What exactly is manufactured hype?

Titanfall had an absurd amount of hype from the gaming press at large almost the second it was revealed. This hype from the gaming press then became the basis for the game's marketing. One would generally expect hype to build for a game between announcement and release, not to spring up out of nowhere hailing a game as the second coming of Christ literally the second it's announced.
Well, I think that's because Titanfall was playable at E3 when it was revealed. That's pretty unusual.

Games are usually announced much farther out than TF was. It was revealed and playable at E3 ~9 months before it came out.

So I guess there's one benefit to not revealing your game too early?
 
I don't think Titanfall hype was manufactured at all. Many genuinely really liked it and I contend anyone that spent week or two with it would. It not having the legs of a COD cant be blamed on manufactured hype. Regardless, I think it was singled out because it was big XB1 exclusive. And to put it plainly, many were just jealous the game was big third-party XB1 exclusive. You can tell it bothered many, because one game getting a lot of buzz at E3 is nothing new but Titanfall for some reason was met with a lot of rebuke though many who played it said it was great. And that is kind of always the case with XBox exclusives regardless of the fact Sony also has its share of exclusives.
 
I don't think Titanfall hype was manufactured at all. Many genuinely really liked it and I contend anyone that spent week or two with it would. It not having the legs of a COD cant be blamed on manufactured hype. Regardless, I think it was singled out because it was big XB1 exclusive. And to put it plainly, many were just jealous the game was big third-party XB1 exclusive. You can tell it bothered many, because one game getting a lot of buzz at E3 is nothing new but Titanfall for some reason was met with a lot of rebuke though many who played it said it was great. And that is kind of always the case with XBox exclusives regardless of the fact Sony also has its share of exclusives.
Eh, you couldn't go on a gaming website without seeing Titanfall, but I never heard any real people talk about it. Compare that to something like Pokemon XY.
 
You've used the phrase as a dramatic pejorative -- "The sales totally collapsed!" But by all accounts it's the basically the same sales contraction any game on a tiny userbase is going to see in month two. Infamous may have outsold it by some marginal amount, but TF did better in March and Infamous had only 1 week of sales under its belt at the start of April.

MK 8 sold a million copies in over a day. and that came out on the "dead" Wii U
 
Hmmm really? I haven't seen any of the game journos I follow tweet about Evolve, or seen very much coverage from the major outlets. If they are writing articles about it, I certainly haven't been notified of the articles via twitter.

That's exactly why I find it baffling that people say that game has manufactured hype. Most of the people giving it praises are those who played it at events like PAX and London Comic Con. The only others who have put much coverage was IGN showing off the Kraken monster in a 4v1 match with the IGN crew. Something I found far more genuine than the faux E-sport trailer Turtle Rock themselves put out earlier this year.

The sole reason it's being called out as of late is because it won Game of Show at this year's E3 (from Judge's Week). Since the last FPS that held that spot 'tanked' and GAF darlings such as the Witcher and FromSoft titles didn't win, it had to be another attempt at manufactured hype.

Titanfall? Yes (though I enjoy the game). Watchdogs I can't really speak on since I haven't played it, but you can't blame the press for covering that game given how interested the gaming community was with it since its reveal. Destiny? Lot of buzz due to the pedigree behind it and Activision putting all the marketing in Sony's camp, but always felt the same sort of hesitation by the press that I saw with the community until the PS4 Alpha. But Evolve? No, or at least not yet at any rate.
 
wasn't there a beta thread for Titanfall? Everyone in that thread said the game was good. Maybe people are mistaking a game failing to live up to the insane hype titanfall had or fanboys of non titanfall consoles trying to undermine a game using a new term called "manufactured hype" as part of the console war
 
That mess last year with MS hiring marketing teams to spam GAF and reditt and probably other popular gaming forums with positive xbox posts has me looking at reactions very differently.


No Man's Sky is probably the only thing I can think of with genuine hype. Sure at E3 it got the Sony machine behind it but that VGX reaction was great. The magic of something different.
 
Eh, you couldn't go on a gaming website without seeing Titanfall, but I never heard any real people talk about it. Compare that to something like Pokemon XY.

