Hype: Your Friendly Neighborhood Game KillerMay 2nd, 2008 by Brittany
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Our top stories in the video game industry today are as follows: “GTA IV to bring about the world’s first age of peace,” “GTA IV donates $10,000,000 to various charities,” and “GTA IV has cured cancer.” Tee-hee. You’re right. Those are gross exaggerations.
However, with the alarming amount of coverage by basically every video game website, magazine, or fan ever, you tend to start believing that GTA IV is, well, the most phenomenal commodity since sliced bread. Now, I haven’t gotten a chance to play it yet, and I probably won’t pick it up until it’s a bargain or until I get around to using my boyfriend’s copy. I’m sure it’s got all kinds of things to offer. I’m not criticizing the actual gameplay whatsoever. Honestly, though, the amount of attention it’s received is actually quite ridiculous in my eyes.
One of the things that I loathe about being a gamer these days is the enormous amount of hype that popular franchises are receiving. I can completely understand the purpose of hyping video games, as it is a form of entertainment just like movies, books, or music. There is, however, a limit to how much is really tolerable. Often, my opinion of the game is shifted to a negative one before I even get a chance to play it. Why? I’m so sick of hearing about it that I just don’t care enough to play it anymore. I like to give every game that is available to me a real chance before passing judgment on it. In the case of GTA IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and many, many others, I stopped caring because it was the only point of discussion on anyone’s minds. It is quite a shame that I begin to feel that way, but if you eat the same dinner every day for months, chances are you are going to be so burnt out that the very thought of more of the same will make you vomit.
Conversely, some of my favorite games were over-hyped: Halo, many of the Final Fantasies, Resident Evil 4, and many others. That’s really because I was late to the party with every single one. I never played a Final Fantasy game until VII. I didn’t have an Xbox when Halo was first released, and in the case of Resident Evil 4, I was already an RE fan so playing the next one in line just seemed natural. My point being, I didn’t experience all the hype that was being created at the time of those games’ release. I had heard of them here and there and they sounded fun, so I played them. It wasn’t a case of anxiously awaiting them every second of my life because some random writer for a magazine or website told me that I should.
These days, the instant a “noteworthy” game is announced such as Gears of War 2, GTA IV, Mario Kart Wii, or Call of Duty 4, there is a race to see how fast we can uncover first screenshots, characters, achievements, story, gameplay, and every little detail that can possibly be obtained without actually sitting down and experiencing the game. I fully understand wanting to find out all the juicy little details of a game that sounds groundbreaking, but every single time ANY information is leaked, fans flock to it like Paris Hilton to a celebrity bash. I find this not only distracting from the experience that comes along with purchasing a game and playing through it for the first time, but a general annoyance.
A textbook example of this is the release of Portal. Upon first hearing of it, I was excited. What an innovative game! You actually have a gun that creates interdimensional portals! The gameplay videos and the slogan “Now you’re thinking with portals” had me hooked from the minute G4 announced it. I knew, since I am usually not overflowing with cash, I would not be playing it for quite a while. I tucked it safely away in the back of my mind for future reference. A few months later, it was impossible to converse with anyone who had been following leaked information about the game without hearing the now-redundant catchphrase “The cake is a lie.”
At first, reviewers, industry enthusiasts, and fans were subtle. Then they parted their lips in a collective chorus of “THE CAKE IS A LIE” to the tune of spoiling the game’s story, characters, hilarious quotes, and memorable moments for me before I ever laid a finger on the mouse to navigate the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. By the time I actually got to play through the game (which ended up being four weeks ago), I already knew every single thing to expect - right on down to “Still Alive”, which would have completely blown me away had I known nothing about it. But, alas, the hype and the fans ruined it for me. I enjoyed it - but not half as much as I would have if it had not been shoved down my throat at every opportunity. Could I have avoided it? Why yes, I could have - if I didn’t want to keep up with gaming news, speak to any gamer friends, or browse the websites that I normally do.
With gaming’s heavy-hitters given so much attention, many other, sometimes more deserving games are overlooked in the wake. So much time is spent on digging up new information about “key” titles that gaming publications and even fans like you and I do not even bother looking for news of the little games, or the quirky ones. Now, I understand that some games are not for everyone and the ones that receive mass adoration and hype are geared toward a general audience, but come on. What makes Gears of War 2 rightly any more deserving than say, Prototype, or Siren: New Translation? There is a plethora of games coming out this year that I know a lot of you, and myself, would probably enjoy playing. Aside from the fact that you may have played Gears of War, it is well-known, and it has tons of fans, what honestly makes it more deserving of more hype? Like I pointed out in my last post about games that deserve sequels but will probably never receive them, there are so many games that merit hype and excitement but receive lukewarm sales and bargain-bin prices. It saddens me that some of my favorite games have been tossed to the side because no one really cares about them.
