Hype begins and ends with the gaming press

Didn't read the interview, but I must admit it sounds awfully familiar.

Anyway, I think hype often comes from the fans. Not always, but often. There are clear exceptions - Sony hypes its consoles more than I think anyone could imagine. Microsoft does it slightly less.

But I think most companies go the Nintendo style. They don't say much, just leak things out a little at a time, and let the fans do the work. Look at all this Wii hype - how much actually comes from Nintendo? Not too much. Most of it comes from fans, spending hours doing things like mock interfaces or ON videos, or dissecting the few pictures we had looking for phantom slots and ports.

Or look at Valve. People whined endlessly that HL2 was overhyped, but Valve did extremely little hyping of its own. They announced it, showed a movie, delayed it, went into hiding, and released the occasional video from time to time. But it was enough to get fans rabid and turn on the hype machine. Valve itself did little hyping, the fans themselves did it.


Which ends up leading to people whining about things being overhyped. I can't blame Valve or Nintendo (or the hundreds of companies like them.) They're calculating, sure, but they're making sure they don't do much hyping. So the overhype comes from fans. Hard to blame a company like that.

I do blame the other companies, though, that hype themselves. Molyneaux walks into it, as he admits, because his most recent games have all fallen so far from his hype. Sony walked into it with the PS2, as well, which fell insanely far from the hype, but it didn't matter because it was still a good product.

Kind of reminds me how everyone praises Wil Wright's Spore despite the fact that pretty much nobody has played it.

Blasphemy! Spore will change gaming *forever*

Yeah, agreed. I think it has something to do with the way both Wright and Molyneux talk. Both are intelligent, abstract thinkers whose ideas often grow larger than the gaming press' ability to rein them in. In Wright's defense, he's created The Sims which continues to sell like bug spray in the summertime; whereas Molynuex created B&W which ... well, not so much. It's like Conrad asked him in our (decidedly less hype-tastic) interview, doesn't this lend itself to a boy who cried wolf response? You can only fail to deliver for so long.

"I would be killed to death if I said anything at all..."

Usually when you get killed, it involves death in some form or another.

'Me fail english? That's unpossible!'

There has to be one big, big thing about Fable 2 that is going to shock and surprise people and that's what we've got, that's the exciting thing.

The technologies that Peter has shown in demos at GDC etc, if applied to games, could in my mind at least, change gaming forever. Environments which appear real, which age, and behave naturally.

That is part of what true next-gen is all about.

Fable was nice and all, but the technology, as in the computers of the day, were not even close to powerful enough to support the full vision. Today, we are quite a leap closer to that.

Well it should be pointed out that while Eurogamer produced what was more or less a useless interview they got at least one or two bits of info. They probably shouldn't have bothered posting the full interview, just the one or two sentences that actually meant something. At the same time it's not right to launch an all out attack on them, as I have to say I really enjoy their style of writing, some of their reviews in particular are funny and well put together, like the Animal Crossing DS one. There are plenty of other big gaming websites that deserve far more critique than Eurogamer. I'm not going to name names (and I'm not refering to Joystiq, of course) but when you read some sites posting impressions of clearly broken games (Red Steel in particular), without saying a word on any of the major problems with said game, then I think you're doing far more harm by building up hype, than some interview that's so empty of info it actually canels itself out.

Chris, actually Jennie asked that question. :-)

As for Eurogamer, I usually love their content. Personally, I think they produce some brilliant reviews. But I just couldn't let this interview slide. I know that this is not the only example of hypetastic content, but this is just such a blatant example that I couldn't pass up the chance to call them on it.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but The EG interview is actually quite sarcastic and tounge in cheeck in its presentation, you seem to have missed that entirely. Also its not EG's place to "reign him in" they asked questions, he answered them. do you want them to beat more solid answers out of him ? The only story of note here is that you actually bothered to take an extrememly tounge in cheeck game anouncement and have tried to turn it into some kind of serious issue.

