Unreal Expectations

We speculate a lot regarding the games we're looking forward to before we get our hands on them. Some would say hype, but that's only part of it. In general though I think we could use a broader term that encompass both positive and negative which would be expectation. Every title that comes out have a certain amount of expectations on them due to their PR and history of that franchise (if there is one) and so on. But sometimes it seem that those expectations we have are so unreachable, unreal or even completely based in some dream that isn't real that the game cannot even begin to live up to those.

I remember when I first sat down and played Tomb Raider,it was with a close friend who had just received a brand new Playstation from his mom. And while it was unfortunate that he didn't receive a memory card (something he brought up to her and hilarity ensued considering how spoiled he sounded and how extremely angry she got), we still had a blast playing that game. Exploring the caves, solving puzzles, shooting bears. I remember me having to do all the swimming in that game, for some reason he just didn't take to that part and I had no problems with it. But I digress, my point is that a lot of the games during the Playstation era I had no expectations on, I took them on as I got them or played them at friend's houses. Until one fateful day..

Though I didn't have much expectations I did occasionally read some gaming magazine here (Sweden) called "Super Play" which generally came with a demo disc, which was pretty great. And in that magazine they had an article regarding upcoming games and one of the games really struck a chord in me; Fighting Force. Yes yes, in retrospect that seems like a really stupid thing. But at the time, being a fan of the old beat 'em ups this seemed like a revelation. They were talking about alternate paths, destructible environment, several playable character with varying styles and environmental weapons. And sure, if you play the game most of that is true in some respect, but it was a short and pretty average game and certainly not a true bearer of the beat 'em up legacy I had hoped. I think what has in retrospect soured that game even more was at that young fragile age, I figured it was a good idea to sell my NES to get that game.

Since then, I've been trying over time to temper my expectations and I've found that I am less negatively surprised with the purchases I do make. Mostly because I educate myself on the game and make sure I know the most I can before I decide to go down the path of actually buying it. But I've found you still have some expectations on games that you don't really get away from. Take the Uncharted franchise as an example, I know what that franchise is about. I knew it when I had played to a part in the first game where all the enemy waves took all the joy out of playing that game for me. But I still went on and bought the second one after it's huge praise, and while that game was better in every way, I still hated the parts of that game that revolved around action. And it dawned on me that my like for Uncharted isn't really the real uncharted. It's cherry picked sections of the game that I really like and I drag myself through the other parts to be able to enjoy those moments of bliss. Somehow, my brain won't accept that Uncharted is this way. Somehow I seem to still expect that game to conform to my want and not accept it as it is.

What really made me think about this was the wave of zombies coming out from their Skyrim coma and talking about the game as it was a big pile of disappointment. And it wasn't the ones saying they didn't get into it, but those who had played it for ungodly amount of hours and turned over every stone. They were disappointed and portrayed the game as boring and lackluster. And it blew my mind how you could put that many hours into something only to piss on it when you're done. But I think the Skyrim had a really huge wave that people were riding, stories were being told and it would seem as if the game was endless in possibilities. Several hours upon hours later and people are reaching the limits of what Skyrim has to offer and suddenly it's not enough. Why isn't there more to do here? Suddenly that zeitgeist wave crashed on itself and those that used to ride it now curse it. Did people think it was going to be endless?

Having expectations can be fun, and I sometimes miss being truly blindly excited as I used to when I didn't know as much about every possible purchase as I do now. But it's a fickle thing, that while in some cases when your expectations are exceeded you sing praises and write poetry about it (such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution for me), it can also crash and burn under those expectations and even if the game is still good you've already decided it's not because it doesn't meet your idea of what the game was supposed to be.