Pokemon is like the second biggest franchise in gaming ever besides Mario and has been established for decades. It's kind of the most unfair comparison that could ever be made :P
 
100% agreed. The majority of the hype for Destiny is coming from gamers who played the Alpha. That's a big difference from the massive advertising and journalist push we saw with Titanfall. Now that's not to say that we couldn't or won't see some absurd marketing blitz as we get closer to release but the Hype I've seen for Destiny seems to be coming from fellow gamers who were really blown away by the Alpha and not the marketing machine.

Are people just choosing to forget that alpha and beta impressions that were positive across the board were from gamers and not some marketing machine?
 
Hype from the playerbase because the PS4 has a bigger one? Media people just talk about the game.

Or hype from the dev themselves? They were paid to do that.

Well that is true, maybe they didn't know Destiny is coming out on the Xbox One.

Heck I didnt know until a couple of weeks ago that is what coming out on last gen consoles, granted I am not keeping up with Destiny too much.
 
I think Titanfall is a good example. Yes there was a lot of hype from gamers and such, but the insane amount of raving coming from the press didn't match up to the game's performance. They'd have you believe this was the next Gears of War, Halo, or CoD(4), but turned out to be nowhere near that. I mean the amount of ridiculous quotes that came from the press is proof enough. And don't get me wrong, the game did well, but sales have seemingly dropped tremendously and the community seems to have dwindled greatly. It didn't really become "the game" people thought it was going to be.

Skisonic commentary

This post is gold.

GAF on a roll tonight.
 
Well, I think that's because Titanfall was playable at E3 when it was revealed. That's pretty unusual.

Games are usually announced much farther out than TF was. It was revealed and playable at E3 ~9 months before it came out.

So I guess there's one benefit to not revealing your game too early?
I mean, sure. But I don't think there's any question that the gaming press hyped Titanfall up to be a game so important it would help define the generation, at the very least, when its lasting effect seems to be closer to flavor of the month, no offense to people who like it.
 
ITT: People rewriting their memories pretending they weren't pining for Watch Dogs or Titanfall because they ended up being a letdown compared to their imaginations. The same thing will happen in a year or so if The Division fails to be the car door closing masterpiece many of us expect it to be.
 
wasn't there a beta thread for Titanfall? Everyone in that thread said the game was good. Maybe people are mistaking a game failing to live up to the insane hype titanfall had or fanboys of non titanfall consoles trying to undermine a game using a new term called "manufactured hype" as part of the console war

Erm…you're sort of missing the point of the thread. That "insane hype" that you're describing is the thing that many people are saying was largely manufactured (by the press and media). It was seen to be a solid looking title by many if not most gamers, but certainly not the game changing revolution the media tried to paint it as.

Stop getting so defensive and try and use some rationale. You're contradicting yourself in your own posts.
 
That's exactly why I find it baffling that people say that game has manufactured hype. Most of the people giving it praises are those who played it at events like PAX and London Comic Con. The only others who have put much coverage was IGN showing off the Kraken monster in a 4v1 match with the IGN crew. Something I found far more genuine than the faux E-sport trailer Turtle Rock themselves put out earlier this year.

The sole reason it's being called out as of late is because it won Game of Show at this year's E3 (from Judge's Week). Since the last FPS that held that spot 'tanked' and GAF darlings such as the Witcher and FromSoft titles didn't win, it had to be another attempt at manufactured hype.

Titanfall? Yes (though I enjoy the game). Watchdogs I can't really speak on since I haven't played it, but you can't blame the press for covering that game given how interested the gaming community was with it since its reveal. But Evolve? No, or at least not yet at any rate.
Your first two sentences pretty much perfectly fit Titanfall as well, but then you go on to say Titanfall was manufactured hype. They hype for Titanfall also came from very positive hands on impressions. The only difference is that Evolve is multiplat and Titanfall was a little less multiplat.
 
That's exactly why I find it baffling that people say that game has manufactured hype. Most of the people giving it praises are those who played it at events like PAX and London Comic Con. The only others who have put much coverage was IGN showing off the Kraken monster in a 4v1 match with the IGN crew. Something I found far more genuine than the faux E-sport trailer Turtle Rock themselves put out earlier this year.

