The Point - Is Marketing Killing the Wonder of Games?

Maybe part of the problem is unveiling games 2 or 3 years before they will be hitting the shelves. Unveil the game a few months before and that leaves a lot less time to drop everything there is to know about said game.

Is it too much to ass for a triple A game that isn't a by the numbers, generic shooter?

You know, this problem doesn't exactly exist only in AAA. While they're not as marketed, indies get plenty of press by gaming sites. FEZ became the phenomenon it was because it was all over the place on Twitter. Minecraft became what it was, not because of the game itself, but because of all the crazy things we saw people made in create mode. And really, Minecraft is possibly the easiest concept to explain- a mix of survival and playing with Legos.

The problem is that people saturate themselves with media to the point where, AAA or no, we know everything.

I've noticed it myself, really. I mostly tuned out of E3, reading print articles, but watching no videos. I've been playing tons of games, old and new, based on just enough information to make a good choice on whether to buy a game (whether at GameStop or on eBay), and I've enjoyed them more.

The fact is that developers and publishers can't just make games intentionally cryptic and expect people to react with wonder. People have to want that wonder. They have to CHOOSE to tune out sometimes.

it's a fine a line if they don't market the game we won't know about it or buy it, if they do too much then the game is spoiled, and the game is not as exciting as it could be. But what choice do they have?

this is true i used to spend hours and hours playing san andreas looking for big foot (did'nt exsist but i did'nt know) and ghost cars and other stuff come gta i just googled everythin same with oblivion spent so much time exploring come skyrin i just googled to see what there was

Danny is definitely on a different level than everyone else in gaming media.

I find I get more excited for new games by just watching teaser trailers instead of more detailed ones or playing betas. Enough info to get to excited but not enough to spoil the experience later. The whole thing about the journey being worth more than the destination. Though I do make an exception for games like Battlefield or Halo due to their betas being multiplayer focused.

I hope so Danny :) marketing can kill the vibe.

But like... if gamespot didn't show any of that shit. then you wouldn't really be game spot...

you would just be

... spot.

Although i totally agree with the video I want you guys to keep doing what you do, your awesome.

Its personal choice. we all grew up and we can handle our hype levels manually. we can peek in the cookie jar if we want to, we just can't bitch if when we bite into them we taste raisins instead of chocolate chips. Looks can be deceiving, and hype can be disheartening. Just chill.

I avoid the hype but somehow I still ended up getting Titanfall and Watchdogs! hehe

On the other side, Im into The Secret World. I mention that because it had like nearly 0 marketting and Hype and it's a great game (for me).

Indie to look out for this year..."Dreamfall: Chapters" (if you're into adventure)

The problem is, in this internet age, that we as consumers have been given more power than before. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Nowadays we can research the hell out of a game before buying it with articles, youtube videos, reviews, twitch streams, and just by the opinions of others in the comments section. This is good because we can make more informed purchases and avoid a lot of crap. At the same time big triple A developers now just copy each other because they cant take risks. Back in the day you could make a terrible piece of crap game, throw a couple of dragons or robots and crap on the box art, and it would sell because back then all you really had to go by was whats on the box. Its just not true anymore. I'm not saying its the consumers fault, its just the way things are now and I don't think that the gaming industry has been able to cope.

I'm not a big fan of Indie games as most of them resemble GameBoy games. Not keen on going backwards.

Granted they're not expensive, however I still struggle to shell out cash for them.

On the other hand you have B (or C) title games like Sniper Elite which cost like a AAA game. Geez this game is worse than most Indie titles.

Over-marketing hasn't really been a problem for me. Once I made up my mind and know "ok, I'm gonna buy this game", I automatically don't watch anymore footage of this game whatsoever. For example I still enjoy the AC-Series and buy the next game at some point (around a year later when it's cheap and including all dlc) - knowing that I never watch any footage of it - except announcement trailers maybe.

If you don't wanna be spoiled, just keep your eyes and ears shut ;)

(ok, it kinda helps that none of my rl friends are gamers and are able to spoil me anyways...)

