Hype- Ruining My Favorite Pasttime And Diluting Something I Love

 NOTE: This started as a forum post, but it got bigger than I anticipated. I hope you read it and debate with me, please don't let its size turn you off.  :)
 
PRELIDE: Opinion is the nature of the world, and yet people can't accept that. Thousands of years of development and we still haven't realized what an opinion is. It's why we have wars, it's why we have feuds. That's not to say those things don't come as a direct reuslt of other misconduct and mitigating factors, but people can't accept that they might not be right. It's human nature. I understand that,but it is certainly very frustrating. It's happened to me a couple times, but I'd like to feel that I'm trying to make myself better than it. Please read on.
 
BLOG: It absolutely disgusts me to see how up in arms people get about the quality of a game and feel they have to resent because of a lot of positive hype, case in point Uncharted 2. I know I'll get a lot of flak for this, and deservedly so, I welcome it, but people are fucking idiots when it comes to getting excited for a game. There's some strange precedent out there that if a game has, say, over 90 on Metacritic before release, you all of a sudden have to get skeptical. People can just never be happy and it's absolutely fucking pathetic. I don't see why people have to bad mouth the game before it comes out. The games media is giving us their opinion, that doesn't mean you should have to follow that opinion or be skeptical. Just go into the game expecting a solid game because others not recommended, not preparing to be disappointed. It's a fucking game, be happy about it and revel in the fact that a bunch of men and women put in a lot of hard effort to make the best game possible, even if that's not ultimately the case for the final product.
 
To go a little deeper, the thing that is fundamentally wrong with critical analysis throughout any medium these days is the mentality that you have to go in to try and find faults. Everybody loves Psychonauts, but going into the game not a lot of people were hyped for it at all, save a few. If 24 game critics told you  Psychonauts was one of their top 10 games of all time, people would all of a sudden have to become skeptical and go in looking for faults and maybe it wouldn't be so loved because people would find any little thing that's wrong and not simply be pleasantly surprised. The whole problem (wow this is going deeper than I anticipated) with the Internet, and especially these "fanboy" type characters, is that everything is a glass half-empty situation. People can't be satisfied. We live in a culture of pessimistic and pissy people who feel like their entitled to something
 
The thing is, the ideal situation would be a developer reveals a game three months before it comes out, little of this nonsense called "hype" is established and people get the game and form their own opinions, not be so pissy about those of others. But that's simply not feasible. You have to establish a fanbase and get advertising and marketing out there. Could a game, a AAA game like God of War III, simply bypass reviews so as to avoid all this hype? That would be nice, but the answer is no. Because then people would have to form their own opinions on a game and not being able to make themselves feel better by trying to justify that a person is somehow wrong. God forbid. It is absolutely, one hundred percent a can't win situation these days. It's a problem with all media these days, though more so games. And the Internet has continually fueled this at the expense of the consumer and pure fun. It does so through anonymity and pessimism and people who are so simple-minded that they can't even try to contemplate it in the least like I am attempting to do 
 
Reading about games isn't fun any more because of all this nonsense. I continually try to convince myself that I want all this games coverage, but I don't want this. It proves how pathetic humanity actually is that we put ourselves through all this type of critical analysis and nonsensical details. Reading GB is about as much as I can convince myself to care any more, increasingly so everyday, and yet I'd still love to read games media. However, the fact is these days, the only place I can usually go to avoid these stupid comments is the podcasts nowadays. People are a bunch of idiosyncratic, up their own ass, pissy little people, at least on the Internet because it brings out the worst in them. The hype, review, sequel previews, more hype and review process is tiring me out. All because of this fucking pessimism that comes as a result of hype and the Internet. Just play games people, it's a fucking hobby. It's nice to dissect them and look at them more critically here and there, but not if we're gonna approach it like this.It only serves to heighten my distaste (albeit it a little) for a hobby that I so deeply treasure and wish to discuss with you guys. Don't destroy it by ruining my impressions of you with nonsensical threads about hype and why you're entitled to something. It pisses me the fuck off.
 
EPILOGUE: This is my opinion, it is by no means right. Feel free to argue with me, but please do it in a respectful manner. I welcome open discussion, so don't simply call me a twat if you disagree with me and move on, talk about it. Give examples of why I'm an ignorant jackass for writing this, don't just outright tell it to me. We're not cavemen.
 
P.S. Sorry if I rambled and got redundant, this isn't the best writing in the world, but I feel it expresses my views in a reasonably on point post. I think my point is still clear (somewhere hidden within that monster post) about what I feel. Again, this is my opinion and some people will possibly attack me about it, but maybe that just serves to prove my point on this whole people can't accept that no one view is right. Saying that a person's opinion is wrong is stupid. I hope you made your way through it and even if you don't agree with me, do me the courtesy of respecting that it's mine.

