Video Game Deceit

[Kelimbror]

Ok, so I just stumbled across this video on Nerdist and it really hit some highlights of things wrong with the industry right now on top of making some other things pretty humorous. The end bit drags on for a while, but it's definitely worth a watch.
Among some things hinted at/referenced:

1) Games being advertised as far greater than what you actually get
2) White knights that defend games at all costs
3) And the eventual hipsterism/ascension of cool that happens with some games.

I found myself laughing because just about everything they talk about is true.

[philefluxx]

OMG I used to watch this show on MTV back in highschool LOLOL

[Kelimbror]

OMG I used to watch this show on MTV back in highschool LOLOL

Yeah I am surprised at how enterprising Hardwick has become, but this had me thinking of so many recent games it's kinda sad.

[Dasffion]

1) Games being advertised as far greater than what you actually get

Also known as "Marketing"

[Mechazod]

And the eventual hipsterism/ascension of cool that happens with some games.

What does this mean exactly? I'm on a computer with no sound so cant watch the video right now.

[Kelimbror]

What does this mean exactly? I'm on a computer with no sound so cant watch the video right now.

There's a couple of jabs where a game is released that isn't really that good, or could actually be incredibly bad but somehow it blows up as the coolest thing in the universe, starts having its own merchandise, and people think you're crazy if you don't like it.

The game in the video is for 'Blood Ocean' (totally stolen from Metalocalypse) but it turns out to just be a black screen with one red pixel on it. Then they talk about how awesome a game is because it's so hard there's no way to beat it, let alone play it.

My description was the only way I could quickly and stereotypically label this concept.

---------- Post added 2013-03-28 at 03:24 PM ----------

Also known as "Marketing"

Ah, but there's a difference between marketing and using things that aren't actually present in the game to sell a product. Using higher rendering than the game is even capable of just for a commercial and all that. Even though we know it happens, and has happened in many industries for a long time, we still fall for it.

I remember watching some special on TV about commercial magic when I was a kid and found out that milk for cereal bowls in commercials is actually a glue made to look 'better' than milk where they strategically place every flake. And burgers are literally just blowtorched to perfection instead of cooked, with the rest of it being made of various non edible substances and having artists place ketchup and mustard dabs in specific places.

It was mind blowing and scary all at the same time.

[hiragana]

meh, i agree it does happen but it also happens everywhere else, like film trailers or toy adverts. Its why smart people check out reviews before they buy something then decide for themselves if its worth it.

[Mechazod]

There's a couple of jabs where a game is released that isn't really that good, or could actually be incredibly bad but somehow it blows up as the coolest thing in the universe, starts having its own merchandise, and people think you're crazy if you don't like it.

The game in the video is for 'Blood Ocean' (totally stolen from Metalocalypse) but it turns out to just be a black screen with one red pixel on it. Then they talk about how awesome a game is because it's so hard there's no way to beat it, let alone play it.

My description was the only way I could quickly and stereotypically label this concept.

I guess I am probably guilty of that then. There are a lot of games out there that the rest of the world seems to hate that I actually get some decent entertainment value out of since I go into the game knowing its not gonna be the best thing ever and just provides me with some hours of fun. I am talking about games like Duke Nukem Forever, the Nintendo CD-i games, Metroid Other-M, X-Blades, the first Two Worlds, Maka Maka on the Super Famicom, a lot of Atari 2600 games and EarthWorm Jim 3D, all of those I actually found some entertainment in (especially Metroid).

I am also kind of guilty of the bad game play difficulty of games to an extent. I actually do get some fun out of trying to play stupid-hard old games with debatable broken game play mechanics that cause extra stress when playing. I kind of like playing games like Silver Surfer on the NES and trying to perfectly remember all the little tricks and traps and taking advantage of glitches to try and beat the stages. Its definitely a different kind of hard then say like beating Contra or beating one of the MegaMans on the Difficult setting.

[Kelimbror]

Its definitely a different kind of hard then say like beating Contra or beating one of the MegaMans on the Difficult setting.

