Did the Internet Kill the Video Game

Or rather, Andromeda and Hitman. I have yet to play either game but Andromeda was buried from the start, with the negative reaction from announcement to release. There was no chance given, no quarter taken. Then again, the trailers and game play videos did not seem to help. Everything looked like it was a simple update of the past games and as a massive fan of the trilogy, I was looking for more but apart from some lsight updates to the planets, they seemed to regress. They had even less aliens than the original trilogy, how is that possible?

In terms of Hitman, I think all of us had a lot t osay about the episodic nature and most of it was negative. Honestly, they deserved it, didn't they? Who should be allowed to get away with releasing a game, one level at a time? No one, that is who. Now, I'm not sure why these two games felt the true force of gamers and SF 5 got away scott free, or Battlefront was such a big success. Tekken 7 seems to be following a similar path, releasing with 2 modes and I'm sure the rest will be available via dlc...not to mention a number of fighters.

Should more games feel our wrath? Leading to developers and publishers rethinking strategy?

@soul_starter: not sure what point you're trying to make here?

since pretty much the dawn of the internet gamers have flocked online to criticise a game either for it being substandard or because of questionable business practices by the publisher. it's not a new phenomenon.

how exactly did internet kill the video game?

Not really , but i'm sure you go ahead

I will continue to support good developers.

@Macutchi: If you read the post, you may understand. It normally helps. Let me put it down easy for you: with regards to Andromeda and Hitman. The developers and publishers failed to properly utilise 2 exceptional franchises and their games fell apart, both critically and in terms of sales (Hitman was a huge flop). A lot of this hadt o do with gamers spekaing out againstt he products and/or how those products were presented to potential buyers.

@Jacanuk: I am all for supporting good developers and publishers, CD Project Red comes to mind. But if there are people involved in the industry who aim to mislead gamers, not put in enough of an effort to advance a sequel etc, then they should be avoided and we should use our wallets to do the talking.

Hmm, i did not mind the episodic release of Hitman, and while i haven´t finished Andromeda yet, it´s not bad games.

i did read the post. just to play tit for tat, it normally helps if the thread title is relevant to the topic ;)

the reason those games were not successful is, as you put it, "publishers failed to properly utilise 2 exceptional franchises." the online criticism and poor sales are both just a bi-product of that, like they are with any game. and poor sales means both eidos and ea will hopefully take onboard the criticism and modify their approach next time

I full heartedly agree.

The internet helps promote games most people think are good and hurts sales of games most people think are bad, often based on mass opinion. Ultimately, in this case, it's just another way to get and share information on the product.

I think its great that people are able to get more insight on a game before they spend sixty dollars on it. If the game turns out unpolished or if its a sequel that takes a bizarre departure from the original, than it's our rights as consumers to decide whether or not we enjoy that work ethic and/or direction by voting with our wallets. And in the case of Andromeda, I am very glad that I got an early look at gameplay footage and impressions..... and with plenty of time to cancel my preorder. XD

@Macutchi: It's not a by-product when the online criticism arrives before the game. A by product is a result of something, not a cause.

@Jacanuk: I think I might end up buying Andromeda at some stage but it's pretty obvious Bioware did not advance the game and a lot of players were peeved off...heck they were annoyed the moment the first full trailer released.

@baron_machina: Listen I'm with you. This is not supposed to be thread against the internet BUT a thread about just how important the internet is not in terms of helping games succeed or fail. In the case of the two games mentioned, it helped put them on the shelf...for now.

I think we need more honesty on the internet and as reviews and discussions move away from say, sites such as this and into the hands of a lot of independent YouTubers, we can only get mroe honest opinions.

Pretty good gaming is a very good site for something like that.

I think most people responded well to the episodic nature of Hitman, to be honest. Obviously you're going to have some stubborn people that are stuck in the old was (I admit, I am one of them) but at the same time, I found myself appreciating it being doled out in episodes. It is also important to remember that this is nothing new, and even more importantly, it was a great game, a return to the "old school" Hitman formula, and a much much much superior game than Hitman: Absolution.

As for Andromeda, all the criticism was justified. The internet does not simply create things for no reason, it simply exaggerates them. Was Andromeda a terrible game? No, ultimately it was a pretty damn fun game and if they had called it something else and given it a different look (i.e. not had it exist in the ME universe) it would have been a good ME clone. But, because of it's pedigree, it fell short and it was deserving of the criticism; forgettable protagonist, dislikable (in a bad way) antagonist, lame party members, token attempt at open-world gameplay, and more.

The internet does not ruin things, it just blows them out of proportion. I think if you keep that in mind, always have that in the back of your brain as a filter, you will never let yourself be dragged in the wrong direction. I enjoyed ME: Andromeda immensely, much more than "the internet" would lead me to believe I would, but a lot of what the internet said about it was true. Just not to the degree, or to a degree, I found offensive.

I somewhat agree. The internet makes it easy for people to be the jaded cynic which is the cool thing to do these days. I'm currently playing Mass Effect Andromeda and while it does seem to be a bit sloppy and disappointing compared to the other three games it's not really as bad as some make it seem to be. However it was rushed and some aspects of the writing are pretty subpar.

Don't really know about Hitman as I haven't played the game and I'm not really into the franchise overall. Personally I'm not really fond of games coming out in episodic format, not because it's bad necessarily but I'm just more accustomed to getting the whole game initially and maybe buying some dlc later.

Street Fighter V definitely did not get off Scott free though. A lot of people were quite dissatisfied with the lack of content and were pretty vocal about it plus sales for the game fell below Capcom's expectations.

