No Man's Sky

[ubernoob]

Re: No Man's Sky

To be completely fair, Hello Games didn't say too much about the game.

That goes both ways. They didn't overhype their game, but they didn't need to because the fans did and they didn't temper expectations. Not that they should have, but it was clear as day what this game was before it released. People just chose to ignore reason.

[Pappy Knuckles]

Re: No Man's Sky

The only thing this game promised before release was a ton of exploration. Not sure why the hype meter went through the roof for it the way that it did, but it certainly died down quickly after it was released. Nothing they showed visually looked interesting to me at all, and I don't think they tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. They cashed in, though. Props to the devs.

[Burns11]

Re: No Man's Sky

Oh come on, that hype didn't come from nowhere, it came directly from Hello Game's own statements and demonstrations. This didn't come from nowhere, and as the game came together and a ton of these details were getting cut they suddenly become quiet and coy? This wasn't just one guy losing his ****, these were commonly believed features backed up by only evidence directly from what Hello Games said and showed.

Just because you quiet down doesn't make what you said prior go away, and it's 100% on the dev to manage expectations, that's part of marketing. There's only one reason you don't manage expectations, and that's because you don't believe in the end product and need as many suckers as possible (see: horrible movie that needs that first weekend because it's going to bomb). I'm not saying that's what HG did or why they did it, just an illustration that managing expectations is part of marketing and why one wouldn't.

This whole thing feels like something that needs to be presented at GCC or one of the indie conferences.

[kingkilla56]

Re: No Man's Sky

To be completely fair, Hello Games didn't say too much about the game.

That goes both ways. They didn't overhype their game, but they didn't need to because the fans did and they didn't temper expectations. Not that they should have, but it was clear as day what this game was before it released. People just chose to ignore reason.

They said a lot about the game. And a lot of it proved to not be in the final product. It wasn't clear as day what this game was before it released. If that were the case, it wouldn't have this fallout.

Like I said way back, ignoring that giant Reddit page listing every feature shown or said to be in the game by Hellogames that ultimately didn't make final cut, is absolving HG of fault. And it's bs. If they had once come out before to temper expectations, say not all goals were met, anything like this, perhaps expectations would be tempered and people wouldnt be giving them as much **** as they're getting. But they didn't. They didn't for the same reason Vanilla Destiny didn't, Vanilla Division didn't, Watchdogs didn't, AC Unity didn't, etc etc and it's because the hype pushes the sales through the roof. Why temper the hype when the hype gets your studio on the map financially speaking?

Don't make excuses for HG. They don't have any excuses.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: No Man's Sky

Some interesting commentary on No Man's Sky and the current climate, etc..

Pretty level viewpoints, and I find that I am agreeing with each one's feedback.

Starts at 36:40 and goes to 43:30.

https://youtu.be/C1OA3yhkteU?t=36m40s

[The JareBear]

Re: No Man's Sky

To be completely fair, Hello Games didn't say too much about the game.

That goes both ways. They didn't overhype their game, but they didn't need to because the fans did and they didn't temper expectations. Not that they should have, but it was clear as day what this game was before it released. People just chose to ignore reason.

The only thing this game promised before release was a ton of exploration. Not sure why the hype meter went through the roof for it the way that it did, but it certainly died down quickly after it was released. Nothing they showed visually looked interesting to me at all, and I don't think they tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. They cashed in, though. Props to the devs.

I know that we have gone over this already in this thread, but you guys read through that Reddit post about all the things Sean said or hinted would be in the game and aren't, even things that were in IGN showcase videos months ago?

The primary defense to that thread, that I have seen, is that a lot of Seans comments were from 2014. I get that, and I know that things change in development, but communication from Sean and HG during this process is maybe the worst I have ever seen from a dev...Ever.

Even Angry Joe's review directly features a few of the clips of Sean saying "this and that" when neither are actually in the game.

Sean and HG are not above reproach. A lot of what happened was due to the fanbase ready to put this game on a pedestal before anyone even played it, but a lot of that, and more, could have been solved with some developer transparency.

The game we got, in more than a few ways, isnt quite the game they showed or told us we would be getting, in my opinion.

It's ok to like this game, but for some reason a lot of the fanbase just won't allow people not to like it. I am NOT talking about this forum, but moreso Reddit and other places. It really got ugly around the internet for awhile, seems to be calming down now.

[ubernoob]

Re: No Man's Sky

I never really paid any attention to that reddit stuff, and well before the game was released (not sure if in this thread or on Twitter or where else) I said that it was nothing more than a fancy tech demo with very little game around it. The hyped people just didn't want to listen.

It was pretty damn clear, especially with HG silence.

[mgoblue]

Re: No Man's Sky

Some interesting commentary on No Man's Sky and the current climate, etc..

Pretty level viewpoints, and I find that I am agreeing with each one's feedback.

