Hype Paralysis

After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting.
It is not logical, but it is often true. -- Spock

Two hours. I've managed to create the luxury of two hours just for gaming. It's an achievement of enormous proportions. Most of my gaming fits in one hour blocks, and while there's little chance I'll ever finish most of the games sitting within arms reach, I'm determined to make a dent as a matter of principle. I settle into the comfy chair, and survey the options -- that ominous and intimidating entity known as the stack. I love the stack. Where once I was afraid, or even resentful of the opportunities it presented, now I love the choices.

So when I find myself frozen in the chair, it's not because of overwhelming indecision. It's because deep down, I know that next week will be so much better.

The first thirty minutes of this carefully stolen time are squandered consuming hype. I browse my favorite pushers, I absorb every ounce of information I can about the glory that will be April 2007. Early strategy tips for Command and Conquer 3 give way to speculations on the forums about Guitar Hero 2:360 downloadable content. I log on to the waning Lord of the Rings Online beta just to see what made the last patch, but of course I can't actually play. What would the point be, when the character wipe is only a few days away?

I blame myself for being the kind of person who always wants the new hotness. I've always been this way. I want the trendy, the hip. I want to be doing what the cool kids are doing. Most of the time this urge is so far removed from my abilities that I simply look in the mirror and chuckle at my own smallness. After all, I can't drive an M3, I can't fly a Decathlon, and I can't hop down to the city to eat at the latest gastronomic wonderland every weekend.

But with media, all these things are possible. I have friends whose musical tastes locked up in auditory rigor mortis in the 80s, their iPods forever doomed to be graveyards for flash in the pan proto-grunge bands and Tears for Fears reunions. But all evidence of taste to the contrary, I've remained a rabid consumer of music. The signs of my age aren't in any osteosis of taste, but rather in my failing memory -- love that CD I just bought, can't remember what it's called. Thanks to Netflix and cable, I can watch a never ending stream of movies, using my cooler friends as the filter, so I know what to rent and record.

With games, this is not so easy. The technology ramp never ends. Each new game is full of promise, and will either provide me with post-purchase satisfaction for my hardware or impetus for yet another click upward on the hardware funicular as the cable tightens. So while the stack beckons, I know that next week's games will be even better. Each will require dedication, focus, and yield a wealth of experience beyond the dreams of avarice. Tomorrow's games will with iron clad certainty bring about gamergasms of mythological intensity. The streets will be paved in gold, money will rain from the heavens, and half naked women will stream through the doorway.

I'm a self-deluded victim of the gamer hype wagon. I've convinced myself that it will always be better. I'm more likely to play a demo than I am to play the game I bought last week, because the demo is all about tomorrow.

I blame myself too for my complacency and contribution to the conspiracy. It's to be expected that the game industry -- like any industry -- will reach for every superlative to describe the next big thing. And as an ersatz member of the gaming media, I've done my share of hyping. I've previewed, reviewed, demoed, betad, and waxed poetic about shaders and technology demonstrations. And despite all this I'm a voracious consumer of the very hype I'm helping breed. I read the spec sheets, I build my new PCs and buy consoles in the hopes that the hype will bear fruit.

And often enough -- just often enough -- the hype proves worthy. Once every few months, or few years for the more discriminating, a game comes along that blows the doors off. The world of games evolves fast enough that this year's model is quite often a huge improvement over last year's. Six months can mean the difference between a title that's just OK, and one that presses new hardware to its limits.

I know, I know. It's all about the gameplay. I pay my Gametap subscription fee in part to remind myself that it's not always what's new that is what's hot. The stack, both real and virtual, is full of true gems who have not received attention due their stature.

But in these waning hours before the next big thing, the idea of committing to a faded glory is almost physically painful.

So instead, I fire up Peggle, or Magic, or Worms, and I let the time be eaten, rather than invested.

Comments

So instead, I fire up Peggle, or Magic, or Worms, and I let the time be eaten, rather than invested.

It's kinda like how the small mammals outlasted the dinosaurs.

It's crazy how close to home this article hits for me. Almost everything you describe about how you spend those precious 1-2 hour blocks of time matches how I often spend mine. I find myself more interested in staying connected in general to what's going on, more than I am interested in just finding out what the new hotness will be. Checking out the new stuff is just a part of staying connected in general. I'm just as interested in the peculiar demonstrations of a particular demographic of gamers that I'd forgotten about as I am interested in what Sony's got lined up to draw us all in during the next 12-18 months.

I think I find myself in the same boat more often than not. I blame work or the fact that I am trying to find a new job or anything and everything I can think of.. But really there are plenty of times when I have a couple of hours that I could easily burn on a new console title or even a little bit of MMORPG madness. Unfortunately I find myself hopping on one of several gaming forums I frequent and talk about games rather than playing them. Lately it seems like the only times I actually spend gaming are either when a friend drags me into playing something with them or when I have 5+ hours to waste. On the 5+ hour occasions I still don't hop into whatever game is on my mind until I have read through everything new on the usual forums.

