Believe the hype!

With E3 being...what it is, I feel like now is a good time to make a thread discussing hype, expectations, and the occasionally painful reality that these things can lead to. It's very common now for there to be a lot of hype leading up to and around a video game's release, especially around big-name studios with the budget to spend on advertising and/or a reputation for quality.

But how do you feel about the hype culture in video games? Have you ever been hyped for a game that has actually measured up to your expectations, or delivered what it promised? What is your personal philosophy when it comes to upcoming video games and news - are you the kind of person to get caught up in the flashy trailers and big promises, or do you prefer to take a wait-and-see approach and temper your expectations?

I never managed to get into the hype of games. It's probably a social matter. Therefore it's less important that a certain game is coming out and more that there's a game coming out while all the cool kids want a new game like this. And you want to be a cool kid so you have something to talk about with the others.

I'm not particulalry good at social stuff. That means I usually stay out of any sort of hype. Doesn't mean I never buy games immediately when they come out, but it does mean I usually don't look at them with hype colored glasses.

Getting hyped almost always leads to disappointment, so for a long time I've tried to not get hyped for anything, or anything new at least. Your expectations when hyped are often unreasonably high.

Answers this with some difficulty. Bases the bulk of expectations on previous entries in a series (and perceived changes to that formula). Usually sees the announcement trailer and little else. Builds some expectations. Leaves room to be surprised (positively or negatively). Example: Neo The World Ends With You. Went from some hype (as a fan of the original) to very little (upon seeing combat) in a single trailer.

Relies on other games to judge games without a track record. Examples:
- Spore. Watched a bit of EVO before. Figured similar gameplay. Delivered that for maybe twenty minutes.
- Rune Factory. Described it as fantasy Harvest Moon. Played one game in the Harvest Moon series. Enjoyed that. Is a sucker for fantasy. Wound up exceeding expectations considerably.

Feels like a fairly accurate judge of games. Misses the mark occasionally, with a lean towards mild disappointment. (Sticks out more, at any rate.)

Will keep this thread in mind during the Direct. May add something afterwards.

Edit: Sizes up games rather vaguely. Estimated them as being "probably okay" or "probably not okay". Brought some more games surpassing expectations to mind, such as (the original) Mario Golf.

Showcased games with little chance for hype, admittedly. Could have whispered "oh, and a new mainline Fire Emblem game this year" with zero details. Would have been a bit hyped then. Tempers that with recent games, as mentioned above.

I haven't been hyped for a game in years. Yeeeeeears.

I enjoy E3 because it's fun and exciting but I don't think that hype is a word that I'd use literally to describe how I feel when I see something neat show up. It's more me enjoying the fact that it exists, and I guess having a pretty lackluster income and knowing I probably won't be able to get whatever it is on release plays a part in that (though ironically when my pay was less than lackluster I was pretty jaded so who knows).

But yeah, it takes a lot to disappoint me since my expectations are generally pretty low, and not in a glass-half-empty kind of way, it's just how I am. It's kind of why I like jumping into things with as little information as possible, I like being surprised at how good something is. I will say though, trailers do nothing for me, usually. Like, it's been said 1000 times that cinematic trailers =/= gameplay but I can't stress enough how little I care about a cinematic trailer unless the game itself is already publicly established. Narrative trailers that coincide with the game, like FFXIV trailers, on the other hand are rad and I love them. Those know how to build hype and despite the fact that it wasn't really shown at E3 I'm incredibly excited for Endwalker <3

I'm not immune to hype, but it generally maxes out at "this looks like it'll be pretty good." Every now and then something will really hit me with the hype though which leaves me in a state of "oh god, please don't suck."

medium-warm take, maybe: not feeling hype is pretty boring

like, i can understand the rationale behind avoiding being utterly disappointed by something you thought was going to be amazing, and that's when you should definitely temper expectations! but there's nothing wrong with the whole "oh wow this game looks really cool, can't wait to play it" kinda hype. i dunno, it's not my kind of thing to go into every announcement/game reveal with the expectation that it's going to suck, even if it makes taking disappointment results easier.

simply put, if there's a game that i like that im looking forward to getting, then yeah i'm going to feel hype for it! i'm not going to go overboard with it which i think is important that many people should keep in mind, but feeling excitement about a game is the fun part of gaming and makes enjoying the game much better if it's to expectations.

yes, "if it's to expectations". disappointment is going to happen and that's just the world of gaming that we're in. some companies just love to oversell how amazing their games are only for them to underperform in the eyes of many. for me though, it's just par for the course -- the only thing i don't expect is to be absolutely blown away. i expect to, at the very least, get as many hours of enjoyment as i put into a particular game and that's bare minimum.

but i realise i'm probably in a super minority, here. tl;dr: i don't do blind hype. a bit of excitement, a bit of hope, but always in moderation.

I usually never hype things up too much, though lately there have been exceptions (NEO: TWEWY)... but when I do feel hyped it's honestly a really good feeling. I'm very picky with what I hype up and when it actually happens the rush is satisfying. So far the few instances of hype I felt never let me down and I'm hoping that will be the case with TWEWY when it comes out later this month too. :D But we'll see how long that lasts! Always do feel bad for people who get especially/hyped invested in a game and then it comes out as a major letdown for whatever reason. The Cyberpunk fiasco was especially disappointing and I'm honestly glad it's not a mess I ever get into lol.