Too Much Information
I have to wonder, how much information is too much information for us gamers? This musing has been prompted by the many “leaks” that we see throughout our industry every day. This started earlier today after seeing that the last two campaigns from Left4Dead 2 had been leaked by a Taiwanese website. Displaying the poster artwork revealed the last two campaigns to be called Hard Rain and Dead Center. While this is exciting news for gamers around the world, it led me to think back to bygone days where leaks did not exist and rumours were just strictly that.
Everyday there is a new leak and there seems to be no company that is immune. There was a time when a game or its features was announced because the developer and publisher held a press conference or event to announce it. Nowadays we find out via videos on Youtube or scans of videogame magazines before they’re released. While this whips up the appetite of the masses, leaving them to salivate over the prospect of something new, it does take away from the excitement of big launches.
Take E3 as an example. There were so many leaks and rumours about the PSPGo that Sony even threw their hands up and played off of it in their keynote speech. But it had to hurt, surely? Working hard for so long only to have someone tipped off and details pop up in every corner of the Internet must’ve stung. The upshot for Sony was, by the time the official announcement came, journalists and gamers were hanging on every word to find out if it was all true. But one has to wonder if these really are leaks, or if we are now being witness to a new form of marketing.
This writer feels that we are fed too much of our information via leaks. It seems there’s no end to them. Games journalists are exactly that; journalists, digging through information, quizzing contacts, chasing tips and running with the story. I used to enjoy the excitement of waiting for the next issue of CVG or GamesMaster, knowing that there was a big announcement contained within its pages. Or looking forward, almost nervously, to the special E3 issues to hit newsstands so I could flick furiously from page to page wondering who had shown what.
Information overload has changed how we view games pre-release.
That has all ended now, with the ubiquity and ease of Internet access, we are awash in morsels of information. There is no more surprise, and it’s become so bad that now, after E3, GDC and the like people are surprised when something hasn’t been leaked beforehand. We saw it with the PS3 slim model as well and, just the other day, the accidental reveal of Resistance 3 on a billboard on a movie set in the US.
As I’ve said, this could all just be another part of the great marketing beast, where information is delivered piecemeal to gauge an audience reaction that will better shape the resulting official announcement. Sony has seemed to be one of leakiests outfits this year and I can’t help but think that they’ve had a deliberate hand in it themselves. It could be the next step on from viral marketing – there’s nothing that will set tongues wagging more than a bit of juicy gossip or something sneakily pulled off the wire, and that is exactly what we’re seeing more and more of these days.
It hurts to say, seeing as I’m only 27, but maybe I’m a little old school. I long for my news to arrive in a collect, professional manner, delivered in timely when the publishers and developers are ready to tell us. The 1Ups and Kotakus of the world will keep breaking the news and churning out the posts that attempt to slake our thirst for information. What say you? Are leaks a healthy part of this business or is it stealing the metaphorical thunder of hard working people?
I would love to see the leaks stop, bringing back the surprise factor. Rather than seeing a slow build up to what becomes an inevitable announcement in the end. But then I would love to be reading GamesMaster in my bedroom while the Sonic the Hedgehog music plays in the background again too, but I suspect it’s never going to happen.
Daniel Lipscombe
I gotta say I do miss the times where you would buy a magazine, just to learn that little bit more about a game thats coming out in a few months. With so much information floating around the net nowadays, we absolutely know much more about games. Its very tought to avoid it, especially when games is somthing your interested in.
Considering the surprise and disbelief at the official announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 I’d say we are still able to be caught off guard.
I don’t see all the morsels of information overall hurting a game though, unless all those pieces are on how it is a bad game. In that case its of benefit to the gamer, they wont buy a bad game. If its a good game though it keeps the game constantly in peoples minds, the longer it is in someones mind the more likely they will be to buy it just to see what the fuss is about. It is the sales that pay the developer’s wages not the surprise of a well kept secret carefully revealed.
I do agree with you Fern, we do need to learn a little self restraint. However sometimes it can be tough to avoid these “spoilers”
Things like Twitter have often given me information that I didn’t want to know at the time and RSS readers can also be an issue.
By writing this I wanted to remind people that there was a day when this didn’t happen and it was a lot more exciting.
Well, this information isn’t really forced upon us. We choose to seek it out ourselves. If we didn’t want to know what the new guns were in Modern Warfare 2, for example, we wouldn’t be reading it.
I just think we need to practice a little self restraint.
This was actualy a majoy part of the ethos behind the site – supporting the discussion of games post-release instead of sucking on the PR and slippage tubes. Its of little real benifit to gamers in my opinions. We’re just used to it.
Great read Daniel. Great name too.
I think it was Jeff Gerstmann that said it
“Twitter ruined E3″
I think you touched upon the biggest contributing factor to this change, the internet. Coupled with the decline of print the internet has become the go to place for any information for a number of different generations and audiences, with so many people floating around the constant drip feeding of information however meaningful or meaningless is the only way sites can remain viable.
Although I would prefer the more controlled output of information (and I’m guessing so would publishers and developers) there’s an undeniable demand for minute by minute updates.
Another contributing factor is time, people want to be able to navigate to a news blog and be updated on the latest happenings in the industry without putting in too much effort or spending too much time, these news blogs cater to those people well, personally though I still really enjoy reading features and other pieces that have a little thought and time put into them, it’s why i still subscribe to magazines like Edge.
Leaks will always be an issue, as long as people have somewhere they can easily put sensitive and highly sought after information and quickly attract attention leaks will continue, the internet is a snitch’s best friend.
Developers and publishers don’t like it, but it’s an evolve or die kind of issue, that’s why we have so much content such as videos, pictures and gameplay or story details coming straight from them so regularly now. It is a shame it has come to this though, i can’t think of the last unexpected announcement that really blew me away, and that’s just sad.