One thing that every game maker wants for their creation is virality, that word of mouth phenomenon that creates legends out of things that might not ever be. In today's Devil's Advocate, we take a look at virality and its stepsister, hype. See what we've got to say before hopping into the comments to voice your ideas.

Virality is actually comprised of a bunch of different factors, but the basic idea is that the more something gets shared over a set period of time to a larger group of people, the more viral an item is. There are a number of ways to increase virality, but one of the basic ideas behind it is that when we see something we like or respond to in a manner that elicits sharing, we want to be able to share it in as painless a manner as possible.

Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s The Devil's Advocate: Virality and Hype.

This entire site is based of viral hype. After all the more something gets hyped the better it is. Just take a look at the last couple of articles about top games, and how they were being hyped. Most folks in those threads were rejecting the hype on a few of them.

Lets face it we all come to this site looking for the latest hype, or info on games that we love, hate, and are looking forward too.

I have said these same things over and over. One thing to note to is that we live in an instant society where we need to have things now. That has become something more noticable in the past 5 or so years.

I'm going to use wow becuase most have played and perhaps many wow was thier first mmorpg. The instant mentality did not present itself in wow, it was all new, each and every time you logged it it was new. Now...... fast forward 2013 we all know what an mmorpg is, we all now the routine, we all know there is crafting, leveling, pvp, dungeons, and blah blah blah, Yes some do it different then others and some leave out things and yadayadayada. The bottom line is we all have an expectation of what an mmorpg is to be. I'm afraid most of us want that same engaging feeling when it was all new and we want it now, and that's just not a reality.

This leads to the question, what do you expect in an mmorpg?

Right now for me..... Leveling can go out the window. Peopel should be able to log and have the capability to do anything anyone else can do at any given point in time. Why does wow live on ? Well... people do not need to level but a few levels to get capped and begin the real game. Despite the fact that it takes forever to get geared after you reach level cap, it feels like your close to reaching your goals once you know you don't have to level anymore.

Good evening folks.

Just a couple of things. 

1. In the paragraph right before the No Sweeping Gestures portion, I wrote, "That's one problem with MMORPGs today. They are marketed for virality and hype, and ultimately set up for higher heights upon which to fall from grace.' I'm not calling virality and hype problems here, but rather, I feel there's a problem with marketing games in this day and age. Apologies for any confusion!

2. Meddyck writes, "Maybe Diablo 3 and GW 2 just aren't that good. That's why many people including me played them intensively for a few weeks or months and now can't stomach the idea of even logging in."

Like it or not, that's sort of the point. The creation of high expectations and then the lack of continuing virality and and a means to justify the hype (such as through a lack of compelling content to advertise and keep people intrigued) can sometimes make things look sucky, even when the games themselves aren't actually bad.

That\s how I feel about WoW and GW2, for example. :)

Originally posted by erictlewis

This entire site is based of viral hype. After all the more something gets hyped the better it is. Just take a look at the last couple of articles about top games, and how they were being hyped. Most folks in those threads were rejecting the hype on a few of them.

Lets face it we all come to this site looking for the latest hype, or info on games that we love, hate, and are looking forward too.

 

Excellent point! One thing I will point out though is that there's a difference between providing people with information and then creating hype. 

MMORPG.com is sort of active in doing both, and I admit I am guilty of the same. I know that inasmuch as my TSW column is trying to parse information, for example, I also sometimes fall into the trap of my biases or the attention TSW is getting, such as when I wrote my "Darkest Evening of the Year" TSW post.

This meh feeling your describng sounds like something more than just the game was overhyped.  A couple of responces where someone admits they played the game intently for a while and now they just can't seem to log in anymore.

It reminds me of the old saying/adage familiarity breeds contempt.  That is you have played the game intently over a relativly short amount of time. You feel you have done what you want to do and know whats coming.  Suddenly your looking at what you have spent your time with and what other things you could of spent the time doing.  Niggles you previously ignored start to leap out at you and your priorities shift to things you missed while you devoted yourself to the game.  Now logging in becomes a chore and eventually you reach the stage of contempt.