People were also quite vocal about lack of content and single player campaign in Battlefront as well. EA has since promised a meaningful single player campaign for Battlefront 2 so they certainly have heard gamer's complaints and have adjusted accordingly.

@soul_starter: I'm not saying we should just blindly look at once source and go with it word for word. My original comment was just stating how we should gather information before spending that much money on a game.

That's the great thing about the internet: there are so many different sources with different viewpoints on different subjects. I was looking forward to Andromeda a couple months before it's release, but after I heard about some of the glitch videos, I decided to look up multiple websites' and players' opinions on the game. It wasn't just the animation glitches that bothered me: the gameplay didn't change much and the story/characters were a lot weaker than the original trilogy.

So whenever I want to get an early outlook into a game, I don't just use one source: I try to find multiple different people who have tried/reviewed the product. It's even a good idea to try and find people who like something most people say is bad or dislike something most people say is good, so you can see what they base their opinions on. It's not a matter of blindly believing what the mass consensus on the internet says, but analyzing it and finding out how much of it you agree/disagree with it. That's when you make your decision to buy it or not.

and what were people criticising the game for?

@baron_machina: Bro I agree! That's the exact point I've made multiple times on this forum.

@Macutchi: Lots of things. A lot of the initial criticism I initially saw factroed around the fact that not much had seemed to change, not just between entries but between console generations.

exactly. so the criticism is a bi-product of the publishers failing to properly utilise the franchise.

the criticism doesn't come before the game

@Macutchi: I dunno if your being purposefully dense or what but I'm clearly gonna be speaking about the release of the game considering the point if this thread. The criticism for both games mentioned Started long before release.

Having said that even while the game was in pre production there was a lot of criticism, especially centred around the problems with me 3 and the holes it left behind. So maybe it was always doomed.

@soul_starter: the only criticism i saw for me4 was close to launch when footage started leaking and early negative reviews started surfacing. show me examples of criticism long before release

I don't know why this thread is getting so much attention. Or why it hasn't been seen as lock worth_

@soul_starter made it seem like an open discussion about Internet killing Gaming, seems like it could be interesting.

*Click* to find out it's just another moan about Mass Effect: Andromeda and the overly complained Hitman 2016. Two topics that have been beaten to death. Even going as far to assume we all share his opinion-

I think all of us had a lot to say about the episodic nature

Not really. And if I recall some very old games also did an episodic structure, classic id games for example.

So how is that the 'Internet versus gaming' when that sales tactic (and well received) was used decades ago? That's a rhetorical question, so you don't need to answer.

Nothing to discuss here really. It's a blog rant that you expect others to agree with.

/thread

@Macutchi: Just because that's all you saw doesn't mean that's all the criticism there was. What kind of logic is that? I followed the development of the game very closely because I'm a huge ME fan so I picked up on it more, as did many other people. We tend to forget it was one of last gens biggest franchises.

@soul_starter: so what you're saying is your anecdotal evidence beats mine. brilliant. i asked you to show me examples of criticism long before release which you conveniently ignored. back up what you're saying

The internet just change thing up. There are good thing from it. Any remember the game breaking bugs that remain in the game? Expansion and things like DLC was around before internet. Companies always try to do questionable thing to hurt gaming.

It more it allow more to talk. That can be a problem of the developers listening to the wrong voices that hurt game. That right it often the gamers that hurt games the most.

If you enjoyed the previous games even the third. Then def. get it. But get it on sale.

No reason to pay full price :)

The criticism is not a bi-product of the developers not doing anything or failing.

Most times the critic is a result of giving a megafon to the minority who usually end up being the loudest bunch, many diehard fanboys or just basic trolls.

Also people give way to much power to critics particular after the internet came around.

The internet makes a lot of things better and worse.

@Macutchi: My evidence is not anecdotal. The Mass Effect franchise has been put on hold, Hitman's future is up in the air and we know a massive loss was made. Those are factual statements. Why did the games not do well? Like I said, a major reason was the online backlash for a variety of reasons. I am not going to quote the entire internet for you. If you know how to use google, you can easily find the relevant info.

I don't think its a minority when Hitman bombed and Andromeda did not do as well as expected, both financially and critically.

As a fan of the serious, I was both surprised and saddened that they failed to add anything of note to the formula. Yes some levels have been expanded and made somewhat larger but with what is possible these days, they should and oculd have made much larger planets with a larger variety of creatures on display.

Now, I was going to buy the game when it dropped in price but I doubt I will unless it's extraodinarily cheap because there are so many quality releases that Andromeda isn't even an after thought anymore.

ok to stop this going round in circles, here's the definition of anecdotal evidence

Anecdotal evidence is evidence from anecdotes, i.e.,evidence collected in a casual or informal manner and relying heavily or entirely on personal testimony.

everything you have said falls into this definition. show me some proof that what you're saying is true and i'll concede the point.

and whether the future of both is in jeopardy now is irrelevant to your still yet to prove claim that the criticism of mass effect began long before release. don't ask me to search google to prove your point, the burden of proof is on you who's making the claim not me

yes it is

Nope, it´s usually kids being kids and think they are entitled to something and if it´s not like that they get angry and salty.

@Jacanuk: Tbh, Hitman got some pretty good reviews but the peple who played the game or wanted to play it did not like the episodic nature and some did not like the game outright. With Andromeda, it has been received poorly by critics and most gamers. Either way, it goes to show you that we as consumers can vote iwth our wallet and we should do it a lot mroe often. I'm not sure in what kind of shape Bioware is right now (some employees have been moved to other studios) but hopefully it moves them to go back to creating great RPGs and maybe even a new IP.

Also, that's my ultimate point, that we should use the internet to target companies that think they have a right to swindle us with sub par sequel after sequel (COD, AC etc).