Is anyone else becoming Jaded towards game annoucements?

[Something Amyss]

I haven't really become anything. I've been skeptical of game promises since I was like, 10. But I'm happy to see other people getting to the point where they're not lured in by the ridiculous hype culture we've got going on.

I have games that I am optimistic about (Mankind Divided for example), but I'm in no way chomping at the bit, or even really consuming announcement material about it. Unless the game is an unmitigated pile of shit, which I really don't think it will be, they will be getting my money, so it's not really something I have to keep tabs on. They don't have to sell me on the game, they already did with the last one.

Kind of the same way. I'm hoping the new Hitman is good, but I'm not going to go all "shut up and take my money!" on it.

 

[happyninja42]

I haven't really become anything. I've been skeptical of game promises since I was like, 10. But I'm happy to see other people getting to the point where they're not lured in by the ridiculous hype culture we've got going on.

I have games that I am optimistic about (Mankind Divided for example), but I'm in no way chomping at the bit, or even really consuming announcement material about it. Unless the game is an unmitigated pile of shit, which I really don't think it will be, they will be getting my money, so it's not really something I have to keep tabs on. They don't have to sell me on the game, they already did with the last one.

Kind of the same way. I'm hoping the new Hitman is good, but I'm not going to go all "shut up and take my money!" on it.

Yeah, I will be honest though, Mankind Divided is probably one of the few games in recent history (maybe FO 4 too) that has a good chance of getting my money at full price. Maybe not on release day, but pretty damn close. That is 100% based on my enjoyment of Human Revolution, and my feelings that the same team is likely going to put as much, if not more, effort into this one as that one. So my logic is "If it's as good as Human Revolution, I will enjoy it, and I will feel it's worth my full price money." But, considering the issues with the recent PC port for the Arkham game, and it's stability issues, I will probably wait at least a week just to see if the game implodes my PC or something. But beyond that, or an overwhelming review wave of "Utter shite! Worst game evah!" kind of reviews, I'm confident it will be a good game that I'll want to play. Even then, I might still wait 'till a sale xD You never know.

But yeah, I've never really followed the gaming media about new releases. Even for games that I love. It's just never been something I've done. Maybe it's because I started gaming back when there really wasn't any advertisement for it? The 80's, you didn't really hear about games until they were out, and usually it was word of mouth, or maybe Nintendo Power. So I had it ingrained early that media for games isn't something that is necessary, so I've never really used it.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

"becoming" would be correct roughly.. uh... 10 years ago or something. Trailers are generally useless, because they're cinematics and do not show me anything about the game.
So unless it's a sequel to something i know, i don't even watch them because they won't tell me anything about the game except the setting.

And then yeah, delays, bugs, toned-down graphics, Day 1 Dlc/patches etc. made me stay away very far from AAA games. Most of my library is Indie or F2p stuff nowadays. If i buy AAA title i usually wait for the next Steam Sale because until then everything is fixed and acutally provides decent money/time-value.
I only buy new AAA titles if i've seen them at a friends house already or even could test them myself. Else it's just usually a bad value propositiong.

I also collect Boardgames and if i've to decide between a new boardgame or a new pc game you can bet i'll buy me a new boardgame. Those are usually made with more passion and work when i play them the first time.

Edit: Just checked my shoppin' list. Last purchases at full price were:
Saints Row 4, Aug '13
Dark Souls 2, Feb '14
Watchdogs, May '14 (shoot me for this pls)
Cities: Skyline, Mar '15.

 

[Rewdalf]

If the company has enough money to saturate the media with ads and announcements, it isn't worth it to me.

Meanwhile, I'm neck deep in an indie game that has been in development for four years and got released under the radar.
Only cost me $10.
And I'm already clinging to it as if it were the best thing ever conceived.

Now, I'm not solely restricting myself to indie games, but my purchase history in the past few weeks makes a strong argument against me...

 

[visiblenoise]

There are only three points where I really pay attention to a game before I actually play it - when it gets announced, when there are full reviews and Metacritic scores out, and when it goes on sale. Even for games that I'm definitely interested in, like MGS or X-COM, I generally don't pay attention to any pre-release media.

 

[Lightknight]

My main problem is that they're released years and advance. I don't want to know about something I can't get for two years.

 

[happyninja42]

My main problem is that they're released years and advance. I don't want to know about something I can't get for two years.

I would mostly agree, however I am glad they gave us the cinematic trailer for Mankind Divided, mostly because I LOVE Michael McCann's music. And getting a taste of a new track of his, coupled with the wonderful imagery of that trailer, just makes me a happy little monkey. I know the gameplay doesn't look anything like that, but the combination of atmosphere, tone, theme, and musical score for Human Revolution, and Mankind Divided hits some very powerful emotional parts of my brain. It captures that feeling of majesty and tension, and injects a lot of musical emotion into it that is the exact kind of thing I look for in my stories/entertainment. I almost look at those as really short mini-movies, and for that I love them. So yeah, I don't mind them giving me that trailer a year+ before the game release, as I can keep listening to that song now and watch the trailer for it's own enjoyment. xD

Damn....I'm really gushing over Mankind Divided today in the threads. I think my brain is telling me I need to watch that trailer again to enjoy the music of it.

 

[BarkBarker]

To have the stones to lay bare actual footage of your game and get a demo out to the masses is annoyingly uncommon now. Yes a vertical slice is difficult quite often but dammit its pivotal to getting people into your game beyond what we are promised.

 

[Buckets]

I used to often get excited when reading how awesome some game or other was going to be, I've been let down so often I have lost count, so nowadays I wait until I see the game (either demoing in store or a review/gameplay video on youtube).
I generally don't care much for the announcements but rather wait to see what the end result becomes when its released.

