Opinion: Are we seeing too much of games before release?

In order to prepare myself for the (hopefully) unabashed joy of Dark Souls 3, I’ve been dipping back into the much underrated and overhated Dark Souls 2, which has involved me catching up on a bit of lore and even dipping into some of the ‘10 things you never knew’ series.

What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was the sheer number of individuals that must have had access the the three hour playthrough that Bandai Namco offered media and YouTubers of Dark Souls 3.

It seemed that for every three videos that were tagged I should consider watching next, there was at least another one that was offering a walkthrough of the first few hours of From’s next release.

Worst still, some delightful individual deciding to title his video with a spoiler.

So now I know, and while it doesn’t ruin the game, it’s one of those little magical discoveries that won’t have the same impact. And I wouldn’t have minded if I had spent the afternoon jumping from channel to channel, catching all the information that I could. No, I had made the decision early on to try to keep the Dark Souls 3 experience as pure as I could, including limiting my exposure to the beta and even the leaving the opening cinematic unwatched.

Are we seeing too much of Dark Souls 3, too early?

I’m dreading the end of March, when DS3 comes to the shores of Japan some three weeks before it lands in the West, as Twitter will potentially become a minefield of potential spoilers from importers, and no doubt the Twitch channels will also need to be avoided. I’m considering blocking Youtube altogether out of my life.

This slight tainting of the experience could be put to the side (I’m not a precious little snowflake), though it’s clear that the landscape in relation to how gaming is covered is changing quicker than ever. I heard a discussion recently on a podcast where out of a group of twenty or so representatives of Games Media at a preview event, only three were from a traditional website, with the rest being made up of Youtubers and Twitch Streamers. Such is the change in how game information is dispersed to the masses. Of course, these guys need the subscribers if they are interested in making a living from the games industry, and I wouldn’t begrudge them that.

We all know that it’s in the best interests of the publisher to have as many people talking about the game as they can. If that means showing more game than so be it. It ultimately will work in the Streamer’s favour as the more popular the channel, the more chance it has of being offered paid content and advertising, and while it’s something traditional websites have shuddered about grabbing because of ‘Ethics in Journalism’, how many twenty-one year olds do you know that wouldn’t jump at the chance to earn a sack of cash to play and stream a game for a couple of days?

Closed betas, open betas – remember what happened with Destiny?

If you are the streamer showing every last square inch of a beta or find all the secrets in a review copy then you get hits from a particular type of audience. So what’s to stop you sharing every last bit that you find? Or even shouting out loud that you have all the secrets? In the competitive world of content then nothing is unfair surely?

Well yes and no.

It is not uncommon to see the all too familiar ‘See the First X minutes of Y here before anyone else does!!’ as traditional media try to make sure they stay in the game. Headlines designed to entice and videos trying to compete over the streamers, whose business model is to get bums on seats and are quite happy to show anything, because if you don’t like what you see, you can move to another streamer. You’re always trying to match the trends as with any media.

The other danger being when the gameplay knowledge is out there in the Twittersphere, clicking on a trending topic becomes a risky maneuver and a scroll down a timeline can be a potential minefield as spoilers are retweeted out to the masses like a virus. Instead you are left to hoping one of the 500 people / news accounts you follow in the industry isn’t about to ruin your day or your whole month before something you’ve preordered is even out.

Did the Destiny beta harm expectations of the final game?

For the longest time we’ve been making videos and writing reviews and advising our audiences and pushing them towards the best experiences in what gaming has to offer. Alarmingly we seem to be heading towards a place where we could be in danger of ruining those same experiences for the very gamers we started in the industry to serve.

I fondly remember the traditional piecemeal sharing of information. Poring over the three screen shots of The Secret of Mana when it was announced for Western release without anything else known. Over the years this trickle has become a torrent and I know people who have no choice but to switch off, unfollow, or at worst block, because a game they don’t have access to is in real danger of having all of its greatest jewels laid out before us like a carcass after the lions have been.

You also have to ask the question about who this actually serves?

In the case of Dark Souls 3, my hand was on ‘buy’ when the game was announced. I was happy the game existed in the first place.

In truth, no amount of gameplay videos would have made me suddenly want to buy two or three additional copies. It’s a well known series that has gained a large army of followers. Even those who only sampled From’s genius beginning with Bloodborne will have no doubt at least checked out Dark Souls 2 to see what the fuss was about. A chance to check out the roots of this series that is meant to be so hard and unforgiving.

Just looking at the first and second games would have no doubt been more than enough. For those who did want more, do you think they were really wanting to see as much content as possible? Bloodborne hid the true tale of it’s lore so perfectly, some view it as more accessible than the Souls series so far in terms of its story. Would showing its true colours before release have added to its players enjoyment? I think not.

We now seem to have beta access as standard weeks before a new release and as we’ve seen, it still isn’t helping with day one multiplayer launches. You could be forgiven if you described them as demos more than tests. With many of us already rushing to avoid the spoilers when games are released, our first steps into a new world are precious as it is.

This isn’t a slight against the streaming community either. I’ve spent many a good hour watching Lobos Jr carry out impossible feats with his bare hands, and Fighting Cowboy has taken me through more walkthroughs than I can count. But these were always once I had a chance to play the game myself and experience what I was watching. It was always more to see what I missed or give me ideas to challenge myself further. Streamers remain an important and growing part of the gaming community and their influence on how marketing is carried out is undeniable.

I’m questioning why the publishers feel the need to raise awareness to the point where you sometimes feel it’s too much, almost too in your face, for weeks before the release date. You end up forming opinions, you can even end up questioning yourself as the all too familiar negative opinions float around too. When I much rather prefer the unknown. I like the mystery; I like finding things out for myself – I deserve it, I’ve paid my money after all.

Sometimes the responsible handling of a game pre-release means not spoiling the game for the people who most want to play it. So here I remain, trying to stay in the dark while all around me are switching the lights on.