Guess what your not alone I have done this to a few games myself.  I had lots of time on my hands and spent alot of it playing a game till I eventually got bored of it and found myself not logging in every day and being bored when I eventually did log in.  Now I have a job so I have less time to spend playing a game and so when I do play a game it's not as intence and as a result the games I do play tend to last longer.

Thats enough phyco analysis from me and do note I have no actual phycological training so take my words with a big dose of salt couse I may be totally wrong.

Excellent posts folks I always read this column and replies with pleasure.

As for Hype and viral marketing they are just tools but a very powerful ones at that.

When used with skill they can create illusion of greatness and need/hunger of joining in to the event which may be anything. This seem to work best when hype is build on unreleased product which isn't fully tested or reviewed thus hype can hang securely on just expectation of greatness.

Good example would be release of Diablo 3 the game which may be seen as disappointment only because it didn't shine as 10/10 everywhere but who's to blame there developers ? or maybe marketing ? or maybe even players who get driven into hype increasing expectations above what is reality. Game in itself is just great Hack'n'Slash because that's what it is and it's the most fun at that from any title in this genre I know. The quality was there but fable greatness was  lacking.

Ask yourself why do we want to believe in this marketing fables so much ?

@risenbones I can relate quite a lot to what you said.

Mainly about this logging in being a chore. There is always something about a game that makes it fun to play and a moment in life that you notice that the fun factor became so small now that watching new tv show feels like time better spent. I stopped playing WoW because as you said I knew what to expect. With repetition of that I just kept feeling that fun factor diminishes with every week I play some things that was mediocre started becoming a chore for me and very fun stuff like heroics or raids were just meh.

So there is that magical Fun factor that keeps u engaged and I find this amazing because it's different for everyone I met people absolutely loving and playing for years in games that for me are just horrible d grade piece of s*** to put it lightly. But it is fun for them you can't hold this against anyone... unless he finds that breaking laws is fun.

I think for me biggest fun factor is constant improvement and learning new stuff in games as in life so as I love many genres I tend to stick around longest hours with those like DotA.

What make is most fun for you guys ?

 

fixed spelling xd

The way I look at it is companies have to advertise. What's more, if they have investors  they need to do whatever they can to build hype and get people buying. If they don't they can get sued for not doing whatever they could to get a return on the investors' money.

It's up to players to be responsible consumers, do their due dilligence and not approach every game like a kid on christmas morning.

It's nice to get excited about things but it's also nice to approach the world with eyes wide open and realize that in the end you are responsible for your own well  being. And wallet.

Can I call you sometimes and talk about mmorpgs? 

I have a friend, hell probably best friend that I talk sports with. We never agree on anything talked about, but our conversation is governed by the "understood." 

I'm betting the virality and hype plays a factor, but I don't think that's the cause.

I think the biggest problem people have today is that they are trying to reclaim that feeling they got from their first MMO, whether that's EQ, WoW, whatever. While you can get feelings similar to your first MMO (honeymoon period), eventually you realize that this game isn't your first MMO.

I'm willing to bet that if you made an exact copy of someone's first MMO, called it something else, and just updated the graphics, they still wouldn't be able to play for more than a month or two. 

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Originally posted by Sovrath
The way I look at it is companies have to advertise. What's more, if they have investors  they need to do whatever they can to build hype and get people buying. If they don't they can get sued for not doing whatever they could to get a return on the investors' money.

It's up to players to be responsible consumers, do their due dilligence and not approach every game like a kid on christmas morning.

It's nice to get excited about things but it's also nice to approach the world with eyes wide open and realize that in the end you are responsible for your own well  being. And wallet.

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Originally posted by AlBQuirky

 

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Originally posted by Sovrath
The way I look at it is companies have to advertise. What's more, if they have investors  they need to do whatever they can to build hype and get people buying. If they don't they can get sued for not doing whatever they could to get a return on the investors' money.

 

It's up to players to be responsible consumers, do their due dilligence and not approach every game like a kid on christmas morning.

It's nice to get excited about things but it's also nice to approach the world with eyes wide open and realize that in the end you are responsible for your own well  being. And wallet.

