Hyperlicious

I thought I should make a post about hype because it seems as though everyone is talking about it. And by everyone I mean just a couple of my fellow bloggers. The word is going around that Mythic have been over-hyping their game like crazy, and when its going to be released there will be some repercussions. The repercussions may be in the form of raging gamers who thought that WAR would be THE next game, maybe others will just be slightly disappointed. Personally I feel that the complaints of over-hyping a game are pointless until the actual game comes out. Why? Because you can't tell whether the game is going to actually live up to the hype until you have actually experienced it. Perhaps, of course, some of the bloggers are in the closed beta and have been playing for a while and do not feel that the game lives up to the hype which is understandable.

I don't think that Mythic have over-hyped their game. I think what they have done is clever marketing. (which can be I guess be seen as just another way of saying 'over-hype') They have released a lot of production podcasts which explain the interesting and exciting aspects of the game, they have made their development interviews exciting and interesting (Thank you Paul Barnett) and they have listened to their fanbase and given them what they asked for. Can this be classified as hype?

About a year ago I had recently quit WoW and was looking for a new MMO and I came across Fury. It was a game developed by an Aussie team which focused completely on PvP. The hype for Fury wasn't significant, and certainly quite timid as opposed to WAR, yet I was still really excited about the game. Sadly there were many, many things wrong with it and it didn't sell. Only a few days ago it shut down its servers. Why am I mentioning this? Well, I think that there is nothing wrong with hype. While there was very little hype for Fury I still was very interested in it, and consequently was extremely disappointed with the result. WAR (apparently) has been overloaded with hype and I am waiting with sweaty hands to play it, yet I know that if the game doesn't turn out as I hoped I will be no more disappointed then with Fury. Developers should not be blamed for over-hyping their game; its their job and in the end hype is not what the developers make out their game to be, but what the player makes out the game to be in their mind. While this ideal may be effected by the stuff churned out by the developers it is not totally dependent on it as demonstrated by my experience with Fury.