PR: Nothing Can Go Wrong

Most game developers disagree with the adage “less is more,” an adage that I rarely use too. After all, more means bigger explosions, better story, and neater graphics. There’s no problem with that. The problem is directly related to public relations. Advertisements and magazine features seem to be a huge thing for game developers these days. Of course everyone wants to know about Red Alert 3, and how it’s already in development. It’s just that after reading every tiny piece of information, people will want to know even more. If the developer continues to publish information, you won’t even need the game. Just make a flip book out of the screenshots and play some rave music.

Developers seem to, in all occasions, go over the edge with PR. They’ll tell us the whole god damned story before we even pick up a controller, or explain how to defeat this one boss before we can buy a copy of the game. For a lot of people, this can be a problem (for the rest of you, and you know who you are, feel free to shout out the ending on the release date.) I enjoy reading about games coming out in a few months, but when they publish article after article on games scheduled to be released in 2010, I just can’t handle it.

For example, last night I tried to read through a Spore article in April’s Games for Windows magazine. Only a few paragraphs in, I just couldn’t keep reading. I was bored with the article. They just kept restating what they’d already said before. It seems like Spore doesn’t have any features any more. It’s just a game you buy that simply says, “U R GAWD LOL!!!” The same goes for Left 4 Dead. I’m not interested any more. When I first saw it, I was on the edge of my seat reading. Now it’s just boring. It’s because we’re being spoiled with too much information. Valve and (what I remember as Maxis) EA could spend less time interviewing and more time releasing that game.

Let’s look deeper into this problem. Left 4 Dead sounds insanely fun, and it may very well be! It just keeps telling us over and over that it’s a cooperative game with zombies. I don’t have a problem with that. I have a problem with the fact that you can point out flaws in the features. For example, griefing. Humans need to get inside a building. Then one player stops in the doorway and decides to take a nap while standing up. Now the remaining three (another problem: low player cap) are stuck outside battling hordes of zombies and eventually die.

I don’t want that in a game I buy. I’d like a game that doesn’t have that. But life is life and that will exist forever, it’s just that we don’t notice that in the articles we read until we sit down and think about it. I’m not saying that Spore or L4D are bad games, they’ll probably both win Game of the Year after their release. I’ll pay good money for both. All it is is that they shouldn’t be publishing an article every day on how there’s a slighter hint of red in the player models. Sooner or later, another developer will read the magazine and find out how to add that hint of red to HIS player models.

Let’s use an example: developer 1 tells everyone that he can change the color of penises with the machine he is inventing. He keeps talking to everyone about it, but never finishes inventing it. Developer 2 builds a machine faster that can only turn cocks red and blue, but he gets paid more money sooner because it’s similar enough. Now developer 1 releases his machine, and nobody wants to buy it becase developer 2 already got their cash.

Lair, for example, is another reason where large amounts of PR can backfire. Whatever we saw from Lair kicked ass. Ripping rhinos’ heads off? FUCK YEAH! Then we get some mediocre game with crappy controls and decent graphics. Lair had a ton of advertisement, but they didn’t show us anything longer than a thirty second run through. They made it seem awesome. I was so disappointed with Lair, that I returned my copy to the store only four days after I bought it.

Now then, let’s look at something else: Little Big Planet has barely any advertisement. It’s the kind of thing you hear about from a hobo who types in random Youtube search terms. It looks awesome! I have to scour the internet for any information about it, but whatever I hear is great! I’m not saying that all developers should do this. After all, Little Big Planet isn’t even mentioned in GFW’s upcoming games list. There’s a magic number somewhere.

Let’s take a look a Call of Duty 4. We didn’t really hear much about it until mid-2007. That was 6 months of advertisement, and it got its message across. They showed what they had before any developer could act, and they showed enough to keep up content. And they weren’t pulling our leg either. Every article was something new. When it was released, CoD4 became a huge sensation. Even critical Yahtzee Croshaw enjoyed it.

So what’s this magic number? Only reveal information when you have enough work done to show something new each time and reveal information quickly. Spore started being unveiled years ago and kept becoming delayed. L4D was more recent, but still slow. Little Big Planet has too little information to share. And Lair… sucked. I’d say, about four months before release (make sure there’s no delays,) with a modest article every month.