Take a look at this short video, courtesy of 'The Triple S League.' This was back in the day at E3 2018. What do you notice? To me, it shows how stupid we gamers can be when it comes to eating up the propaganda hype in the gaming media. In this video, the crowd applauds two short teaser clips of, well...nothing. A minuscule shot of some sort of space station and a sweeping view of a grand, forested landscape. Yet these are both teasers for games that, as of May 2021, have yet to be released, have little to no information on them, and still have no date on when they will be released. I mean, just take a look at the Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 page on Bethesda's website (there isn't any).
Yet when those teasers came out the gaming community was in an uproar. Everyone was talking about how awesome these games are going to be and they can't wait to lose thousands of hours in them and they're already wanting to preorder, blah, blah, blah — all based on nothing.
Now don't get me wrong, I would love to play either one of these games if they're worth it, but why are gamers so bad at eating up the hype? I mean, sure, the companies push it and then you have absolutely ridiculous awards titles will receive from outlets like IGN or PC Gamer such as 'Best Game,' like Cyberpunk 2077 did back in E3 2018 — DESPITE NOT EVEN BEING RELEASED UNTIL DECEMBER 2020! Yet the fans eat it up. And now look, everyone is complaining at how bad Cyberpunk 2077 is due to technical glitches, bugs, boring world and whatever else. This is when it pays off to be a patient gamer.
People go crazy over something as simple as a scripted, pre-rendered trailer that shows all these fancy graphics and scenarios that aren't even in the game (looking at you Watchdogs). They don't even show any actual gameplay, and people eat it up. E3 is probably the worst offender as they are notorious for it: trailer after trailer of meaningless drivel teasing games that aren't coming out for anther 2+ years, yet they are given all these awards when no one has even played them. Why do people continue supporting this?
I understand being passionate about gaming, I am as well. But when we let ourselves be blinded by that passion we are only harming the industry as well as ourselves. It's our own damn fault too. Fans have the ability to say "No" and to just wait and see if a game is worth investing in. We can look at a teaser trailer and ask why there's no gameplay. We can question the two minute segments at E3 where some developer comes on stage hyping his product without actually giving us any information on it. They say stuff like, "Our game is really cool you guys. Like, totally cool. Our game is going to be so cool that we it will be the best, coolest game ever made. I mean look at the trailer! So cool, right? Coooooool." Then they walk off stage leaving the audience amped and still completely ignorant, knowing nothing about what the actual game entails.
So what can we do about it? Simple: don't give into the hype. Stop supporting these practices by spreading all the rumors and hype around. Simply wait; wait for actual gameplay footage to be released, and even then, approach it with a skeptical, critical eye. Wait for a release date to be announced or a beta. Stop judging games based off their trailers. These are simply propaganda pieces designed to get an emotional reaction out of you, not to actually inform you as a customer.
And for the love of god, STOP PREORDERING. This is perhaps one of the most damaging aspects of the gaming industry that the gamer themself has complete control over. When you preorder a game, you are gambling and rewarding bad behavior for little to nothing in return. You have no idea what the game will be like when it's released, yet you throw your money at the studio anyways, thus perpetuating this behavior, and for what, a digital pet or fancy sword skin in-game?. If the game is great, that's nice and all, but if it's trash (which happens a lot), then you are rewarding the poor practice of releasing a crap game and "fixing it later." After all, what do the studios care? They already have your money. So what incentive do they have to actually release a good product day one when people just keep preordering? The most egregious of these behaviors is when they release a game at full price and then have the audacity to implement microtransactions and DLCs the same day or week, when they could've just implemented them into the base game. Shameful.
Thus, ladies and gents, I implore you to not fall for these tactics. Vote with your wallet and show these studios and propaganda outlets that you're not falling for their clickbait. Demand good practices from these companies. Demand good products and services. Show that you are not stupid enough to give into the hype, and game on.