Well, since I'm doing *so* well on the painting front (see http://disorderlies.blogspot.com/ for the lack of details) I suppose it is high time to start some highbrow gaming commentary.
Highbrow? From the Disorderlies?!
For variant definitions of highbrow, I suppose.
I'll start the ball rolling: burnout.
All too often, game companies start the hype machine and pump excitement into players. New! Improved! Bigger! Better! And, being ever-hungry for excitement, we buy in, and we're hooked like fish on the line. "Man, X is coming! I gotta get/play X!"
For a while.
The problem with hype is that it is ultimately self-defeating. Hype is like a diet of sugar - man, it's good for a while, but it can't sustain you, and when you crash, it's ugly.
Case in point, since it's been a recent topic of Disorderlies Discussion: HORDES.
Hordes was formally announced by Privateer Press last August at Gen Con. It had been teased for months beforehand; being called the "Next BIG Thing". Several of the Disorderlies were present for this announcement, as well as a lot of the Warmachine faithful. The crowd - and there was quite a crowd - was electric for it, but when the actual truth of the matter came out, there was an undercurrent of disappointment. Not new factions for Warmachine, but instead, a new game that is COMPATIBILE with the game most of the people there were addicted to.
Not what we expected.
But, I expect, if HORDES were for sale at that very moment, we would have torn into it like a shark into chum. Rules, boxes, all of it, I know I would have tried just BECAUSE the hype machine had hooked me.
But we couldn't buy it. It wasn't coming out until....MARCH?
[which has now turned into April, and the END of April, for that matter]
During this time, we have been fed tidbits. Pixie sticks of hype, if you will. Quickstart rules, remarkably alike Warmachine. Pictures of damn near every release for the first year of the game.
So, I've tried to do my part. I've preordered the game. The armies. Etc. But I tell you, the hype has driven me crazy. Some members of the Disorderlies are still flying high on the sugar rush. Some have crashed and lost interest. I'm somewhere in the middle - I still have some excitement, but overall I think the hype machine has burned me a bit, and in general, I don't think the game is going to live up to the expectations created by this long wait.
Nothing can.
I could be mistaken. This time next week, I might have disgested the rules and the models and the machine might have me back in its clutches and snuggled into a warm pablum-filled place. I doubt it - but I admit it is possible.
In the meantime, though, I'm swearing off that sugar shit and eating a burger or something.
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5 comments:
I don't disagree, but I also seriously doubt they could get anything into production for the con *and* keep it a secret. They kept the secret (more or less) because it was vaporware.
As for that specific announcement, you know what would have driven the rowd nuts? not announcing a new, compatible game, but announcing *four* new armies for the game everyone loves! Hot new monsters to bring into your existing games of Warmachine!
I get the feeling that Privateer is still figuring some of these "big company" things out. I hope they can keep it up, honestly.
I definitely agree Paul. What Privateer Lacked at that moment was a dedicated Sales guy you need someone who can read the hype of the crowd (that you have fed them and they have digested) and force the hype even bigger. Artists, which Privateer is, in general lack this capability. Even if they wanted to maintain it as a separate “game” don’t claim “Four new factions in a new game” call it “Four new factions to fight in the Iron Kingdoms”
It might have been WORSE if the crowd was really nuts at that moment.
Because at least in the interim they have had time to digest all of the teasing and win people over.
At that moment, if everyone was on the same page I was for the game, they'd be looking at a LOT more burnout at this point, I suspect.
If they had to win people over to the idea, something is wrong. This is their *target audience.*
That being said, considering how slow the releases seem projected to be, I suspect you may see some burnout nonetheless.
There was afair amount of disappointment. It's obvious from the Gaming Report video, which you can hear Aaron yammering through oddly enough. In fact there was a fair amount of convincing people. The annoucment made it seem like they were putting out a completely new seperate game that will not crossover with Warmachine well. When infact they are kicking out 4 new factions that operate completely differently then the first four factions.
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