It makes me wonder at times if I have actually lost the sense of joy that once spawned from my game of choice at any given moment. Have I spent so much time gaming that it no longer has the appeal it once did? Am I getting too old? Will I end up like one of those old men sitting in front of a country store talking to whoever will listen about my glory days? Instead of a store front it might be an internet forum and my war stories will all involve virtual landscapes... The concept remains the same. It's a frightening thought!

So the sad reality is that it's almost become more fun to follow games and post about them on random forums than it is to play them. I find myself giving into the hype of the next big thing and despite many previous disappointments become more and more excited as it nears release. Once it finally hits the shelves or my preordered copy arrives at my door I find myself back reading about the next big thing the very next day. Some games I have had for months and never even opened.

Save me? *shrug*

I have become the exact opposite. Although I do read about gaming, on this website and some other places I visit, I never give in to the hype. I like reading about the new and shiny, but it never distracts me from what I have now. The new and shiny, I do not have, the old and good, I do have. And when I must choose between reading or gaming, gaming always wins.

I think this is mostly because I just don't believe all there is to read. Yes, a review can get me excited, but no, a review will not overwrite the "see it to believe it" mentality I possess.

Ah the hype. That mystical, magical machine that makes everything so much better than it actually is. I'd like to think I don't fall victim to it, but I know I do. I've built new computers because of it, bought games that I've gone to great lengths to unload because of it. Overall, I do think that while I have fallen victim to this beast we call hype, it's not a common occurance. I know from experience that most games simply will not live up to hype.

So it's like mven said; following games is far and away easier than actually playing them. There's a few that I'm still into pretty heavily; WoW still drains the life out of me from time to time, and I can't see Guitar Hero ever getting old. I'm currently pondering buying an X360, quite literally for no other reason than GH2. Sure there's other stuff I'll pick up; Gears, Assassin's Creed, N3, and eventually all the former PS3 exclusives that aren't so exclusive anymore.

Ultimately though, hype is what it is. It's only as bad or as good as we make it, and I think that's something important to consider.

I go in phases. For a while I'll be more interested in the forum-browsing and discussing games than I am in actually playing them. Then other times I just want to play a variety of them and have fun.

Most of the time, there's one game in particular that has my interest above others, and that title changes from week to week or month to month.

For longer games, I will commonly put 10-20 hours into a title, then set it aside for a while before coming back to it due to having so many choices. I did this with Oblivion, Rogue Galaxy (which I'll get back to soon :)), NHL 2k7, Test Drive Unlimited, Dead Rising, and many more. I cycle through them, coming back to them after a few weeks or months. I recently cycled back into several of my "older" 360 titles. I played a ton of Dead Rising recently, finally beating the game to get the "true" ending, and had a complete blast.

Early last year, and other times in the past, I've tried forcing myself to stick with games until I finish them. However, that often leaves me less happy with the game than if I'd just enjoyed it when I wanted to. Some rare titles are so outstandingly wonderful for me that I can't help but play them near-obsessively until finished. Games like Dragon Quest 8, Final Fantasy XII, Gran Turismo 3 (though I don't ever truly finish a racing sim), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Titan Quest, and others (I only listed recent ones to keep my list short!) that are outstanding experiences for me.

Some titles I never really finish. I mentioned racing sims. Elder Scrolls games are another one: they're games that I live in, not try to beat. Sports games, too.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, but suffice it to say that I've been in many different spots in my gaming hobby, but right now I'm just enjoying the time I spend doing it.

Very nice choice of Spock quote. (Kind of like a stock quote?)

Great article. I have to say the most vibrant image was the stream of half naked women coming through the doorway. The fact that you made them half naked is the most important thing that made my mind skip back and say "half? He made them half naked? How would that look-- ahhh ah yes that would be very good, very nice. Carry on."

I feel your pain, rabbit; it's uncanny the way you describe my situation. I finally get a solid hour and a half or two hours, and I blow a fair chunk of it reading the internet, or in the indecision that you apparently don't experience. Great article.

You talk of 'The Stack' my problem is that I have too many 'Stacks'. I have the reading shelf, that has become a stack since it is now the To read bookcase. I have the Movie stack both DVDs given as presents and a collection of Netflix movies that have been time shifted to my server til I can watch them once and then hit delete. There is the proverbial stack of mail and lastly my gaming stack. The gaming stack is split with a little additional weight to the physical board game arena then towards the PC/Console arena, and the PC/Console gaming stack is heavily filtered through friends' who have greater amounts of time to decide what I should consider playing.

But the reality is that I have three competing stacks for my 1-2 hour blocks of time. Throw in the occasional workout and god forbid my little TV habit (Thank goodness for the DVR) and the increment of allotted time to the gaming stack dwindles away. The good part is since I have it pre-filtered, I essentially leave all the reading and following forums on games to others, but still I need to find better time management. Kids are an excuse, but there are still wasted cycles in my life. My goal is getting the kids to game. at 4 1/2 and 7 I am having some success and look forward to leveling them up over the next few years.

So heres to the light at the end of the tunnel to having more time to play with my stacks.

