I think this is a timely question: should we hype our games, and if so, how much?
Take a look at Jonny RPG, getting rave reviews all over TDC, but this excited reaction has caused KlikMe to lash back at the comments people have been making. However, a lot of people are going to remember that game.
Do you think hype is a good thing or would you rather authors didn't try to elevate their games? I'm not specifically talking about any one game here.
It depends on who you are or what type of game you're creating.
Smeby chose the right thing by hyping up his JRPG since he's one of these familiar faces around the klik-communities. I mean, I've seen those who've atempted to hype but which have gotten the oposite reactions from people comparing to i.e JRPG, like Black Wizards and their games for example.
It's good for some, and not for others. It just depends on which type you are.
I think hyping is bad, keeping people informed is good, but trick is to know the difference. I am only posting screenshots of my game once in a while, and I hope that doesn't look like hyping, cuz I don't want people to be disappointed.
I think Jonny RPG was hyped, but it was hyped in a funny way which is in perfect tune with the game itself.
On the other hand, I really dont get whats wrong with people who cant stand it when a game is getting a very positive reaction. Some of them start bashing the author or vote thumbs down just because they are jaleous.
Everytime I updated my website with stuff about Mr Stumps Dentures, other news sites were picking up on it and I was accused of mass hyping it. Even more so when the game came out.
Hype's the source of evil. It's the reason people write reviews for games that aren't even out. Like Half life 2 about a year before they released it.
"Say you're hanging from a huge cliff at the top of mt. everest and a guy comes along and says he'll save you, and proceeds to throw religious pamphlets at you while simultaniously giving a sermon." - Dustin G
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Registered 23/09/2002
Points 4811
3rd December, 2004 at 19:15:35 -
hype is perfectly fine if the game can live up to it. if it falls short of what people are expecting, then it has become a victim of its own publicity. half-life 2 springs to mind in this regard - i thought, for instance, that far cry was far more innovative than HL2, and that was a game that crept up from nowhere, with no hype to speak of. not entirely related but anyway.
what you have to remember, and what a lot of people forget, is that hype isn't just generated by the creator of a game, as circy says. the community is as big a part of the hype machine as anything. look at klik-me - every time FAInd post a new screenshot, it's up on KM as if that screenshot was somehow so important to warrant a front page spot, when of course, it's not.
personally, i don't mind an author hyping their game, just so long as they're sure their game will deliver the goods.
I just have to argue that Half-Life 2 performs toilet functions all over FarCry since it was mentioned otherwise.
I think too much hype can be annoying, having something rammed into your face like that pisses me off for one, but a little bit of mild hype to keep people aware of something doesn't do any harm.
I think its a gamble to hype a game. If you stay away from hype then less people will know of your game and others wont download as readily. However If you hype your game heavily but it turns out worse than you claim you will be murdered by reviewers.
So would say its better to hype your game only if you can deliver the goods.
I hate Klik-ME. Most of the people there are fucking morons and insult anyone with a different opinion to them. And thier opinion usually conisist of 'TDC like this game... it sucks!'.
Hyping is fine IMO. As long as clickers are prepared for the backlash.
There's a not-so-fine line between keeping people informed and hyping things up. It's okay to stray a little from that line, but you can't overdo it as it will work against you.
Hype is not a bad thing if done well. Over-hype is the root of all evil though. If it doesn't reach expectations then you may as well have never bothered mentioning it in the first place.
I think the best kinda hype is the subliminal type though. Like that episode of Simpsons with Gabbo in it. Have all sorts of random references to something without giving away too much, yet generate heaps of interest then BAM! Here it is ladies and gentlemen...and blow their minds!
MUGGUS
Come and annoy me more at
www.muggus69.tk STOUT ANGER!!!
Nothing wrong with hype at all, in itself. Overhype is a bad thing, but plain old hype is just something you can use to get people interested and yourself motivated.
I think that you should only hype your games, if it's worth hyping about.. Smeby hyped JRPG and it turned out to be great. Whereas some games get hyped, then turn out to be rubbish.
I think, in the case of Jonny RPG, the reason why it's been getting more positive comments here and not at Klik-Me is because of the newer guys. They haven't seen a lot of older klik games, and, for them, this is something special.
