Poll: Hype: Game killer or Game maker?

[Hectix777]

Everyone knows our good friend hype! The one thing that comes out when some big movie or game is announced, than you get excited over it. In some cases, better hype may make people believe that it's a better game or movie. In others, hype is the bane towards a games success. Hype will raise our standards too high for something and than once we get it, we're disappointed or pleased. Some triple-A games/movies do deliver hype and make a great movie/game, while other triple-A's deliver hype and that's about it. Personally, if a products hype is low, the person's experience with it maybe better because they had low standards for it and the product exceeded those expectations(say you go buy an RC and expect it to be a 6 outta 10 on performance and fun, you play with it for a while and find out it's a 7 outta 10 but by beating your expected 6 of 10 you believe the RC is really a 8 of 10). If you build a large enough hype for a big product, and that product falls short in one area or fails to deliver in one area, it could make you believe the product is crap.

So what's you take on hype: does it make or break the game? Give an example.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Hype is fine as long as your game lives up to it.

An invisible game that does well is regarded as amazing. An invisible game that does horrible is treated as "No wonder why they didn't advertise"

A hyped game that does well satisfies. People KNOW why it was hyped. A hyped game that bombs gives up people's hopes and ruins their faith in your company, they won't trust you next time you hope up a game.

The trick is to not over hype your game. It's ahrd, but you have to find that sweet spot.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Moderation. In all things.

Okami and Shadow of the Colossus.

2 brilliant games, that weren't hyped up, and were bought by around 10 people.

Just the right amount of hype surrounding a game works just as well, if not better, than an advertising campaign. It spreads through the internet and word of mouth and people who may have never even known the game existed will look into it, potentially selling another copy of the game.

 

[NotSoNimble]

Don't let hype rule you either way.

 

[Nico III]

I'd lean towards the bad side of things.
Case in point: Haze.
A mediocre game, caught in a whirlwind of overhype and excpectations.

 

[Syphous]

I'd lean towards the bad side of things.
Case in point: Haze.
A mediocre game, caught in a whirlwind of overhype and excpectations.

When was Haze hyped? I barely knew that game was coming out.

 

[Nico III]

I'd lean towards the bad side of things.
Case in point: Haze.
A mediocre game, caught in a whirlwind of overhype and excpectations.

When was Haze hyped? I barely knew that game was coming out.

I saw so much hype for it, mainly because TimeSplitters was awesome and people seemed to expect another great game from Free Radical.

 

[DustyDrB]

Hype, like nostalgia, pretty much always enhances the experience for me. The hype for Mass Effect 2 made it all the more exciting and satisfying to finally play it. If I don't like a game, then it was because it was a bad game and I would have considered it a bad game regardless of hype.

 

[geier]

I voted for "Yes, more hype is better".

Let's face it, more hype is allways better.
I work retail as Handelsfachwirt, (sorry, there is no english translation for this, but you could say it is the smaller version of a business manager) with a specialisation on marketing.

I don't say overhyping products is good, i know that this is very annoying, but look arround !

A product can be crapy as hell, as long you promote it enough, a return of investment is mostly garanteed.
Look at EA. Shitty games, overhype and: massive ROI

 

[Chancie]

Usually, it seems to really hurt games. Like everyone said, moderation, I guess. The game has to live up to it if it's really hyped. I believe the first poster really hit it perfectly, but still.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Depends on if your standard for success is a beloved game or $$$$$$.

Extremely-generally speaking:

No hype = low expectations = more appreciation for what the game does deliver.
Lots of hype = high expectations = more disappointment for what the game doesn't deliver.

 

[theultimateend]

Hype results in huge initial profits.

Quality results in large long term profits.

If you can combine the two you are golden.

 

[Vern5]

Over hyping a game usually makes it appear more amazing than it ever actually is. Lots of games suffer from this; this isn't a new development.

On the other hand, there are games that catch a lot of flak from the mainstream media and end up becoming more popular than the internet because of it.

Does anyone remember when Mass Effect was first being advertised and FOX news jumped on it, calling it a science-fiction sex game? Remember all that fuss the media made over it? Mass Effect's sales probably skyrocketed just because of that idea that there was a copious amount of sex in the game. Realistically, there was not (much to the disappointment of many nerds across the world).

Same thing that happened to Mass Effect happened to Bulletstorm just a few months ago. FOX news jumped on Bulletstorm and I'm sure its sales did not suffer for it either.

Hype is an odd creature.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Hype is a Dangerous beast...

It needs to be doled out carefully and in just the right amounts. If done right, the game will generate a lot of interest and sales will rise. If hype is handled incorrectly.......Well.....


...Remember Brawl? Do you remember the insane amount of hype that was being poured into it? And then do you remember how disappointed everyone was about a week after launch?

Yeah, the game was really freakin good, but it was hyped up to be a game that would induce instant and complete comas of ecstasy. And when it was merely "really damn good", many many people were angry, and began criticizing the game to all hell.

 

[Lugi]

Hype is dangerous, it makes you want something from a game, that usually it's not even there.
I believe Hype is good for the publishers, but bad for the players, after all, we all fall into the hype, and they end up with our hard earned money in their pockets.
It's very hard not to fall into the hype, after all, we are just humans

 

[Nimcha]

I like it when a hype brings a game to my attention I might have otherwise missed out on. Other than that, I really don't care at all. I never have stern expectations of games.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

My favourite games have all been ones that I was recommended, but didn't really know anything about. Command and Conquer RA2, KOTOR, Halo, Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Splinter Cell were all recommended by friends as really good, but nothing more was said about them, so I wasn't expecting too much.

Games that I was super hyped for and thought were crap: Halo 2, KOTOR 2,

Games that I was hyped for and were awesome: Command and Conquer 3: purely for nostalgia purposes, and because I put the disk in and shouted "Remember me baby?" and the game responded with the "welcome back, commander" opening screen

 

[ten.to.ten]

I've never played a game that had been made better by hype, it always either has no impact one way or the other or it contributes to the game being a let down. In some cases, including but not limited to Final Fantasy VI and Ico, it's made it a lot harder for me to actually play through the game because I was expecting so much more than what was actually there.

EDIT:

Moderation. In all things.

Okami and Shadow of the Colossus.

2 brilliant games, that weren't hyped up, and were bought by around 10 people.

Just the right amount of hype surrounding a game works just as well, if not better, than an advertising campaign. It spreads through the internet and word of mouth and people who may have never even known the game existed will look into it, potentially selling another copy of the game.

You do realise that Shadow Of The Colossus went Greatest Hits don't you?