justice.

I guess the solution would be gameplay-only trailers, but The Evil Within showed us that even gameplay trailers manage to mislead us in what the final product is going to be and the Nintendo Direct trailers take the opposite direction as they can be hindered by the dull voice-overs making the game more boring than it actually is. Even across the Xenoblade Chronicles X trailer campaign people could see the game having a bigger focus on mechanics instead of characters, a big selling point of the orginal Xenoblade.

To me, I think trailers are worth revisiting so you can make your own thoughts because the marketing team will try to make you buy it no matter what so spotting flaws on a trailer is important if I or you have high/low expectations.

 

[tippy2k2]

Same as it always has been; the trailers are designed by sales people to part you and your money. Putting your faith in them is like asking that shady mechanic who told you about how you were low on the $200 headlight fluid and expecting that THIS time he'll tell you the truth.

On the plus side for me, I don't ever watch trailers anyway. Until a game is released and review scores exist, a game might as well not even exist for all I know about it. Maybe it's the old and jaded gamer in me or maybe it's just that I don't have the same amount of time for games (so why watch a bunch of trailers when I have a bunch of games in front of me right now that I can be playing?) but trailers do nothing for me.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

I actually only watch trailers for games I like after I've played them.

For example, I think the launch trailer for The Witcher 2 is awesome, but when I first saw it, I'd already beaten the game once.

 

[DoPo]

We all remember Dead Island and how misleading that trailer was

I remember very well how it wasn't. It didn't show anything that one could judge the game by and thus it didn't "misrepresent" it. Perhaps there is a separate topic that it didn't actually represent the game, but that's entirely different. One is putting false information forward and people believing it (which didn't really happen), the other is offering no information to base a judgement on (which is what happened). People just decided to fabricate their own iterpretation regardless.

has things improved since them?

Improved in what way? Because non-representative trailers still exist. There are also misleading trailers, too. At any rate, I find it incredibly easy to make a judgement or hold it off based the trailer and I've not really been wrong until now. So, as far as I'm concerned - same old same old.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Snip

Well, the argument of pre rendered trailers still stands in that case. Maybe the game would have dealt with that family and their fateful meeting with the zombie apocalypse, like trailers that are prequels or moments within the story; instead we had entirely new characters. Maybe it would have the same Memento-style drama as the trailer was masterfully shot and directed, but no, pacing and tone are all over the place. People still remember Dead Island for that reason, it could have been just misleading like other pre rendered trailers, but decided to outright lie about everything.

 

[DoPo]

Snip

Well, the argument of pre rendered trailers still stands in that case. Maybe the game would have dealt with that family and their fateful meeting with the zombie apocalypse, like trailers that are prequels or moments within the story; instead we had entirely new characters. Maybe it would have the same Memento-style drama as the trailer was masterfully shot and directed, but no, pacing and tone are all over the place. People still remember Dead Island for that reason, it could have been just misleading like other pre rendered trailers, but decided to outright lie about everything.

Again, the trailer didn't lie. It simply didn't show anything that can be used to make a decision about the game.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

I've always hated CGI trailers, even with as cool as most of The Witcher trailers were. There is just such a disconnect between them and what you actually play.

With the advancement in technology though, those days should be pretty much a thing of the past. There are still exceptions though, mostly for RTS and MMO style games whose in-game content has never really been all that visually stimulating in the first place.


The next trailer I'm really looking forward to is for God of War on PS4, seeing as how last generation it was one of the only games that actually lived up to its trailer -

 

[Saelune]

I never had much faith in trailers ever. I just want to know the game exists. There are some things I look for in trailers, but its specific to the game. (Such as new characters in a Dynasty Warriors game).

If I watch a trailer, its usually cause I already want the game.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I never trusted trailers to begin with. No do I trust interviews, gameplay footage, or demos. I view game devs as 2nd graders who need to fart. Willing to do/say anything to distract you so they can get away with a squeaky stinker while no one is watching.

 

[Casual Shinji]

My faith in trailers is generally fine, unless it's a prerendered CGI affair like most Ubisoft game adds. Or one of Kojima's artsy fartsy bullshit trailers.

It's not unconditional obviously, but I have faith that with 95% of in-game and gameplay trailers, that what I'm seeing is more or less what I'm gonna get in the final product. Also with most of these trailers I only watch them to get a general idea of the look of the gameworld and characters, and what type of gameplay it has. Most of the scripted embellishments during stage presentations I can usually see right through anyway.