Or Battletoads...beating that game...uggh. Nightmares.

I think a good example of the cult of cool is with a game like Slender. That game is crap. It looks awful, the gameplay (what little there is) is awful, and the 'scares' are generic. It might be the entire reason they brought up that specific point, because it does have its own merchandise and all that now.

It's not difficult, it's not original, and it's not well made at all...yet all sorts of people rave about it like it's the most revolutionary game and you don't 'get it' if you think it's bad.

That's kinda how I see that point anyways.

[Doktor Faustus]

---------- Post added 2013-03-28 at 07:43 PM ----------

Happens will all aspects of so-called culture we have to purchase.

It saddens me that for so many, the idea of free culture is lost.

Anyone surprised by the attitude of games business needs to run into a wall a couple of times.

They will put in as little as possible and try and earn the maximum profit (the vast majority of companies).

'This is the sound of a culture being drowned' - Kinesis - You Are Being Lied To (2005).

[Remilia]

Ah, but there's a difference between marketing and using things that aren't actually present in the game to sell a product. Using higher rendering than the game is even capable of just for a commercial and all that. Even though we know it happens, and has happened in many industries for a long time, we still fall for it.

I remember watching some special on TV about commercial magic when I was a kid and found out that milk for cereal bowls in commercials is actually a glue made to look 'better' than milk where they strategically place every flake. And burgers are literally just blowtorched to perfection instead of cooked, with the rest of it being made of various non edible substances and having artists place ketchup and mustard dabs in specific places.

It was mind blowing and scary all at the same time.

Well, yes and no.
For food, in terms of false advertisement laws, you CAN'T do advertising on stuff without the real product. The presentation is whatever the hell.
So for example, the cereal, since they're actually advertising the cereal, not the milk, they can use whatever substance to make the 'main product' appealing, so yes it is within legal boundaries to do so.
It is in the end a marketing strategy.

Now for the actual games. A lot of the marketing people know how to skirt the line around the false advertisement laws.

The "AMAZING GRAPHICS" and such are not the advertised product, and if they advertise specifically that, then they can get a law suit. It is nonetheless a deceitful thing but still within the boundary of law.
Though at points they do really feel like they're just pushing the envelope until they get a slap in the face.

It's really marketing not just in games but in general. Hence why you take everything with a gigantic spoon of salt.

(The laws are for US, not sure about EU / Asia).

[Kelimbror]

It's really marketing not just in games but in general. Hence why you take everything with a gigantic spoon of salt.

Well naturally. We can all sit here and talk about it all smart because WE know better, but has anyone gotten the feeling recently that this segment of the market is starting to be heavily targetted and thus heavily taken advantage of? As much as I don't expect gems of intelligence to come from the mouth of Felicia Day, I saw a video recently where she talks about the state of her youtube channel and thus the state of 'Geeks'.

While her points are all obvious, they are ones that we don't really admit even to ourselves sometimes. We have turned into a mass marketed audience. We are no longer an identity, but money cows who are easily excitable with flashing lights, cool sounds, and pretty pictures.

[Xenofreak]

I really don't get your point here. #3 I do with Slender, but #1 and #2 (which didn't even come up in the video) are lost on me. #2 because it is in no way solely in the video game community, it exists everywhere, in every place you can imagine, because it has more to do with the way some people can't help but fully devote their entire self to their argument or point of view.

#1 is a rather complex issue, but aside from the recent Alien game I can't think of any other instances of serious false advertising from video game companies. And no, graphics being slightly better doesn't count.

And it's rather ironic you talk about the crazy consumerism and the monetization of "geek" while linking to the nerdist which panders so hard it hurts.

[Remilia]

Well naturally. We can all sit here and talk about it all smart because WE know better, but has anyone gotten the feeling recently that this segment of the market is starting to be heavily targetted and thus heavily taken advantage of? As much as I don't expect gems of intelligence to come from the mouth of Felicia Day, I saw a video recently where she talks about the state of her youtube channel and thus the state of 'Geeks'.

