Why isn't there more hype about Hellgate: London?

Do we need more hype about Hellgate London?

It seems to have a good coverage here, and if its a "spirtual" successor to Diablo 2, it may not need to hype itself much.

There's been a lot of talk about this game for quite some time now, but when it comes down to it, its always been outshined by games like Crysis and bioshock. While these games may look better and possibly be better overall, I have really heard next to nothing about Hellgate: London on forums and stuff. When I first heard about this game, I looked it over and I was VERY impressed. The staff looks competent, the setting of the game looks amazing, the graphics look solid, and the gameplay is seems comparable to Diablo, which, if I'm not mistaken, seems to be to almost everyones liking. So why is there soooo much less hype over this game compared to the other top games. To name others besides Crysis and Bioshock that are getting more hype, CoD 4: Modern Warfare, Witcher, WOW (though for obvious reasons), Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Half Life 2: Episode 2 (Including TF 2 and Portal), Age of Conan, UT 3, Quake Wars, and GoW. It seems to me like I've heard more about these games, whereas I feel like Hellgate: London could easily surpass these games. Anyone else care to shed some light on this subject?boo54577

I'm not sure this is a big mystery. There is, I'd argue, plenty of anticipation surrounding this release--plenty. And on top of that, many of the titles you claim to be garnering more hype than Hellgate (Quake Wars, GW: Eye of the North, etc) aren't necessarily, I'd bet. A few thoughts:

1) No single game can receive the same amount of coverage every day for months and months. A site like Gamespot will heavily feature a game at different periods in its development. In the week or two after it's announced, for instance, a given title might be covered and discussed pretty heavily. Other landmarks in the process prompt more coverage: screenshots are released; an interview is given; changes are announced. There might be a lot of chatter about CoD4 this week, but Hellgate has had lots of spotlight time on and off over the past year.

2) I'm not seeing any real quantification of hype that's worth relying on. I mean, really: you're not taking measurements here; you're going off of a gut sense, and that's bound to be subjective. (Who doesn't feel that their favorite collegefootball team isn't covered enough on ESPN.com?) I wager if you could actually develop a system for documenting articles, interviews, and forum threads concerning the games you've listed, you'd see your theory collapse a bit.

3) You said yourself: there might be other games on the way which are more impressive. That's a matter of opinion, of course, but when you're cobbling stories together for your website, you're likely to favor some games over others, period. It's not going to be equal, or fair, and it's not meant to be.

That said, I would never have guessed that gamers are upset Hellgate isn'tgarnering more chatter. Frankly, I think it's been a pretty hot topic over the course of the last year, and as its release date approaches and passes, coverage will spike again.

You know whats funny? If this game had the Blizzard stamp on it, it would be constantly hyped and on the charts until release (just like SC2 will be). But its not. And its got a bunch of Blizzard people working on it too, thats the funniest part (the talented ex-Bliz people to boot).mrbojangles25

Ok, but conversely (and ironically), the Blizzard association is what grabbed Hellgate some media attention in the first place. In film, a director's clout might attract attention to a new movie. There's nothing unexpected (or unfair really) about a newgame getting a head start in hype because of who's producing it--or, in Hellgate's case--who is and isn't producing it.

Flagship shoots himself his toe when the monthly fee was announced to access to "premium content". Diablo II has not montly fee nor the concept of a segmented community between the the surcribers and the rest of the people.

Another reason, is that Hellgate is technically a weak game; this can be good to expand the sales to catch the more modest systems, but frankly Hellgate seems ugly not only compared with Crysis/UT III/COD 4/Quake Wars/The Witcher/Bioshock... but also compared to games from 2006, like Oblivion, Gothic 3 or NWN2 (we must cross our fingers and pray that at least the optimization in Hellgate would be much better).

A third reason is that a lot of people are awainting for the Conan & Warhammer Fantasy MMORPG, and in the future Diablo III andthe MMORPGWH 40K from Relic. The thing is that if you must pay monthly for a game, there will be better -more complete- titles to waste your money.

Also the delay from the summer launch to the TERRIBLE NOVEMBER (Hellgate, COD 4, Crysis, UT III, Haze in the same 3 or 4 weeks, and probably Gears for PC in December) will be a very dangerous election.

I will myserlf to buy Hellgate, but I'll not to be a suscriber, and since my most played multiplayer games in the last year were Dark Crusade (rts) and Battlefield 2 (fps) I have serious boubts about if Hellgate will bring me the same level of adictivity that Diablo II has. Now I'm more interested in the Crysis/UT III/Quake Wars mp than Hellgate.

Excuse my bad English.

I'm responding to the topic title and nothing else...

Because a game that is going to be so amazing doesn't NEED hype.

and the gameplay is seems comparable to Diablo, which, if I'm not mistaken, seems to be to almost everyones liking.boo54577

Well that's what the developer is saying, to get people excited I suppose. Hellgate is comparable to Diablo, in a way that is of course completely not comparable at all. Watch the gameplay, it is nothing like it. It looks like any other online RPG.

All I know is that their pricing plan seems pretty legit.

You got a free version and you got a monthly-fee version. It seems that everything that counts in the game is included with the free, while the monthly includes a few worthwhile extras for those that dont have a moral dilemna about paying a monthly fee.

Hopefully some other MMOs adopt this strategy, though I might be speaking too soon...still need to see if the free version is worth it at all.

Also, does anyone know if the game still has a singleplayer mode and whether it has a good story?

Because if the game has any PVP then the pay-for-play platform is going to be very bad JooJoo. And companies have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with anything they say before release.

Because if the game has any PVP then the pay-for-play platform is going to be very bad JooJoo. And companies have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with anything they say before release.

marc5477

Kinda like how Guild Wars says they wont unbalance the game with further expansions by not requiring them? I mean, people with more expansions didnt go higher in level nor recieved items that were more powerful then previously avaliable. The abilities in future titles werent even stronger. You just had amore abilities to choose from yet still limited to 8.

What makes you think Hellgate can do the same, when both Flagship and Arenanet are ex-Blizzard guys?

All I know is that their pricing plan seems pretty legit.

You got a free version and you got a monthly-fee version. It seems that everything that counts in the game is included with the free, while the monthly includes a few worthwhile extras for those that dont have a moral dilemna about paying a monthly fee.

Hopefully some other MMOs adopt this strategy, though I might be speaking too soon...still need to see if the free version is worth it at all.

Also, does anyone know if the game still has a singleplayer mode and whether it has a good story?

mrbojangles25

Yes, it's supposed to be 30-40 hours long. Also, from what I have seen, it seems like there is alot of cut scenes and story driven gameplay for the single player campaign.

[QUOTE="marc5477"]

Because if the game has any PVP then the pay-for-play platform is going to be very bad JooJoo. And companies have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted with anything they say before release.

XaosII

Kinda like how Guild Wars says they wont unbalance the game with further expansions by not requiring them? I mean, people with more expansions didnt go higher in level nor recieved items that were more powerful then previously avaliable. The abilities in future titles werent even stronger. You just had amore abilities to choose from yet still limited to 8.

What makes you think Hellgate can do the same, when both Flagship and Arenanet are ex-Blizzard guys?

The reason Hellgate doesn't get as much hype as bioshock and other games is simple

Bioshock releases 8/21/07

Hellgate releases 10/31/07 (as of the time of writing)

It is just farther from release, its like seeing trailers for a movie play before the main feature half a year before it reaches theaters and then you start seeing the commercials and critic reviews in the weeks before it releases.