Can Hype Kill a Good Film? Side note on gaming.

[Jedi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9XR0v1LRE4

Now I've always liked the Nostalgia Critic, sure he's had some meh videos and moments, but overall I've liked his stuff, but THIS in particular got me thinking about how we also view popular games not just movies (And to make it topical we can look at how Awakening made Fire Emblem a more noted thing as well as games like Final Fantasy 7, his comparison to Lord of the Rings is kinda app to them).

I felt like an open discussion on this topic would be fun. Try not to make this all Fire Emblem, but I felt it was a good comparison. Lets not make this Old vs New fans either, but a discussion.

[Knight]

I think games might suffer from hype backlash even more than movies, because during a movie you have little time to think or reflect, during a game there are many opportunities to pause, take breaks, then your mind gets going to "where did this not meet my expectations?"

[Zera]

Hype can kill almost anything. But games do seem especially vulnerable.

[blah the Prussian]

I know all the hype for Frozen made me think about it more and realize it was pretty awful, actually. So there's that.

[Rapier]

If I recall correctly, enjoyment comes from reality meeting or surpassing your expectations. When your expectation exceeds reality, you become disappointed. Anything less than that will not be fun. So, what does hype do? It increases your expectations to levels that makes it harder for it to be met in reality. Hence why having too much expectation (hype) can take one's enjoyment away, even if the material in question is considered to be good by most people. Reality will hardly meet your expectations, thus making you disappointed.

This is also why I try not to be hyped about things. Sure, being pessimistic is bad, but being optimistic is like asking to take a slap in the cheek.

Uh, I hope I haven't missed the point. I couldn't watch the video until the end because I dislike youtube's automatic subtitles and I can't understand what he says very well.

[Sentacotus]

I think alot of it has to do with 24/7 high speed internet coverage. All of the game or movie is covered, reviewed, and spoiled before you can even think. Theres little in the way of suspense or suprise. We are exposed to it so much before its even out that instead of focusing on whats new and exciting about the game we begin to nitpick at what it didn't do to meet our expectations or where it fell short.

I also think hype is something we naturally have more of the younger we are simply because we haven't experienced other things as good or better out in the real world. I know for me when the Pokemon Movies were released in theatres I couldn't contain myself and birthday parties consisted of gathering a group of your other grade school friends jacked up on mountain dew and watching Mewtwo kick ass. Of course this was all before things like having a car, traveling on my own, and participating in competative sports became a thing in my life.

[Florete]

I always thought A Christmas Story was crap, even before I knew how many people liked it. The title alone makes it sound generic and boring.

Anyway, while I do my best not to let it, too much hype can definitely have a negative effect on enjoyment. I hate the idea of not liking something just because a lot of others do like it, but it's hard to get those expectations out of your head when going into something for the first time.

However, I think there's little to no excuse for post-experience backlash. That is, if you saw a movie on opening night and loved it, then it became a mega hit and you ended up hating it as a result, what the hell is wrong with you? Even if you think it's getting more attention than it deserves and you find that annoying, shitting on something literally just because it's popular is dumb.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

i honestly gave up on the guy, but this video has so much truth to it its painful.

not sure what to think honestly, i think i'll save this video and show it off abit

[Knight]

I think there are some cases where overhype may not necessarily set your expectations too high.

For a recent example for me: Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was very hyped for that movie, it was good, wasn't mindblowing though for me, but I wasn't disappointed because I knew what to expect from the trailers. Hulkbuster fight, Ultron action, Vision, witty banter, all that stuff. Then again, I may have enjoyed the movie more not knowing what the trailers spoiled, but my expectations of the movie were more accurate because I knew what was coming. Ultimately, I think the movie may have suffered from revealing so much from a critical standpoint, but at least not as many people were underwhelmed.

[MacLovin]

Skyfall, AoU, and Gozilla 2014.

overhyped but decent movies.

Civ BE

OVerhyped game that's ok at best. But then endless legend comes along and gangrapes it alongside GalCiv 3 and let's not forget he fuckton of 4x games that are to be found when the steam sale goes on.

Fallen Enchantress, Paradox/Stardock stuff, and the old Civ games come to mind.

and Alpha Centauri off GoG too.

[Phoenix Wright]

Frozen made... was pretty awful

I always thought A Christmas Story was crap

both of these movies are all but amazing.

i agree with nc. our environment deeply affects how we consume and feel about media. i'm really hoping people aren't hyping up no man's sky like we did destiny (cause destiny sucks). i'm trying to stay away from the hype because it'll cause me to be more disappointed in the future if nms does end up not being a very fun exploration game.

