Early Video Game Reveals Have Killed My Hype For Game Releases

I don’t know about all of you, but I typically don’t get as hyped about new games as I used to. It’s not for a lack of wanting to, but rather, I think it has more to do with the “hype cycle”. With the internet at their disposal and the ability to talk (more or less) directly to their fan base, game companies can easily announce games years before we’ll ever see them.

There are plenty of reasons to do this, such as seeking to crowdsource the game or perhaps the game will be launching in one region way ahead of another, as they’d like to start making some of that development money back, and waiting until it’s completely localized isn’t going to help with that. In the latter case, players know what they (might) eventually be getting if the game ever drops in their region. In the former...well, fans should at least run with the idea that they’ll never see that game go live.

That said, some companies love to reveal their games way in advance. There will be an announcement or a cinematic trailer intended to get players excited. And then we won’t hear or see anything for a good, long while. Years even. That, however, isn’t even the biggest issue.

The big issue, for me, comes in when the devs talk about their game a lot while it’s still in early development – all the things they want to do with it. Because very often, it’s all of these ideas that get players hyped about the game, only for the game to not have them for one reason or another.

A great example of this would be Ascent Infinite Realm A:IR. Remember the MMORPG that was supposed to have airship combat? Yeah. You remember that, right? And over time, features got cut, including the one that was supposed to be the big selling point, and the game was renamed to Elyon. It did launch, but it didn’t have a very long run.

On the other hand (And we’re going way back here.), I can remember when Rift launched. This was when Trion actually did smart things. Of course, Rift was the first game the company rolled out, but the point stands. We didn’t know about that game until the devs were ready to begin public testing. One minute, it didn’t exist. The next, it did.

Who knows how many iterations and changes the game went through before Trion landed on what they launched with? It may not have been the most groundbreaking game ever. (Even they admitted it was very World of Warcraft.) But, because we had no idea what they were attempting to make until it was in the public testing phase, there was no hype disappointment to be had.

Now, NCSoft has officially begun the hype for Aion 2. Part of me wants to be excited. I really loved the original Aion, and it seems like this one will have some of the things I really wanted in the original. That said, I’m not sure how I feel about the faction server situation, and I think I’ll miss the PvP zones. What’s more, as an Asmodian player, I’m really concerned about the visual changes that have been discussed.

But, an even bigger issue is that this is one of those games that will be dropping in another region first. While I have no problem with someone getting something before we do, it does end up being one of those “How long til?” or “Will something go wrong and we’ll never see it?” situations. This is why I refused to let myself hop on the hype train for games.

That said, there must be an ideal point for game reveals that allow the devs to get players excited while avoiding all the pitfalls of telling us too much too soon. Because, as I stated above, things can change, and the vision sold to players in early development isn’t always the final result. Shockingly, players don’t exactly like that.