The sole reason it's being called out as of late is because it won Game of Show at this year's E3 (from Judge's Week). Since the last FPS that held that spot 'tanked' and GAF darlings such as the Witcher and FromSoft titles didn't win, it had to be another attempt at manufactured hype.

Titanfall? Yes (though I enjoy the game). Watchdogs I can't really speak on since I haven't played it, but you can't blame the press for covering that game given how interested the gaming community was with it since its reveal. But Evolve? No, or at least not yet at any rate.

Yeah after winning the award, I haven't heard a pip about Evolve from people in the press. The podcasts from this week pretty much said nothing about it. I remember podcasts following TF's reveal basically mentioned TF almost every episode leading up to the release.
 
I mean, sure. But I don't think there's any question that the gaming press hyped Titanfall up to be a game so important it would help define the generation, at the very least, when its lasting effect seems to be closer to flavor of the month, no offense to people who like it.
I think Titanfall certainly had the potential to live up to the "generation defining" hype. And that's what all the E3 awards came from, potential based on one tiny playable vertical slice vs other tiny playable vertical slices of other games. That's what E3 is. Journalists are not psychics. They couldn't have known about the troubled development of Titanfall at E3.
 
No Man's Sky is probably the only thing I cant think of with genuine hype. Sure at E3 it got the Sony machine behind it but that VGX reaction was great. The magic of something different.


I'll just say this:

"Your own unique journey into infinity"

Still gives me chills thinking about it. Outside of the Gamespot feature there has hardly been any coverage of the game. Compare that to the coverage of Titanfall from reveal to release and I don't think anyone could dispute that it is nowhere even close to the same thing.
 
It'll be interesting to see how many people in this thread saying Titanfall will be among the first to board the Titanfall 2 hype train if/when it's announced as fully multiplatform.
 
It'll be interesting to see how many people in this thread saying Titanfall will be among the first to board the Titanfall 2 hype train if/when it's announced as fully multiplatform.

With the Activision lawsuit and new startup woes behind Respawn, Titanfall 2 would definitely have the potential to live up the hype that was lavished upon the first game.
 
TF is a perfect example of manufactured hype tainting the genuine excitement of the game. It also didn't help that some people on Gaf adopted the "Have you seen TF" meme from a PR figure.
 
I think anyone who says Titanfall was completely manufactured hype clearly has forgotten the beta or even the post launch. I remember people freaking BUYING the beta codes for that game. Even after launch, people kept talking about the game.

Also, the term manufactured hype is a completely meaningless word. It is simply easier and more accurate to say "press-generated hype." In Titanfalls cause, the press generated the hype and many gamers (who
actually
played the beta) kept the hype it going.
 
It'll be interesting to see how many people in this thread saying Titanfall will be among the first to board the Titanfall 2 hype train if/when it's announced as fully multiplatform.

Those people already exist. Respawn did say if they make a 2 they would try their hardest for it to be multiplat and people flipped out.

Its silly man.
 
Your first two sentences pretty much perfectly fit Titanfall as well, but then you go on to say Titanfall was manufactured hype. They hype for Titanfall also came from very positive hands on impressions. The only difference is that Evolve is multiplat and Titanfall was a little less multiplat.

As other's have said, manufactured hype isn't a mutually exclusive concept. I was keeping an eye on the game since the announcement, and fell in love with it during the Beta.

But I would never post articles or speak of the game in the fashion that IGN, Adam Sessler (telling that after he left Rev3Games wasn't as favorable), and others had. It's an incredibly fun game with some awesome mechanics to change up the current FPS environment, despite suffering from a variety of server-related issues and a poor excuse of a campaign. Not the revolutionary, 'this is next-gen' experience they made it out to be.

I'm not seeing anything of such with Evolve. Hell, the press seem to still be getting over the fact that it's not a Left 4 Dead title and having to actually play well to find success.
 
I've noticed a direct correlation between hype being "manufactured" and a game being playable before release. I'm not a biologist though so it could just be me.
 
