Gaming trailers are insulting to gamers
by Christopher Grant 
{ Nov 19th 2005 at 4:30AM }
After sitting through many painful moments in our quest to bring you the scoop on Xbox Live's game trailers we realized, "These people think we're rubes!" Suffering through attrocious dialogue, hackneyed tag lines ("This time it's personal": PDZ), and clichéd premises ("The only way to defeat them, is to become one of them": Quake 4) is bad enough in summer blockbusters, so why do games have to emulate them?
As broadband penetrates more households, game trailers will play an increasingly important role in the marketing of games. Although demos seem like the obvious choice for marketing a new game to a new audience, trailers are simply easier. Then let's leave the tired forms of movie trailers behind and instead demand trailers that emphasis gameplay and immersion. You know, the things that make them games.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Efren @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Yeah, game trailers are pretty bad.
Not all of them, I know some I actually really liked, like the Unreal Championship (xbox) thread, but a lot of them try to take themselves too seriously.
And having real actors dressed up as the characters from the game is probably the worst part about the bad ones.. I believe one of the PD0 trailers I saw featured such an atrocity.
Sam @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Game trailers suck, just some video clip showing nothing of the real game. Like that trailer for the godfather, everyone was like "wow, look at those graphics" and then a little later we se actual gameplay images with subpar graphics.
C. Grant @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I have not had the pleasure of seeing THAT PDZ trailer, but rest assured, the one we saw was "teh suck!!111!one!1one!11eleven!" WISH WISH WISH we had the game though! ;)
Denis Dyack @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Christopher what about our trailer?:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/748/748783/vids_1.html
I would be interested to see how people feel about it about. I think it fits the bill of "trailers that emphasis gameplay and immersion". The developers are trying - trust me. :)
Denis.
BlackYoshi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
All three Twilight Princess trailers have been awesome. Great music, good clips, but none that spoil too much, and really gives you a glimpse at how the game plays without baring all.