While her points are all obvious, they are ones that we don't really admit even to ourselves sometimes. We have turned into a mass marketed audience. We are no longer an identity, but money cows who are easily excitable with flashing lights, cool sounds, and pretty pictures.

Gaming industry is becoming very profitable, so yes we are being heavily targeted. It's a bit annoying, but nonetheless going to be taken advantage of. I'm one of those weirdos that wait for others to poke around games and I'm just gigantically picky, so it doesn't prone as big of a problem to me, but it depends person to person.

The stir and hype a developer wants to push is what works well, after the initial push all it takes is the people that like it to hype it up more. It doesn't take the developer to do much if they do a very good initial impression, then it just takes the market base to dictate whether to hype it up or not.

I've made bad purchases before that annoyed me, but in the end you sorta learn from that, at least hopefully. Usually the ones that don't learn are the ones that get taken advantage of =\.

[Kelimbror]

I really don't get your point here. #3 I do with Slender, but #1 and #2 (which didn't even come up in the video) are lost on me. #2 because it is in no way solely in the video game community, it exists everywhere, in every place you can imagine, because it has more to do with the way some people can't help but fully devote their entire self to their argument or point of view.

#1 is a rather complex issue, but aside from the recent Alien game I can't think of any other instances of serious false advertising from video game companies. And no, graphics being slightly better doesn't count.

My point? My point was to show a humorous video that takes points like this into a funny skit with sock puppets. Clearly the video is embellishing the concept of #1, #2 is definitely mentioned by people defending crap games bit, though it's not some detailed segment of the clip. It's just included in the mash of #3.

And they were just general things thrown out so people realized this isn't some crazy rant about anything in particular or just a weird video of socks on people's hands.

---------- Post added 2013-03-28 at 04:04 PM ----------

I've made bad purchases before that annoyed me, but in the end you sorta learn from that, at least hopefully. Usually the ones that don't learn are the ones that get taken advantage of =\.

I think it's kinda a combination of excitement from being mass marketed to through movies, television, and other outlets. Now all of our usually reclusive interests are being constantly created and thrown in our face, like a kid in a candy store. Combined with the fact that a lot of people who like these things are just coming into money, I can see a large potential for some pitfalls.

I look at my younger brother, who is 18, and wonder what the world looks like to him. He's just discovering Doctor Who, MMOs, and all that jazz, and it must look like a shiny amazing time to grow up in. He's probably the ideal candidate for being duped with hype machines and things like that. What us older nerds have in cynicism, they have huge pools of desire for more even after bad experiences.

[icedwarrior]

Some thoughts as I watch this:

"...many gamers have been ripped off...for for a game that has a cool looking ad. As far as game ads go, what you see is not what you get. These game companies spend more on their blockbuster ad campaigns than they do on the game itself."

Okay, where to begin. First off, if you buy a game solely based on a commercial and not do any research, you deserve to be ripped off. Do people really do this? "What you see is not what you get"...I don't agree. What I saw on, say, BioShock Infinite was representative of what I played. And spending more on commercials than the games themselves? Yeah, that's not exaggerated at all.

"Skullz of Duty": Maybe don't pick a random game that only shows a logo? Moreover, it looks like it's a free flash game, so...

"Blood Ocean":

Okay, if you're going to pick extremes, I can't take this seriously. And...you really bought a $60 game based on a trailer only showing the logo?

I watched six of the nine minutes. I'd rather not watch more "I saw a logo, here's my $60! ...what the hell, I got ripped off?!?" That's horrible logic.

In regards to:

Games being advertised as far greater than what you actually get, I covered it, as above.

White knights that defend games at all costs: This is hardly an issue. Moreover, for every one "white knight", there's five times the "haters". Either way, irrational posts are a plague, whether they're "white knights" or "haters".

And the eventual hipsterism/ascension of cool that happens with some games: I didn't get far enough into the video that dealt with that, I guess, so I'll choose to not comment on it.

