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There has been a lot of buzz recently about a leaked video of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I overheard that the video depicted the player as a terrorist and that the scene was very graphic. (highlight for spoilers.)
I've already heard too much and personally haven't bothered to look for the video. I would like to experience that jaw dropping moment for myself, even if I already know it's coming. I was late in the game when it came to playing the first Modern Warfare. The game had been out for months and you couldn't turn without seeing an advertisement or a blog that raved about the game.
The raving and the advertisement rang in my ear for so long that I eventually purchased the game and was surprisingly underwhelmed. It's not that MW was a bad game. It was absolutely a great game for many reasons, but I feel like I had been exposed to so many little clips and trailers of the game that the OMG moments had a certain deja vu. It was as if I could piece together the story from trailers alone.
I would like just once to go into a store, buy a game, and play it without a mosaic of trailers in my head that seem to lessen the experience. I'm doing my best to avoid the leaked trailers and gameplay clips. I would like to feel like a kid again; like a time before the internet ruined that feeling of Christmas morning for me with bold fonts and capslock. EVERYBODY DIES AT THE END.
I know that it's not good for sales, but I'd rather see less of something and let the word-of-mouth tell me that it is worth buying, instead of showing me half the experience through partial clips of the game's cut scenes.
This works for movies because we are looking at 30 seconds out of two hours of constant story; not the case for most games. A brief gameplay trailer is more acceptable to me than one that rips from the major plot points of an already brief story. So please; the next time you sit in front of your video editing box to cut a trailer, ask yourself, "am I stealing Christmas morning?".
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So why does the developers shove everything into these videos? Because game journalism is based around snap decisions. Most people watch 30 seconds of a game trailer and make their mind up...
"looks repetitive, multilayer looks like it will suck, not enough weapon choices"
...and off they go blog about it, which most people read half of their post, and make their own, even snappier decision about the game.
But yes, I would love to buy a game I have no idea about and be surprised at every turn... ignorance would be bliss!
When selling an experience, the lead-in to the event can't be ignored, or worse, used to short change the main event. The purpose is to pique interest and *set* expectations to a level in which the main event can then deliver satisfaction. I think of it like a volleyball team; dig (in and produce), set (up the audience expectations), spike (deliver on expectations and then some).
I agree Benjamin that spoilers are no fun. I had no idea what Bioshock was before playing it. If I had something more substantial other then my brother telling me it's freakin awesome, then I'd may not have enjoyed that game to the same degree. I think this issue is heightened for games with a decent story. When someone told me some spoilers about Halo: ODST it didn't ruin the game for me. I think this is a result of the more predictable standard Sci-Fi/Halo plot that ODST had.
I also agree with Glenn about communication between production and marketing. I'd also include a designer, or at least a member of QA, who can sit in and say things like, "Hey that is a great trailer, but you did just show some spoilers." When I was working on some marketing videos the guys capturing the video hadn't played the game extensively. Has a member of QA who had, I was able to denote some unknown gameplay features that they ended up including. So maybe some of the spoilers get into trailers/videos on accident because the person throwing it together is ignorant, and by the time someone finds out it's too late.
Once I had unlocked everything in the game I started going online again and of course I'm finding the secret ending to the game all over the place along with constant discussion over key plot moments. Luckily I had decided not to allow these people to ruin my experience. Kingdom Hearts II remains one of my favorite games.