And the only way your gonna get surprises is single player B budget tittles imo. Middle class needs to come back more =\

Some of this Indie stuff is pretentious. If a game is good it's good, regardless of it's budget. But just b/c you play an Indie game you're not stickin' it to the man - or a hard game for game.

They're frickin video games.

About the net and games. I was a hardcore Everquest player when it launched, 2nd on my server ti 50, The 3rd was a real life girl who played a Wizard, a hard character to solo.

So we were going into Lower Guk and I asked her if she had a map from the internet. She said that's cheating.

Holy moly this is such a critical problem in the industry right now, so pleased to see you hit it right on the head.

My problem is that because I have relatively little time to play games these days, I need to know that something is worth spending my money and, more importantly, my time on.

Yeah game developers treat gamers like they are stupid. Press X jump press B to crouch. GEE THANKS i would have just been helplessly stuck there for hours had they not told me that

And why do they always make it so that you can win? Put like 50 health packs before a boss fight. Bosses with giant orange weak spots like i am so 7yr old. I want a video game where the enemies can kill me just as easily as i can kill them..

And why do all NPCS in video games treat me like i am the king?? I walk past them and they are like "Oh lord its him!!!!"

Like where do developers get this idea that the entire game world must revolve around me? Im not so special I am a 24 year old who lives with my freaking mom and i use her credit card to buy myself crap.

Just so dumb, even the dialogue comments i can choose from are like "Do you have any idea who i am?"

I used to play arcade games mostly, I loved beat´em up and racing games, like Daytona USA. Nowadays, I dont get excited about AAA games anymore. Guess Im getting old... Arcades ruled, I guess because like Danny says, you didnt know anything about the game. If It was a cool game you kept playing until you had zero coins.

My only great expectation isThe Witcher 3 Wild Hunt...

Totally agree ! All of my favorite games have been the ones that i know nothing about before playing for the 1st time . I bought Dark Souls blindly just to coop with friends , now i love it .

And also , the hype train has limited fuel , and have to be used wisely , GTA V did it well , Watch Dogs ... now so well .

And i'll still be interested in No man's sky if i don't know its missions , goal and story .

@thermalmotion @cratecruncher Thanks. It's one of my all-time favorites.

@dannyodwyer Awesome. Saw some of your old interviews with Hello Games for Joe Danger and really dug it so very much looking forward to this. My comment wasn't intended to be a dig, simply an observation and question. So thanks for answering!

Watch Dogs was oversaturated because it's a brand new, cross-platform IP that got delayed so we were pummeled with two hype tsunamis. If I remember right Watch Dogs also sold 5 million copies in the first week and Ubisoft was not shy about thumping their chest about it. Ubisoft got their money and the hype train still works. They are even working on the sequel Watch Dogs II, with more "hacks" than ever!

Personally, I'm swearing off AAA for indies for the foreseeable future. It's more effort separating the games I wouldn't like from the stuff I do but discovery is part of the fun and I like unusual games. I use my wishlist in Steam or GOG to earmark an interesting game for a further look when I have time to research it.

It might be harder these days, but when I get the sense a game will be right up my alley, I tend to avoid it's media coverage like the plague... or at least keep it to a bare minimum.

So, sorry Danny & staff, I probably won't be tuning in to that upcoming No Man's Sky piece (and that sucks because I'm sure it will be excellent).

The power to keep that wonder alive is still firmly in our hands. Never forget that.

Yes they show too much...

Nowaday i just watch 1 or 2 gameplay video to have a good idea of what the gameplay will look like.

Before i was watching almost every video and often when i was playing a game it was like i had saw everything already.

I was entering in a city and was like: Oh i already saw that city.., or was entering a new area and felt like i had already saw all of it.

I definitely see where you're coming from and agree to some extent, but as a consumer it can be a bit of a strange balancing act. On one hand, I want enough information to make an informed purchasing decision -- I, like most people, am not made of money and can't afford to just drop money on expensive titles on a whim. In order to make that decision it's pretty much impossible to not spoil yourself a little bit. But I do crave that sense of wonder, so it's a balancing act in the sense that I have to find some middle ground where I know enough to make an informed purchasing decision without ruining the surprise.

