Good games with awful/misleading marketing

[TheMigrantSoldier]

I decided to replay Dragon Age: Origins after, like, 6 years. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying it. The writing and worldbuilding hold up well, as does the actual roleplaying part. The combat is still mediocre, but there have been fights that felt intense and genuinely gratifying (the revenant courtyard fight, for example). Overall, I've been pretty satisfied.

It's funny to think how uninterested I was in the game's initial release as a result of its embarassing marketing. The message I got from it was "see how much blood, sex and unmitigated EDGE we can pack into this shallow dark fantasy world!" and the preorder bonuses certainly didn't help. I mean, this trailer really says it all:
Other games like that include Fire Emblem and Yoshi's Island, two otherwise good games which had some... questionable [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM-s5C0dnZs] advertisement [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPJJQHF4tTo], too. So, what are some games you enjoy that could have been sold to the masses better?

 

[Saelune]

Fable 1 is probably the most obvious example...so I will take it.

 

[Req]

I always thought that the "OMG so hard!" reputation Dark Souls got was an extreme disservice to the actual game, not just because it was massively blown out of proportion, also because the game had much more to offer than difficulty.

Apparently the marketing department disagreed...

 

[tippy2k2]

"Makes you cry like an Anime fan on Prom Night"

...alright, that one is too recent and easy so I'll let that one alone and harp back on the one that no one should ever ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER forget lest history tries to repeat itself...


Now for the history lesson...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchants_Association

The bill above was the "California to ban M-rated sales to minors". While the bill was being argued (November 2010 area), the Dead Space 2 ad came out. The makers of the bill argued that gaming companies were marketing M-rated video games to children and that's (one of the reasons) why the video game law forbidding the sales of M-rated games to children existed.

Dead Space 2 was doing it's damndest to prove them right. Now seriously, who over the age of 17 really gives a shit if their parents think that their video games are too violent? I'm sure there are a few but most normal adults don't really care if Mommy thinks that this is too much. Who does care about this though? Teenagers. Teenagers, the demographic that a M-rated game is not supposed to go after because it's outside their age-group. The very thing that the California bill was trying to stop and Dead Space 2's ad spit in the face of everyone arguing why the law was a bad idea.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I remember some ads for Dragon Quest IX that were intended for the female audience presenting the game as though it was a game where you primarily play dress-up like if it was some barbie game when in fact it simply just has lots of equipment and it all is visually different. It wasn't as much bad as it was misleading since the game is a very meaty Jrpg and some of those outfits are legit niche fetish outfits...though poor american girls looking to play a dress-up game wouldn't know that I guess lol.

 

[Dalisclock]

I always thought that the "OMG so hard!" reputation Dark Souls got was an extreme disservice to the actual game, not just because it was massively blown out of proportion, also because the game had much more to offer than difficulty.

Apparently the marketing department disagreed...

Honestly, I'm not sure the FROM/NB Marketing department even knows what the hell to do with DS. Pretty much all of the trailers so jumbled or non-indicative as to be nearly useless. Oh, I enjoy them but somebody who had never played a DS game wouldn't have any clue what they were walking into. One of the DS3 trailers had the tagline "All will be revealed", something anybody remotely familiar with this series knows are blatant lies.

And the "GIT GUD" thing doesn't help outside of the official marketing. Hell, that kept me away from the series for years until I realized there was actually story and atmosphere as well. Thanks, annoying members of the fanbase.

 

[BrawlMan]

Now for the history lesson...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchants_Association

The bill above was the "California to ban M-rated sales to minors". While the bill was being argued (November 2010 area), the Dead Space 2 ad came out. The makers of the bill argued that gaming companies were marketing M-rated video games to children and that's (one of the reasons) why the video game law forbidding the sales of M-rated games to children existed.

Dead Space 2 was doing it's damnedest to prove them right. Now seriously, who over the age of 17 really gives a shit if their parents think that their video games are too violent? I'm sure there are a few but most normal adults don't really care if Mommy thinks that this is too much. Who does care about this though? Teenagers. Teenagers, the demographic that a M-rated game is not supposed to go after because it's outside their age-group. The very thing that the California bill was trying to stop and Dead Space 2's ad spit in the face of everyone arguing why the law was a bad idea.