I don't think Titanfall hype was manufactured at all. Many genuinely really liked it and I contend anyone that spent week or two with it would. It not having the legs of a COD cant be blamed on manufactured hype. Regardless, I think it was singled out because it was big XB1 exclusive. And to put it plainly, many were just jealous the game was big third-party XB1 exclusive. You can tell it bothered many, because one game getting a lot of buzz at E3 is nothing new but Titanfall for some reason was met with a lot of rebuke though many who played it said it was great. And that is kind of always the case with XBox exclusives regardless of the fact Sony also has its share of exclusives.

It's not an XB1 exclusive, it's on PC and 360 as well. You know, two platforms with what, a few hundred million combined userbase? I'm not seeing how it was userbase constrained.
 
I had no intention of playing or buying Titanfall. However, I was eagerly looking forward to its release date so that the gaming media would finally shut up about it.

You couldn't go on any mainstream media site without dozens of Titanfall articles or advertisments. It was comparable to GTA V in terms of marketing presence.

Even now we're still talking about it. It absolutely dominated the first quarter of this year in terms of media exposure.
 
Titanfall is a perfect example. Although seemingly anecdotal, I didn't know anyone but one person who was actually excited for that game. All the excitement was all one sided, most, if not all, being from MS. I didn't get the impression anyone IRL, on forums or any social media gave a shit. It was a pretty average looking game with a few neat ideas, but mostly more of the same and severley lacking content as well. It was never gonna break records or sell like gangbusters as it was projected to.
 
I think that Titanfall core mechanics lived up to the hype. The freedom of movement is liberating and the Titan gameplay is refreshing as you can go from fast paced run and gun gameplay to a more tanky and calculated approach with shield management. I feel like the balance between Titans and soldiers is spot on; Titans feel powerful but you still feel like you stand a chance or can get away as a soldier.

The game is not without faults though. The usefulness of parkour varies from map to map. Some maps are incredibly fun as you can traverse the majority of the map by bouncing around, yet many maps have very limited parkour areas that feel like they were shoehorned into it and take you away from where the action is. At least on PC, it is also very frustrating finding a lobby for the campaign or any multiplayer game mode that isn't attrition. Perks were a bit unbalanced with some being near useless. And most importantly, there just isn't enough content. Game needed more unique guns, equipment, and perks.

It's one of those franchises that I feel will really shine with the 2nd installment, kinda like Assassin's Creed 2. I just hope they use a different engine next time.
 
I had no intention of playing or buying Titanfall. However, I was eagerly looking forward to its release date so that the gaming media would finally shut up about it.

You couldn't go on any mainstream media site without dozens of Titanfall articles or advertisments. It was comparable to GTA V in terms of marketing presence.

Even now we're still talking about it. It absolutely dominated the first quarter of this year in terms of media exposure.

QFT. Although I don't even think the marketing for GTAV holds a candle to the absurdity that was on display leading up to the release of Titanfall. I mean just look at all hyperbole on the pre release coverage. It's horrid.
 
Titanfall is a perfect example. Although seemingly anecdotal, I didn't know anyone but one person who was actually excited for that game. All the excitement was all one sided, most, if not all, being from MS. I didn't get the impression anyone IRL, on forums or any social media gave a shit. It was a pretty average looking game with a few neat ideas, but mostly more of the same and severley lacking content as well. It was never gonna break records or sell like gangbusters as it was projected to.

katblankstare.gif
 
Evidently. If titanfall 2 does goes multiplatform, I cannot wait to see how people respond to those ads and the actual game because I'm absolutely positive the majority of people saying titanfall haven't played it. I feel like manufactured hype wouldn't even be a bad thing if people admitted that a lot of advertising is basically manufactured hype instead of using the word to attach a stigma to something they don't like.

Yes a lot of advertising is manufactured hype .... hell that is pretty much the description of advertising. The way I interpret false or manufactured hype is exactly what was done with Titanfall. Yes the game is good but it is not the second coming of sweet baby Jesus. That is what it was portrayed as by the media.

