Hype - four letters and a whole lot of hot air
The videogame industry thrives on hype. Almost as much money and resources are dedicated to talking up videogames as are spent on making them, and many more lines of text are written about each game then there are lines of code in that game. The ‘art’ of promoting videogames is an industry onto itself which in some shape or form employs hundreds of thousands of people: from the marketing people of game studios through to so-called writers who write meaningless columns about them. A lot of people enjoy the hype as much, if not more, than playing the games itself. Consider the time we expend reading and debating this marketing material every week. For example, I estimate that I’ve spent a good 20 hours reading, viewing pictures and trailers about the new Batman: Arkham Asylum game, yet the playing time of the final product itself will probably occupy me for less time than that.
They're going to make a sequel to a successful games and milk it for all it's worth? No!
Haze vs Killzone 2…fight!
The obsession we have with gaming hype is rather odd and something of a love/hate affair. We are all media-savvy people nowadays and aren’t generally swayed by it, but sometimes we allow ourselves to get swept away and hope against hope that this time the outlandish claims and promises of never-seen-before graphics and exciting gameplay will actually come to fruition. Remember the game Haze? Nah, neither do I really. It was a glitchy, generic, and altogether forgettable tale of some military dudes who take some kind of drug called nectar and then realise that…shock and horror…drugs are bad, mmkay? Now this game was touted as the PlayStation 3’s Halo 3 killer. Many websites had side-by-side screenshots of Halo and Haze, and many people - some pretty well-known game journalists included - were convinced this game would redefine first-person shooters, mow your lawn and give you a back massage. But instead, it was a sluggish and rather average experience that was about as far from ground-breaking as a game could get. It certainly didn’t kill Halo 3 and my lawn is overgrown and my back is still sore. Damn you Haze and damn those who hyped it.
To be fair, it certainly wasn’t the worst game I’ve ever played, (that prize goes to E.T. back on the Atari 2600) but I forgot it the minute I finished it. But such was the hype that built this game up and the shattered hope of people who played it that the reviews were all that much worse. Metacritic (a website that averages out reviews for videogames and other media from reputable sources like PALGN) gave it an average of 55 out of 100 (coincidentally, 5.5 out of 10 was also PALGN’s score) with the worst reviews scoring the game 25 out of 100. This is pretty ridiculous because it just isn’t that bad. But that's how extreme the reaction can be when something has been hyped too much and fails to fulfill that potential – consumer backlash can be harsh. Had this of been a game released with no hype at all which suddenly appeared on shelves, I think it would have achieved a better average review score. Not much better though.
On the other side of the coin, let’s consider Killzone 2 which also started life bathed in controversy and hype. A trailer released at E3 in 2005 left many people wondering if it was pre-rendered or realtime footage, with the hype machine telling us that yes, the game would look at least this good. The video is below - You be the judge. For my money, while the game looks excellent and probably even better than this footage, the video features gameplay elements and a flow of action not present in the game.
Overall, I found Killzone 2 fun, but a fairly generic shooter with a few moments of frustration. My character could never open a door without help, I sometimes had to wait for the game to catch-up to my position and tell me what to do next, the pauses between gameplay areas broke up the action, it was very short, and I felt the story and gameplay were a bit simplistic with very few new ideas for the first person shooter genre. My opinion aside, however, the gaming public and critics generally loved it, and PALGN gave it 9 out of 10. On Metacritic, no fewer than 15 media outlets gave it a perfect score while only a few were in the 60s and 70s. This is an example of where a game that delivers on its hype reaps the rewards and recives the acclaim. Had Killzone 2 been anything less than what it delivered, the critics would have savaged it for all the hype it generated during its development.
E3 – where hype is made
Let's now have a look at E3, the annual gaming expo. Now that this event is over for another year, my editor has decided I can look at the issue of hype and E3, which seems to me to be about 90 percent hype and 10 percent new information. My boss said I could break it down methodically, analyse it critically, and told me “for god’s sake don’t include a bloody list”. So here is the top five things I’d like to see at next year’s E3 gaming expo. Sorry boss.
Hi, I'm here for E3...um hello? Anyone there?
5) For studios and developers to show more actual gameplay footage. Game studio marketing people want to fool us into thinking a game will look like the flashy pre-rendered footage and selectively chosen screenshots they make available. Developers just also don’t trust the gaming media and the gaming public. They think that if they show us footage of a game still in development with its bugs yet to be sorted out and its unrefined gameplay that we’ll bag the game before it’s finished instead of seeing its potential. Well I say phooey to that. Phooey.
4) Banning of the words 'revolutionary’, ‘evolutionary’ and the phrase ‘changing the face of gaming’. It’s a bit like a fast food restaurant telling you their burgers are delicious. Of course they are going to say that. But why don’t they need to prove these outlandish claims? Developers who try and hype up mediocre games should be tied to a pole and left naked in Kings Cross on a Saturday night.
3) Someone coming up with a new peripheral which doesn’t feature motion control. Hey Sony and Microsoft - there’s a bandwagon over there with Nintendo painted on the side, why don’t you jump on it?
2) An ‘exciting’ announcement that isn’t a sequel. Was anyone genuinely surprised that they are making a new Final Fantasy game or a new online game with the Final Fantasy brand? If you are, my name is Quasin Kupalitran and I’m a Nigerian prince who just needs your bank details so I can transfer my wealth to you.
1) An actual announcement that isn’t selectively leaked before E3. If E3 was a boat, it would be the Titanic. In fact, reading about E3 is a little bit like watching the movie – you already know what’s going to happen, it just takes a bloody long time to get there.
So, in the immortal words of Chuck D, “Don’t believe the hype”. Unless you realise that more often than not, it won't be true. And in the not quite as immortal words of Flava Flav, “Yah boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii”. So true, Flav, so true.
. Sunday morning I rubbed my head, walked to maccas and had a coke that washed over me like a cool, mountain stream.
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