I can't say I've ever bought a game and then realized I was horribly lied to be it's advertising. If a game sucked it was either not to my taste, or the writing was on the wall and I choose to ignore it. *cough* Evil Within *cough*

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I get excited about trailers because they tell me something is coming. And I often find myself wishing that the people who made the trailer would just make a full blown movie, because some of these trailers look amazing. Like, seriously, Blizzard, your cutscenes are top notch. Just...find someone who can write better. And an editor.


But judging a game based on a trailer alone? No. I learned that lesson all the way back with Killzone 2 and the original launch of the PS3. No way the graphics could look that good and run that smoothly. I hoped. Boy, did I hope that it was true, but I knew it wasn't possible.
Now, the only trailers I trust to actually portray the game are launch-day trailers, because you can't fake that stuff anymore (or at least you shouldn't), because it's going to be fresh in fans' minds when the fire up the game later that day.

 

[sXeth]

I skipped off the trailer bandwagon back when all my buddies in school were rather enraged that the PSOne and Final Fantasy VII protagonist was a bunch of cubes attached to a couch cushion instead of those crazy graphics they showed in every single advert (The FMVs).

That may even have been the first prevalent game trailer, come to think of it. I don't really remember many games having TV spots before that. The systems did, and you'd see a few snippets of games in those, but the games themselves I don't remember ads for.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

We all remember Dead Island and how misleading that trailer was...

Oh, if only that was the first one...

Spoiler: three infamous trailers you may have forgotten about

I find it really hard to trust any trailer. Despite what I posted in spoilers, I didn't really take the hint until either Fable 3 or Dragon Age 2. At this point I just don't even bother getting a new game until it's had a price drop or two. The only real exceptions are Nintendo games since first party Nintendo games generally launch polished, even if the game itself is bad. As for third party games on the Wii U, the prices on those bastiches drop like rocks after a very short time on shelves.

I like watching trailers but if I'm going to be generous, I see them as a proof of concept more than anything. Of course that line of thought burned me when it came to Brutal Legend...

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

It depends on the company and the game, and how much GAME they show.

For example, I trust Atlus and their trailers. The late trailers have fair amounts of gameplay and are not known for faking things or removing core features after showing them.

Ubisoft? Not so much.

 

[BrawlMan]

I never had much faith in trailers ever. I just want to know the game exists. There are some things I look for in trailers, but its specific to the game. (Such as new characters in a Dynasty Warriors game).

If I watch a trailer, its usually cause I already want the game.

More or less the same for me, unless it is for curiosity's sake. The last time I ever really trusted a trailer was Bayonetta. Platinum I usually trusted, but even that came in to question with all the crap of partnering Activision and Microsoft. Hopefully that remains an isolated incident. Though everyone should know that not even their better games were completely 1-to-1 with their respective trailers. Metal Gear Rising took out the wall running that was featured in it's first trailer after Platinum too the helm.


After seeing the footage from Nier: Automata and Grandblue - Project Re:LINK, I regained confidence in them, but I will still remain cautious. More so because Squeenix is the publisher, but from what I hear, even the higher ups have huge respect for Taro Yoko (the guy behind the Drakengard series), so they usually let him do what he wants. We'll see how it goes from there.

 

[KissingSunlight]

Game trailers are like commercials for fast food restaurant. I may like what I see. I know that is not what the product will look like when I buy it. I heavily rely on reviews and videos of actual gameplay before I buy a game.

 

[Cold Shiny]

If it is a Nintendo trailer the game will be exactly as advertised. Other companies design their trailers to trick idiots into buying garbage. (No Man's Sky)

 

[Zhukov]

Erm... faith doesn't really come into it. I watch trailers for their own sake. I really appreciate a well edited, well paced trailer.

If I actually want to find out about a game I type "[title] gameplay" into Youtube.

 

[Hawki]

Erm... faith doesn't really come into it. I watch trailers for their own sake. I really appreciate a well edited, well paced trailer.

If I actually want to find out about a game I type "[title] gameplay" into Youtube.

Pretty much this. There's avenues of looking up gameplay outside pre-released trailers. And I can certainly enjoy trailers in their own right, especially ones from Blizzard.

 

[CaitSeith]

The only message that I can be certain when watching a trailer is: we are making a game with this title, and maybe we'll release it at this date. Everything else are promises and hype bait. I see the trailers like the front picture in a cereal box: it may show it mixed with fruits and milk; but that's not its real content. It makes me sad when people pre-order games for the fruit and milk in the trailers.