The Hot Topic Returns

[Sly Reflex]

On 11/12/2023 at 01:31, Nag said:

Say what you will about GTA online but some of my most cherished gaming memories are from the times on there with you @Sly Reflex and @smallofbooty... I know I've not laughed that much gaming since.

 

If GTA 6 gives me any of the wonder of seeing that beech in 5's opening it'll do me.🥰

 

They were the best of times.

[Nag]

 

No official question again today.

 

 

Quote

@Sly Reflex says... "Do you think the internet allows us to follow games too closely? Do you think in a world of social media and constant connections between the developers and journalists that we can become over familiar with a game before we can get our hands on it?"

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Certain devs like capcom and square show off too much of their games before release. Then again both are in the business of remakes these days, so it's not like there's a whole lot to spoil anyway

[OCH]

Be it via IGN or whoever, I'm really sick of seeing all those "the first 10 minutes or hour of gameplay" videos. Are any of those really necessary?

 

Announcement>trailer>demo>release

I don't think you need more than these four steps.

[Nag]

I'm sick of Tekken releasing fucking character announcement videos. 😂

[spatular]

if i know i want to play something i avoid as much of that stuff as i can, which is usually quite easy to avoid, but there was zelda recently with adverts everywhere which i didn't really want to see.

[OCH]

29 minutes ago, Nag said:

I'm sick of Tekken releasing fucking character announcement videos. 😂

😄I was sick of it when Smash did it.

[HandsomeDead]

I think there are two causes for this.  A lot of gaming culture can be explained by the 'distracted boyfriend' meme in that it can feel like there is such a focus on what's coming next over what is currently available.  And secondly, there is a whole attention economy on social media that fuels finding out news and details on upcoming releases.  Leaks used to be something you had to search out but now they can find themselves on your various feeds.

 

It does just mean you have to be responsible with how you engage with it all.  How much or little do you want to know? but unwanted news will still slip through, or missing stuff you would like to know.

Overall it's just all part of us not being built for this level of information yet.

[Maryokutai]

Yeah, we're definitely at a point where it simply feeds into people's expectations. I think it was GoW Ragnarök where Sony had 'only' shown one trailer or so a month or two before release and people were lamenting the lack of info. I mean, it's a direct sequel of a game you've played, how many videos do you really need?

 

I remember on the run-up to Metroid Dread's release Nintendo started to basically showing off the entire game on youtube. Relatively early on they spoiled a boss which would have been a really cool surprise for old fans exclusively (= people who would have bought it anyway), so not only did I not see the point of it, I also unsubscribed from all their channels during this phase. That's the benefit of it: you can just block it out as much or as little as you want.

 

Fighting games are really the most obvious example of how much has changed though. Back in the day we didn't even know who was in the roster when we bought the game. That's basically unimaginable nowadays.

[one-armed dwarf]

On this note, the next trailer for FFVII Rebirth will probably spoil something big with that Aerith scene I bet. Just based off how the last trailer for FFVII Remake spoiled 

 

Spoiler

Zack being in the game, which is a stupid fucking thing to put in a trailer. Also how DMC5's trailer spoiled Vergil, they can't help themselves

 

On the attention economy stuff, I've installed some things on my web browser to remove youtube recommendations. I still use youtube a lot, but now it's purely for stuff I want to see rather than stuff youtube is trying to turn me into a zombie by watching. 

[DANGERMAN]

it was touched on earlier, but if you watch even a handful of streamers, you can get very tired of the first hour or so of a game. I noticed it this morning, I was watching Eurogamer play the God of War dlc, she stopped at the exact same point I did on Saturday night, so I'd played then watched that same section within 12 hours. If Nextlander play the game, then Remap, that's the same thing 4 times. It happens a lot with bigger games

 

 

[mfnick]

Depends. If it’s a game I don’t want or need more info on I usually find it quite easy to avoid stuff about it still. Take FFVII Rebirth. I don’t want to know anything else about that game so avoided everything about it since the trailer before TGA’s & not found it difficult.