 NOTE: This started as a forum post, but it got bigger than I anticipated. I hope you read it and debate with me, please don't let its size turn you off.  :)
 
PRELIDE: Opinion is the nature of the world, and yet people can't accept that. Thousands of years of development and we still haven't realized what an opinion is. It's why we have wars, it's why we have feuds. That's not to say those things don't come as a direct reuslt of other misconduct and mitigating factors, but people can't accept that they might not be right. It's human nature. I understand that,but it is certainly very frustrating. It's happened to me a couple times, but I'd like to feel that I'm trying to make myself better than it. Please read on.
 
BLOG: It absolutely disgusts me to see how up in arms people get about the quality of a game and feel they have to resent because of a lot of positive hype, case in point Uncharted 2. I know I'll get a lot of flak for this, and deservedly so, I welcome it, but people are fucking idiots when it comes to getting excited for a game. There's some strange precedent out there that if a game has, say, over 90 on Metacritic before release, you all of a sudden have to get skeptical. People can just never be happy and it's absolutely fucking pathetic. I don't see why people have to bad mouth the game before it comes out. The games media is giving us their opinion, that doesn't mean you should have to follow that opinion or be skeptical. Just go into the game expecting a solid game because others not recommended, not preparing to be disappointed. It's a fucking game, be happy about it and revel in the fact that a bunch of men and women put in a lot of hard effort to make the best game possible, even if that's not ultimately the case for the final product.
 
To go a little deeper, the thing that is fundamentally wrong with critical analysis throughout any medium these days is the mentality that you have to go in to try and find faults. Everybody loves Psychonauts, but going into the game not a lot of people were hyped for it at all, save a few. If 24 game critics told you  Psychonauts was one of their top 10 games of all time, people would all of a sudden have to become skeptical and go in looking for faults and maybe it wouldn't be so loved because people would find any little thing that's wrong and not simply be pleasantly surprised. The whole problem (wow this is going deeper than I anticipated) with the Internet, and especially these "fanboy" type characters, is that everything is a glass half-empty situation. People can't be satisfied. We live in a culture of pessimistic and pissy people who feel like their entitled to something
 
The thing is, the ideal situation would be a developer reveals a game three months before it comes out, little of this nonsense called "hype" is established and people get the game and form their own opinions, not be so pissy about those of others. But that's simply not feasible. You have to establish a fanbase and get advertising and marketing out there. Could a game, a AAA game like God of War III, simply bypass reviews so as to avoid all this hype? That would be nice, but the answer is no. Because then people would have to form their own opinions on a game and not being able to make themselves feel better by trying to justify that a person is somehow wrong. God forbid. It is absolutely, one hundred percent a can't win situation these days. It's a problem with all media these days, though more so games. And the Internet has continually fueled this at the expense of the consumer and pure fun. It does so through anonymity and pessimism and people who are so simple-minded that they can't even try to contemplate it in the least like I am attempting to do 
 
Reading about games isn't fun any more because of all this nonsense. I continually try to convince myself that I want all this games coverage, but I don't want this. It proves how pathetic humanity actually is that we put ourselves through all this type of critical analysis and nonsensical details. Reading GB is about as much as I can convince myself to care any more, increasingly so everyday, and yet I'd still love to read games media. However, the fact is these days, the only place I can usually go to avoid these stupid comments is the podcasts nowadays. People are a bunch of idiosyncratic, up their own ass, pissy little people, at least on the Internet because it brings out the worst in them. The hype, review, sequel previews, more hype and review process is tiring me out. All because of this fucking pessimism that comes as a result of hype and the Internet. Just play games people, it's a fucking hobby. It's nice to dissect them and look at them more critically here and there, but not if we're gonna approach it like this.It only serves to heighten my distaste (albeit it a little) for a hobby that I so deeply treasure and wish to discuss with you guys. Don't destroy it by ruining my impressions of you with nonsensical threads about hype and why you're entitled to something. It pisses me the fuck off.
 
EPILOGUE: This is my opinion, it is by no means right. Feel free to argue with me, but please do it in a respectful manner. I welcome open discussion, so don't simply call me a twat if you disagree with me and move on, talk about it. Give examples of why I'm an ignorant jackass for writing this, don't just outright tell it to me. We're not cavemen.
 
P.S. Sorry if I rambled and got redundant, this isn't the best writing in the world, but I feel it expresses my views in a reasonably on point post. I think my point is still clear (somewhere hidden within that monster post) about what I feel. Again, this is my opinion and some people will possibly attack me about it, but maybe that just serves to prove my point on this whole people can't accept that no one view is right. Saying that a person's opinion is wrong is stupid. I hope you made your way through it and even if you don't agree with me, do me the courtesy of respecting that it's mine.

For me, I have a reason not to trust that number: more often than not, the industry has regularly enjoyed shit. Keep in mind I don't seek bad games (except for two, but can you blame me? They destroyed the industry), I just stumble across them because of recommendations. Back to the point, though, can somebody tell me why this game is good? Or this one? See, if they were utterly wrong about this crap in the past, why should I trust them when they tell me that....umm....... Dead Space: Extraction is awesome beyond awesome?