There is something to be said about the ridiculous over-commitment to marketing though. Realistically much of the marketing material we get is just fluff, not necessarily representative of the games as they will be when you're actually playing them, and that to me is a real problem. Overmarketing does tend to sour my view on games before I even get to play them, and that's so common in the AAA industry these days it's hard not to expose yourself to it. The trailers are all over the place, info is plastered all over your favorite websites and your friends are hyping up their favorite upcoming releases and constantly talking about them. If you are immersed in gaming culture in the way that I would imagine many of the people who regular Gamespot are, it's very difficult to avoid.

@dannyodwyer I appreciate the new approach Danny! Do you think coverage like the stuff you're going to try next week with No Mans Sky is more or less likely to be seen as 'typical' games coverage? Are people trained to look for information about maps, guns, features and game completion time in games coverage? Somehow I suspect how you package this sort of more abstract game coverage content is critically important. Or maybe not? I have no idea!

Very early into this video I was thinking about the Commodore, and I was going to say basically what Danny later said, in those days I, and probably a lot of people on them, had no clue about most games until we loaded it up. However I have to add that in those days as a little kid almost every game I got was pirated. It was cool though, you'd find out some kid at school also had a Commodore, and then you'd trade disks, and like I said the vast majority of games you had absolutely no idea what they were. Being a kid obviously made it more exciting, but still I think there is something to that.

No Man's Sky being The Next Big Game, hmm, not sure how I feel about that. I think the game looks cool, it might be a great game, but I hope GS has some major inside info that factored into the decision, because from what's known to the public I feel it's way too little to be calling it that.

you dont see this problem with rpgs, there are always surprises, be it western rpgs or jrpgs. Thats part of the reason why I always prefer rpgs.

Yep, thats why i barely watch trailers or previews of games im about to play. Same with TV shows to, i never watch previews of next week episodes either. I dont really want to see anything or any image that could possible be the ending of a game or something important so i can enjoy the full experience without the experience being butchered by seeing everything before i play it.

Like for example The Ultimate Fighter TV Show, always shows you a preview of the actual FIGHT in next weeks show, i literally turn the tv show off, just as a preview is about to start now. I dont want to see anything about next weeks show.

This Could be just me though. Maybe people like seeing important stuff before experiencing it for themselves, not sure.

You can say movies share the same problem. They give you all the funny moments, action scenes, twists and what not in the trailers to try to make you pay to watch it.

Sorry if I've missed the point Danny (pun slightly intended), but is it not strange to criticize the over-saturation of games coverage when the intro to this video is hyping up your "Next Big Game" feature where you do a tonnnnnn of coverage, videos, details etc about this game? Does that not completely go against the whole argument in your video about breaking down the mystery of a game before release?

Also, some very brave laptop balancing there.

so true, wolfenstein came out of nowhere i didnt even know about it and i chose that over watch dog that ive been hearing about for years and know every little detail about it and how people are just a bunch of whiners over dumb stuff.

Look out, Danny. That laptop is about to go Pac Man on you!

the problem is when the marketing try to mess with our desires and make we feel anxious for what`s coming
Years behind, us games are a tribe with wisdom and fast rational reflex. Now everybody thinks all the time about our own fame and about what other people are doing. I hate social networks....

^^

have seen almost no footage of The Witcher 3 or Dragon Age inquisition for this very reason.

I just don't wanna know it yet. Honestly.

That's why I don't usually watch trailers or read the full preview or review. I just skim through and read enough to know whether I want to play it. And I don't read about the story. I only try to get a general idea. Too many times previews reveal something huge that happens but it's not considered a spoiler because it happens in the beginning.

Pre-rendered videos advertising a false sense of gaming visuals is what kills the imagination. Overblown CGI is not what any game is about. This is not the film industry.