WTF. How on earth is PM hyping his game EGs fault. All they did was ask a simple question.

It isnt EGs job to "rein him in".

If PM wants to talk about his new games to EG why should they say "no sorry peter mate, your creating too much hype. I think you should tune it down a bit buddy"

/thinking of a word.....nonce!!

You are so right!

Eurogamer or rather 'Satangamer' must be purged from the earth and the ground salted where it once stood.

The Joystiq (i love how you spelled that with a 'q' its so 'gangsta' and 'EA marketing like') is much better, I'm going to stay here forever!

Molyneux spends a lot of time in this unterview saying that he can't tell us anything. While not a bad interview, per se, it didn't really go anywhere.

I got a line about how they think they should improve on weaknesses from Fable 1 and somthing about his next game not being pigeon-holed into one genre...

I would have liked Eurogamer to ask a few important questions... when do you think Fable2 will come out, what were the low points of Fable1 that you want to improve on, has your job improved with the buyout from Microsoft - you know, questions that Eurogamer readers might want to know.

Maybe the important stuff comes out during the "broadcast later this week on Eurogamer TV."

TYPICAL JOYSTIQ TOSH!

I bet you feel really big after attacking a fellow gaming site... FFS! You join us at Develop Brighton with smiley faces then promptly stab us in the back. Cheers mate. :(

Well, this is nothing new for Molyneux. He has done this with every game he's created, and he'll continue to do so.

He's got vision, and an obvious passion for what he does, but at some point what you say has to meet reality. I know more people are going to be reviewing this game a bit closer to the vest than Fable 1, and rightly so.

Bless 'em. Nothing quite like a bit of pretend journo infighting to really give gamers and those associated with gaming an even better appearance to the outside world.

Peter Molyneux needs to stop trying to write games and start trying to invent a device that can turn his utter bollocks and over-ambitious ideas into something we can play. He's pretty much consistently let gamers down since Dungeon Keeper yet people still seem to think he's some kind of industry figurehead and spokesman. Baffles the shit outa me...!

He is and always will be a sort of trampified version of Will Wright.

Peej

Wow, what a trip... did telegra, umm, I mean albundy leave any of his stash behind before he left?

Ladies and Gentlemen! Riding in on their moral high horse its....Joystiq!

At least the man can apologize for things he may have said or done to hype his games. Despite damage being done to gamers who payed to play, there is very rarely a developer who will apologize for any mishaps, minor or major. Instead, they might A) Blame/belittle their competition, or B) speak like it never happened.

He isn't the best, but he's got SOME class.

I can't fauly Moly for this, after all, if I was a game developer, I know damn well I'd have the same lofty goals, and would try to make the best games possible. I think that's what he does. Him, and Wright both. They are amazing game creators, with tremendous vision. Sometimes, however, that vision can't be fully realized. Be it technological or development cycle time limitations, but it happens. They both mean well, and they both make some great games, even if they arn't always what they chatted us up with.

But gaming journalists in GENERAL need to buy a clue. Loving video games and being able to write in the Queen's English is not enough to be a video game journalist. For the love of God, do not take every developer or corporate mouthpiece at face value. The former is idealistic by nature, and the latter is PAID TO SELL YOU SPIN. Stop trying to regurgitate whatever they fed you into my mouth, and find your own damn answers.

Although, now that I think about it, the same can be said of political journalism, these days. Hmm. That does not bode well...

"...awesome+1 to the max!"

I think it's:

...awesome to the max+1! At least that's what I hear.

Good point MetaHuman...and remember, technically I (and many gamers and critics alike if you know how to Google) don't feel he has any real need to apologize for Fable when all is said and done. The thing has an average 85% on Metacritic for goodness sake. Who cares what it was missing? When push comes to shove, it was a damn good game.

Truth be told, I'm looking forward to Fable 2 more than any other 360 game right now. Bring it on!