I'm not sure I have this problem, actually. I did tend to come home, thinking I need a nap (more than, say, I needed to do laundry or dishes), only to lay on the couch eating an early dinner and watching Simpsons. By the time I had to be somewhere, I would have accomplished nothing at all useful. I guess this is part of the danger of the one bedroom apartment, in that the TV is just staring at you when you walk in the door. I'm training myself to break the habit, though. I'm pretty sure I do enough monitor staring at work that I should probably avoid it more when I get home.

Great article. I have to say the most vibrant image was the stream of half naked women coming through the doorway. The fact that you made them half naked is the most important thing that made my mind skip back and say "half? He made them half naked? How would that look-- ahhh ah yes that would be very good, very nice. Carry on."

When I read the draft, I was thinking the exact same thing. Hilarious.

cmitts wrote:

You talk of 'The Stack' my problem is that I have too many 'Stacks'. I have the reading shelf, that has become a stack since it is now the To read bookcase. I have the Movie stack both DVDs given as presents and a collection of Netflix movies that have been time shifted to my server til I can watch them once and then hit delete.

I know exactly what you mean. I haven't picked up a new DVD in probably a year yet I still have dozens I haven't watched yet but have meaning to. I go to the book store to pick up a specific book for work and end up walking out with 10 new novels which get piled onto the remaining 6-8 from the last time I bought 10 novels which happen to be sitting on the 4 or 5 from the time before that... Can't wait to read them! On my PC I have whatever MMO I am currently playing the most and 2-3 beta clients/demos for things I had been dying to play but somehow never manage to start up. Out of my dozen or so 360 games I think the only game I've actually completed is Gears while on the PS3 I did manage to run through both Resistance and Dark Kingdom. What ever I got around to gameflying is usually sitting on a shelf collecting dust...gotta get some play time in before I send it back right?! I have movies and anime I have downloaded which I keep meaning to watch. I have just about every channel available on cable yet I probably spend more time watching Futurama reruns on Adult Swim than every other channel combined and that's maybe an hour or two a week..but I might want to watch an old movie on HBO or some hot softcore action on Skin-emax~

Maybe having too many options is a bad thing? With so many things to do and with a limited timeframe to do them perhaps the decisions are subconsciously overwhelming? haha So many things I see, read, or hear about that sound like they would be great fun and I just gotta try... All my friends are doing it! I guess when CD/DVD media is no longer supported I'll have a nice collection of vintage coasters : /

Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim. - Kirk

With no free time (free as time to play) it is just hard. but god thank the summer, when no interesting game is released and you can play the "old" ones... until the holiday-season arrives and you have to give up again.

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster. My problem with my few hours of gaming is the paralysis I fall into trying to decide what to play. I'll finally start playing a game and then start thinking about how much fun it would be to be playing a different game. Then I'm stuck again before the cycle starts over, heh.

You talk of 'The Stack' my problem is that I have too many 'Stacks'. I have the reading shelf, that has become a stack since it is now the To read bookcase. I have the Movie stack both DVDs given as presents and a collection of Netflix movies that have been time shifted to my server til I can watch them once and then hit delete.
I know exactly what you mean. I haven't picked up a new DVD in probably a year yet I still have dozens I haven't watched yet but have meaning to. I go to the book store to pick up a specific book for work and end up walking out with 10 new novels which get piled onto the remaining 6-8 from the last time I bought 10 novels which happen to be sitting on the 4 or 5 from the time before that... Can't wait to read them!

I realized I had this problem a while ago.

There is too much for us to consume.

I haven't bought any books in over a year, but I have checked a few out from the library. I still have a case-worth at home of books I wanted to read once, some of which I still want to read someday.

I have pc games I've bought and never even taken out of their boxes. Either I forgot I bought them, or I never wanted to spend the time getting into them. I wish I had never bought them.

I tell myself every once and a while, I must go through those things and get rid of the ones I haven't touched in over a year.

I never was into buying many dvd's or cds. I have a vague list in my mind of movies I want to watch, and the list is always getting longer.

Aang wrote: I tell myself every once and a while, I must go through those things and get rid of the ones I haven't touched in over a year.

Similar to going through the closet and you haven't worn it so toss it. A valid reference, although I think it is a different beast. The clothes you wear everyone sees and as we all know there are new trends and fads. Things come and go. However, books, movies and to some extent the games we play (favoring board games to electronic games at a 60/40 or 70/30 ratio) are more sustainable. A good book remains a good book. Ditto for a movie. With games Rabbit's retrospective on SimCity last week shows that games can have staying power as well. Technology moves forward and that is why I put a ratio on the game side. All that being said, the red power tie had its day. It may come around again, but for now it gets tucked in the closet or donated to good will. This is the fundamental problem with our Stacks.

If you were interested in using the media (book, movie, game etc.) In general you still have the interest. The cool clothes from 2 years ago, do not hold the same allure especially when they are perceived to be old and outdated. I guess I'm trying to say clothes are public, but books, movies and games are mostly private. We share with our friends, but nobody else has to new. So, I posit for that very reason the stacks will continue to grow because you just can't get rid of them liek you can clean out a closet. The value proposition (except possible on electronic games) just isn't there as it is with clothes.