Sometimes size is everything. There are few things to get buyer more enticed than a creator promising vast worlds, a whole universe to explore, or a map so massive they will never finish it. Such statements can inspire people, gamers in particular, creating images of an alien setting pushing the boundaries to truly rival those of the real world. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case here. While No Man’s Sky feels truly vast, it doesn’t accomplish nearly as much as fans might have hoped it would.
What's really sad is how much this game was ruined by hype. Seriously when the community took it and ran with it so much that the lead developer had to come out and attempt to downplay people's expectations you could tell people were going to be disappointed no matter what.
ReplyDeleteHype aside this was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. I'm going to look forward to this when/if mods come out for it and add a whole lot more to do, or when/if the devs add more onto it.
Ruined by hype, ruined by a lack of information leading to fans imagining the end results, and ultimately ruined by circumstance in part. I do think that this game would have been a lot better if the dev studio had not been flooded causing them no end of setbacks and problems. We might have basically had a cross between Rebel Galaxy and Terraria, which would have gone down far better. Even then though, there still probably would have been a great deal of backlash.
DeleteStill, as you say, it might stand up well once people start to build content atop of it. Minecraft as was rather bare bones at the start, but with mods and new upgrades it's a joy to play, so there might be some hope yet. I'll certainly support it if it means fans stop sending me death threats over that review.
I completely agree, I've gotten into a few arguments where people outright claim the developers lied about what's in the game, yet are either unable to back up their claims, or what they say isn't in the game actually was in the game and they just hadn't discovered it yet.
DeleteHere's an example, Sean, the main spokesperson for the game said that each ship would be better suited for a certain role, and to use an example he hopped in a ship that was more suited for scientific discovery and explained that because it was more suited to scientific discovery it didn't have many guns on it [initially].
Then the community got ahold of this, and thought this meant all ships had classes that they were locked into, a fighter was always a fighter, a scout ship was always a scout ship, then when the game came out and you could adapt the ship to fit your needs they threw a tantrum, claiming that he lied to everyone, even though that was just them imagining he said those things.
There's a pretty popular gif floating around where somebody is upset that they came across a T-rex mixed with a deer, mixed with Barney the Dinosaur and they demand an apology for all the creatures being randomly generated, even though Sean's always said that the creatures would be randomly generated.
Yeah, that really does sum up the problem with the hype surrounding the game and how people tried to fill in the gaps for themselves. Half the stuff we hoped for or even guessed might be in there never showed up, and it almost seemed like Sean wanted to offer just enough info to let their imaginations run away with them. It meant they didn't have to spend half as much on a marketing budget, all the while this thing set the internet ablaze with marketing buzz.
DeleteI'd add more, but others have examined and detailed this far better than I ever could. Really, if you're interested in a close examination of the hype issue, specifically the problems with the fans, press and developers alike, I'd recommend looking a this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCG9YLeIB98
That's a pretty good analysis, however I have to disagree with TB in that I don't believe the developers are to blame for the hype. If they really were then the hype would have started dying down when Sean came out and repeatedly tried downplaying people's expectations. Where TB sees a studio trying to abuse people's expectations, I see a studio overwhelmed by the feedback it was getting, and one who responded by panicking and shutting up (a belief more reinforced by the letter Sean put out when the game came out).
Delete