"whereas Molynuex created B&W which ... well, not so much."

...and Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper...

Molyneux's hype may have got the better of him recently but try not to forget the enormous contribution he's made to the industry by creating some of the best games ever made. With so many dull sequels around we're lucky people like Molyneux are trying something different.

Peter Molyneaux is the M. Night Shyamalan of video games.

Thinking back, it seems like video gamers in general have problems with overhyping a particular developer, and attaching too much to them. Often, the developers themselves aren't too overspoken (Molyneux actually seems like the exception).

But let's look at a hypothetical scenario - let's say that later on today, Shigeru Miyamoto announced he was working on a brand-new game concept. And let's also say that the entire gaming press colluded and agreed to only report the absolute and strict truth on the game (no rumors at all, that which has been verified by fact only). For good measure, let's say Nintendo for some reason also didn't make their usual grandiose statements about a Miyamoto project.

Even in this hypothetical environment (which is unlikely to happen, sure, but work with me here), the hype for this game would be unbearably heavy, just because the gamer on the street couldn't stop talking and speculating about it. Fan pages for this game would be invented a year before it even came out.

Molyneux, whether he deserves it or not, is in the upper echelon of developers that would attract that level of hype. And, to be honest, I have my short list of developers that would attract similar attention from me (among them, Sid Meier, Keiji Inafune, and Michel Ancel).

The reason game journalists (myself included) fall into these habits is because we're hardcore gamers ourselves, and our prejudices are a bit too apparent. We have to keep in mind that while we can obviously focus more attention on the top developers fairly, we need to balance that by not becoming hype megaphones.

In response to 32_Footstep's post: "Kind of reminds me how everyone praises Wil Wright's Spore despite the fact that pretty much nobody has played it."

That's not really true since 1UP.com has already written their impressions of playing Spore and just recently Next-Generation did the same. In fact, Next-Generation admitted that they didn't normally do previews, but Wright had invited them to play Spore so they decided to write one up.

Wanna see a hype fest? Do you? You do?! Well just head over to http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/14/omg-spore-r0x0rz-1/
Where joystiq takes hype to a new level: "Spore will change gaming forever"

It's a bit "rich" of you to accuse EG of hype, isn't it?

Okay, you've named a grand total of two different outlets that have played either a late alpha or an early beta of Spore. That sounds much like "pretty much nobody" to me. Meanwhile, I can find glowing coverage on Spore from many sources, including people from 1Up.com that haven't touched it yet.

Like it or not, coverage of Spore is a prime example of what's wrong with video game journalism today.

What if this is a sarcastic jab from both EG and Molyneux at the hype machine of the gaming press? EG's articles are usually pretty sharp, and Molyneux would be the kind to go along into a joke like this.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/01/20

I saw the interview, it certainly doesn't challenge him on anything but it isn't that bad...

Hey Chris,

Next time, try quoting within context. That article has the line, "It may sound hyperbolic to say that Spore will change gaming forever and surpass Wright's other franchise, The Sims, to become biggest selling PC game of all time, but once you look at the video for yourself and get to actually, y'know, play the game, you *may* feel the same way." Also, that opinion was based on the fact that we actually played the game.

Ok Ludwig, you've got a point about context there. So it should have been "...spore will change gaming forever..." , now the quote is editorialized in the same way that the Joytsiq dig at Eurogamer was.

To start with, I was just going to go with the headline: "omg-spore-r0x0rz-1" as an example. How about that for hype? Or we could just leave it at "I didn't want to tell them that I'd wait in line, pay $600 for it and even sell any required organs just to play the finished game."

I wasn't trying to have a go at Joystiq, I'm an everyday avid reader; I was just pointing out that this stuff happens in games journalism. I don't like it, I'll put up with it, but I draw the line at listening to journalists running an inter-site slanging match. It's a 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" kind of thing. Let's get back to the good stuff!