Did You All Forget To Be On Guard Against E3?

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Everytime Yahtzee writes about stuff like E3 i find it harder and harder to believe that he's the one who once said "I'd rather be stupid and having fun than bored out of my huge, genius mind".

Yes, i get excited about E3 and stuff that's shown off. I like games. I like getting hyped up abount games, it's a good feeling. "But you'll just bedisappointed when the game comes out and is nothing like the 30-second pre-animated out-of-engine trailer!" Not really. Because i know that hype material isn't going to be 1:1 with the actual game. It's possible to be fully aware of the implications of the things that goes on at E3 and in games marketing while also getting excited about things.

It's this cynical hype-kill attitude i find increasingly hard to swallow from a lot of people.

 

[jhoroz]

Everytime Yahtzee writes about stuff like E3 i find it harder and harder to believe that he's the one who once said "I'd rather be stupid and having fun than bored out of my huge, genius mind".

Yes, i get excited about E3 and stuff that's shown off. I like games. I like getting hyped up abount games, it's a good feeling. "But you'll just bedisappointed when the game comes out and is nothing like the 30-second pre-animated out-of-engine trailer!" Not really. Because i know that hype material isn't going to be 1:1 with the actual game. It's possible to be fully aware of the implications of the things that goes on at E3 and in games marketing while also getting excited about things.

It's this cynical hype-kill attitude i find increasingly hard to swallow from a lot of people.

His shallow boring predictable game cynic mentality where he treats those mind sets as complete black and white are the reason why I got tired of him years ago. The cynical=intelligent/constructive mentality is one of the laziest trends he's perpetuated since the beginning of his career and the fact that similiar critics have gone on to copy that style ad-naseum has made him even more unremarkable as a reviewer and writer.

 

[FPLOON]

Oh my glob! Something tells me that Nintendo knows those tips and knows how to subvert them to the point of "somehow" generating hype! Oh no! The dream [hype train] is collapsing!!

Other than that, only seeing anything Kingdom Hearts-related made me cum in my E3 hype pants... Everything else can either be described as "interesting" or "take my money now, Nintendo"...

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I spend the entirety of this year's E3 going on Google+ and watching idiots cream their pants all the while facepalming at how everyone had apparently forgotten previous year's E3s where very little put on display was actually accurately representative of the product in question.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Man, Yahtzee seems like the type of guy who's absolutely terrified of getting disappointed.

Dude, it's okay - calm down. They're just games. It's okay to be excited for the 6 or more months before they come out. Even if it turns out to be dogshit, it might amount to maybe an evening of disappointment, at the most.

I'd much rather be that way instead of a miserable bastard for the rest of my life.

 

[deleted+75193]

DELETED

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

Everytime Yahtzee writes about stuff like E3 i find it harder and harder to believe that he's the one who once said "I'd rather be stupid and having fun than bored out of my huge, genius mind".

Yes, i get excited about E3 and stuff that's shown off. I like games. I like getting hyped up abount games, it's a good feeling. "But you'll just bedisappointed when the game comes out and is nothing like the 30-second pre-animated out-of-engine trailer!" Not really. Because i know that hype material isn't going to be 1:1 with the actual game. It's possible to be fully aware of the implications of the things that goes on at E3 and in games marketing while also getting excited about things.

It's this cynical hype-kill attitude i find increasingly hard to swallow from a lot of people.

His shallow boring predictable game cynic mentality where he treats those mind sets as complete black and white are the reason why I got tired of him years ago. The cynical=intelligent/constructive mentality is one of the laziest trends he's perpetuated since the beginning of his career and the fact that similiar critics have gone on to copy that style ad-naseum has made him even more unremarkable as a reviewer and writer.

Holy fucking hell, someone agrees with me! Seriously, going by the comments that been written before mine i thought for sure if anyone quoted me it'd be only to tell me how stupid i am. It's good to see there's still some people on this site who know it's possible to happy about things without taking special pills or having some sort of brain abnormality.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I spend the entirety of this year's E3 going on Google+ and watching idiots cream their pants all the while facepalming at how everyone had apparently forgotten previous year's E3s where very little put on display was actually accurately representative of the product in question.