 

For people with less self control or don’t care about spoiling some of it for themselves then they can basically get as much info as they want. So I don’t think it hurts either way with how things are set up now. I do think we’ve lost something compared to magazine days though, nothing feels as special since there is so much readily available info and videos. That could be down to age as well though. Not having as many surprise, out of nowhere releases (in the main A-AAA space) is a real shame too. 
 

Some huge games are almost unavoidable though and they really get on my nerves. Take GTA VI. I’m already sick to death of seeing that everywhere and all the headlines about nothing. This is genuinely unavoidable when just visiting a normal website now. I hate that. It will genuinely negatively affect my feelings towards the game by the time it’s released. The same happened with Destiny, Fortnite, Deathloop etc. when they were fresh. But they’re very few and far between. 

[Maryokutai]

50 minutes ago, mfnick said:

Not having as many surprise, out of nowhere releases (in the main A-AAA space) is a real shame too. 

 

There are still quite a few of those, but the irony of it is that they simply get buried underneath all the hype content online. For example, one of my favourites from the last couple of years, Chorus, came out sandwiched in between Call of Duty and Christmas. I only had it marked down because I saw a trailer, one trailer, months before and decided to check it out no matter what because I liked the art style.

 

So in a sense the lack of marketing budgets worked in its favour, because almost every aspect of it was a (positive) surprise to me. But on the other hand it means a lot of people didn't see it. And most publications do a god awful job at highlighting these invisible games because they don't generate clicks. But looking at release calendars and sporadically checking the "coming soon" tab in storefronts can help finding a little gem or two among the white noise and hype bubbles.

[mfnick]

Isn’t Chorus more of an indie game though? There’s still plenty of surprises in that landscape but I’m thinking more bigger scale. Unless Chorus isn’t an indie game. In which case ignore me. 

[Maryokutai]

While the developer is/was relatively small, they are (unfortunately) part of Embracer, so I don't think that qualifies as indie. Neither do its production values if I'm being honest, I think the game is what we'd call AA. And it sold abysmally poor and was probably their last proper game.

 

I think on a bigger scale the best you can hope for is Microsoft doing a Hi-Fi Rush once in a while, because they are uniquely positioned to pull it off thanks to Gamepass, at least to an extent. Other companies need the big marketing cycles.

[mfnick]

I didn’t realise it had such a budget behind it. Fair enough. I’d count that then and you’re definitely right, it obviously hurt it. 
 

Hi Fi Rush was exactly the kind of game I was thinking about initially. 

[Sly Reflex]

To me all this stuff is a double edge sword. I get that drip feeding is a good way to keep the game in the consciousness of people but I feel that a lot of people deciding what goes in the media just have no idea what to show and what not to.

 

I generally think that the first 10 minutes or whatever are terrible ways to show games. I know they tend to be loaded with action or intrigue, but you have to remember that those are the bits of the game that are learning people how to play.

 

I do think that a lot of it gets lost in the maelstrom of big game development as well. For every well curated trailer with perfect angles like we see with GTA, you get a huge wad of other devs/pubs that just throw other shit with flashy as fuck stuff going on that just shows the hand, with so many people involved they're bound to trip over stuff that should be kept under wraps.

 

I think generally the better stuff comes from smaller companies now. Haunted Chocolatier for example, I still have no idea what it's really about other than you run a chocolate factory you staff with ghosts. Sure I've seen gameplay and all that, but it's still not 100% clear what's going on or how any of it works.

 

In fact Eric Barone does a really good job with his tweets and teasers for Stardew as well come to think about it. Never directly telling people what's going on and almost always ends up over delivering when updates drop. 

[Nag]

No official question again...

 

 

Quote

Nag says... "With 2023 coming to an end we've had a pretty spectacular year for games but what are your biggest disappointments of the year?

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be a single game, it could be a Publisher who underperformed, an article in the gaming press or even a dumbass tweet... as long as it's gaming related it's fair game"

 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Lack of support by Sony for psvr2

[Maryokutai]

Whatever the hell Embracer has been doing. They used to be the ray of hope for AA games but it's just a complete shitshow now.