Last week, one of my favorite MOP commenters, DeadlyAccurate, linked us to a Cracked article discussing how gaming is “being ruined by hype.” Using No Man’s Sky as an example, author Mark Hill argues that the cycle is partly our fault: We buy broken games; press and players give in to the hype narrative; we’re obsessed with quantity and size over quality and content; we flip tables when the games don’t live up to our expectations; and then we forgive and forget once the games are fixed and go right back to buying… broken games.
“The economics of why games are so expensive to make that they eventually need to be shoved out the door like unprepared baby birds is a whole different subject,” he writes. “But regardless of where the fault of overhype lies, we get lured into a false sense of security by the slow improvement of bad games, then fall for the same crap all over again when the hype cycle restarts with the next game.”
Personally, I think the economics here are not a whole different subject; they’re a key part of the problem, but I can’t quibble with the cycle itself. Then again, parts of the cycle apply to lots of other media industries. So what do you think about Hill’s thesis? Do you agree that the hype cycle is a problem? Is gaming being ruined by hype, or is the hype and its relationship to gaming the same as it’s always been? And is the MMO genre in a different place entirely from the rest of the industry?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
