How far ahead do you look?

Battlerock

Seems like the hype wheel starts spinning very early anymore in game announcement. How far ahead do you look and actually become excited about these games? A month or two, a year or two or longer? Maybe you do the opposite, do you only play games that are 2 or more years older? Your excited for a game to turn 2 so you can finally jump in? What would happen if we started shining spotlights on games that were turning 2 instead of games that are 2 years from release?

Nanfoodle

I started following rumors of BioWare making SWToR 6 months before they announced it and read almost every update after that for years. I kinda like game development and its a dream job I wish I had lol. I only follow games like that if they mean something to me. Huge fan of ToR and SW so I was wishing that game was an MMO years before anyone was working on it. EQ was my first love so I am reading everything can on EQN. Same with the books Wheel of Time. I think I Google that title a dozen times a month in hopes it turns into a MMO. 

I dont follow every new MMO and games that dont make my radar huge like say CU, I wont read much on it till its released and people are playing it and I can get player reviews. Short answer, I have followed some MMOs for 5+ years. 

Pepeq

I'm only interested in what the game has AT RELEASE.  I may glance at a website or whatnot when they first start showing stuff on a game in development, but I certainly don't spend all my waking hours following it like some cult.  I think there is far too much emphasis on what is on the horizon and not enough on what is actually released and playable today.  

In other words, we've already tarred and feathered every title due to be released long before it actually hits the streets... or on the flipside announced it as the second coming of Christ long before any proof of said arrival is ever seen.

Personally I think the less you even know about what is on the horizon, the better.  Can't tar and feather that which hasn't been announced and you certainly can't claim a second coming either.  Because games today are over talked, shown, played, scrutinized, et al well before it's actual release, it's no wonder they all fall flat.

I miss the surprise and wonder of finding out stuff when you actually install the game at release... but then I have patience... most gamers can't even hold it until they get to the rest room. 

Kyleran

I'm paying almost no attention to any new game these days, outside of what someone might share on these forums.

Pretty sure few, if any games will appeal to me, and as suggested, probably will wait until well past launch to see if a title has any real staying power.

 

Boneserino

Probably about a month before I can actually play the game.  If I like what I can see at that point, I can get a little excited.   However even then I can easily be let down. 

 

Case in point:   The Repopulation

phantomghost

I check to see what new games are coming out.  After the past 10 years or so of terrible games, I don't usually get excited about a game.  

Once they make an MMO a bit more social and focused on people who have more than a few minutes to spare at any given sessions, maybe I will get more excited to play a game.  

Wizardry

Only one game did i actually follow many years prior and that was FFXIV.I started looking for information about the same time it became a rumor,about 5 years prior.

The closer it got the more i became disappointed.I think it was actually closer to 6 years bu none the less,i knew that once rumors started about a new game engine,i knew the game was going to be rushed into about a 3 year time frame instead of the normal 5 year.

I was a bit excited about a EQ2 but did not really do any following prior,i just waited for it to come out.

Distopia

Basically beta, is where I may start following a game, I barely read anything about new titles until they are playable.

Battlerock

Great responses here,  so far the trend appears to be fairly late in the development process or even later.  This has me thinking about another question, it's worth a new thread rather than hijacking my own.  

Gruug

I look at what the game is about...it "lore" if you will. I look at the type of progression...level based or just skills earned. I finally look at whether it has a microtransaction/cash  shop or not. Much of the last two items are not mentioned much until the game gets closer to beta and/or launch. So, I can only be mildly interested until they announce those last. Games that fall into the last category I will dismise out of hand.

vadio123

Well i look often about mmonews and updates 

but i stop hype long time ago in release i test , see if like or not and make myself review 

and start avoid any beta/early acess/kickstart 

nariusseldon

Originally posted by Battlerock
Seems like the hype wheel starts spinning very early anymore in game announcement. How far ahead do you look and actually become excited about these games? A month or two, a year or two or longer? Maybe you do the opposite, do you only play games that are 2 or more years older? Your excited for a game to turn 2 so you can finally jump in? What would happen if we started shining spotlights on games that were turning 2 instead of games that are 2 years from release?

Opposite ... I usually get games only after they are being discounted on steam .. unless it is a f2p MMO and I may check it out. There are enough fun games that i have no time to play, that I don't have to jump into a new game whenever it comes out.

Now i have to admit i like certain games enough to buy on the first day (D3 is probably the only example in the last 5 years though) but that is very very rare for me. Again, except the f2p games which if i have 5 min, i may check out.

 

 

cyberpunkhobo

I love reading about games in development and occasionally I'll check out a beta for curiosity's sake, but I rarely play new MMOs at release nowadays. Over the past few years, the earliest I've jumped into a game was 9 months after release (and that was FFXIV:ARR, a game I even had the chance to try during alpha).

I'm almost certain the next time I find myself looking for a new MMO it'll be one of the "expired" ones. There's a certain comfort in knowing ahead of time what the updates coming to a game will be, or even knowing that there are no more updates coming at all. A static world probably isn't something most MMO gamers are interested in, but it's always been something I found rather appealing.

Hartagon

Depends on the game and the developer.

Bethesda's next RPG hasn't even been officially revealed yet, but I am hyped for it regardless and have looked for news on it all the time since early 2012 after playing Skyrim for two straight months.

Bioware had a teaser for Mass Effect 4 that didn't show much at all a year or two ago, I was hyped then and continue to be hyped now even though that game is likely 2016 or even later.

If I know the developer to be of high quality and the title to be something I am interested in then there is no limit to how early I start looking into it...

SWTOR for example... In 2008 when I heard Bioware was making a Star Wars MMO set in the era of KOTOR, I was crazy about it... I made an account on their site instantly and used their forums regularly for years until I got into my first weekend test early in 2011... The game didn't turn out so great (not terrible, but not revolutionary by any means), but I was very much looking forward to that game all the way through its launch, I even quit WoW to play it for most of early 2012.

I don't think I would delve to Duke Nukem Forever fan levels of waiting for/hyping a game for 15 years... But a few years sure if I am into it.  

sunandshadow

I don't really have time to comb through kickstarter and steam looking at in-development projects.  There doesn't seem to be some kind of free online magazine or news site that covers all new mmo kickstarters and greenlight campaigns.  (I have the same problem with novels - you just can't get a list of all the novels in a genre that are published each month.)  I often don't hear an MMO exists until other people are already playing it.