I clicked on this thread and found it over-hyped.
 
Kidding.
 
I've grown as a reader of reviews and scores over the last couple of years. I really don't let it get to me anymore. I do, however, keep a critical eye on the written review. If I see that the written review is lacking in detail when comparing it to other reviews, I will ignore that reviewer and review no matter the score. I don't hold grudges because everyone has a bad day and or writes a bad review. As for the audience in the comments, I get a kick out of it. I'm entertained. I only comment here on Giant Bomb, so I'm not really part of the comments for other sites, that helps.

I usually try and stay away from the hype for games, ironically, I am hyped about.  I also do this for movies.  So by that logic, I am trying to stay away from Uncharted 2 reviews, and the stuff for Brutal legend that will come soon enough.  Interestingly enough, it fun to play really hyped games after the fact and see how they hold up.  I find that telling people your playing a game that came out say, a year ago, and then get the feedback, you get a more realistic view of the game/event.  I remember when the Phantom Menace came out and if you did anything to criticize the movie, you were flamed.  Now, I bet you could say the movie sucked and you would open a reasonable discussion on the pros and cons of the film without most of the hate.

 I remember when the Phantom Menace came out and if you did anything to criticize the movie, you were flamed.  Now, I bet you could say the movie sucked and you would open a reasonable discussion on the pros and cons of the film without most of the hate. "

Based on the post, you seem to look at reviews as a way for readers to affirm their own love or hate for a game. I value reviews quite a lot as I often use them to decide whether or not to make a purchase. I'm not going out reading reviews after I have bought a game. At that point, my opinion is all mine. I don't need reviewers to agree with me nor do I revel at the chance to argue with them when they disagree. If I'm on the fence about a game (as I am right now with Demon's Souls), I will typically seek out and read as many reviews as I can from trusted sources to help me determine whether I should purchase.
 
My problem with reviews right now is centered around Uncharted 2. First, fanboys are up in arms because their game only got a 9.3 on game site X. What the fuck is wrong with these people? As if that isn't ridiculous enough, legitimate reviewers actually feel they need to defend themselves against these people whose self-esteem is so low they must attach it to a particular game or platform, and, when that falls, they too have fallen. These idiots have existed and will exist forever. Please, let their complaints fall on deaf ears. I don't wish games media would stop listening to its audience, but some questions shouldn't be dignified with an answer.
 
Hype is a bitch, but it oils the gears of capitalism. I would love to cut out the previews, trailers, and publicity stunts and instead skip straight to the reviews that would actually tell me what I want to know: is this game good? Previews could be valuable, but media is so scared to share any negative opinions about them because they don't want to ruin relationships with PR. I understand this, but that doesn't mean I like it. I wish games press could tell us what sucks about the preview code. For pre-orders, that could help make buying decisions. However, PR just wants more publicity containing only sunshine and rainbows about their latest upcoming game. Just gloss over all the bad stuff. That will be fixed in the final code.

I actually agree with what you said. I haven't the time to write out a long-winded response right now but, case in point with Uncharted 2, it really, really, really saddens me that people can't be excited over games anymore.
 
For it to come out and get the highest MetaCritic of the year (same with Forza 3) suggests the games are exceptional and we should be looking forward to their release.
 
I don't get all this -- "well the original sucked", "well it's overhyped", "well the reviews are lying".
 
Just be excited for the game. Or if you're not, fine, ignore other people's excitement for it.
 
I sometimes feel like I'm one of the few people left who genuinely gets excited about games anymore. And it totally doesn't ruin my enjoyment when they come out.
 
There seems to be this trend that you're "not allowed".

Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 is getting hyped beyond belief this season, as if it was the second coming of Jesus. Last year, it was World at War and Gears of War that shared the hype, along with Little Big Planet and Fallout 3 to an extent. 
 
The hype, however, doesn't mean it's a good game. In fact it's been my experience that most games hyped are more disappointing than they should be, like Halo 3 and Gears 2. It's all marketing to get people psyched up about the games. Yeah you can be excited for a game like Call of Duty, but sometimes it's hard to gauge it because of the hype machine behind it all. Like I am hyped for Brutal Legend next week, because I feel it will be a great experience that captures some fun as a gamer.  Reviews, previews, marketing, and other things all contribute to it, but sometimes it's hard to believe it in the end.

I've increasingly stopped taking anything I read on a forum in relation to how a game is received or rated as being serious, its much more fun to just laugh at people. In most cases I'll read reviews and interpret them how I want and then if at all possible play a demo of the game. Giving fanboy rage or internet arguments any kind of credence was just making me depressed at how idiotic the majority of people who play games are, just realise its an incredibly vocal minority of fucking idiots and laugh at them I guess.