Extra Credits had a field day on chewing EA out on that fiasco. Speaking of EA, their marketing of Brutal Legend. What many people thought what was supposed to be a single-player action game, turned out more to be like an RTS, and with more focus on a multiplayer no seemed to talk about in the marketing. Speaking of the marketing, EA tried its hard to appeal to lowest common denominator in all of the ads for this game. What's even more unhelpful is that the game is known for crashing in the PS3 version and EA refuses to patch it at all. It seems like they really want to pretend they never had a relationship with Double Fine.

 

[hermes]

Now for the history lesson...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Entertainment_Merchants_Association

The bill above was the "California to ban M-rated sales to minors". While the bill was being argued (November 2010 area), the Dead Space 2 ad came out. The makers of the bill argued that gaming companies were marketing M-rated video games to children and that's (one of the reasons) why the video game law forbidding the sales of M-rated games to children existed.

Dead Space 2 was doing it's damnedest to prove them right. Now seriously, who over the age of 17 really gives a shit if their parents think that their video games are too violent? I'm sure there are a few but most normal adults don't really care if Mommy thinks that this is too much. Who does care about this though? Teenagers. Teenagers, the demographic that a M-rated game is not supposed to go after because it's outside their age-group. The very thing that the California bill was trying to stop and Dead Space 2's ad spit in the face of everyone arguing why the law was a bad idea.

Extra Credits had a field day on chewing EA out on that fiasco. Speaking of EA, their marketing of Brutal Legend. What many people thought what was supposed to be a single-player action game, turned out more to be like an RTS, and with more focus on a multiplayer no seemed to talk about in the marketing. Speaking of the marketing, EA tried its hard to appeal to lowest common denominator in all of the ads for this game. What's even more unhelpful is that the game is known for crashing in the PS3 version and EA refuses to patch it at all. It seems like they really want to pretend they never had a relationship with Double Dine.

I love Double Fine, but that one is as much their fault as that of EA. The first hour of the game (you know, the only part that is covered in the demo) make it look like an action adventure game with an openworld hub, something like Darksiders with humor and a Heavy Metal theme. While EA can be partially blamed for the marketing, it was Double Fine that choose to structure the game like that and make that section the focus of their entire campaign. The demo they put together is the go-to example of why vertical slice demos are not helpful.

 

[sageoftruth]

I remember seeing the trailer for Freedom Planet for the first time. It wasn't deliberately misleading. I think the developers just overestimated the quality of the storytelling and voice acting in their game and thought the plot would be one of the game's major selling points. Sadly, it actually turned out to be the thing that drove me and a bunch of other people away from trying the game, so much so that even the impressive gameplay footage on display was overshadowed by it. It wasn't until various Youtubers revealed the game's true strengths that I finally gave it a chance and realized what a (then) underappreciated gem it was.

 

[sageoftruth]

I might as well add one of the lowest hanging fruits for this one: Evony. Marketed as a sexy fanservice fantasy game, when the actual product looked more like gameplay footage from a city-building game.

EDIT: Aw crap! I missed how these are supposed to be games we enjoy. For the record, I never played Evony and probably never will.

 

[Ryallen]

Battleborn was advertised as an Overwatch knock-off when it was more of a first-person MOBA, with gear set, levelling, towers to build, and so much more that distinguished itself from Overwatch. But Gearbox ruined the potential of what could have been a really good game by going straight up against Blizzard, a company with years more experience, notoriety, and the privilege of being Blizzard, so the game more or less failed upon launch.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Titanfall 2. its a good SP game market as MP game when it has bad MP and good SP.

 

[happyninja42]

Dante's Inferno. I thought the game was a perfectly fine God of War clone, and I enjoy playing every time I load it back up. But yeah....some of the marketing stuff EA pulled...really bad. Like, criminally bad.

