Hype, Disappointment, and the "Hardcore"

I wanted to discuss an issue that I find to be both numerous and annoying.

I’ve noticed that games like Fable, Final Fantasy X-2 and even oldies like Super Mario Sunshine are being judged way too harshly. I’ve read endless things on boards such as these saying Fable is a horrible game and a complete piece of trash, but the truth is it’s just a good game that was supposed to be incredible. I find it hilarious that people will attack a game that is good just because it’s not the best ever in it’s genre, yet no one goes out of their way to attack games that are far inferior. Why does this happen? Are people angry that they bought into the hype, and this fuels anger towards an otherwise good game? If Fable wasn’t advertised as heavily and hyped to the extent it was, would it be more accepted amongst the “hardcore”?

Where is the hate for GoDai: Elemental Force, McFarlane's Evil Prophecy, The Sum of All Fears and Drake of the 99 Dragons? What sets these games apart? Why is it un-cool to hate on the really shitty games?

Thoughts?

Nobody buys games like Evil Prophecy and Drake. So they dont complain about it. But if you spend money on a game and am bitterly dissapointed in it (like I was with JSRF or Shenmue or the GBA), well, you wasted money. This is America, we love our money. It turns vitriolic.

It could be "un-cool" to hate on the truly shitty games because everything bad about them has been said. In the case of Drake, it's so bad that even I hated it.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Nobody buys games like Evil Prophecy and Drake. So they dont complain about it. But if you spend money on a game and am bitterly dissapointed in it (like I was with JSRF or Shenmue or the GBA), well, you wasted money. This is America, we love our money. It turns vitriolic.

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Well I understand that you were disappointed in JSRF, but do you think it was a bad game when price isn't an issue?

It's about 3 dollars for a used copy now. If you had waited until now to pick it up, do you think you would hold as much against it? What if you had received a copy for free, would you be as disappointed with it? Is it just because of the amount of money you lost that you dislike it?

It's mostly in the hype machine. People basically come to expect too much of something, and are unsurprisingly dissatisfied when they see the less grandiose reality of it.

Peer pressure ultimately has its way and people end up publicly ragging on something they likely don't know enough about. Story of the world.

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Are people angry that they bought into the hype, and this fuels anger towards an otherwise good game?

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People get high expectations, think they're about to feel an electrical orgasm, and wind up with a game that is good but not mind-blowing. The fall there is higher for many instead of when a game is never/rarely mentioned and is then so poor that it gets even more ignored. Fable is a pretty good action-RPG with a lot of cool touches but that's not what a lot of people ended up thinking it was going to be, so they all complained that it was crap because it the final product wasn't "Morrowind with good NPCs, a great combat system, evolving characters, and rape" or whatever.

Or for instance: Drake is supposedly a terrible, terrible game, has always been mentioned as such and no one has ever said anything good about it. Thus, why would any of us have any desire to pick it up (excluding Morphix's collection obsession) and experience crap? We wouldn't (or shouldn't) and thus we don't bitch about it because we were bright enough to not subject ourselves to it in the first place.

Then comes backlash from opposing feelings to other people. When some people praise a game (perhaps endlessly) there are times that those who thought it was merely okay at best will exaggerate its bad points as a way of counteracting those who think the game is better than it really is (possibly subconciously). It does kind of irk me when people claim a game is "the worst game ever" or "the worst game in its genre" or whatever when it's nowhere even close to the actuality of that, and they could just say "it's pretty bad" or something.

[edit] Beaten to the punch.

Also, too many damn green Master Chief avatars, you guys need to start at least picking different colors because I've having trouble keeping you all seperate.

High expectations = greater potential for disappointment when the game fails. We get pissed that our high hopes are a total waste of time and take it out on the game that failed us. Personally I've got nothing against Mario Sunshine, and because I never cared about Fable one way or another its average-ness (not really a word but an amazing simulation) doesn't make me bat an eye. If Katamari Damacy or Rez had failed, and both games are ones I'd been tracking since I first heard of them, then I'd probably still be annoyed at the lost opportunity they represented.

My personal example of what you're talking about: GTA: San Andreas. It's merely another boring game, but after the glory of GTA3 it seems like a dagger in the back. Its negative effects are strong enough that I'm considering passing on San Andreas for a while, maybe waiting until the X-Box version.

Oddly enough, the kind of hate you're talking about is also aimed at Acclaim.

James

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Originally Posted by Opaque

Well I understand that you were disappointed in JSRF, but do you think it was a bad game when price isn't an issue?

It's about 3 dollars for a used copy now. If you had waited until now to pick it up, do you think you would hold as much against it? What if you had received a copy for free, would you be as disappointed with it? Is it just because of the amount of money you lost that you dislike it?

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I ended up returning the game so it really didnt cost me anything. This was before the change in return policies. Another part of it is expectation, you know. You expect a high-profile game from one of the big companies, a sequel to a game that was GOTY for many, to be good.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

Pbacklash from opposing feelings to other people. When some people praise a game (perhaps endlessly) there are times that those who thought it was merely okay at best will exaggerate its bad points as a way of counteracting those who think the game is better than it really is (possibly subconciously).

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I do this quite a bit w/un-serious subjects (movies, games, TV). I feel I have to make strenuous objections to counter-act all the (undeserved) praise coming from the other side.

Also, ppl *love* to put something else down (for whatever reason, but mostly to make themselves feel superior). Not the greatest ever? Well, it must suck. SEE: MSG BOARDS

When people don't get what they think they've been promised, they feel cheated, and that turns to anger, and hate leads to the dark side.*

Happens to the best of us, and is likely to happen to many with ever major release, no matter the quality of the actual game. Which is why I'm keeping my expectations way down for Halo 2.

*copyright Lucasfilms Inc. all rights reserved.