 

[Quellist]

Ever since A:CM i guess the answer is yes. Thankfully i never bought the thing but the utter dishonesty was a shock. Since then its been one scandal after another and now i really only trust studios with a proven track record of delivering what they promised, which isn't very many.

 

[Lightknight]

My main problem is that they're released years and advance. I don't want to know about something I can't get for two years.

I would mostly agree, however I am glad they gave us the cinematic trailer for Mankind Divided, mostly because I LOVE Michael McCann's music. And getting a taste of a new track of his, coupled with the wonderful imagery of that trailer, just makes me a happy little monkey. I know the gameplay doesn't look anything like that, but the combination of atmosphere, tone, theme, and musical score for Human Revolution, and Mankind Divided hits some very powerful emotional parts of my brain. It captures that feeling of majesty and tension, and injects a lot of musical emotion into it that is the exact kind of thing I look for in my stories/entertainment. I almost look at those as really short mini-movies, and for that I love them. So yeah, I don't mind them giving me that trailer a year+ before the game release, as I can keep listening to that song now and watch the trailer for it's own enjoyment. xD

Damn....I'm really gushing over Mankind Divided today in the threads. I think my brain is telling me I need to watch that trailer again to enjoy the music of it.

But see you got to enjoy some music. The trailer of a game itself isn't actually getting to enjoy the game early. It's just watching some video. So if you're a major fan of music contained in it, you're going to actually get something out of it. I barely notice music in games unless it's particularly good.

 

[Kingjackl]

I'm becoming jaded, bu that's mainly because I can't play any of them until July next year due to travel. Leaving my PS4 a week before Phantom Pain came out was soul-destroying, and now all i can do is hope against hope that Fallout 4, Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, Persona 5, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Horizon will all either be delayed or terrible.

 

[Bad Jim]

My main problem is that they're released years and advance. I don't want to know about something I can't get for two years.

For me it's the way games are rather expensive on release but go way down after a few years and/or during a sale. By the time I consider buying them, forums discussions are a much better indicator of the quality of the game, and a much better way to hear about good games.

 

[Treeberry]

With Delays, buggy releases and games being stripped of its parts for DLC I've kind of stop caring about game announcements. Recently need for speed for PC got Delayed to optimize it for PC which is better then releasing a crappy version but it still sucks.

Anybody else have their hopes and dreams dashed of a good game to the point they don't care about new game announcements.

Honestly, I'm more perturbed about the rampant random capitalisation syndrome spreading around here.

 

[Lightknight]

My main problem is that they're released years and advance. I don't want to know about something I can't get for two years.

For me it's the way games are rather expensive on release but go way down after a few years and/or during a sale. By the time I consider buying them, forums discussions are a much better indicator of the quality of the game, and a much better way to hear about good games.

I assume that by this what you're saying is game trailers don't really tell us anything and are essentially just a sales pitch?

Sure. But reviews and discussions even a week after launch already have it pegged as a good/bad game. In general though, I am also a couple years behind in buying games. Too many good ones are coming out too quickly so I almost never buy new now. Not that I wouldn't, I just can't keep up and games are good enough now (graphically) that waiting a few years to play them doesn't result in the ol' eye gouging bad graphics effect.

 

[Bad Jim]

I assume that by this what you're saying is game trailers don't really tell us anything and are essentially just a sales pitch?

Yes. But in truth it's worse. Most trailers treat the game like a movie and never even hint about how the game plays. I don't know why marketing departments do this.

 

[FPLOON]

If it's a yearly installment or an expected release I don't care but if it's some new unexpected thing that happens to fit what I like I get incredibly hype. For example, take the new KH2 remake announced. No hype at all about that.

You mean the "2.8 HD" thing? My reaction to that was one part "PS4? Does this mean I have to get one sooner than expected?" and one part "It better be worth the lack of a pending 'Complete Collection Edition' later on in the year 2022, maybe"...

OT: More like "I'm hyped, but I forgot when it coming ou-and it's been out for HOW LONG!?" from my end... I get hyped for something that I end up forgetting when the game, itself, comes out even after laying down a pre-order for it... So far, only South Park: The Stick of Truth has made that particular mindset perfectly clear for me...

Other than that, I think it might be a problem where I'm using my pre-orders to mainly keep track of when a particular video game that I want is coming out in the first place...

 

[happyninja42]

I assume that by this what you're saying is game trailers don't really tell us anything and are essentially just a sales pitch?

Yes. But in truth it's worse. Most trailers treat the game like a movie and never even hint about how the game plays. I don't know why marketing departments do this.

I think it's pretty simple why they do it. It's a "teaser trailer". It's an intentionally constructed representation of the product, intended to generate as much hype and buzz as possible. Since I've been using it in this discussion, I'll give an example from Human Revolution. The first cinematic trailer for that game did not accurately show how the game would play, but it did give a "cinematic representation" of the various powers you would have in the game. I remember watching it again after having played the game many times, and the powers are there, and they are fairly accurate, they've just been woven together into a more narrative representation.

Given some of the gameplay footage I've seen for Mankind Divided, I feel comfortable saying that the cinematic trailer they made for that does display the various powers you are going to have in the game, just like the first game did, but woven cinematically.

So I can appreciate making a trailer like that, though I can appreciate someone not liking that type of trailer, because they would rather see the raw gameplay footage instead. I like both to be honest.

 

[Weaver]

Yes, ever since the Zelda announcement from Spaceworld 2000.
Can't believe it was 15 years ago.