I ran a cross an interesting article today while cruising teh internets. This will be basically a summary and discussion on the topic. I will be using Zelda as my reference point game throughout...
Today we all know alot of information on a game before it is ever even released - previews, game trailers, press conferences, ect. Is this taking away from the 'magic' that games can give us? I am just as guilty as every one else here in the fact that I read every news bit and watch every trailer for Twilight Princess....I think I know alot about a game that no one knows anything about. Of course we have only seen bits and pieces of a game that going to be huge, but we all know what to expect from it.
Does this take away from the game experience in some way? Yeah, we'll get it, play and be like 'wow - did you see that boss??' and stuff like that - we'll be impressed no doubt - a title like this comes along not often. BUT I had never even heard of Ocarina of Time before the day my mom walked through the door with a copy. She simply bought it because of previous Zelda experiences. So going into the game, I had no pre-concieved idea of what to expect - other than it was 3-D. The experience of playing through Ocarina has in part made it what it is to me today - an absolute masterpiece that blew me away then, and is a much better game to replay through than most in my collection.
Being that we know what to expect - do you think the magic TP can offer is already dimished before it is even released? Maybe to an extent. In todays online world, would it be possible to not release info and then just drop the game to retail? I think that's not possible...people want info, we want it so we can start judging before it's even an option to purchase/rent. What do we do with that info besides judge? Nothing. We either want it more or we want it less after getting some info. It's a precarious game of cat and mouse. We're the cat and can't ignore that damn mouse - it's just in us to get it...even if all we do is play with it until it's dead and then leave it there laying.
Could you swear off any info on a game you heard was in development until the day it was in the store and you were buying it...no reviews read...no gameplay videos watched.....no screenshots or previews? I would think most of us would say ' what kind of crack are you smoking wickerman?!?!' - I'd have to reply ' obviously bad crack'....because we want the info to decide if we should plunk our money down on a title - no one wants to buy a turd...they're free where I live. But don't we set ourselves up for it everytime? Twilight Princess won't have the same impact on me as Ocarina and that's sad.....I wish I didn't know what I do about it...but there was no way to escape it.
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