What kills confidence in a game before playing it?

[Morreion]

The Daily Grind: What kills your confidence in a game before you play it?

There are elements of games that are turn-offs for all of us. Some of us love PvP, for example, and a world with virtually none of it isn't very appealing. But sometimes we don't event start playing the game before our feelings about it go straight into the dumpster. It's hard to argue that Tabula Rasa's frequent shifts during development inspired players to expect any longevity out of it, and whether or not it's the case Warhammer Online's frequent server merges and population shuffling have given the impression of a game that's struggling a bit.

With me, it's hearing that a game company has been bought by another while in production of a game- thinking Vanguard here. Cue bad horror movie music!

A total design change is definitely a bad sign, too.

After WAR, I'd say that being way too communicative and talking up your game long before release is not a good thing either. Things change.

[Oatik]

I think pre-announcement hype and the inevitable delays of release. I understand the need to market the game, I'm just not sure it needs to start three years before a planned release. In three year's time anything is possible but if you kept specifics quite till about six months pre-release you'd see you can't really balance 19 different racial factions and build capital cities for each of them. Shhh, just tell us you planned 6 the whole time.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

[Regolyth]

I hate years worth of hype before a game. I followed Diablo II (ran a fansite and everything) for three years before the game. Now the game was excellent, I loved it. But having followed it so long, I felt like I had already played it by the time it came out. I did not enjoy it that much once it was released. Then again, it is rather linear, and not sandboxy like an MMO.

[EchoVamper]

Which fansite?

[Morreion]

I understand that feeling, Rego. Sometimes I think it is better to not know everything so that there are still unexpected elements to the game you look forward to playing.

[Loendal]

A balance needs struck between building anticipation and withholding information. You want just enough tease to make people go "Was that what I thought I saw?" but to lay out "We will have X, Y and Z, WE PROMISE!" years ahead of release may be shooting yourself in the foot.

One can promote concepts "We'd like to have a four stage crafting chain" or "There should be no static spawns" but promises are a problem. Fail to deliver and people hate you for it.

[Morreion]

Both WAR and AoC were big offenders in the 'too much information before release' category. Expectations were high, and follow-through was not good. The result? Disappointment.

Bioware is putting out a lot of info about SW:TOR, and they have a good name in the gaming world. People expect them to live up to that reputation. I hope it works out well!

[Regolyth]

Nov 17, 2009 11:27:25 GMT -5 EchoVamper said:

Which fansite?

I started off assisting at the Sisters of the Sightless Eye. However we merged with another website to form Diablo.org, which I co-ran. You may remember Diablo.org as being a sister site to Starcraft.org and Warcraft.org. They were all ran by the same people, just staffed differently. Unfortunately, a couple months after the release of Diablo II, Diablo.org went under and the site no longer exists. I think Starcraft.org is now under different management, but Warcraft.org is still owned and operated by the original people.