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Snap out of gaming hype
10 years ago
General
I just saw a Youtube ad for Halo 5's "Gameplay trailer." Popular culture music, flashy graphics, plenty of explosions...
...And maybe about three seconds of actual gameplay. I'm really not impressed.
Admittedly I lost interest in Halo quite some time ago, but this is only one of countless examples of gaming hype culture that I'm shaking my head at lately. Look everyone, I don't know if any of you have noticed, but AAA game companies haven't been interested in anything but flashy graphics and profits for quite some time. There are always gems in the rough, thankfully, but by and large the major offerings have been little more than preorder bait designed to encourage gamers to buy something before they know if it's actually any good.
Snap out of it, people. Preorder culture needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. The more we preorder games, the more companies will do what they've been doing lately - pushing out terrible products with a promise to "fix" them later. They aren't interested in fixing them! They're too busy polishing the trailers for the NEXT game they're going to use to bait us with.
The (now thankfully cancelled) Deus Ex "Augment your Preorder" crap is the biggest example of this I know of. Increasing preorder rewards the more people preorder? That's just adding a mob mentality to the preorder culture to use gamers themselves to do free advertising for their hype train. That's not meant to benefit you - it was meant to sell more copies before the game launched.
You might think there's nothing wrong with preorder culture. That it doesn't do any harm.
That's basically what they want you to think. Haven't you noticed how many people have been split so strongly on game opinion lately? That's because preordering makes someone invested in a game whether it's good or not. They have a psychological need to validate their decision to preorder, and that manifests in the form of blind defense of the game or system they've preordered. Even once the game comes out and actual reviews come out, regardless of whether it's actually good or not those people who preordered do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they didn't make a bad decision. "No it really is a good game! The critics are wrong!" That my friends is where we get fanboy wars.
Having a bit of damn patience would solve so many problems. All you need to do is resist the trinkets and pointless preorder bonuses game companies have been dangling in front of you. Wait for reviews - reviews written by people like you, who actually care about a GOOD GAME.
Some people say that they preorder to make sure they get a copy of the game. Do you REALLY THINK the game companies would fail to ship enough copies? That's not what preordering is for anymore. In case you haven't noticed, digital preordering is exploding. There are no physical copies for a digital preorder! It is entirely designed to get you to pay for the game before you know if it's worth your money. There is literally no reason to preorder a digital copy of a game, and almost never a reason to preorder a physical one.
Why does all of this matter? The game industry has been in a downward spiral. They know they can get away with this now - they know they can sell you any old shit as long as it's got shiny preorder bonuses and flashy trailers. So that's what they put their effort into, instead of trying to actually make a good game. End result? Games are suffering. It's all about the money, instead of the creation of a good quality piece of interactive entertainment. That's eroding the base of what games are for - FUN.
Withhold your money from companies who aren't interested in making a good game. It's the only way they will be forced into improving their product.
By supporting preorder culture you're buying into this erosion and basically helping to slowly destroy the gaming industry. Well, not destroy - it'll continue to exist. But any spark of quality or love for the medium is steadily being snuffed out. High-level corporate game executives already only see three games in existence - Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Call of Duty. The rest of the game industry literally might as well not exist to them. Why? Because they don't care about games. They're only there to use marketing hype to wring as much money out of the gaming crowd as they can. And that means that playing into their hands like so many have been doing is going to dry up the gaming world into a husk until the only thing that's left are terrible, broken games full of microtransactions, excessive DLC, terrible framerates, bugs and poor quality control. It's already happening.
But hey, at least you'll have your pretty graphics and that preorder bonus skin, right?
A side note about crowdfunding - People, Kickstarter should be treated as a donation box. When I put some money into Descent: Underground, I realized there was a possibility the game wouldn't be completed, or at least wouldn't end up as the game I would want it to be. It's quite true that stretch goal rewards are basically the same as preorder bonuses - and they should be basically ignored for purposes of deciding whether or not you want to donate to a Kickstarter fund. Let's be blunt: People whose Kickstarter campaigns you contribute to OWE YOU NOTHING. Your money is an "I support you" blessing, not buying the product you think the project will produce. Because chances are it won't be the product you visualize. I put money into Descent: Underground because I would like to see a return of an old favorite of mine and see it brought back to life for a new generation. I might not even be able to play it on my computer or might not want to if it becomes as multiplayer-centric as I suspect it'll be. But that's okay. It'll have been made, and that's why I gave them my money.