ANYWAYS, if you want to make points, don't go for extremes. I could make a claim such as "VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT ART, THEY'RE DYING AND RIPPING US OFF" (not saying that's what they're saying), and use Bad Rats as my example. It doesn't make it true.

[Deleted]

I think that there are faults on the side of the players as well though (companies are at fault of course not saying "no" to that)

The first thing is that now we have the freedom to access the information ourselves, this is techcnically great but while before the informations used to pass through the filters of gaming magazine reviews, now we are responsibles of processing those informations ourself and use our personal judgement. This let us being bombarded by all the marketing strategies in the world before getting our hands on the product and have our judgement severely impaired or made difficult.

Yeah I know that some magazines are dishonest lying and whatever but still they had to describe the game, how it worked and so on from a non-gaming company perspective and give a general comment, no matter if the company showered them in gold&free games, if the game was shit it would have still be reviewed as utter shit probably just pumped a couple of "points". Maybe I'm fortunate cause the writers on the magazine I used to buy were pretty good.

The second thing is this mania for pre-orders and release days, we all know that pre-orders with bonuses are a trick, a trap. They serve the purpose to try to sell you a game of which you don't know anything about *except* what the devs said about it.

I repeat what I said in different topics, no company is gonna say "my game is shit you should not buy it" they will try everything to have the largest amount of people buy it. That's why we should be careful, not been tempted by bonuses or shit cause they're just mirrors to distract us from the core of the question that is "do I have enough information from an UNBIASED source BEFORE taking out my wallet?"

[Kelimbror]

Some thoughts as I watch this:

Some thoughts as I read your post: I think you missed the whole point that this was a comedy video on a comedy/nerd youtube channel. It wasn't a serious video like Extra Credits. They take basic concepts that are true and embellish to create humor.

It's called satire.

---------- Post added 2013-03-28 at 04:24 PM ----------

The second thing is this mania for pre-orders and release days, we all know that pre-orders with bonuses are a trick, a trap. They serve the purpose to try to sell you a game of which you don't know anything about *except* what the devs said about it.

This is certainly true. It used to not be the case even a couple of years ago, but now it 100% feels that way. The most recent SWTOR 'expansion' is a good example of that. They tried to cram preorders for special goods down people's throats before they had literally given any information on it, then made the duration so short that you had to make an impulse decision to buy it.

They certainly weren't doing their hardcore fans any favors, but they weren't tyring to. They wanted their money now and they got it.

[icedwarrior]

Some thoughts as I read your post: I think you missed the whole point that this was a comedy video on a comedy/nerd youtube channel. It wasn't a serious video like Extra Credits. They take basic concepts that are true and embellish to create humor.

It's called satire.

Fair enough. I thought that they're making points, not just using extremes to make their case. I didn't find any humor in that. Even in the slightest. To each their own. I'll stick with Extra Credits.

This is certainly true. It used to not be the case even a couple of years ago, but now it 100% feels that way. The most recent SWTOR 'expansion' is a good example of that. They tried to cram preorders for special goods down people's throats before they had literally given any information on it, then made the duration so short that you had to make an impulse decision to buy it.

They certainly weren't doing their hardcore fans any favors, but they weren't tyring to. They wanted their money now and they got it.

I can agree with "mostly true". I'm more than happy with pre-ordering BioShock Infinite. BioShock 1 + TF2 items + XCOM: EU for nothing? Sounds good to me. And that wasn't even the best deal they offered. If you're certain you're going to enjoy it, what's the risk?

[Kelimbror]

Fair enough. I thought that they're making points, not just using extremes to make their case. I didn't find any humor in that. Even in the slightest. To each their own. I'll stick with Extra Credits.

Nah, it's just a funny show on Nerdist. I thought it brought up some good points in an extreme way, but those videos don't exist to give us intelligent social commentary on this sort of thing.

I just knew people on here would like discussing it, whether because they hate it or think it's funny, normally people like talking abotu everything here.