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Blogs

  Leaked Videos and a Cry for Help
by Benjamin Quintero on 10/30/09 12:16:00 am   Expert Blogs   Featured Blogs
7 comments Share on Twitter Share on Facebook RSS
 
 
The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by a member of Gamasutra's game development community. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its parent company.

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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?".

 
 
Comments

Rick Kolesar
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We are at the point where every game has to bombard you with videos and images to grab your attention and shake $60 out of you. Most gamers buy a game based on graphics and if it has a pretty box. So how can they tell if a game has normal maps and lens flares unless they watch 10 minutes worth of videos? And in that 10 minutes of videos, you are going to see the majority of enemies, locations, and storyline, and probably the end boss.



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!

Glenn Storm
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Good point, Benjamin. This highlights the importance of coordination between production and marketing. Yes, we've seen this done in film too, where the trailer skipped the idea of the tease or the proper hook and jumped straight into spoiler territory, "Here's the multi-million dollar shot your ticket will buy you" or "Here's a hint at the big surprise moment you'd never have guessed". I'd have to recognize at this point that, to some in marketing, the primary goal is not to set up the main experience properly, but to just get people to purchase. But, that leads to the debate between the value of consistent quality vs. immediate sales.



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).

Benjamin Quintero
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Thanks to whoever blanked out the spoiler.. I was trying to find a way of saying what bothered me without doing it to others as well =). Looks like I need to hit up some HTML 101 again.

Joshua Sterns
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I love the way the spoiler was covered in this article. Such a simple web tool that I haven't seen before. Neato.



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.

Dirk Broenink
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I actually had the same with quite some movies aswell. Not that huge parts were spoiled; but atleast the good parts were. You can't wonder "how will this problem solve/ this adventure end" when you've seen it in a trailer. Ofcourse this does depend on which movie, good movie producers already realised this and don't spoil too much. Good article.

Chris Dunson
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I know what you mean Benjamin. I was a huge fan of Kingdom Hearts so when the sequel was coming close to being released I just stopped watching TV and refused to use the internet. It was lame for a few weeks but it was so worth it when I finally got the game and was able to experience it fully.



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.

Kacper Szymczak
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Well, you can always try the approach of: never watch trailers for games or movies, never read the description on the back of a book or game box. Use your intuition and reliable sources (metacritic, imdb, friends with similar taste, all time toplists) and you can't miss! Works fine for me :-)


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