However, EQ2 has been guilty of the same offense. I find it curious why you didn’t mention that. A complete revamp after a game goes live for a year isn’t exactly over-hype, but it’s a misrepresentation of a product, which is basically what you are complaining about. It would be interesting to see what your view is on this at post-soe-employment in retrospect. Legally however, I doubt we’ll see that.

SWG, EQ2 and the upcoming on SOE’s list, Vanguard, are all guilty of this same offense. Vanguard was announced even before it had a name IIRC and that has undergone many face-lifts in its hype and it’s not even out yet.

Hype will generate attention but what most devs fail to realize, is it’s going to garner microscopic analysis they weren’t bargaining for.

A developer spends 5+ years and so many millions of dollars trying to make a game… it flops, and then where does all the product go?

I mean a game that cost $20M and 5 years to make still has a lot of capital in it, despite sucking.

Where do MMO’s go when they die?

Is it all just wasted? Adrift in the ether of IP?

There are a LOT of games out there which are dead and/or dying… what is going to happen to those engines/art/lore/etc when they finally kick off?

However, if you hype your game as evolutionary, revolutionary and a true 3rd generation game then it should actually be those things. When it turns out that its mechanics, visuals, and most game play elements are merely a rehash of existing games with a splash of a twist, that tends to turn off a huge chunk of the player base.

Hype is wonderful and great as long as it is actually something that is a realistic part of your game.

The other problem is that, frankly, hype works. If Game X promises you blowjobs and candy canes while your game promises solid gameplay, people are going to pay attention to Game X. Those with faith in humankind might say that the people know that a game can’t magically produce oral sex and sugary treats, but they still fall for it. I suspect that in some ways people hope that the hype turns out to be true even though the odds are agasint it. In the end, being honest doesn’t get you the good attention.

Finally, you have the issue that people actually want the hype! In Meridian 59 we don’t say much about what we have in the pipeline because we understand that we might not be able to complete the project. Yet, people clamor for more information, reassuring us that, “We understand if you don’t complete everything!” Rants like Ryan’s above reassure me otherwise. If you don’t talk about the ZOMG REVOLUTIONARY! things you’re doing, people will start to assume you’re stagnant.

My thoughts.

At this point, I could almost care less about seeing in game footage… you have graphics! yay! *snore* … instead, show me a video taken with a camera of someone at a keyboard actually playing the game. Frankly, a game may look cool as hell, but if when I bring it home it turns out that I push two buttons repeatedly, or worse just push two buttons and relax, to do what the video showed me, I won’t be playing long.

If everyone who bought an Ipod also bought a Mac, we’d all be making MMOs for the Macintosh right now.

Most of the people who buy Ipods aren’t diehard Apple fans. They buy Ipods because they’re an easily recognized market leader; i.e. every other kid in class has one. While Apple certainly has its fanatics, they aren’t the ones making them huge. It’s the people who recognize the brand and know that an Ipod means quality.

The fact that Apple talks about new products as it releases them only enhances that image of a company that can be relied upon to deliver. Now *that’s* something not a lot of MMO companies have.

Not living up to the concept is what turns players and customers off from a project.

On the flip side it is important too for players and fans to not take every drop of information as though it is the life energy of the universe. Sometimes it benefits a developer to put forth an idea and see what others think of it. In practice, it may not work that way. Players tend to take those words as gospel and build an expectation that the dev team can’t hope to achieve.

Lesson: Only divulge ideas that you can reasonably implement

Personally I don’t care what magazines have to say about video games because magazine publishers know about as much about me as they know about their own kids (they might know a little, but not enough to change my mind). With that being said, my friends and my wife know what games I like to play and thus they know what to recommend. I enjoy laughing about the hype that is created for most games because who doesn’t enjoy a good round of BS everynow and then? What I don’t enjoy is false promises, crappy user interfaces, or insane timesinks once the game is released.