Hype can lead to disappointment if expectations are not met

DARKB1KE

Commander
Jul 27, 2016
412
472
63
#1
Hey everyone,

While it's great that everyone is super pumped up for the successor, just keep this in the back of your mind while moving forwards. Hype can lead to disappointment if expectations are not met.

Let that sink in for a bit.

Hype can lead to disappointment if expectations are not met.

Okay got it stored away?
Great.

We are all excited here, our minds are racing with unlimited potentials and possibilities of what this game might have in the future. It's got a heavy tab to pick up, no doubt about that. Okay, so your mind is racing of all the things you want to see, and don't want it to be, and we all have our own unique view of what we want from the game. Some of us love certain features above others, etc. You're dreaming up abilities and weapons and game mechanics of mobility and flight and jetpacks. We want crafting and consequences and wars and factions and ever-changing worlds. A real living game world that changes on our actions.... The sky is the limit right!?

That's the trap.

In our minds we create a version of what the game will be in the end. If that vision is not met to a certain degree you will come out of it disappointed. It's natural, its what our brains do automatically/subconciously.

Be real with yourself and with the technology available. Be real with the deadlines and the manpower available to create this project. There may be limitations hit that may change things.... you never know! The old game set the bar pretty high on what it wanted to achieve, and we saw how that fell apart in a domino effect from the top down. Are these evolving worlds even possible to create? Why hasn't anyone done it yet? There's answers somewhere out there but first we must ask ourselves these questions.... That's what being real is, finding out if something is actually possible and admitting if it cannot be done, and moving onwards to other solutions.

So the trap is that we want this perfect game in our minds, and if it's nothing like the final outcome... we end up disappointed.

What I propose is to set your expectations really low. I'm not saying to stop thinking up and dreaming ideas, far from it, but to just always remember that if your ideas don't happen, it's not the end of the world. If you have no expectations then you will always be surprised by what you get. This is how I went into FireFall from the beginning. I knew it was an ongoing iterative beta meaning it could change at any point in time. I set my bar low so that if things changed, if they had to wipe anything from inventories, I did not care. I was just enjoying the moment and the time spent playing. Bugs did not bother me at all because I was real with myself that they happen. (But the people making the game should still be accountable for fixing these in a timely manner).

Think how many people were disappointed when armies never happened, when warfronts never happened, when invasions were removed, when zones were removed, when the crafting was all changed, when it went so vertical.... these are all people who bought into FireFall for a reason. They wanted something out of the game that was not met or was never possible to be reached....

I will end this article soon here, but I want to hammer down on the point that you should keep your expectations low. If your ideas do not work out or they are not possible, do not get upset. Just browsing the general section I see people submitting ideas on thumping, mmo roles, terraforming landscapes, weapons, resources, horizontal/vertical progression, quests, art style, character customization, etc.... Right off the bat I can tell how passionate these people are to be submitting all these ideas, but I hope that they can remain optimistic and positive if these expectations are not met.

Please discuss, did I miss anything? Any other tips?
Is this a good way to go about it?

Thanks for reading.
 
Last edited:
Jul 26, 2016
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#2
The hype is real and I have been popping into all the Idea threads as well.

My only tip for anyone wanting to throw out ideas is simple;

Keep. It. Simple.

Leave out the numbers, the specifics, fine details, and depth. There isn't even a game right now and it's not anywhere close to popping up. Express your desires but type it out, read it, shorten it, sweeten it, sell it in as few words as possible without getting too technical.
 

TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2016
369
311
63
#4
My expectations are always set to the lowest settings.

What has me hyped is the thought of exploring a bit of the creative process behind developing a game.

I have a tendency to migrate from game to game. When I find a game I like I dig into it, learn the mechanics, learn as much as I can about it, often times when my friends follow me to a game I am playing they just use me as the info guy, especially since the know I have like... 15 tabs for the games wiki open at all times... then I eventually move to a new game. When I feel there is nothing more for me to dig into.

Hype is something for me that died a long time ago. Hell, I cannot remember the last time I was hyped for a game.
 
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Brezals

Deepscanner
Jul 27, 2016
135
154
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32
Sweden
www.twitter.com
#5
red5 had once like hundreds employees? or atleast 50+. They achieved what they did. we all know how that went. The game was pretty and it had some cool stuff.

This project might never get that kind of manpower, so expect less, there is what? like 3 people working on this game right now? Not saying it won't be a good game, 1 person has made better games then Firefall in someways, perhaps not in scope and sheer number of data.
 