Starts at 36:40 and goes to 43:30.

https://youtu.be/C1OA3yhkteU?t=36m40s

I would agree...improperly marketed, but people shouldn't take joy out of their failures.

Hopefully they'll build on it and make it what it could be. Just not sure if enough people will stick around or not...

That was a good clip!

I do understand the "they're trying and may not deliver on promises" idea, but how does that apply to games like The Division or Watch Dogs that get killed as well for not delivering on promise?

It all really just comes down to the marketing plan, having Sean and the game shown way too much, and having things change way too much....if this was a bit more under the radar in that respect it'd be a lot less crazy.

[mestevo]

Re: No Man's Sky

'A mile wide but an inch deep' might be the most succinct and accurate game description I've ever read.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[The JareBear]

Re: No Man's Sky

Here's something I was thinking about....

I feel like it is kind of like this. If EA, all year long, touted formation subs as being the big new feature in M17, and then M17 launched and formation subs weren't in the game or they are in the game but only for ranked matches (something like that), could you imagine the hellfire that would ensue? Or, if 9 months before release EA tweeted out "All-22 true step!" and that's it, no clarification, not addressing it again, and all-22 true step wasn't in the game (knowing full well all the speculation that tweet would have stirred up leading up to release), there would have been a huge uproar.

Does that comparison apply 100 percent to NMS, maybe not, but I think it is close enough to think about. Not saying it is a bulletproof analogy.

I feel like for a team of 13 people, or whatever, HG put out a really cool little indie game. I understand that an indie studio like HG probably shouldn't be held to the same standard of EA or Ubi or whatever, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have done a much better job on the PR side.

[TracerBullet]

Re: No Man's Sky

I never really paid any attention to that reddit stuff, and well before the game was released (not sure if in this thread or on Twitter or where else) I said that it was nothing more than a fancy tech demo with very little game around it. The hyped people just didn't want to listen.

It was pretty damn clear, especially with HG silence.

I know for sure my opinion flipped from E3 2014 to 2015 and beyond. Still didn't think it would be as bare bones as it ended up being. And I'm pretty sure that tech demo comment you made was in a conversation between us on Twitter after I expressed my doubts on the game being as good as I originally thought it would be.

[The JareBear]

Re: No Man's Sky

I honestly feel like the best thing for this game would have been that we never even heard of it until like 6 months ago. If this game just popped up out of nowhere this year recently and was sold for 40 bucks or less it probably would be crowned as a big time achievement.

[sbauer318]

Re: No Man's Sky

Here's something I was thinking about....

I feel like it is kind of like this. If EA, all year long, touted formation subs as being the big new feature in M17, and then M17 launched and formation subs weren't in the game or they are in the game but only for ranked matches (something like that), could you imagine the hellfire that would ensue? Or, if 9 months before release EA tweeted out "All-22 true step!" and that's it, no clarification, not addressing it again, and all-22 true step wasn't in the game (knowing full well all the speculation that tweet would have stirred up leading up to release), there would have been a huge uproar.

Does that comparison apply 100 percent to NMS, maybe not, but I think it is close enough to think about. Not saying it is a bulletproof analogy.

I feel like for a team of 13 people, or whatever, HG put out a really cool little indie game. I understand that an indie studio like HG probably shouldn't be held to the same standard of EA or Ubi or whatever, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have done a much better job on the PR side.

It sounds crazy, but you get classified and categorized by the price of your game. If it was cheaper and priced like a typical indie release, you wouldn't see the same backlash. But because it was $60, they're being held to a different standard.

But yeah, to your original post, if you're going to say something is in the game at some point during its development, you should issue a correction if it got pulled or delayed. People have been asking for franchise creation/relocation in The Show, and if Sony said it was in the game, but the release didn't actually have it, the MLB The Show forum would implode.

Dev communication for this game has been horrible, even up to the last week before release. Instead of communicating the PC release date, Sean spent time criticizing people watching/posting videos. It seemed like he really didn't want to spoil the game for people (even though people could, you know, not click on a link), but now the cynic in me wonders if he was concerned about the game's lack of depth being communicated before launch.

[Burns11]

Re: No Man's Sky

I feel like for a team of 13 people, or whatever, HG put out a really cool little indie game. I understand that an indie studio like HG probably shouldn't be held to the same standard of EA or Ubi or whatever, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't have done a much better job on the PR side.

100% disagree with this, doesn't matter if you are one person making a thing in your basement or 1000 people in some corporate office park, all that matters is the end product. I know that really wasn't your point here, but too often people give indie games a pass because they are indie and hold games made by established publishers and studios to some more stringent standards.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: No Man's Sky

Pretty cool video/theory on the Portals.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/13G04LM7n3M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/13G04LM7n3M

Steam thread on puzzle pieces and the like:

Huge Puzzle pieces I Solved (Technically).