...And maybe about three seconds of actual gameplay. I'm really not impressed.
Admittedly I lost interest in Halo quite some time ago, but this is only one of countless examples of gaming hype culture that I'm shaking my head at lately. Look everyone, I don't know if any of you have noticed, but AAA game companies haven't been interested in anything but flashy graphics and profits for quite some time. There are always gems in the rough, thankfully, but by and large the major offerings have been little more than preorder bait designed to encourage gamers to buy something before they know if it's actually any good.
Snap out of it, people. Preorder culture needs to stop and it needs to stop NOW. The more we preorder games, the more companies will do what they've been doing lately - pushing out terrible products with a promise to "fix" them later. They aren't interested in fixing them! They're too busy polishing the trailers for the NEXT game they're going to use to bait us with.
The (now thankfully cancelled) Deus Ex "Augment your Preorder" crap is the biggest example of this I know of. Increasing preorder rewards the more people preorder? That's just adding a mob mentality to the preorder culture to use gamers themselves to do free advertising for their hype train. That's not meant to benefit you - it was meant to sell more copies before the game launched.
You might think there's nothing wrong with preorder culture. That it doesn't do any harm.
That's basically what they want you to think. Haven't you noticed how many people have been split so strongly on game opinion lately? That's because preordering makes someone invested in a game whether it's good or not. They have a psychological need to validate their decision to preorder, and that manifests in the form of blind defense of the game or system they've preordered. Even once the game comes out and actual reviews come out, regardless of whether it's actually good or not those people who preordered do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they didn't make a bad decision. "No it really is a good game! The critics are wrong!" That my friends is where we get fanboy wars.
Having a bit of damn patience would solve so many problems. All you need to do is resist the trinkets and pointless preorder bonuses game companies have been dangling in front of you. Wait for reviews - reviews written by people like you, who actually care about a GOOD GAME.
Some people say that they preorder to make sure they get a copy of the game. Do you REALLY THINK the game companies would fail to ship enough copies? That's not what preordering is for anymore. In case you haven't noticed, digital preordering is exploding. There are no physical copies for a digital preorder! It is entirely designed to get you to pay for the game before you know if it's worth your money. There is literally no reason to preorder a digital copy of a game, and almost never a reason to preorder a physical one.
Why does all of this matter? The game industry has been in a downward spiral. They know they can get away with this now - they know they can sell you any old shit as long as it's got shiny preorder bonuses and flashy trailers. So that's what they put their effort into, instead of trying to actually make a good game. End result? Games are suffering. It's all about the money, instead of the creation of a good quality piece of interactive entertainment. That's eroding the base of what games are for - FUN.
Withhold your money from companies who aren't interested in making a good game. It's the only way they will be forced into improving their product.
By supporting preorder culture you're buying into this erosion and basically helping to slowly destroy the gaming industry. Well, not destroy - it'll continue to exist. But any spark of quality or love for the medium is steadily being snuffed out. High-level corporate game executives already only see three games in existence - Candy Crush, Clash of Clans and Call of Duty. The rest of the game industry literally might as well not exist to them. Why? Because they don't care about games. They're only there to use marketing hype to wring as much money out of the gaming crowd as they can. And that means that playing into their hands like so many have been doing is going to dry up the gaming world into a husk until the only thing that's left are terrible, broken games full of microtransactions, excessive DLC, terrible framerates, bugs and poor quality control. It's already happening.
But hey, at least you'll have your pretty graphics and that preorder bonus skin, right?
A side note about crowdfunding - People, Kickstarter should be treated as a donation box. When I put some money into Descent: Underground, I realized there was a possibility the game wouldn't be completed, or at least wouldn't end up as the game I would want it to be. It's quite true that stretch goal rewards are basically the same as preorder bonuses - and they should be basically ignored for purposes of deciding whether or not you want to donate to a Kickstarter fund. Let's be blunt: People whose Kickstarter campaigns you contribute to OWE YOU NOTHING. Your money is an "I support you" blessing, not buying the product you think the project will produce. Because chances are it won't be the product you visualize. I put money into Descent: Underground because I would like to see a return of an old favorite of mine and see it brought back to life for a new generation. I might not even be able to play it on my computer or might not want to if it becomes as multiplayer-centric as I suspect it'll be. But that's okay. It'll have been made, and that's why I gave them my money.