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TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2016
369
311
63
#6
red5 had once like hundreds employees? or atleast 50+. They achieved what they did. we all know how that went. The game was pretty and it had some cool stuff.

This project might never get that kind of manpower, so expect less, there is what? like 3 people working on this game right now? Not saying it won't be a good game, 1 person has made better games then Firefall in someways, perhaps not in scope and sheer number of data.
At its height with Mark in control, Red5 had 130 employees.

Immediately after he left its size cut to less than half and then started bleeding employees at a constant regular rate.
 

DARKB1KE

Commander
Jul 27, 2016
412
472
63
#7
My only tip for anyone wanting to throw out ideas is simple;

Keep. It. Simple.

Leave out the numbers, the specifics, fine details, and depth. There isn't even a game right now and it's not anywhere close to popping up. Express your desires but type it out, read it, shorten it, sweeten it, sell it in as few words as possible without getting too technical.
Great advice. Numbers can be used to illustrate an example, but yeah too much and it just complicates it too much and I know for myself especially, I stop reading. For myself I am a visual person, so images help show me a lot more detail (such as MathiasM's UI designs, very well done).
 
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Jul 26, 2016
153
186
43
#8
red5 had once like hundreds employees? or atleast 50+. They achieved what they did. we all know how that went. The game was pretty and it had some cool stuff.

This project might never get that kind of manpower, so expect less, there is what? like 3 people working on this game right now? Not saying it won't be a good game, 1 person has made better games then Firefall in someways, perhaps not in scope and sheer number of data.
To be real...

Three people working on a Website, Art, and Forums. :D
 
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TankHunter678

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2016
369
311
63
#10
yes, that is why we won't see much else other then concepts for the game. Soon we will see 3D pieces, and while that is enough to build something with where you can have a camera to look around with, it is not much of a game.
If my memory is correct they have a 16 person team at the moment, however a solid chunk of that team is currently part time/when they are available. Most of which not being called upon at the moment because the concept designs and orthographics are not done to actually begin building anything.
 
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P

PCMasterReece

Guest
#12
At its height with Mark in control, Red5 had 130 employees.

Immediately after he left its size cut to less than half and then started bleeding employees at a constant regular rate.
actually I think it was closer to 250 (not 100% sure so don't quote me on it).
 

Fryepod

Active Member
Jul 26, 2016
66
99
33
Hudson Valley, NY
#13
True true true.

I'd love to be talking resourcing/ the directory of resourcing in relevance to environment/ use/ crafting/ currency ect.

Probably the discussion i want to be involved with the most, almost all combat oriented concepts and "pitches" i see are awesome so.

...but we need them to actually build some kind of framework before we set our brains into brainstorm mode. :D
 
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NitroMidgets

Tsi-Hu Hunter
Jul 27, 2016
590
474
63
Dupont, WA
#14
I should have learned my lesson early on that things are subject to change without notice, not everything is real and push up bras are a bunch of BULLSHIT!
Anyhow, in regards to this games future I have an open mind but not an open wallet. It is so early on that I don't really see a point in talking about resource variation, economy or even durability other then my hate for it.
We all know the ball is in Mark's court. The amount of interest it got for simply the prospect of the original vision finally being made was a bit of a surprise to him and now the reality of it has set in. It is time to start working on the delivery.
 
Jul 28, 2016
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Literal Hell
#15
Hype can blind people pretty easily. I remember a couple years ago when I would hate/love a game just because I played a series and didn't play the other. And even when I had poor moments in the game I was hyped up for, I had this strange, almost surreal patience for completing the same puzzle for the hundredth time.
 
Jul 27, 2016
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#16
All we have now is hype. When the first playable milestone comes out for testing, we can gauge our expectations.
 
Jul 27, 2016
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Massachusetts
#17
For now I'm happy to hang out with people who believed in the original vision of Firefall. If someday Ember becomes a playable game I sincerely hope I am picked to help play test. In the mean time, I will keep a watch out for the tabletop RPG. Sounds like fun! (I never knew anyone growing up who played D&D but I had always wanted to play)
 
Jul 26, 2016
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Brisbane, Australia
#19
NMS is awesome and its everything they said it would be (minus the shady multiplayer part which could still be a thing later in a patch at some point.) but its delivered for me that's for sure. its not just a game, its also an experience.. I dunno get past the first hour of minecraft and see for yourself.


like the mysterious atlas and ancient race is so cool & atmospheric
 
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