Because being a grouchy, judgemental buzzkill is the only way to be intelligent, eh? Getting hyped is only for "idiots", huh? Getting excited about Dark Souls 3, Horizon and the FF remake is all clearly a mistake because they're not gonna be perfect and i might go "eh" for a minute and still enjoy the game with slightly tapered expectations. Nevermind me. Resident moron and still-hyped person passing through.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

A phrase to watch out for is "We don't want to spoil it." For example, if coverage of a game like Fallout 4 were to consist mostly of showing off new gameplay mechanics and the intro sequence, with very little being even hinted at regarding the game's larger plot and central narrative thread, then you might want to lower expectations in that area.

Bethesda can't do story, it's like asking EA to do a small personal game about a yarn figure... right.

Pulling aside slightly... and I would agree with you. Bethesda don't really do story. They do do (haha) lots of mini stories... that all run separate to eachother, and are so mutually exclusive that sometimes it seems really disjointed... but then what do you expect from an Open World game?

The problem with big overarching stories is that to be big enough and grand enough you are eventually going to have to effect the gameworld. Like the first time you come across Kvatch in Oblivion. The story had effected the game world there, on a big scale, and part of you then thought that big things were to come... This is what actually prompted me not to play the story on my first playthough, in fear that other cities would be destroyed before I could explore them and do all the quests!

The same is true for all open world games though. The ones with the most interesting wider stories are the ones like Assassins Creed where you actions change the world, but they change it for the better instead. The story doesn't really effect the world, and you go round and restore it to pre-game glory, making it more accessible.

A game like GTA also isn't effected. You do big missions where you take down a helicopter in the middle of a hotel complex in a dramatic set piece, and there isn't a scratch to remember it by... hell... pedestrians in seconds will be wondering around as though it never happened.

I guess a good crossover between linear and openworld are JRPGs. You progress, but there is also an element of going where you want and seeing what you want. Every games location will somehow change with the events... even if it is just the dialogue of the towns people. At least that is some sort of feedback from what you have been doing. I liked games like Final Fantasies VIII, IX and X-2 where it was more evident. The towns would even look a bit different upon return as you see how they have reacted and progressed to the story events. Lindblum in FFIX was a great example of this where you had constant feedback to the games set pieces.

All that said... I will still play the shit out of Fallout 4. I will do the missions, and speak to all the creepy wooden characters to get all the rewards... and leave my story telling itch to that of more linear games like Dishonoured and The Last of Us. Maybe it is a development cost limitation, and we end up with something that crosses both boundries in the future, but at the moment I think we just have to accept that we get one or the other and not set ourselves for disapointment.

Sorry for the random tirade, but you got me thinking a bit, and I got carried away. :S

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

Everytime Yahtzee writes about stuff like E3 i find it harder and harder to believe that he's the one who once said "I'd rather be stupid and having fun than bored out of my huge, genius mind".

Yes, i get excited about E3 and stuff that's shown off. I like games. I like getting hyped up abount games, it's a good feeling. "But you'll just bedisappointed when the game comes out and is nothing like the 30-second pre-animated out-of-engine trailer!" Not really. Because i know that hype material isn't going to be 1:1 with the actual game. It's possible to be fully aware of the implications of the things that goes on at E3 and in games marketing while also getting excited about things.

It's this cynical hype-kill attitude i find increasingly hard to swallow from a lot of people.

His shallow boring predictable game cynic mentality where he treats those mind sets as complete black and white are the reason why I got tired of him years ago. The cynical=intelligent/constructive mentality is one of the laziest trends he's perpetuated since the beginning of his career and the fact that similiar critics have gone on to copy that style ad-naseum has made him even more unremarkable as a reviewer and writer.

Holy fucking hell, someone agrees with me! Seriously, going by the comments that been written before mine i thought for sure if anyone quoted me it'd be only to tell me how stupid i am. It's good to see there's still some people on this site who know it's possible to happy about things without taking special pills or having some sort of brain abnormality.

And the worst part is he will flat out ignore parts of the game to make it seem terrible. At least I assume he's ignoring and not missing it because that'd be pretty sad in most cases.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I spend the entirety of this year's E3 going on Google+ and watching idiots cream their pants all the while facepalming at how everyone had apparently forgotten previous year's E3s where very little put on display was actually accurately representative of the product in question.