It’s completely acceptable, reasonable, and fun to become excited over an upcoming release, no matter what type of media it is. I fully understand this. I am guilty, most definitely. But like I’ve said, too much hype completely kills the gaming experience for some. Maybe a couple writers could take a cue from this and learn to tone down their announcements about ONE GAME ONLY, because I am sure I am not the only person who is completely turned off of a game after reading about it for the tenth or fifteenth time.
With all that said…how IS GTA IV, anyway? : )
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Yeah, I see what you’re talking about, but if there was a game coming out that I really wanted, I’m one of those people who search the web for the most up to date release dates, and what the new characters look like, etc! It doesn’t kill the game for me though, it just makes me want it more!
But I totally get you on the other games that get left in the shadows, and never get a sequel. Shenmue….anyone remember that game? And it feel like squeezing water out of sand to get some footage of games like Soul Calibur 4, dude…I feel like, Dude….where’s my gameplay footage?
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I totally understand where you are coming from! I stood in line with my boyfriend while he bought GTA 4 at midnight on Tuesday (or whatever day it was) and was absolutely astounded and depressed by the amount of hype a stupid little video game was getting. I mean, it was a video game. There were probably more people there in line who cared about the game than who actually voted among the youth in my community.
That said though, I was just as excited when Mario Kart Wii came out, and with Smash Brothers Brawl. So I suppose that it really depends upon the person and the game.
I haven’t played GTA 4 yet, but I have observed my boyfriend playing it and it is so detail filed. Like, it critiques every single element of society, culture, and stereotype you can think of. I find it hilarious to watch, and I have to say that my boyfriend is LOVING it - he is barely playing anything else, and this comes from a guy who is a hardcore RTS fan.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I managed to avoid the Portal hype, barely - I hadn’t even heard of it, saw various sites going “ZOMG BEST GAME EVER” but somehow only read the reviews which were good enough not to spoil it. And then I avoided all mention of it until I got the Orange Box.
Fortunately, I tend to hang around the kind of geeks who think spoilers are akin to puppy-kicking.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I think a certain amount of hype is healthy, but I agree, sometimes its overkill. It was definitely the case with me and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was a huge Melee fan. I knew all the techniques and subtleties of the game, but since I discovered them on my own and with friends, it remained highly entertaining. But when Brawl was announced and its popularity soared, I just knew to much about the game for it to be as entertaining as the previous title. The Brawl Website had something like 300 posts on the game, and I read them all. And now, I’m all read bored with Brawl because the hype killed it for me. Also the fact that Marth got nerfed *heavy sigh*
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Oh and GTA IV is really good. Their physics engine is amazing compared to San Andreas. Granted its not, say, Half-life 2 physics, but still noteworthy.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
All this hype has definitely got to me… in a good way tho. I’m about ot head out to buy my Xbox 360 with GTA4 (hopefully collector’s ed). I hate overhyping, but god, sometimes shit is WORTH hyping. This game is pretty much sold as the OoT of 2000’s, the game that revolutionizes and wakes up devs to see what their games can do. And I’m gonna be all over it.
So if a game can make me go to nextgen consoles, and ebay my Gamecube/PS2, it’s been really hyped. Hopefully tho, in this case, with justice!
Excellent post Brit <3
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
I am loving the title of this blog because it’s so true.. Good blog once again!! I love it!!
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I really agree, and i do hate it. it really can ruin a game for me. but also, sometimes, i feel that there is something with hype that can make a game better. i mean like when games get a lot of hype, people will tell you something about it and when you finally get around to playing the game, there is this sense of suspense that is hanging there because you know something is gonna happen, but not quite when.
Like i’m playing bioshock right now, and the events of the game were revealed to me, so now when im playing, and i get a hint of something new to come, i start to get excited, because im gonna experience the cutscene that my friend said was awesome or something like that. It makes it even better when the new plot development i thought was gonna happen is pushed back by an anomaly in the game or something similar.
Also, for portal, you were saying that with all the hype and revealing, you liked the game less than you tihnk you would have. i feel almost the opposite. i mean, i think when i finally got to play it, i was excited because i was finnaly able to talk about it, and say “oh yeah, i really liked this part.” it made my experience with the game so much better
i dunno. i agree with you a lot, but i tihnk that sometimes hype can be not bad. i wont say good, but it can not have negative effects
May 5th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Although it probably isn’t intentional I feel like you kinda did bash GTA IV a bit for being such a hyped game. I find this interesting because if you look at how the game has been marketed it almost hasn’t. Most of the buzz around this game has had no relationship to Rockstar’s involvement whatsoever and has instead been generated by people like us…the players.
I do wholeheartedly agree though, hype has lowered my interest in games like Super Smash Bros Brawl as it just got out of control. I particularly hate hype that is generated form marketers and not from a gae actually being a good game or having an interesting play mechanic.
I think that Prototype has self deservingly won hype. Where as other titles are just paid ‘buzz’, overstated promises and marketing. I guess this is the difference between hype and anticipation.