Hype: games' best friend or worst enemy?

[Zera]

We all know what gets us pumped for the new games, the Hype. Now the thing is that hype is a fickled mistress. She can launch your game to the stratosphere, giving an already epic game feel even more epic. Or it can cause an inadequate game to not only crash and burn, but explode and take anybody nearby with it. Hype can also influence how people see games, where a game can be seen as truly awesome(Halo 3 is the best example) while others dont listen to the hype and see the game in a "different" way (Me, Yahtzee...). Lack of hype also overshadows sometimes great games that are simply put by everybody as just "good"(Odin Sphere). Well thats hype for ya.

 

[soladrin]

Hype is worst enemy of games concerning my personal view, hypes alway ALWAYS make me skeptic of games, and can even make me think of not even trying it.

(and yea, fable is a great example, what a fucking joke, i completed it in 4 hours, NO RPG can have that little play time, even if you dont do side quests)

 

[big daddy]

probably gaming worst enemy its the bowser of mario......simply said hype can make a great games experience (looking at you halo 3) less enjoyable even if its still a great game

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

Hype is gaming's worst enemy. People fall for it, but once hype burns them by getting them to buy a crappy game they become suspicious of it, and the people who hype their games lose credibility. Then there are people like me who never listen to the hype anyway, and will actually avoid anything dripping in hype. There is an impression that if a game gets enough hype it will get good reviews, and sell millions regardless of quality, and it makes the quality of anything hyped to hell and back suspect.

 

[Sylocat]

Worst enemy. Period.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

An enemy, without a doubt.

Hype, first of all, puts up unreasonable expectations. An above average game that is hyped for months and months, upon release, has an unfair standard to live up to. Many gamers will see through this, but conspicuously, many reviewers seem to fall for hype (maybe it's more complicated reasons, like the recent snafu at GameSpot). The result is that things tend to be skewed one way or the other, some people who let into the hype, or maybe genuinely think a game is the greatest thing ever, and then others who are firmly let down after getting excited by the hype machine.

Hype also by it's nature favors the game companies with the biggest advertising budgets and PR machines, not the best game designers. When you look at lists of the best games on platforms, often a substantial number of them are games that the average gamer hasn't seen one commercial for or full-page advertisement representing. Great games can disappear under the hype of more well known games, whether or not they deserve it. This is fundamentally unfair, but a reality of the free marketplace.

Hype hurts both the games it means to help and the games that do not have the benefit of hype machines behind them. But it's not anything that's going anywhere.

 

[Chris Evans]

When I started gaming I listened to all the hype and would often go and buy a game just based on the attention it got in the magazines etc.

Nowadays I tend to take it all with a healthy pinch of salt. I will often try to learn about a game before even thinking about buying it.

Hype can be ruinous for a game as people nowadays tend to ignore it and immediately think the game is undeserving if it doesn't meet their expectations. Bioshock is a prime example, the gaming media hyped it to high heaven...and then people were let down finding any problem they could to criticize it over.

 

[Kermi]

On one hand, hype moves a lot of units. On the other hand, it earns a lot of spiteful retribution from players who really were expecting this particular 11/10 game to be better than the last 11/10 game they played.

 

[PurpleRain]

I think everyone has spoken and said that Hype is a terrible yet cunning harpy of a woman. I try not to listen to hype, but sometimes it can't be helped. I hope Mass Effect and Hell's Highway are awesome games, I really do.

 

[Saskwach]

I think it's a great friend for the game in question. Name me a game that was mediocre at least (ie no Daikatana) that sold worse because it was hyped. As for the industry, that nebulous ideal, not so friendly but no one ever got anywhere in their own lifetime selling ideals.
It's funny but in other industries, "hype" is "advertising" or "marketing". I have no clue what that says about us.

 

[CyberAkuma]

I heard that Daikatana was gonna make me John Romero's *****...

 

[raankh]

I spoke to a colleague who works in marketing about this the other day. He was of the opinion that Hype is slightly different from other advertising and marketing schemes. The difference being that there can be too much hype, but not too many ads; all from a sales perspective.

Gamers are a fickle crowd and overhyping can hurt several products in spillover from disappointment with one product. It's a rather rare thing that a movie-goer would proclaim "This movie looked so much better in the trailer, I'll never watch another Universal movie again"; but "that Ubisoft game sucked, those trailers were pre-rendered gaddamit, I'll never buy one of their games again" is a more likely reaction.

As he put it, the game industry is very brand intensive; as evidenced by the six logos you have to click by every time you start a mainstream game.

Second hand information and I'm no expert, but I thought it sounded insightful.

 

[Saskwach]

I spoke to a colleague who works in marketing about this the other day. He was of the opinion that Hype is slightly different from other advertising and marketing schemes. The difference being that there can be too much hype, but not too many ads; all from a sales perspective.

Gamers are a fickle crowd and overhyping can hurt several products in spillover from disappointment with one product. It's a rather rare thing that a movie-goer would proclaim "This movie looked so much better in the trailer, I'll never watch another Universal movie again"; but "that Ubisoft game sucked, those trailers were pre-rendered gaddamit, I'll never buy one of their games again" is a more likely reaction.

As he put it, the game industry is very brand intensive; as evidenced by the six logos you have to click by every time you start a mainstream game.

Second hand information and I'm no expert, but I thought it sounded insightful.

It does (sound insightful). I hadn't thought about it that way. But I still think that most of the hype of a game surrounds the game rather than the publisher, even though it's hard not to know that X is a Ubisoft game for example. We don't see "Microsoft: Finish the fight". So while the games we've bought don't let us forget who bankrolled the devs, the advertising campaign- the hype- does focus on the game.

 

[Arbre]

I don't play hype. I play games.

I've seen that announcement for SF4. Everybody's excited. Well, just wait for the game before creaming your pants.

 

[hickwarrior]

Well, it is all said already. Hype is bad for whoever started it and whoever gets buried under the ads that become soil.

Besides, i never liked advertisement really, mainly because they can annoy you to death with it.

And if there is a hype i hear of, maybe i should rent it if i can. thanks for the tip, guys.

 

[MacCarth]

It's a double sided coin. Hype is excellent from a business standpoint, but terrible for setting standards of gameplay.

For all those people who say it's a game's worst enemy: The game is getting rave reviews by players. Obviously, SOMEONE has to enjoy it. Apparently that someone told all their friends to buy it, and their friends told their friends, until it's cult-like with their dedication to a game. The game gets massive sales because of these kinds of people, and the main reason is because of hype. The company has your 50 dollars, and you have a game that is either amazing or mediocre.

I do agree that hype can also put people off a certain game series (Halo being a prime example). Too much hype can make people skeptical, but people will continue to buy the game anyway.

 

[ComradeJim270]

I dunno about the worst enemy, but it is bad. Hype is usually built up in large part by the people making the game... and then everyone runs with it. It makes it very difficult for anyone to be heard and be objective and reasonable at the same time. I have said before, though not here, I think, that game reviewers often seem to be scoring the hype rather than the game, brushing things under the carpet and giving a 9/10 when a game is really only a 7 or 8. This gives game developers the impression that they can make a fortune on any game so long as they make it half-decent and then hype it to hell. That attitude is not conducive to making genuinely good games.