Using no mans sky and Evolve are very poor comparisons as they have not nearly had the same false hype marketing that Titan Fall did before release. There have been positive impressions of both Evolve and No Mans Sky but I have yet to see the same type of hyperbolic "Jesus is coming back" campaign that surrounded Titanfall before its release.

Yes as has been stated several times by different posters it is a decent/good game but it is absolutely not what it was hyped to be. This game does not "Melt Eyeballs" or "Redefine the shooting genre" all of that is what defines manufactured hype and this game had tons of it.
 
Titanfall is a perfect example. Although seemingly anecdotal, I didn't know anyone but one person who was actually excited for that game. All the excitement was all one sided, most, if not all, being from MS. I didn't get the impression anyone IRL, on forums or any social media gave a shit. It was a pretty average looking game with a few neat ideas, but mostly more of the same and severley lacking content as well. It was never gonna break records or sell like gangbusters as it was projected to.

Nah people were excited but not around me it seems. I knew one guy in real life that was excited for it, he bought and Xbox One just for it and he enjoyed it. So I don't know Titanfall probably did sell consoles but like you said it didn't sell thousands (maybe millions the way it was marketed) of Xbox Ones.
 
I had no intention of playing or buying Titanfall. However, I was eagerly looking forward to its release date so that the gaming media would finally shut up about it.

You couldn't go on any mainstream media site without dozens of Titanfall articles or advertisments. It was comparable to GTA V in terms of marketing presence.

Even now we're still talking about it. It absolutely dominated the first quarter of this year in terms of media exposure.

Now that I think about it, a large part of that was probably down to Microsoft itself, and the sheer amount of money they were willing to spend marketing it. Remember, they came off the back of a terrible PR mess, and were falling behind the PS4 in sales, add to that they essentially had no other big exclusive to carry their banner for the first half of the year and level the playing field, so they massively invested in Titanfall as being their main ace with a mass marketing blitz that was among the biggest I've personally seen anyway.

I mean, even their NPD press releases splurged about it.

http://news.xbox.com/2014/02/xbox-one-january-npd

We’re just getting started. Our team couldn’t be more excited for the upcoming launch of “Titanfall,” which is exclusive to Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. Recently called the “most important game in years,” a “game changer” and “system seller,” “Titanfall” has been heralded for its “spectacular action,” termed a “ridiculously good looking game,” and the “most exciting shooter in years.” For people who haven’t purchased Xbox One, we believe “Titanfall” will be the energizer to launch a new generation of gameplay.
 
Yes a lot of advertising is manufactured hype .... hell that is pretty much the description of advertising. I way I interpret false or manufactured hype is exactly what was done with Titanfall. Yes the game is good but it is not the second coming of sweet baby Jesus. That is what it was portrayed as by the media.

Using no mans sky and Evolve are very poor comparisons as they have not nearly had the same false hype marketing that Titan Fall did before release. There have been positive impressions of both Evolve and No Mans Sky but I have yet to see the same type of hyperbolic "Jesus is coming back" campaign that surrounded Titanfall before its release.

Yes as has been stated several times by different posters it is a decent/good game but it is absolutely not what it was hyped to be. This game does not "Melt Eyeballs" or "Redefine the shooting genre" all of that is what defines manufactured hype and this game had tons of it.

You know it's really refreshing to discover a GAF thread where I can't help but just say "AMEN! PREACH IT!" constantly. Nailed it dude. Well done
 
Oh well no, I am just going by Neogaf as a whole, that I think people are generally excited, despite the fact that it being on Sony's press conference this year but, you do have a point we don't have any previous work to go off of to be hyped about.
That's what I mean people LOVE to hype themselves up for games they haven't played or games they have played for a very short amount of time.

They praise the the game, they declare it GOTY by people that haven't spent more than a few hours with the game to see how it holds up. Then when the game doesn't pan out, they turn and complain how somebody force them into somehow hyping the game.

Players on sites like GAF are extremely efficient products without prior experience. It is the same with MMO which is why I usually say the following:
Unreleased MMOs are better than any MMO currently in the market...until they are released.

