{"id":10619,"date":"2021-11-30T14:13:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T12:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/?p=10619"},"modified":"2021-11-30T14:13:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T12:13:24","slug":"can-you-feel-the-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/can-you-feel-the-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you feel the hype?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A friend of mine hasn\u2019t been able to stop talking about something for a while now: Elden Ring, the newest game from From Software, known for their Dark Souls game series. As the game nears its release, more gameplay footage and information are being made available by the company, as well as by YouTubers and other online content creators that have had access to the game’s early version. As much as I\u2019d like to get excited about Elden Ring along with my dear friend, I can\u2019t. I\u2019ve been hurt before, and I don\u2019t trust like that anymore.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The year is 2016. The gaming community is ablaze and can\u2019t stop talking about the game that is going to\u00a0revolutionize open world adventuring. The developers have promised the heavens and more, quite literally, and\u00a0as a fan of the genre, I\u2019m caught in the hype. I watch trailers, read online discussions,\u00a0and\u00a0talk about them to my friends and co-workers.\u00a0Then, on\u00a0August\u00a08th, No Man\u2019s Sky is finally released, and I download my pre-ordered copy immediately as I get home\u00a0and start playing. A couple of days pass. Then a week. Then a few more weeks. The game is a wreck. It\u2019s missing features, the developers are proved to have been lying\u00a0in reviews, and the fa\u00e7ade crumbles down. My personal denial only takes some days to go by, and my disappointment\u00a0kicks in.\u00a0I paid 60\u20ac\u00a0for this.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>No Man’s Sky has slowly been redeeming itself through the years, but it still doesn’t reach what it was supposed to from the start.<\/em><\/p>\n

As much as it stung, No Man\u2019s Sky taught me a lesson.\u00a0You shouldn\u2019t trust games based on what people that make money by selling them tell you.\u00a0I\u2019m not above enjoying \u201cI told you so\u201d moments, so when Cyberpunk 2077\u00a0crashed like a freight train after\u00a0all the hype it had garnered, I was happy that my cynical outlook on\u00a0these situations had saved me from another blow, especially as a fan of CD Projekt Red thanks to the Witcher-series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, hype is everywhere. We see it in all forms of media and even in everyday life in varying intensity, and we can never know if our expectations will be met.\u00a0To me personally, though, games are somehow more disappointing when bad. A movie, for example, will cost me 10\u20ac-20\u20ac\u00a0on average\u00a0and\u00a0lasts for about two hours.\u00a0A video game, unless indie, will likely cost me 60\u20ac\u00a0or more, and is meant to be enjoyed for a\u00a0longer\u00a0period of\u00a0time, especially with multiplayer and\/or competitive games.\u00a0An event like a concert might not be as exciting as I imagined it in my head, but it didn\u2019t have trailers and footage of what it will be like that are proven to have been manipulated\u00a0or straight up lies about what the final product is like.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cyberpunk 2077 always looked too good to be true.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t hate hype. In fact, I quite enjoy the feeling of it. That excitement that makes you look forward to the future and\u00a0lets you talk with your friends about something you both are passionate about feels\u00a0good. Every trailer makes your heart skip a beat, and when you finally get what you\u2019ve been waiting for, you can\u2019t help but be happy.\u00a0What I dislike is when that final moment turns into a gut punch that\u00a0is\u00a0made heavier\u00a0by\u00a0each second of wait you have endured.\u00a0It hurts when you realize that you\u2019ve been lied to and taken advantage of. The worst part is when people that have listened to you going on and on about the game ask you \u201cSo, how\u00a0is\u00a0it?\u201d and\u00a0there\u2019s a feeling of shame in admitting it was not at all what you expected and advertised it as.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can live without that excitement, and as they say, a pessimist is never disappointed. I am, however, scared for others. People that spent hundreds for special editions and collectible items, people that\u00a0take tattoos or take a week of vacation when the game launches, people that spend years waiting for something and find out that it was for nothing. I really, really hope that Elden Ring will be great. Not for myself, but for my friend. I just can\u2019t join him in the wait. I have been hurt before.\u00a0Someday, I might be able to hype again. But a broken heart is not easily healed.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Header picture by Tom Diggers:\u00a0https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/24580165@N03\/17237307102<\/p>\n

No Man’s Sky promotional picture: https:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/no-mans-sky\/promo\/imageType,1\/promoImageId,44558\/<\/p>\n

Cyberpunk 2077 promotional picture: https:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/cyberpunk-2077\/promo\/promoImageId,677655\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I must not hype. Hype is the mind killer. Hype is the little-hope that brings total disappointment. I will face my hype. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":10621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[1542,1540,1539,1538,1541],"class_list":["post-10619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-cyberpunk-2077","tag-disappointment","tag-elden-ring","tag-hype","tag-no-mans-sky","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}