Because being a grouchy, judgemental buzzkill is the only way to be intelligent, eh? Getting hyped is only for "idiots", huh? Getting excited about Dark Souls 3, Horizon and the FF remake is all clearly a mistake because they're not gonna be perfect and i might go "eh" for a minute and still enjoy the game with slightly tapered expectations. Nevermind me. Resident moron and still-hyped person passing through.

When one's excitement is based on what history has shown could quite easily be outright lies then yes, that would make that person an idiot. I would've thought we'd have learned by now, but apparently I'm the only one who has.

 

[Dalisclock]

And the worst part is he will flat out ignore parts of the game to make it seem terrible. At least I assume he's ignoring and not missing it because that'd be pretty sad in most cases.

Paraphrase"You don't hire a sewer technician to clean your bathroom and you don't listen to me about how a good is good".

I think he's mentioned a time or two that he pretty much focuses on the bad stuff because a.) most other reviews are probably gushing about the good stuff and b.) it's easier to be funny when talking about what's wrong with the game. IIRC, he followed this up with "If I don't talk about it, you can probably assume that part is alright".

 

[Hoplon]

A phrase to watch out for is "We don't want to spoil it." For example, if coverage of a game like Fallout 4 were to consist mostly of showing off new gameplay mechanics and the intro sequence, with very little being even hinted at regarding the game's larger plot and central narrative thread, then you might want to lower expectations in that area.

Bethesda can't do story, it's like asking EA to do a small personal game about a yarn figure... right.

Pulling aside slightly... and I would agree with you. Bethesda don't really do story. They do do (haha) lots of mini stories... that all run separate to eachother, and are so mutually exclusive that sometimes it seems really disjointed... but then what do you expect from an Open World game?

The problem with big overarching stories is that to be big enough and grand enough you are eventually going to have to effect the gameworld. Like the first time you come across Kvatch in Oblivion. The story had effected the game world there, on a big scale, and part of you then thought that big things were to come... This is what actually prompted me not to play the story on my first playthough, in fear that other cities would be destroyed before I could explore them and do all the quests!

The same is true for all open world games though. The ones with the most interesting wider stories are the ones like Assassins Creed where you actions change the world, but they change it for the better instead. The story doesn't really effect the world, and you go round and restore it to pre-game glory, making it more accessible.

A game like GTA also isn't effected. You do big missions where you take down a helicopter in the middle of a hotel complex in a dramatic set piece, and there isn't a scratch to remember it by... hell... pedestrians in seconds will be wondering around as though it never happened.

I guess a good crossover between linear and openworld are JRPGs. You progress, but there is also an element of going where you want and seeing what you want. Every games location will somehow change with the events... even if it is just the dialogue of the towns people. At least that is some sort of feedback from what you have been doing. I liked games like Final Fantasies VIII, IX and X-2 where it was more evident. The towns would even look a bit different upon return as you see how they have reacted and progressed to the story events. Lindblum in FFIX was a great example of this where you had constant feedback to the games set pieces.

All that said... I will still play the shit out of Fallout 4. I will do the missions, and speak to all the creepy wooden characters to get all the rewards... and leave my story telling itch to that of more linear games like Dishonoured and The Last of Us. Maybe it is a development cost limitation, and we end up with something that crosses both boundries in the future, but at the moment I think we just have to accept that we get one or the other and not set ourselves for disapointment.

Sorry for the random tirade, but you got me thinking a bit, and I got carried away. :S

I felt much the same, and i doubt it's a costs thing, it's a conscious design decision on Bethesda's part to minimise it. It's why i liked new vegas better than FO3

 

[BX3]

Everytime Yahtzee writes about stuff like E3 i find it harder and harder to believe that he's the one who once said "I'd rather be stupid and having fun than bored out of my huge, genius mind".

Yes, i get excited about E3 and stuff that's shown off. I like games. I like getting hyped up abount games, it's a good feeling. "But you'll just bedisappointed when the game comes out and is nothing like the 30-second pre-animated out-of-engine trailer!" Not really. Because i know that hype material isn't going to be 1:1 with the actual game. It's possible to be fully aware of the implications of the things that goes on at E3 and in games marketing while also getting excited about things.

It's this cynical hype-kill attitude i find increasingly hard to swallow from a lot of people.

Well, I can totally get hyped up about stuff that looks interesting while simultaneously being ready when they actually come out for them to be total disappointments.

