Upcoming game ignorance

[Yantelope]

So often in life things do not live up to they hype. Videogames are no exception. I've noticed that many times the less I know about a game the more I like it. I first noticed this phenomena with the original Fable. The game came and went and I somehow managed to hear absolutely nothing about it. I played it on the recommendation of a teacher at college. I absolutely loved it. It wasn't a prefect game but the world was charming and many parts of it were original. It had a great soundtrack and was just all around fun to play. It wasn't until after I had finished the game did I find out about the broken promises and crushed dreams that were Fable (and now Fable 2 and 3).

 

The reason I bring this up is that in retrospect I've noticed this happens with many games. The more previews you read from developers the more you get hyped up. They spend their time talking about all the amazing things their new game does and how it's going to be so big, and so non-linear and so innovative and have 100 endings and a million weapons and a world 100x as big as earth and so on. Well, it never really works out that way.

 

As a result I find myself learning just enough about upcoming games to decided if I'm interested or not. Once I've decided I care enough to play a game I immediately quit watching previews or reading stories about it. For some reason, the less I know about a game the more I can enjoy it and appreciate it for what it is. Does anyone else do this? (I'm thinking of writing this up as an article for PXOD).

[TheRevanchist]

BioShock was the game I couldn't get my arms around. It looked FPS, but just what the hell was going on? Was I the bad guy? Was I a good guy? The original promo vid had a bid daddy coming after you and a little girl running from you. He's a monster. She's a little girl. Both had a common enemy. Then, there were bees shooting from the hand at the monster. WTF?

 

Even though I saw those kind of videos, I didn't really comprehend what was this about. So, I pre-ordered it, and loved the intrigue so much I avoided the reviews. Then, I started playing it.

 

YES!

 

Loved every second of it. Was reading the reviews as I was playing it, and they told me the story line enough for me to carry along, but with minimal/no spoilers.

 

Sometimes it is nice to be ignorant.

[Strangelove]

Fable was just generic crap. I only vaguely remember hearing about the "broken promises", mostly the tree thing. I played it on pc because I heard it was good, I never played it with the intention of seeing all the supposedly new innovative stuff. it was a very regular game. i dare say its one of the most generic games ive ever played. Its like when FF7 hit the PS1 and it became popular so every crapass generic jrpg started appearing in American shores. We got A LOT of stuff that looked cool and similar to FF7, but that was missing the charm of FF7. Which is what made FF7 standout at the time.

Just. generic. crap. I would never spend 50-60 bucks on one of those games.

[P4: Gritty Reboot]

Topic worthy of further exploration. Pxod article welcome. P4 out.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I wouldn't be encouraging a game-news moratorium on a gaming blog!

[Saturnine Tenshi]

  On 7/20/2011 at 12:21 AM, Strangelove said:

Fable was just generic crap. I only vaguely remember hearing about the "broken promises", mostly the tree thing. I played it on pc because I heard it was good, I never played it with the intention of seeing all the supposedly new innovative stuff. it was a very regular game. i dare say its one of the most generic games ive ever played. Its like when FF7 hit the PS1 and it became popular so every crapass generic jrpg started appearing in American shores. We got A LOT of stuff that looked cool and similar to FF7, but that was missing the charm of FF7. Which is what made FF7 standout at the time.

Just. generic. crap. I would never spend 50-60 bucks on one of those games.

 

I was with you until the FF7 not being generic crap part. P:

[Cyber Rat]

  On 7/26/2011 at 2:51 PM, Saturnine Tenshi said:

  On 7/20/2011 at 12:21 AM, Strangelove said:

Fable was just generic crap. I only vaguely remember hearing about the "broken promises", mostly the tree thing. I played it on pc because I heard it was good, I never played it with the intention of seeing all the supposedly new innovative stuff. it was a very regular game. i dare say its one of the most generic games ive ever played. Its like when FF7 hit the PS1 and it became popular so every crapass generic jrpg started appearing in American shores. We got A LOT of stuff that looked cool and similar to FF7, but that was missing the charm of FF7. Which is what made FF7 standout at the time.

Just. generic. crap. I would never spend 50-60 bucks on one of those games.

 

I was with you until the FF7 not being generic crap part. P:

 

OH SNAP

[Yantelope]

  On 7/25/2011 at 9:38 PM, TheFlyingGerbil said:

I wouldn't be encouraging a game-news moratorium on a gaming blog!

 

I read tons of news all the time. I just start avoiding the in-depth previews, trailers and especially developer interviews.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

What Yant said. I think we've discussed this somewhere, haven't we? Perhaps it was a tangent in an unrelated thread, but it seems like traveled ground.

 

The issue of (over)saturation is particularly bothersome to me when covering Japanese-derivative titles that see localization. Especially those which are quickly localized. Websites that cater to the titles will release the same god damned news twice. It was much worse as a news editor, and I tried my utmost to avoid it. Catherine is a recent entry, and its marketing is actually one of the most glaring examples. Only five months separate the Japanese and English release dates, so there's been a cataract of "news" over the past year. Six months of news. Six months of repeat news.

 

I'm certain that's one of the prime causes of my turning away from the game.