No Gameplay No Hype

We’re basically done with the week or two of not-E3 that we’ve been given this year. Announcements have sputtered out of showcases, showcases that don’t have the same draw for me as they used to. Part of that is getting older, having less time to waste and less tolerance for marketing. But most of my disillusionment is in the form that marketing takes. Most games at this year’s showcases were shown off with short trailers, split between CGI and “in-engine” cutscenes. If we’re lucky, there’s a bit of highly disguised “gameplay” in them. The experience is mind-numbing in totality. Unlike movie trailers, these can’t convey a full sense of the product. Part of that is on the marketing departments. These trailers just aren’t that great at building excitement. But it’s also due to the nature of the medium. There’s so much more work you need to do to define a game. Most films are audiovisual experiences in the one to three hour range. Games have so much more variance; in length, in scope, in methods of engagement. Trailers don’t do a great job conveying such information to potential players. They don’t really try. When I watch showcases like these, I just feel like they’re wasting my time. You want a winner? Ubisoft wins, in spite of it all. I’m not too overly enthused by the directions that The Lost Crown and Mirage are taking Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed. I barely care about Star Wars and don’t care about Avatar at all, and neither Frontiers of Pandora nor Outlaws seem inspired enough to sway that. But damnit I got to see a proper vision of what these four games will be, a snapshot instead of a distorted glimpse. I can start deciding for myself what they’ll have that might be something for me or not. That’s what I want from marketing.

 

I’m excited for Dragon’s Dogma II. I’m looking forward to it. They had a nice little trailer, with plenty of gameplay snippet interspersed – enough for an hour long analysis of them. But that doesn’t do it for me at all. I can’t really get excited for 10 seconds of gameplay. I need at least a few consecutive, uninterrupted minutes, preferably more (or several different segments combined together). For me, the defining aspect of E3 and similar shows were the “gameplay demos” that took this form, the six to ten minute demonstrations of how the game was intended to play out. Sure, marketing is all bullshots and vertical slices and so on, but a vertical slice tells me a hell of a lot more about what I have to look forward to than some CGI nothing. Remember Dead Island? There’s a reason everyone knows that trailer, but they also know it has nothing to do with the game. After the fact, the tone of the trailer being so non-indicative of the content of the game is its most memorable aspect. But even a gameplay demo that overpromises and changes a lot – The Last of Us, for example – gives you a sense of what you’ll be doing. And games are about doing, so that’s what’s most important. Besides, I find that CGI trailers often do a worse job at conveying tone than any given section of the game. Look at the trend of random, incongruous music choices in trailers for the most glaring examples of that. All marketing is lies and hype, but the “gameplay demo” was at least marketing games as games. That’s about all I’m asking for: show me what you got, show me what I’ll get.

 

I remember so many of these classic E3 demos. Ubisoft in particular stand out – partly a byproduct of publishers like themselves and EA choosing to have their own conferences, while also making appearances at the first party shows, where all the eyeballs were focussed. They needed to fill the time, and they did it by giving me what I came for. I could tell you about watching classic hype reveals live, like Watch Dogs. Sure, the end product might have been a letdown, but that’s the nature of the business. Even demos for bad games show promise that later projects might take inspiration from. There’s games that weren’t darlings of a particular year, but I still loved the little peeks we were allowed. I still remember my first look at the snow-covered frontier of Assassin’s Creed III, for example. They’re also an opportunity for small details to become big moments on big stages. Take the player character closing the door of a car they’re taking cover behind in The Dvision, for example. Thing could go wrong, too. Companies brave enough to do live demos could run into game or controller issues, for example. They might inadvertently give cause for concern. Look at my comments on Ubisoft’s gameplay reveals this week, for example. There’s countless examples of lifeless combat or uninspiring gameplay loops burning hype before it can get going. I remember a demo of The Phantom Pain fast-forwarding through travel – I couldn’t find this one, so no link – and that was a concerning thing to show. People started to wonder how empty this world might be. Ultimately, I love gameplay demos because they’re fun. Sometimes they’re the best a game might ever be, but it’s always nice for developers to get their moments in the sun, the gameplay first and foremost. I think Sony’s E3 2018 showcase was my favourite ever press event. It’s the model that they all would take after, in my ideal world. There’s a scattering of trailers in there – Destiny 2, Control – but the focus was on four big games: The Last of Us: Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, and Spider-Man. Each got extended coverage, and I don’t think the pacing of the show suffered. Most of us just watch the trailers and demos separately after the fact anyway. Who cares if the show gets bogged down in one game? It’ll need to carry our attention for hours at a time once it’s released, may as well stress test the engagement onstage. Recently, though, it seems that gameplay reveals are their own thing. Perhaps taking after the model of Sony in 2018, they tend to be given room to breathe. Look at the marketing campaign for Final Fantasy XVI. They only brought trailers to showcases, saving all the extended looks at combat and the world and systems for events focussed around it by itself. It had that room it needed. For a lot of games, this wouldn’t quite work. Exoprimal has had a somewhat similar marketing campaign to FFXVI, to my eyes, but it’s much lower profile. Starfield compromised this week, not being present at it’s own separate showcase, but having a big “gameplay deep dive” after the short trailer that featured in Xbox’s show. It’s not how I’d prefer these things to go, but it works for me.

 

Maybe part of the problem is that you don’t need to sell the gameplay anymore. There used to be a lot more questions about what you would do and how you would do it. Now that controls have been so standardised and gameplay loops so formulaic, there’s no need to ask about it. Left stick move, right stick camera. Shoulder buttons and triggers are likely to involve attacking and aiming – even if the focus is melee combat. Different mechanics have cycled in and out of favour. Every conventional AAA game used to have crafting; now they have loot drops and experience. For the average big budget game, everything we’ll do is something we’ve done over and over and over in most recent releases. Demos like the Watch Dogs reveal touted entire unique gameplay systems. I can’t think of many comparable examples from the last few years. Tears of the Kingdom, for sure. But there’s little out there that’s particularly unique in a way that requires a gameplay demo to show. If I think about the games I’m looking forward to, of course I’d like to know more about them. I’d like to know how much the scope of Dragon’s Dogma II has expanded from the first. I’d like to know whether Rise of the Ronin will follow in the action-rpg path of recent Team Ninja games. I’d like to know how different Metal Gear Solid Delta will be from the original Snake Eater. I’d like to know what a level of Space Marine 2 will look like. I’d like to see how Helldivers 2 will be structured. But I can wait. Especially nowadays, I’d rather see them closer to release, when the form and content of the game is closer to finalised, when the main changes yet to come are bug fixes and improving performance and so on. No wonder, then, that CGI trailers are the way to go early. Safe options for the developers and marketing department alike. No need to waste resources on a vertical slice, no risk that any changes you make will bring the ire of potential fans upon you. If worse marketing is the sacrifice we need for better games, I’m cool with that. It’s a bargain I’ll take time and time again. It’ll just leave the press conferences extra hollow, and that’s okay.