Is not knowing more fun?

Meltdown

Really... if you knew everything about a game before it was released that would be a total snoozefest. Not to mention the possibility of actual in-game "mysteries" and things not so explicitly spelled out. Hopefully this was all done on purpose to prove that what we really want is the truth hidden from us so we can run around wildly speculating about things... because not knowing is way more fun than knowing.

Xthos

Not knowing what type of game, and the gameplay, no, not for me.  I do not mean every little thing and how it works, like in EQ, people didn't know a lot of stuff when it came out, but you knew what type of game it was basically.  So I will be eagerly awaiting the good or bad news.

 

Not knowing secrets in the game, and exploring the unknown....sure.

 

Ramanadjinn

A post I made some time ago:

I no longer trust developers when they say things such as "Trust us Ilum will be great, just wait and see." I want to know everything up front that is possible to know about every thing that is feasible. The only thing i don't need to know is the story and lore.

Its so disheartening waiting for a game to release, being so excited to explore it, and playing it only to find there really is no more exploration involved than there was in Super Mario Brothers.

 

.. so thats my take.  I don't need to know anything but how the game works and what drives it.. I want to be as informed as possible so I don't waste time and money on something that turns out to just be WOW.  I've bought WOW 3 times now and I don't want to make it 4.

Aelious

I think it's more exciting now, but I would like o know all the gameplay features before I'm expected to play. Of course EQN will be free to play but I'd still like to know the nuts and bolts. The rest of the game including lore and locals can be a surprise.

In fact I hope they don't show fly-throughs of zones before hand because I want to see them in game. All the technical aspects? Yeah, I'd like to know first.

Heretique

Personally can't wait until all the speculation can be over. People are coming out with "X-Files'-esque kind of ideas that this game will have.

Lokero

Originally posted by Heretique
Personally can't wait until all the speculation can be over. People are coming out with "X-Files'-esque kind of ideas that this game will have.

Haha. Not to mention all the posting of our ideas we'd like to see added to the game, even though the game is basically made already(I think it's a bit late to being trying to convince them to design it new ways).

I enjoy the not knowing.  It entertains me to read the blind fanboy style posts, and the countering blind hatred posts, etc.  It's especially fun to watch people talk about what the game is like as if they've been playing it for years, for instance, telling others how it's going to have this feature or that, and be like this or that, like their imagination is reality.

So, yeah, it's pretty fun in the pre- stages of a game's release.  It's almost like participating in a particularly silly comic strip.

TheJoda

Yes it is, after all the recent let downs.......lets HOPE a little longer!

Justsomenoob

I've had fun with the speculation, it has been more fun to me.

I'm ready for the info now (not like it's long, aug 2nd is a week from tomorrow) but I had fun with it too.

zevni78

I am too worried to have fun with the mystery as I don't trust MMO devs to know what they are doing. They have made so many jaw dropping mistakes that everyone here could have (and often did) predict. FFXIV 1.0 for e.g. shows how out of touch devs can be. They lack common sense, and are always behind the curve, (not entirely their fault given how long MMOs take to make).

 

Look at the opposite practice to SOE, Shroud of the Avatar, every step of the development is being shown and explained, and even includes player made assets. Though there won't be any mystery outside the story there is at least no question as to whether you will enjoy it or not. The devs are as up to date with gameplay tastes as the players.

 

We are having to put a LOT of blind faith in Smed and SOE, no mmo dev team has yet earned that from us.

 

fyerwall

Not knowing is fun.

But, It is also very dangerous.

Mystery is a great thing as it allows one to use their imagination to find the answers. But it also leads to a lot of bad theories and even worse, a lot of hurt feelings. Not knowing about a game in development is great because it builds a lot of hype for the company/game, but it also creates a lot of wild speculation. People start assuming the game will contain this or that, have all the features they want because a little tidbit or tweet from a dev vaguely affirms their assumptions. Then the game comes out, a lot of people go into a rage fit because this and that was promised (never was, but they assumed...) and not delivered.

The developers are now taking flack because they let the speculation run wild and fueled the fire with vague and ambiguous statements. Gamers are taking to the forums spreading the word of how the developer lied to them (though nothing was ever confirmed) and causing a lot of people to jump onto the lynch-mob bandwagon.

And everyone here knows the rest of the story as we have seen it every time a game launches and for the next 6+ months after.

Lokero

Originally posted by fyerwall

Not knowing is fun.

But, It is also very dangerous.

