An interesting article came up on Kotaku this week regarding game companies and spoilers in their marketing strategies and it brought about a very interesting point: Are developers giving away too much information prior to the game’s release?
Do yourself a favor and read their story on the matter in addition to the one I’m presenting here. Kotaku cited Mass Effect 2 as the most recent example - and it might be the most justified case for the argument.
After the release of Mass Effect, BioWare confirmed that the series was going to be a trilogy. This is the kind of relevant information that keeps gamers excited for the property, but how exactly does a company maintain that excitement? Things can happen: other games take attention away from your title, the usual delays, or, given the amount of time it takes to develop a quality title, the franchise can just as easily have slipped away in gamers’ minds.
So what does a developer do? Trickle bits of information out to the consumer to keep the game fresh in their minds - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Take a game like Modern Warfare 2. There was almost no story information made present to the public, other than the timeframe (it took place shortly after its predecessor) and that your Modern Warfare character would return as your commanding officer in Modern Warfare 2. Other than that, Infinity Ward was mum about details and only really showed the environments in which you would be fighting.
However, information about MW2’s multiplayer was much more desirable to gamers but still Infinity Ward wasn’t very forthcoming with the details. When MW2 finally released, I can say for sure, I was happy about not knowing much about the story and letting the game overtake me with everything it had to offer and I was not let down in the slightest.
The element of surprise in games is still something that gamers always appreciate and enjoy. Game boxes still end up reflecting that to a degree. Take the back of the Dragon Age: Origins box.
It’s very simple:
Along side a few screenshots, that’s all the information you get. Considering we live in an age where information is so readily available to us via the Internet, if a consumer wants to know something about a game he may consider purchasing, it’s available to him. And yes, this trend of overwhelming gamers with information regarding games is something I can do without, I’m very happy the information is available at all.
The problem is, there is a fine line between being given enough information to pique and maintain your interest and being given too much that it just seems like the game you want to play is less of an immersive experience and more of a mundane slog from point A to B.
Do you enjoy the massive ad campaigns game companies are putting out? Or do you have to put yourself on information blackout?
