Viewing the gaming industry from both sides

During E3 it has been popular showing off games, but the end product doesn't hold up to what they did show off. Games like Watch Dogs, Killzone 2, Aliens Colonial Marines and other big games. The problem is coming from both sides. Developers are forced to show off games before they have something final, and they basicly make a vertical slice of how a game might look. Showing off the game off how they think it will look when it's done, is a problem. For consumers and the developers.

We as gamers also don't get what we think we are getting with the end product. Which is also decieving and not delivering on what they showed us. The problem basicly is that there is a lack of communication in my opinion. What i feel was great about this E3, like it or not, is that EA were honest about their games. I rather want something authentic. The developers showed off how the games look like now, without making empty promises.

At the end of the day i feel it's miscummunication between the consumers and what the corperate heads are telling the guys to do. They want to earn money and show off the game, while developers often need time and aren't given it unfortunately. Do you think it's all on the companies, or is it there because we want it aswell?

I think trailers shouldn't include gameplay footage at all. It's misleading, especially if the game is still over a year away. They also shouldn't have to worry about making the best possible demo if the final game isn't going to give that same quality either from time being mismanaged or the budget getting stretched too thin. Showing video demos a month or two before is a better option for the devs I think. And even still, those demos for E3 take time away from the regular development cycle, which is both time and resources being wasted.

I think gameplay should be released the same year, a lot of games did that this year during the E3. That's what i like. Dragon Age was teased last year. That was alright. They showed gameplay this year. That's how it should be done

That's just the way it is. Trailers are always gonna make the game look like it has more dimensions and possibilities than the actual gameplay.

I think there should not be any CG for any game trailers period. It says absolutely nothing about the actually game. Its useless and consumes resources.

Marketing culture for all blockbuster entertainment is horrendously over saturated.

The goal should be to hold back the biggest suprises all the way down to the game design and pace out the content to drive consumer curiosity. Its demonstrated by the success, and mystery of Dark Souls and Minecraft's procedural generation. And they can't keep feeding our modern sense of aesthetic entitlement to the degree they are when it comes to avatar strength and in-game goodies. If someone wants something in a game they've got to make critical decisions about how they'll go about getting it.

Megapublishers are just selling commercials and bit piece digital goodies for cash as a means to a simple end. They're conditioning consumers not to care. They're forgetting the whole journey, and full experience is what's memorable to people.

I've no problem with some small degree of variance between what is shown and the final product, as long as it's in the same ballpark. I do, however, have a big problem with this:

That's bullshit, and extends far into false advertising territory as far as I'm concerned. Christ, some parts look like it could've been done on the Xbox! Companies that do that need to be held accountable. Hell, everyone wanted to sue Gearbox over Aliens, yet I think DS II is far more drastic a change yet nobody seemed to care. FROM are the ones that should've been taken to court.

Meh, while this is all very questionable and shouldn't be done, consumers should know better and stop being so naive. But I guess such an attitude doesn't change anything. On a personal level I'm very indifferent about this entire issue. I'll judge whether the game is good enough when it comes out. In my eyes any pre-release material is marketing and shouldn't be taken seriously.

This. This this this this this. This industry would be so much better off if it abandoned CGI trailers entirely in favor of actual goddamn gameplay. That's far more likely to get me interested in a game than CGI ever would.