triple A hype...

[cliffski]

check it out:
Amazon pre-orders (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/656046/ref=hfr_vg_h_h_2_h_2/026-8432378-6151655)

How can these games have 5 star average customer revewis before they are released?
some people are such sheep "I know its going to rock!!! becoz i saw some touched up screenshots in a magazine.!!!"

[EpicBoy]

People get excited about products before they come out. It's true, I've seen it happen before...

[Reanimated]

Yup, before condition zero came out, there are 5 star reviews by five or six people. Was this review helpful to you?...no :D

[princec]

I think you'll find that the real difference between AAA games and other games is the huge, huge, huge marketing spend and all the associated hyperbole. AAA doesn't necessarily mean shaders and triple CD installs!

Cas :)

[svero]

The typical marketing and selling life of a AAA retail product is very different than what most of us deal with. The reason is that you get a very short shelf life in the stores. A few months. So they need to hype it as much as possible before it hits the shelves to make the most of the time they have. Also once the product is one the shelves if it's selling well then the store will promote it and give it better position on the shelves and so to some extent it becomes a self fullfilling prophecy. (Of course most of these companies also pay for shelf space.)

[EpicBoy]

If you see product on the shelf at Best Buy or another similar store it's because someone associated with that product paid the store.

They call them "fees" but it's generally accepted that they are "bribes".

And if you want an end cap display? Oy...

[rmxsteady]

sheeps, haha.

but lets face it, it is mainstream and with anything mainstream you have people telling you what you should like and what you should get. i mean im a victim to this thread, i bought doom 3 like there was no tomorrow. realized that it was the same sh*t just with better graphics and sold it to a friend for twenty bucks. you win some you lose some. especially with games that are sequels, it's evident that the first one 'rocked' so the time it takes to create the second one puts all the 'followers' in a suspended animated form, just waiting and waiting and waiting for that sequel to come out. that'll eventually take over their mind and they'll eventually start to think, "man this is taking so long it must rock" [laughs].

i just hope that games like half life 2 and halo 2 actually live up to it's hype. cause let me tell you, waiting four years [was it four? i've lost count] for doom 3 to come out, just to play doom 2 all over again, but with better graphics did not make me a happy gamer.

[Coyote]

Steve's nailed it.

One of the risks they take is actually over-hyping a product. You build on something for so long, and you build up such an expectation in the minds of the consumers, then when you finally release it had BETTER meet expectation. Otherwise you could receive a pretty major backlash. (http://www.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/)

[svero]

If you see product on the shelf at Best Buy or another similar store it's because someone associated with that product paid the store.

This is true of course, and I mentioned it in my post, but it's not the entire story. A store will try to maximize it's profit. If something sells well it will get good spots for free. Its kind of like doom3 getting a lot of free press. They don't have to pay for all their advertising because the customers of the press (ie the readers) want to know about Doom 3.

[formfarbeminze]

but lets face it, it is mainstream and with anything mainstream you have people telling you what you should like and what you should get.


well said.

the essence of how i understand the indie spirit, regardless in which cultural area you work, is to go for the work you imagine. your desire comes first. it creates the reality [of your artwork]. in mainstream it is the other way round: a reality from outside of your personality creates your desire.

[Reactor]

Doom 3's gameplay wasn't hyped. It's graphics were. Hype can be a good thing for everyone, but it can also go a little awal, and you end up with gamers like rmxsteady, who set huge hoops for Doom 3 to jump through, when all the game was supposed to be was a prettier version of Doom 2. Anyway, I think hype is a good thing if controlled well. But, there's never any accounting to how picky hardcore gamers can be.

the essence of how i understand the indie spirit, regardless in which cultural area you work, is to go for the work you imagine. your desire comes first. it creates the reality [of your artwork]. in mainstream it is the other way round: a reality from outside of your personality creates your desire.

I'm going to create a new thread about this.

[rmxsteady]

Doom 3's gameplay wasn't hyped. It's graphics were. Hype can be a good thing for everyone, but it can also go a little awal, and you end up with gamers like rmxsteady, who set huge hoops for Doom 3 to jump through, when all the game was supposed to be was a prettier version of Doom 2. Anyway, I think hype is a good thing if controlled well. But, there's never any accounting to how picky hardcore gamers can be.

from reading your reply i get the feeling you feel the need to dump me into the 'jaded' category of gamers. which i guess can be true to some extent because i feel like everyone has a tendency to be that way. but you shouldn't assume things

i never set huge hoops for doom 3 to jump through, it's just that with wait comes anticipation and slowly you start to wonder why it would take a team like [id] so long for its next installment. i think it's sad that "all the game was suppose to be was a prettier version of doom 2" [quoting you] it's a given that storyline has never been a factor with the doom series so i can't expect a change there, but if all a game has is its 'visuals' then people will start to take notice. what are they expecting? that gamers will sit in front of their computer screen with awe in the graphics? i mean i did, for the first thirty seconds and after that you have crazy enemies on your ass 24/7 appearing out of nowhere as if the game is loaded with triggered scripts, which i know it is. graphics is important, it's what catches your eye, but sooner or later, always being sooner, during gameplay you'll forget about how cool this and that looks and you are going to be focused on the game's playability. so maybe it is something that should have been focused on.

[dreeze]

you have crazy enemies on your ass 24/7 appearing out of nowhere as if the game is loaded with triggered scripts, which i know it is.
I like those kind of games.

On the topic of AAA hype, people have a tendency to build expectations even though they have no fact to base it on. People do the same with movies. I find it a bit amusing but it doesn't bother me. I build my own expectations based on my own values and I'm content with that.

[formfarbeminze]

on a sidenote:
i think id software plays in the graphic-engine business, not in the games industry. i mean, yes, they certainly are one of the best known brands for action-games. and, yes, they make money with selling games. but they are just one out of many of those games developers. theire real expertise, the thing where there are unbeatable and worldwide the no 1 player in this galaxy, is in fact 3 the development of graphic-engines. so for the internal plans of id software, it is basically ok if they get average marks in gamedesign as long as the graphics are top-notch.

regarding aaa-hype:
there is one thing about it i like: it builds our market as well. i mean the marketing budgets from eidos, nintendo etc drive people into playing computer games. that is good. every hardcore-gamer that brings the element of computer gaming into his/her family, transforms his/her family members into potential buyers of our games.

[oNyx]

Heh. It's Doom. There isn't a place for story and there isn't any need anyways.

I mean... you run around with lots of weapons and ammunition (about 1 ton) in your backpack. You fight agains demons. The architecutre doesnt make any sense at all. You pickup health *pang* everything cured. Every so often boss fights - doesn't make any sense. And then if you wrap everything into some story... finding excuses etc. It's just plain silly and you have heard it a million times. It's infact so silly that even reading that stuff is embrassing.

There are really some games which do perfectly fine without having any story at all. Puzzle games, shoot em ups, logic mazes, beat em ups, racing games, etc. If the story adds something - fine. If it doesn't then there is no need for adding one.