Mystery is a great thing as it allows one to use their imagination to find the answers. But it also leads to a lot of bad theories and even worse, a lot of hurt feelings. Not knowing about a game in development is great because it builds a lot of hype for the company/game, but it also creates a lot of wild speculation. People start assuming the game will contain this or that, have all the features they want because a little tidbit or tweet from a dev vaguely affirms their assumptions. Then the game comes out, a lot of people go into a rage fit because this and that was promised (never was, but they assumed...) and not delivered.

The developers are now taking flack because they let the speculation run wild and fueled the fire with vague and ambiguous statements. Gamers are taking to the forums spreading the word of how the developer lied to them (though nothing was ever confirmed) and causing a lot of people to jump onto the lynch-mob bandwagon.

And everyone here knows the rest of the story as we have seen it every time a game launches and for the next 6+ months after.

Well, the unknown isn't really any different from if we knew every detail.  People are going to bitch and moan over something, regardless.  The devs are damned-if-they-do and damned-if-they-don't.  Nothing can stop that with so many people wanting different things from them.

Though, I would agree, those random and vague dev tweets and their hinted affirmations are far more dangerous and likely to come back and kick them in the butt.

Long term, I don't think it's really any different than what all other games do - Give a big features list and then not deliver on half of them.  

It's better for the internet fools to create their own imaginary lists and not have them delivered than for the developers to give a list and not deliver, IMO.  So, I'd rather they just keep silent until it's all set in stone like they are doing.

But, I do see your point, there are several people on this forum alone who are convinced they know everything about the game and what it entails already.  I hardly see that as the developers' problem though, they can't stop fan-based imagination.   Even if they were to tell 90% of the features of their game, the crazy fans would still believe their own speculation about the last 10% and go frantic when it turned out to not exist.

Telondariel

Originally posted by Meltdown
Really... if you knew everything about a game before it was released that would be a total snoozefest. Not to mention the possibility of actual in-game "mysteries" and things not so explicitly spelled out. Hopefully this was all done on purpose to prove that what we really want is the truth hidden from us so we can run around wildly speculating about things... because not knowing is way more fun than knowing.

What I dislike about the entire last year and a half, and more concentratedly in the last 6 months, is the sheer degree of intentional manipulation Dave and Smed have been involved in.  Fun?  No.  It's been annoying.

 

I have to hope to the gods that EQN really is all that and a bag of chips or the fallout of these teaser games they're playing is going to bite them extremely hard in the hindquarters.

donpopuki

I have fun speculating. My day job is in a scientific capacity, so I enjoy building models and making hypotheses. You get to test your ideas and see which ones turn out to be true or which ones where way off.

People who don't speculate do not have the benefit of hind-sight.

zevni78

Originally posted by donpopuki
I have fun speculating. My day job is in a scientific capacity, so I enjoy building models and making hypotheses. You get to test your ideas and see which ones turn out to be true or which ones where way off.

People who don't speculate do not have the benefit of hind-sight.

The problem here is there is not enough data for any model with good predictive power, so we end up with a huge amount of alternative hypotheses, and there is no way to logically limit them, as MMO devs are not logical, and knowing the truth when all the data does come out wont be very satisfying for most as this isn't a search for objective reality, but a yearning for the type of game they want. 

 

Most I fear will be disappointed, and it's SOEs fault for black boxing it for so long, allowing all the sandbox fans to get their hopes up rather than let them down early.

donpopuki

Originally posted by zevni78

Originally posted by donpopuki
I have fun speculating. My day job is in a scientific capacity, so I enjoy building models and making hypotheses. You get to test your ideas and see which ones turn out to be true or which ones where way off.

People who don't speculate do not have the benefit of hind-sight.

The problem here is there is not enough data for any model with good predictive power, so we end up with a huge amount of alternative hypotheses, and there is no way to logically limit them, as MMO devs are not logical, and knowing the truth when all the data does come out wont be very satisfying for most as this isn't a search for objective reality, but a yearning for the type of game they want. 

 

Most I fear will be disappointed, and it's SOEs fault for black boxing it for so long, allowing all the sandbox fans to get their hopes up rather than let them down early.

I'm not sure why some folks are so touchy about being let down. If the game is good then it's good, if it's bad then it's bad. Simple right? Going in with high hopes or low expect ions doesn't make much of a difference to me, especially if the game is free to play. What did I lose? My time? If I have extremely low expectations then I won't even bother to try the game. I've only once dished out cash and felt I didn't get my monies worth (TERA). Sure there were lots of game that didn't keep my attention more than a year but hey mmos are bargain when it comes to fun. 

Sometimes these forums seem to get carried away as if being let down by a game is a life or death situation. So while I appreciate your concern about my feelings and hoping that I won't get my hopes crushed by the scamming devs, I still enjoy speculating. 

Iselin

Games we know nothing about can do no wrong.