Being a skeptical consumer doesn't mean I can't enjoy the show.

I agree with this part, but largely disagree with the rest of the article. Favouring optimism over cynicism doesn't necessarily inhibit one's ability to think analytically. If that makes me a trained seal then so be it. Arf arf.

Disappointment is a fact of life and it's no reason not to get excited about anything. I'd rather get extremely excited followed by crushing disappointment, than not get excited about anything ever for fear of being let down.

Nicely put. When I think about it, the only video game that ever really disappointed me was Duke Nukem Forever. And when I juxtapose that disappointment with all the joyful anticipation I've had for upcoming video games over the years, I find little that I could gain by taking Yahtzee's advice in this particular article.

Thanks for these posts guys. For a while now, I've begun to legitimately feel like I was one of the only people that felt this way about E3 and stuff like it. Yes, yes, I know that in a sea of millions of gamers that's of course not true, but seeing as how this kinda cynicism rules on the internet, it certainly started to feel that way, and not a good feeling it is.

I get being a careful consumer. I do it all the time. If I'm intensely hyped for a game, I follow that shit, I check footage, I look up features until the game steadily approaches release, I look up gameplay footage AFTER the game's been released (unless it's a game I know for a fact I'll like, like Sonic Generations or Splatoon), I do my homework, and if the game ends up not being up to snuff... well... tough. I remember being SOOOO excited for Sims 4. I actually liked the artstyle and was interested in the nifty new features Maxis would bring to the table in place of an open world environment. When I found out it was an unfinished mess, yeah, I was a little bummed at first, but exactly 5 seconds later my reaction was "well, I guess I can spend that 60 duckets on something else." Eventual disappointment has never really been a wall that's stopped me from looking at a trailer/new piece of tech and thinking "Huh. Neat!"

If you're the type of person that hates disappointment that much, hey, more power to you. It's our desire first and foremost as human beings to do the things that make us happiest, and if you attain that happiness by assuming that everything is shit until proven otherwise and being pleasantly surprised if it isn't? Hey, I won't stop you. The logic's sound enough. But the weird thing is, the more I see that type of attitude relentlessly pushed and echoed, the more I start to wonder if it's less about being disappointed and more about being wrong.

The internet's (and the gaming community) is kind of an unforgiving place. No one wants to be seen as that guy who got excited for that one game that ended up just being a box of rocks and a papertowel right? By jove, you'd look like an idiot. A hypocrite even! You already said publicly that you want to like this game, dipshit. Stick with it! And being wrong about something being good is always more damning than being wrong about something being bad... which is weird, but whatever.

 

[Fox12]

Well, you can still get excited about something knowing full well it might not turn out that great. You do know that, right? Because this is a song and dance I see from you every year E3 rolls around, and it's just starting to come across a bit whiney. 'Don't get hyped about anything because it'll likely not live up to it!' Yes, we know, we're not idiots -- We've been gaming for many years now, you don't have to tell us a lot of E3 is smoke and mirrors. We're just having fun with the announcements and the what-might-be.

Not to mention that a lot of games.... actually deliver on the hype. Bloodborne didn't just meet expectations, it exceeded them. The Last of Us was much better then the trailer promised. FF7 probably won't be, but I haven't actually been let down by a game in years. Most of them are exactly what I thought they'd be. The only exception is ME3, and that's because of a single scene near the end.

Overall, it's just as possible to be unreasonably cynical as it is to be unreasonably optimistic.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

And the worst part is he will flat out ignore parts of the game to make it seem terrible. At least I assume he's ignoring and not missing it because that'd be pretty sad in most cases.

Paraphrase"You don't hire a sewer technician to clean your bathroom and you don't listen to me about how a good is good".

I think he's mentioned a time or two that he pretty much focuses on the bad stuff because a.) most other reviews are probably gushing about the good stuff and b.) it's easier to be funny when talking about what's wrong with the game. IIRC, he followed this up with "If I don't talk about it, you can probably assume that part is alright".

Yes, but there's a difference between "focusing on the terrible" and "making terrible from which there was none by ignoring aspects of the game."