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Very well stated and to the point. I could not agree more with you on this.

 

 

That's very optimistic thinking about us humans so highly but the truth is we follow hype like sheep. Comming back at D3 or GW2 just go and check sales at first 3 days and preoders numbers go in milions and it's all thanks to well planned marketing. I don't find it a big problem when marketing and developers deliver what they said... but this kind of trust spawned something like WarZ because people think they can buy stuff on hype without checking reviews and always expect top notch quality. Last time I've seen the numbers ScamZ scored +600,000 buyers but don't quote me on that :P

Originally posted by victorbjr

Originally posted by erictlewis

This entire site is based of viral hype. After all the more something gets hyped the better it is. Just take a look at the last couple of articles about top games, and how they were being hyped. Most folks in those threads were rejecting the hype on a few of them.

Lets face it we all come to this site looking for the latest hype, or info on games that we love, hate, and are looking forward too.

 

Excellent point! One thing I will point out though is that there's a difference between providing people with information and then creating hype. 

MMORPG.com is sort of active in doing both, and I admit I am guilty of the same. I know that inasmuch as my TSW column is trying to parse information, for example, I also sometimes fall into the trap of my biases or the attention TSW is getting, such as when I wrote my "Darkest Evening of the Year" TSW post.

A couple counterpoints becuse I disagree with your conclusions.  I'm at work and so had to speed read the article, so if I missed something I'll go back and read it later.

This, and pretty much any other gaming site, doesn't just provide information.  MSDN provides information in its .NET API reference.  Wikipedia provides information.  Whitepapers provide information.  Gaming sites hype up information and generate buzz to keep visitors returning and clicking.  There is nothing wrong with that in my opinion.  It offers us as users the opportunity to get excited about what you're reporting.

Second I disagree with how you put the onus of the problem on the hype generators.  Hype is only as powerful as the person receiving it and people need to be held accountable for their own expectations and emotions.  If you feel sad, happy, mad, indignant, elated, and anything else on the emotional spectrum you're responsible for that, not some external force.  It's how you choose to respond to the event and stimulus.  If you generate expectations based on how you interpret the buzz then you are solely responsible for that.

The hype problem is solved by individuals managing themselves and taking responsiblity for how they react and being accountable for that.

Alas, as methods of engineering viral hype become more successful, it inevitably undermines the value of real honest-to-goodness positive word of mouth.

Originally posted by AlBQuirky

 

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Originally posted by Sovrath
The way I look at it is companies have to advertise. What's more, if they have investors  they need to do whatever they can to build hype and get people buying. If they don't they can get sued for not doing whatever they could to get a return on the investors' money.

 

It's up to players to be responsible consumers, do their due dilligence and not approach every game like a kid on christmas morning.

It's nice to get excited about things but it's also nice to approach the world with eyes wide open and realize that in the end you are responsible for your own well  being. And wallet.

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Very well stated and to the point. I could not agree more with you on this.

 

Couldn't disagree more with you both.

When I was working in marketing and advertising back in the late 80's it used to be a fairly well understood maxim "The more advertising, the less quality..." and words to that effect. You state "companies have to advertise" yet there are millions who don't advertise at all in the way we are talking about here. Most of those rely on word of mouth, or are intergrated enough into their market that advertising is just a waste of money. Rather than coercion by force of sensory bombardment, many, many companies around the world just provide quality goods, and are know for it.

I am not arguing that your statement is inaccurate because there is no case for advertising and marketing, but that it is inaccurate because it is contrary to the lived experience of many companies around the world. Will MMORPG abandon their model? Why should they, their customers, no matter how temporary, are behaving just how they want them, and as the journalists that report about them get caught up in the hype and bias just as much as the customers, abondoning any critical thinking, but that is another story.

Well written article. Basically everyone has their own opinion, communication is subjective, and marketers that can successfully blur the line between hype and virality are powerful indeed.

I feel like the best indicator of quality and subtance comes over time (although this is also relative). Wait and see what happens to Diablo III a month after release, or check out Gangnam Style after it's generated 50 million views... once something has crossed that gray line from hype into virality you're more likely to find a really polished finish product.