Don't Believe The Hype

This is a really troubling time for me as a gamer.

Truly spectacular games are being ignored for ones that have the bigger PR firm.

Mediocrity is being rewarded with dollar signs.

A system that was at the top of the market in the last generation is finding it hard to catch a break. And the company who nobody thought would hit the grand slam at the bottom of the 9th has busted the stitching on the ball and has caused the whole damn thing to unravel.

What the hell is going on people?

Today our enemy is that thing that we all love to hate and hate to love; I’m talking about hype.

Checking out Wikipedia, it says that “Hype” is and I quote “the practice of spending money on public relations in an attempt to bolster public interest in a movie, television show, or performing artist." I think we all knew that definition. It continues…”Often the entertainment value of the thing being hyped is exaggerated. Consequently, hype has a bad connotation.” No shit…hype is a bad thing?

So then, we all know that the games that we geek for rarely live up to the hype, then why do so many of us allow ourselves to get “hyped-up”?

As I see it, this utterly pointless activity can do one of two things:

Prepare us for imminent failure. i.e. “There’s so much hype for this game that there is no way in hell that it can live up to it, but look he now has a bubble-shield!!!”

Or

2. Make us feel like smarmy assholes for blindly believing the game is going to be a hit. i.e. “HOLY SHIT MASTER CHIEF IS SO FXCKING RAD, NOTHING BEATS TEH HALOZ!!!1!”

I kid Halo; I’m getting a Legendary Edition of the 3rd installment myself. I was just using this as an example. So please no hate mail…moving on.

Why in fact do we get so damn invested in these games? Why is it so important that the game you are anticipating coming out be the “best”? Does a bad review mean that the game and by extension your opinion and feelings moot?

I’m a big fan of looking at reviews with a bit of hesitation, you have to remember that the person doing the review is just that…a person. He/She is NOT you; do not let strangers form your opinions for you! If a game that you’ve been jones-ing for has a review that seems a less than palatable fuck what they say, try it yourself, there’s a reason Blockbuster and Hollywood Video are still open…because they let you try things before buying them!

Some applause has to be sent Microsoft’s way for the 360, there hasn’t been a game that I own that I haven’t been able to demo before going out to buy it. I don’t know how that works on the PSN but I know that there is SOME support, so some thanks have to go to Sony as well. As for Nintendo, well, I don’t know of any downloadable demos, but I could be wrong.

Take for example Bioshock. Yes we all know that this game has in fact lived up to the hype, but for a good part of this year, I had NO intention of picking this game up. I was thinking to myself (as so many of us are guilty of doing) Meh, I can wait for that to hit the bargain bin.

Little did I know that the demo I downloaded the week before its release would rattle me so much. I was hooked, not from word of mouth, not from advertising, but because I tried it and I liked it…Liked it so much, that I’m on my second trip through rapture.

Let us get back to my main questions. First why do we get so damn invested in these games? I know many a person who are Gran Turismo fans only, not car-racing game fans. They can’t even fathom playing games that aren’t the latest iteration of GT. The same goes for fighting game fans. I’m even guilty of this one, I really only enjoy playing Capcom, SNK, and Tecmo fighting games. I know in my mind that there’s nothing wrong with Tekken or with the Virtua Fighter series, but it’s just my preference…wait is that it? Is it all about preference? You mean to tell me this whole posting was about playing the game that is right for you?

In a nutshell…yes, it’s that simple. Play the game that is right for you.

We all want every game that we buy to be a gem, but we have to face it, not every game is meant for the whole audience. Much like everything else in the world of art (regardless of what Mr. Ebert says), some games people can not stand while others revel in its majesty.

So WHY do we care so much? Well that’s simply answered…because it costs us time and money. If you had a chance to have any iteration of any game immediately and without any cost to us as a consumer, would you care as much? I don’t think so. So to wrap this all up, before it becomes a manifesto…it can be best summed up by Flavor Flav: “Don’t believe the hype!”