Though the Super Bowl commercial for it, is still one of my favorites.


I don't really know how to explain why I love it so much, it's just so simple and to the point. And the song is a favorite of mine.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I don't know what the marketing was like, but lollipop chainsaw looked terrible until actually getting to play it for myself.

And the original perfect dark had a bit of an dissuasive advert.

Telltale games tend to not have convincing trailers. Like a good TV series, you have to jump in with the character's experience instead of snap-judgements from out-of-context snippets. And to a lesser extent; Bioware games, mainly due to their awkward body and facial movements.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I decided to replay Dragon Age: Origins after, like, 6 years. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying it. The writing and worldbuilding hold up well, as does the actual roleplaying part. The combat is still mediocre, but there have been fights that felt intense and genuinely gratifying (the revenant courtyard fight, for example). Overall, I've been pretty satisfied.

It's funny to think how uninterested I was in the game's initial release as a result of its embarassing marketing. The message I got from it was "see how much blood, sex and unmitigated EDGE we can pack into this shallow dark fantasy world!" and the preorder bonuses certainly didn't help. I mean, this trailer really says it all:
Other games like that include Fire Emblem and Yoshi's Island, two otherwise good games which had some... questionable [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM-s5C0dnZs] advertisement [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPJJQHF4tTo], too. So, what are some games you enjoy that could have been sold to the masses better?

How is the combat mediocre?

Do you say this as a person that prefers just straight up real time action like Witcher, Dark Souls, Skyrim, etc.?

 

[happyninja42]

OOOH! Just forgot a great one!

Binary Domain! It's marketing was awful in that I never saw any for the game at all. But holy shit was that game fun as hell! WAY underrated shooter game with a lot of fun and soul.

I found out about it watching Many a True Nerd play it on his "Why Not Wednesday" series, where he buys a game that costs like 5 bucks, and plays it for a bit just for lulz. Turns out, he ended up loving the hell out of the game, and when I bought it, so did I. Pretty much every review I've seen of it is along the lines of "way more fun than I was expecting, a hidden blast of a game"

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

I remember seeing the trailer for Freedom Planet for the first time. It wasn't deliberately misleading. I think the developers just overestimated the quality of the storytelling and voice acting in their game and thought the plot would be one of the game's major selling points. Sadly, it actually turned out to be the thing that drove me and a bunch of other people away from trying the game, so much so that even the impressive gameplay footage on display was overshadowed by it. It wasn't until various Youtubers revealed the game's true strengths that I finally gave it a chance and realized what a (then) underappreciated gem it was.

Same story for me. I really enjoyed Freedom Planet but only because a certain review [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WAnIeBstY] review pointed out its strengths. Ironically, if that game were advertised as a fun, energetic platformer with inspiration pulled from Sonic, the story would have been better received.

Do you say this as a person that prefers just straight up real time action like Witcher, Dark Souls, Skyrim, etc.?

Once you get to the mid-late game, The general flow of transitioning between battles feels awkward, and clicking on trash enemies to kill them one-by-one gets tedious. Doesn't help that the vanilla combat animations are slow, stiff and all-around unsatisfying (thank the Maker for the combat speed mod). Granted, real-time, click-based RPG combat in general is not my preferred mode (that would be turn-based). That all being said, leveling up a mage into a dedicated nuker is cathartic.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Br?tal Legend's marketing. All of the pre-release materials, including gameplay videos and demo, ommitted the fact that the game is actually an action/RTS hybrid rather the the pure hack 'n slash action game they made it appear as.

And of course there's Aliens: Colonial Marines, which showed the game as having better visuals and much better animation quality and AI than it actually had. And pretty much only showed the aliens as enemies, when you spend half of the game shooting human mooks.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

To anybody who's played Killer7 and feels like a good laugh, look up the original trailer.

 

[Yoshi178]

the more i look at ARMS the more i think it's looking like it's going to be a pretty good game.

the marketing is horrible though. i actually cringed and was like "wtf are you doing Nintendo?" when they played the trailer literally right after 1 2 Switch