 

[Nazulu]

Well, you can still get excited about something knowing full well it might not turn out that great. You do know that, right? Because this is a song and dance I see from you every year E3 rolls around, and it's just starting to come across a bit whiney. 'Don't get hyped about anything because it'll likely not live up to it!' Yes, we know, we're not idiots -- We've been gaming for many years now, you don't have to tell us a lot of E3 is smoke and mirrors. We're just having fun with the announcements and the what-might-be.

No he's right. From the little I've seen many people are full hyped and have considered this year and next year to be the best years of gaming just because of the names mentioned. Forgetting all the bad, saying everything's fixed just because of some fucking names!

Those new games will sell well just because of the amazing hype it's built. I bet you, with a lot of the sales from pre-orders.

The only full-hype I've seen from this year's E3 was the Final Fantasy 7 remake, and that was all due to the fact that it even exists. Followed maybe by Fallout 4, but that has less to do with E3 and more with whatever weird hold Bethesda has on people. People get ludicrously hyped for Blizzard, too, which I really can't understand.

The notion that everyone just gets blinded by E3 hype is false as there's been plenty of criticism. Everyone gets star struck initially by whatever announcement, but that fades quickly enough, especially once the game steps out from behind its pre-rendered teaser trailer. Sure, there's people that rush out to pre-order the next big thing two years before it's even released, but this idea of avoiding excitement or positive expectations at all costs just makes me think of a whiney teenager. You can strike a balance. You can be really hyped for something and cautiously wait and see whether it justifies it.

Disappointment is a fact of life and it's no reason not to get excited about anything. I'd rather get extremely excited followed by crushing disappointment, than not get excited about anything ever for fear of being let down.

I didn't mean everyone gets blind, but I'm sure you don't believe I did. Your last point is interesting though.

I know disappointment all too well, but obviously there are some that react ridiculously to it. I think Yahtzee was mainly speaking to them.

Also, Yahtzee has made it clear he prefers to believe everything's shit until it proves otherwise. A lot of people even here don't like to be let down but know how to be cautious all the same. That goes for me too. Unless I see something special from the get go, there is no reason to get excited. It's not from fear, it's experience. You get used to seeing the same formula used over and over, but not everyone does, or even can, and so I think this is just a good reminder for those people.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

I spend the entirety of this year's E3 going on Google+ and watching idiots cream their pants all the while facepalming at how everyone had apparently forgotten previous year's E3s where very little put on display was actually accurately representative of the product in question.

Because being a grouchy, judgemental buzzkill is the only way to be intelligent, eh? Getting hyped is only for "idiots", huh? Getting excited about Dark Souls 3, Horizon and the FF remake is all clearly a mistake because they're not gonna be perfect and i might go "eh" for a minute and still enjoy the game with slightly tapered expectations. Nevermind me. Resident moron and still-hyped person passing through.

When one's excitement is based on what history has shown could quite easily be outright lies then yes, that would make that person an idiot. I would've thought we'd have learned by now, but apparently I'm the only one who has.

No wonder you can't see why people might be excited. Must be hard for you to see anything past your own colon. Hype material is lies? That seems like overdramatization to me. How often has E3 been peddling lies in the past decade? Give me more examples than i can count on one hand, please.
"Apparently i'm the only one who has" get over yourself, man.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I spend the entirety of this year's E3 going on Google+ and watching idiots cream their pants all the while facepalming at how everyone had apparently forgotten previous year's E3s where very little put on display was actually accurately representative of the product in question.

Because being a grouchy, judgemental buzzkill is the only way to be intelligent, eh? Getting hyped is only for "idiots", huh? Getting excited about Dark Souls 3, Horizon and the FF remake is all clearly a mistake because they're not gonna be perfect and i might go "eh" for a minute and still enjoy the game with slightly tapered expectations. Nevermind me. Resident moron and still-hyped person passing through.

When one's excitement is based on what history has shown could quite easily be outright lies then yes, that would make that person an idiot. I would've thought we'd have learned by now, but apparently I'm the only one who has.

No wonder you can't see why people might be excited. Must be hard for you to see anything past your own colon. Hype material is lies? That seems like overdramatization to me. How often has E3 been peddling lies in the past decade? Give me more examples than i can count on one hand, please.
"Apparently i'm the only one who has" get over yourself, man.

It only takes one or 2 examples before I start getting suspicious of the AAA hype train, esp. when there have been huge ones like Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Incidentally find me someone else that has learned to reign in their excitement and I'll stop believing I'm the only one.