Replace "MMO" with "game" and it is the same thing. Once that game is released, the infinite potential it had in the minds of players faces reality.
 
Now that I think about it, a large part of that was probably down to Microsoft itself, and the sheer amount of money they were willing to spend marketing it. Remember, they came off the back off a terrible PR mess, and were falling behind the PS4 in sales, add to that they essentially had no other big exclusive to carry their banner for the first half of the year and level the playing field, so they massively invested in Titanfall as being their main ace with a mass marketing blitz that was among the biggest I've personally seen anyway.

I mean, even their NPD press releases splurged about it.

http://news.xbox.com/2014/02/xbox-one-january-npd

I question if EA even had to lift a finger about marketing it other than putting a page up on Origin and that's it, since MS was doing almost all of it themselves from what I saw.
 
Well, there the whole Activision $500 million dollar investment statement and Bungie saying the game didn't cost nearly that much to make.

If you want to see manufactured hype, well you're seeing a publisher try to do it even though I'm not sure this particular game needs it.
 
That's what I mean people LOVE to hype themselves up for games they haven't played or games they have played for a very short amount of time.

They praise the the game, they declare it GOTY by people that haven't spent more than a few hours with the game to see how it holds up. Then when the game doesn't pan out, they turn and complain how somebody force them into somehow hyping the game.

Players on sites like GAF are extremely efficient products without prior experience. It is the same with MMO which is why I usually say the following:


Replace "MMO" with "game" and it is the same thing. Once that game is released, the infinite potential it had in the minds of players faces reality.

It's an expensive trailer. Remember seeing movie trailers before the actual movie? Sometimes you think the trailer is better than the actual movie you went to see. Then you spend more money going to see that movie and you never ask yourself why you went to see the original movie in the first place. The same can be applied to games. You could be playing a very good game, then see a trailer by a big time studio and think to yourself, "wow, this trailer looks amazing, this new game might be the best one yet". It's a very critical statement to make because a lot those hyped games are good, they are playable, and they do get GOTY stamped on their cover.

It can also turn out the opposite way. You could very well have a horrible time with a game that once looked awesome when the trailer first launched (aka Force Unleashed).
 
I guess when the press go out of their way to promote and hype a game that otherwise doesn't look as deserved of that hype to a majority of their respective audiences. Like, don't get me wrong, Titanfall is a solid concept and looked exciting, but some of the hype that was thrown at it was bordering on laughable.

Eg, take these titbits from Ryan McCaffrey's IGN TitanFall preview.



Not to mention they had adverts plastered all over their site for the game for months.

Good god... It looks even more ridiculous now than it did back then.
 
The announcement of Titanfall's player count spawned a FIFTY-SEVEN PAGE THREAD.

Fifty seven pages of people talking about 6 players vs 6 players. 2,821 posts.

Clearly nobody gave a shit.

That's not hype, that's anti hype. People were pissed at the general bullshit of that situation and the sorry ass excuses. Of course, being the internet, people will generate all sorts of misguided, faux outrage, even over things they don't care about, just because they can. People find things to talk shit about, especially here on GAF. You and I know that. How many of those bitching actually wanted the game or even owned an Xbox One?

Like I said, my viewpoint is purely anecdotal. Titanfall was never going to be another Halo, Gears or CoD. Obviously, people cared, but not to the same degree as other games. And being a new IP had nothing to do with it.
 
I wouldn't consider Titanfall to have been manufactured hype. Hype was generated all on its own because of the pre-release betas for PC and Xbox One. Gamers were crawling all over each other to get an install key. Respawn hardly had to do anything but dangle them in front of everyone's faces.
Crawling all over each other? All you had to do was ask and EA would just give you a code.
 
ITT: People rewriting their memories pretending they weren't pining for Watch Dogs or Titanfall because they ended up being a letdown compared to their imaginations. The same thing will happen in a year or so if The Division fails to be the car door closing masterpiece many of us expect it to be.

Hindsight may be 20/20, but that's not a bad thing when examining recent past occurrences. How people felt then is part of the discussion for sure. It's relevant to where we were all dropped off when the hype train left.
 
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