[Irysa]

Funnily enough, the amount of negativity surrounding Awakening actually made me appreciate some parts of it more upon playing it, so the inverse appears to be true as well!

That being said, I'm having some trying moments lately in attempting to make sure I don't misplace my jaundiced feelings of contempt towards FE14 onto FE13 and 12. It's a lot harder to try to stay objective about the things I disliked in those games when they've been turned up to eleven in the newest installment. It's doubly frustrating when I felt like I'd just about made my peace with Awakening (I will never get over or forgive FE12's retcon bullshit though), in that there were plenty of things I thought were terrible about it, but I could see what it was TRYING to do, and from that see ways to move forward and improve. I really wanted to believe that this would be the case in the next installment, but they've just double downed on nearly everything I viewed as negative, cementing in the fact that this really is the future of the franchise.

In a sense, I probably hyped up FE14 for myself, and I'm now experiencing the crash from that, although I'm not going to say the early trailers didn't contribute to the hype.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Irysa

[Rei Rei]

Skyfall

huh, i actually think this ranks as one of the best 007 movies

but well, i guess hype can kill a movie just as much as no hype can make it a colossal hit. i don't know about other places, although i'm sure it was better marketed, but mad max fury road here in brazil caught people by surprised and it did better than the way more popular age of ultron.

[Life]

Mad Max: Fury Road.

Your argument is invalid.

[Knight]

Mad Max: Fury Road.

Your argument is invalid.

That's a case of I didn't even care until a few weeks before it came out, then I heard that it heavily uses practical effects, saw it and was amazed. That's a movie that definitely satisfied whatever expectations people had for it. It didn't make as much money as Age of Ultron, but it deserves all the critical praise it's been getting, and it will likely sweep all the special effects and cosmetic Oscars if Star Wars doesn't.

Skyfall was a great movie, but I agree some people overhype it. Frozen is actually a pretty good movie, and I think most people are mad at it only due to constant exposure and praise. Overhyped? Probably, but it's not bad. Personally I liked Big Hero 6 more than Frozen, but maybe that's because I like the Superhero and action/adventure genre, or maybe it's because Baymax is so undebatably adorable.

[MacLovin]

i think i'm the only person alive who saw big hero six because of the comic book series.

[Magical CC]

I dont hype what I have not seen or have not played. I watch the movie and then I hype if it's up to my taste, not the other way around. There's no reason to get hype by just watching a 2 minutes trailer. What will you get from a 2 minutes trailer? If the movie is based on something you like, then you should be skeptical simply because there is a chance for it to be a mess. Hype cannot kill anything. A bad movie is bad. A good movie is good. The only reason why you have the feeling that hype will kill a movie is because the mass are unreasonable to begin with. Unreasonable people are like spoiled children, cant be satisfied with anything.

[FionordeQuester]

Honestly...I feel like hype is what killed the Star Wars Prequels. I was young enough that I was just a kid when I watched all of them, and now that I'm grown up...I really don't think they're bad movies at all. Not as good as the original trilogy, obviously, and there are obvious flaws to pick apart in Episodes 1 and 2 (like Midichlorians and the awkward romance), but to call them some of the worst movies ever? To say that Jar Jar Binks single-handedly ruined the franchise when he was really just some comic-relief character that'd say or do some funny stuff here and there in Episode 1? And then disappear almost completely in the following movies? Honestly.

Really, as far as I can see, the Prequel's biggest crime was that they didn't live up to the Original. And considering how good the Original already was...blaming them for that is a little like blaming Jackie Chan for not being quite as awesome as Bruce Lee, IMO.

Edited July 8, 2015 by FionordeQuester

[The DanMan]

Really, as far as I can see, the Prequel's biggest crime was that they didn't live up to the Original. And considering how good the Original already was...blaming them for that is a little like blaming Jackie Chan for not being quite as awesome as Bruce Lee, IMO.

...I thought their biggest crime was generally piss-poor acting because ol' George just wanted to play around in front of a greenscreen instead of directing his actors?

But yeah, hype can definitely kill good or decent movies/games; games are especially more vulnerable than movies. Hype affects peoples' perception of something, and all too often nowadays games and movies are overhyped, regardless of how good they are. Sometimes those attempts at hype backfire; Amazing Spiderman 2 trailers, anyone?