Jimquisition: Cloak and Dagger

[Elijah Newton]

It's beginning to look a lot like fishmen /
Everywhere I go...


http://youtu.be/3tTHn2tHhcI

 

[coolerthanice21]

I was wondering though, what is the game/games between 04:48 and 05:00 with the ships and futuristic city?

They look interesting and I love me some sci fi!

Shot in the dark - I think that's Dead Space 3. I could be very wrong though, and I'd love to be corrected, because I'm kinda curious too.

It's Killzone Shadow Fall. The footage is from the story trailer.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Since when did the industry meant to dispense information find it a jim-dandy idea to withhold information? I see it in game journalism and mainstream media alike.

 

[Battenberg]

I think it's more likely that the secrecy and the mystery it creates are a deliberate ruse to hide other issues. For example the (previous) secrecy with the PS4 may well have been because Sony themselves still weren't sure where they were taking the console; supported by the day one update being necessary to both remove DRM (which they hammered XBone over) and install sharing- their biggest feature. As far as the games themselves go what happens behind the scenes really shouldn't be relevant in a game review- if the game is good give it a good review, if not don't, the game isn't made any better by finding out the details of its creation.

It would be great if the game industry dropped the whole mysterious overlord act when there's no need to hide something but personally I would put it fairly low on a list of issues that are currently present. Aside from anything else this secrecy, by and large, is only going to have any kind of negative effect on pre order numbers (which is no bad thing) because as soon as a product is released it will be immediately apparent which rumours are true and which aren't, allowing the consumer to make a more informed decision.

 

[Remus]

Dammit Jim, you got me wanting to go back and play more of The Secret World again. That game's story and graphics are pretty cool, too bad the actual gameplay is kinda shit.

 

[Evonisia]

Nice episode, especially the use of images with the dialogue (at the start mostly). I can't stand it when sales figures are withheld. What is the publisher too embarrassed to admit that they didn't make a profit out of the millions of copies sold?

 

[Callate]

I imagine gaming's PR people will say that the current toxic atmosphere in blogs and forums means they can't be honest because any snippet that possibly can be viewed in a negative light will be blown out of all proportion. And to be fair, there's probably some truth to that. But it's also quite clear that meltdowns like the XBox One launch highlight that the PR folks don't even seem to have a clue as to what is likely to be an issue for gamers. That being the case, it would seem wisest to open up, and open up early, so that issues that are likely to hammer sales get ironed out well before they become part of unalterable procedures or schematics. It's still better to have people say awful things about you that are true and correctable than to have people say awful things that are inaccurate or outright false- especially when they believe those things because your past policies and poor understanding of your customers have led them to those conclusions.

And, yeah, cool mask, Sterling. But I'm sure we'll be happy to see your smiling visage taunting us next time.

 

[The Lugz]

Actually, the mask reduces sound quality, but you could add some gauze to fix it, I guess.

on secrecy, well.. secrets are going to be kept if we like it or not, it's 'mysteeeeerious' something very Halloween indeed.

 

[Toadfish1]

Does it really matter to us how much a game sells? The only way that would be useful to us in any capacity would be in determining if a game was a success or a failure financially, and thus whether it is likely to be continued or not. And we hear that pretty quickly anyway.

 

[Eve Charm]

Honestly it's publishers doing what all Higher management has to do is and prove they are needed and you should pay them.

If they can't hold the power or information and drive traffic, pay for a good review or pony up some money, then they're useless. If a Dev or journalist do something the publisher doesn't want, kiss job goodbye. Either blacklisted or worst fired like the guy from IGN after the kane and lynch. Also Why Maxis probably never say that EA made them put the DRM in if they ever want to work under another big publisher again

It's the same a bit for the journalist to, if they can't act all high and mighty about knowing something then why else would you still be listening to them?

 

[Brockyman]

Hell Ya! Completely agree with the Jimster this week

 

[Thanatos2k]

Does it really matter to us how much a game sells? The only way that would be useful to us in any capacity would be in determining if a game was a success or a failure financially, and thus whether it is likely to be continued or not. And we hear that pretty quickly anyway.

Yeah we hear it, but they never offer any proof. We hear crap like "Horror games don't sell" or "JRPGs don't sell" but never any actual proof.

Does it really matter to us how much a movie sells? Yet we have that information to an extremely detailed degree ($/theater, number of showings, etc)

 

[conholio23]

I swear I saw something like that mask in the live action Guyver movie. Don't seek it out unless you want to see a meh movie that doesn't make the best of having Mark Hamil in it.

 

[MB202]

There's benefits to keeping secrecy, and keeping GOOD surprises... You just, you know, have to make sure you're GOOD at keeping secrets, as the gaming industry has proven time and time again that it's failed in that light. They're even worse at dealing with secrets being revealed. True, if a secret that's clearly bad for the costumer, then it probably WOULD be better to say nothing then admit to it, but it still makes things really confusing.

 

[mjc0961]

I want Adam Sessler to be a banker again too. If you're going to dock a game a point from the review score because it had a trophy title you didn't like and act like your job is in jeopardy because you have to go to New York to borrow a PS4 to do an early review (thanks for telling us what all that nonsense was about, Jim) when in reality it's nothing more than a minor inconvenience, the game industry really doesn't need you. There are plenty of more rationally thinking people who aren't drama queens willing to take your place, so by all means, there's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out.

And also yeah, either tell us what's going on or shut up. What Microsoft was trying to do around E3 was bullshit. Oh the DRM is good for us is it? Still don't know why. Also I still don't know what Family Sharing Plan actually was. Rumors were that it was complete game sharing and other rumors were that it was just demos. And the only thing Microsoft ever officially said about it is that that they were taking whatever it was supposed to be away because they can't have their DRM anymore.

 

[Oskuro]

In my opinion, these kinds of attitudes are hardly surprising on an industry focused mostly on first-week sales.

Secrecy helps hype by making the audience idealize the product in the absence of objective facts, and that leads to increased early sales, before the actual criticism can burst the hype bubble.

I'm very sorry for developers who get screwed over by this situation, but I, on principle, won't buy anything on release. Guess I'm a bad consumer.

 

[Draconalis]

That mask is a real- Awww...

My leaving Destructoid has nothing to do with the game industry at large, and everything to do with the reasons I gave.

Clearly I missed something. Where can I find these reasons?

On a side note... does anyone else just refresh the captcha over and over till a non ad one comes up? Or is that just me.

 

[Rad Party God]

Hehe, I love the shout out of The Secret World

Well... That's gaming industry for you, it can't be as open as the movie industry, because the gaming industry is still relatively small and it still retains some control somehow.

 

[WildFire15]

Reminds me of the City of Heroes shut down. NCsoft seemed to want it to be as quick and quiet as possible but the word got out through anonymous sources that seemed to be accurate enough to prompt NCsoft to actually answer back before going silent again.

You have to wonder what sort of paranoid lunatics run this industry sometimes.

 

[Looming_Shadows]

How come only one person, other than I, noticed the BLUE TIE?!