I think Jonny RPG is very good. Perhaps not as good as everyone here makes it out to be, but equally not as harshly critisising as the Klik-Me comments. So I guess I'm in the middle. Nonetheless, it is a good/very good klik game, and they have been a rarity this year.
Hayo said it best in his first paragraph.
I hate it when people hype up their games, Johnny RPG was really hyped up and thats what i dont like about it, i remember there being countless of threads posted by Jonathan Smeby about his game Johnny RPG which annoyed the crap outta me.
Halo and Halo 2 were hyped up soo much, and when i finally played it i was like "WTF this is it!!!", when you hype a game up it better be bloody good.
Most of the big click games such as MOTP, Entrance Gate, Bernard and Hank, TSE2, Terminal Orbit and Chaos Gate arent hyped up by their authours, usually the authour only really posts much about it except for screenshots, updates e.t.c they dont go onto TDC and post tons of topics about their game.
Hype is almost essential to a degree, to get people interested in your game and to get an audience before the show even starts. Overdoing it is one of the worst things ever though, if you bring someone's expectations up too high, you'll only make your final product feel like it's lacking more than what it would have previously. Halo 2 did this.
A low level of hype could be passed off as pre-release advertising, which definately helps get the downloads when you do bring the game out. I'm realy not against hype for what it is, just what it does to your game if you do it too much or do it inappropriately. It's no use hyping a game that just doesn't cut it against the standards of other games, either, because people are only going to judge it more harshly. It's more of a matter of balance than anything.
A little bit of hype is a good thing, and if you want your game to be downloaded by many it has to be hyped. However, overhype (like Halo 2 and Air Pop Neo) is a terrible thing, and people will look down on the game with shame, even if it is a good game.
As for this whole "Klik-Me posts way too many FAINd screenshots"...
I guess we do. But then again, our job is to inform the click community of what is going on, and if we just ignored many of the screenshots from many of the sites, then we would have less visitors, since Klik-Me would no longer inform people. I think Danjo put it the best when he said something similar to, "I visit here [Klik-Me] so that I don't have to go to those other sites." And if the people dont' want their news posted on Klik-Me, they can jsut tell us not to, and we won't.
I guess we may post too much news on too narrow of a group (FAInd, Natomic, Acoders, etc.). Of course, you could always submit a link of your site if you want it checked for news and have news posts on it in Klik-Me.
And my final words on hype: you rarely need to hype the game yourself. You can get other people to do that for you with screenshots, news posts, and demos.
Now that I think about it, the type of hype which surrounds a game should be generated by the general public rather than the author or those working with/for the author.
It's important enough to generate interest in a game, and I reckon this is best done here at DC with detailed previews with plenty of screen shots, the factual details of the game (rather than boastful details or oppinions), and things like Beta/engine/level tests just to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the game without giving it all away, and this is also a chance to fix things for the full version. People should be more interested in a game that is presented well in this kinda format, rather than the annoying "Adventure Quest Beta 1.15736a" download that seems to have hundreds of clones of itself each boasting to be "the bestest game evar" and earns some newbie a shitload of DC points.
Really, and in conclusion, hype should be left to those not directly involved in the games creation. This could include beta testers or whatever, but the fact remains that having the author market the shit out of a game just so they can get a few measily downloads is just not cricket to me. And it's not how you earn respect in the community as far as I see it.
MUGGUS
Come and annoy me more at
www.muggus69.tk STOUT ANGER!!!
Hype's overall a good thing - if you're looking to sell things. It creates opinions from both extreme sides of the spectrum, makes a lot of hardcore fans, but also a lot of hardcore enemies of the fans who'd dedicate their lives to proving that it sucks. And generally, the younger your audience, the better hype is for you. Take those Pixar movies for example - nobody goes out there and complains against them simply because their audience don't make many enemies.
Hype's never truly generated by one company. Only company that managed to pull off their own hype is Blizzard. Shows that all you need to hype up a game is to grab someone's attention with pretty graphics. The rest of it is usually made from reviewers and fans.
Either way, hype only affects the non-opinionated, for good or otherwise.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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