Not Looking Forward to E3

Mephisto Mori/ June 10, 2015/ Video Games/ 2 comments

Do not misunderstand me, if a semi-well-known to obscure e-zine or website offered me a Press Pass and tickets to E3, I’d leap at the opportunity faster than a kid with ADHD abusing Speed jumps on a trampoline.

There are a number of games I’m looking forward to and I enjoy the prospect of new information about them. Hellblade in particular had my interests piqued when I picked up my PS4 at launch. It was on a list of releases planned for the next few years, one of the only ones on the very short list of new Beat ’em Ups. Information was scant but I dug deeper and maintained interest. I noticed a new trailer online today and thought, “yeah, I’m still looking forward to this game.”

Then I read the comments…

First of all, I’m sure it’s actually in the original Ten Commandments before revisionism occurred. “Thou shalt not read the comments of a social media post.” I noticed two things. People were mad the trailer wasn’t “saved for E3” and the hype machine was consuming minds already and spewing hatred.

There is a necessary amount of following one must devote to games throughout development. Professional as well as pro-am critics (I have a complicated opinion on what makes one pro-am vs an idiot with a blog – jury’s still out on which I am) and journalists help with quality control of a game. Every single nerd on social media vomiting their opinion on each minor detail – that shit is bogus. And E3 is the Syrup of Ipecac for said vomiting of trite opinions, baseless rage, and generally annoying fanboism.

PSA Moment: Gamers, E3 is advertising. Treat it accordingly.

It’s well known that most “gameplay” trailers these days are doctored. It’s sad that we’ve come to accept such a truth while simultaneously allowing it to drive expectations. We have a knee-jerk, base stimulus-response reaction to the explosions or scariness or silliness on screen and allow it to build us up for disappointment.

Games are art. Games should be fun. Don’t over-hype shit. Those are my three biggest mottoes for this site and E3 is egregiously violating the third. It is entertaining. Cool stuff is shown off. But the gamers themselves, not every gamer but a majority, seem incapable of filtering the information properly or resisting the urge to be consumers.

Don’t let something like E3 sell the games before they’re out, please. Do allow E3 to raise your awareness of what is on the horizon and then do some independent research from there. Okay? Thanks.

The real motivation for this post though, is a bit simpler, selfish even. I’m really just not ready for the teeming masses of fanbois. I’m not ready for endless Top 15 Lists of Most Anticipated, Most Beautiful, Most Award Winningest, or Most Likely to Have Full-Frontal Male Nudity (Mario Maker tops mine) games of E3 2105. Lists that will populate every tumblr, reddit, and Facebook page of anyone with a slight opinion on games looking to get cheap hits. I’m not above cheap hits, I’ve proven in the past (see #20YearsofPlay) but E3 brings out some of the worst.

I’m just not mentally prepared for the hype machine of E3 2015. We’ve yet to let the damn thing idle from last year. And I’m quite frankly still getting over the disappointment of what may or may not become of Silent Hills… maybe E3 will tell me. Or maybe GamerdnerdSephirothX’s post on Reddit will tell me in the form of a fucking list.

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