I mean, they're both right here, because though it seems like they're talking about the same thing at first, they're really talking about completely different aspects of the situation.
As Cory points out, developers do work tremendously hard on this stuff.
However, at the same time, it's also a tragic fact that regardless of whether these games are spoiled or not, the vast majority of people don't really care about the hard work that goes into these games one way or the other. And that's the unhealthy culture that Jason is talking about.
For proof of this, just look at stuff like Metroid: Federation Force. That game wasn't leaked, to the best of my recollection, certainly not in any way that a substantial amount of people actually payed attention to in any case. Yet, nevermind even the work put into the reveal itself, did it not being leaked make people suddenly care about the game itself or the hard work that must have been put into making it in any way whatsoever?
Hell no! People were hyped for a new mainline Metroid, starring Samus as the main character, and so when Federation Force was revealed instead, when it was revealed that we weren't getting a mainline Metroid, but some spin-off games, because of precisely that culture that Jason is talking about, people lost their minds from the minute it was revealed, and it never recovered. As I recall, there were of course even petitions trying to get the thing canceled/begging Nintendo to release a mainline Metroid and all that. No sign of people caring one iota about the effort the devs put into making the game and the care and respect they almost certainly do have for the franchise, nevermind the work on the trailer/reveal for the game. It just wasn't mainline Metroid, it wasn't what "the hype" demanded, therefore it was trash regardless of all else.
So in that particular case, I have to wonder, would perhaps Federation Force actually having been leaked perhaps been at least a bit better for it, so expectations could have been kept in check for it? Like, maybe it would have made a difference, maybe it wouldn't. But if it were to be leaked, the reaction certainly couldn't have been any worse than the actual reaction to the Federation Force reveal was, because the reaction was just an absolute disaster and it's hard to imagine how it could have been worse. So it definitely seems more like a case-by-case situation to me and definitely not something that's purely black and white.
And of course as a big Nintendo fan, I know that isn't the only example of that either. Another one that immediately comes to mind is Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. Similar thing happened. It's E3 and all that, people get hyped up, and start expecting stuff like Animal Crossing Wii U version and stuff. And so, when Amiibo Festival is revealed instead, same thing, people lose their minds over a fucking charming and innocent virtual-board/party game of all things. Again, it wasn't leaked, but that didn't make people care one iota about the effort that went into the reveal or making the game itself. To the point where to this day it apparently still has that reputation since it was one of the more popular responses to the recent "
what's the worst spin-off game of all time" thread.
And I ain't going to sit here and act like Amiibo Festival was the best thing since sliced bread, since obviously, it's not. It's definitely a flawed game, what with the Amiibo implementation and needing to scan the things each turn to move, and being local-multiplayer only due to that, and stuff like that. But worst spin-off of all time? I think not. Like, CD-i Zelda or Mario Pinball Land, it's not. At least Amiibo Festival actually did what it set out to do, unlike say Mario Pinball Land's terrible physics and tables which makes it bad at the primary thing it sets out to be, a pinball game. Whereas Amiibo Festival, sure, it made silly decisions with the Amiibo-implementation and is nowhere close to being the best party-board game, but in no way is it the worst either and it really is what it sets out to be outside of that, just a charming board game meant to be played with friends. I've never actually played the thing myself, but just from watching FlareRDB and Citrine playing it on Twitch, I know there's definitely fun to be had with it among friends just due to stuff like the implementation of the Stalk Market at the game being the primary thing the games' based around, and knowing that you could always have the possibility to have either fantastic or absolutely god-awful luck with turnip prices at any given point, so that you never know what's going to happen. And of course, to be clear, it's not going to be most people's cup-of-tea, and that's fine, I wouldn't expect it to be, since it's definitely not meant to be, but calling it worst spinoff ever just because it's not suited for most people and it's not a mainline Animal Crossing and it's not trying to be something it was never trying to be to begin with is something entirely different.
Now of course, if it's not clear enough already, I'm not saying Amiibo Festival was an amazing or even a great game, or stuff like that. Those are not exact the words I'd use to describe it. But to be lumped in with stuff like Mario Pinball Land, like it is in that thread? That's going too far in the other direction, and is another symptom of what Jason appears to be talking about: that being excited for games is fine, and there's nothing wrong with that, because that's indeed fun and everyone like that as he himself says, but it can easily get taken out of control, and when you have Amiibo Festival being put on the level of "worst spin-off of all time" with games that barely even work due to, in no small part, how the game was revealed, how people were clearly expecting a new console Animal Crossing, didn't get it, and took it out on Amiibo Festival, and certainly didn't care about the amount of work that nonetheless went into its game/reveal/etc, that certainly seems to more support Jason's argument is all I'm getting at and unlike what Cory implies, people not being spoiled on it didn't make anyone suddenly care about the developers efforts (if anything, on the contrary, and it would be possible to argue that like Federation Force, had something like Amiibo Festival been leaked early as part of a huge leak or something, that could have helped temper expectations a bit, at least it couldn't have gone any worse than it did especially given as it still has that reputation to this day if threads like that are any indication. And of course, TO BE CLEAR ABOUT THIS, less anyone misconstrue my words hear, this is NOT an argument for any and every game to be leaked, far from it, but rather that things are hardly black-and-white but rather it's the type of thing that more is a case-by-case basis and depends on the unique situation each game is in, since each game is different and has unique considerations and what applies to one game cannot so easily be said to apply to another, if that makes sense).
Or alternatively, we can go a completely different direction. According to Cory's argument, just leaking stuff ruins the hard-work that developers put into this stuff, and that's no good, and indeed, for many games, that may be true. But of course even there, there reality isn't so black and white and in many cases things are much more complicated than that.
The case-in-point example of this that comes to mind off the top of my head right now is Anthem. Like,
Anthem's troubled development is well-known at this point. And of course that troubled development included the E3 reveal trailer being rushed and full of stuff that they had no idea if they would actually be able to put in the final game or not, with the reveal being so rushed that like the final name of the game, Anthem, was apparently settled on just before E3 and apparently most of the team seemed unaware of that change, and yes, them having to crunch super-hard just to make that much happen and take time away from working on the game itself to make that reveal happen. Now obviously I can't speak for any of the developers at Bioware, but I can't imagine that's the way anyone would want their game to be revealed to begin with, whether it's spoiled or not, because it obviously doesn't benefit them, the players or anyone to have things go down in such a way, especially given the state the game actually released in. They nonetheless obviously worked hard, incredibly hard to do what they could and gave it their best shot, but I can't imagine how things went being how they actually wanted things to go, releasing a trailer they weren't able to make the game live up to, like that.
Now of course, this isn't to say all games are in a situation like Anthem's. Obviously not. But if I must pick between Jason's and Cory's positions here, it makes me more cynical towards Cory's since it's impossible to know what developers do or don't want and most of them aren't involved directly with marketing decisions and have no say over stuff like that to begin with and so it's impossible to know if they really even care about the E3 trailers as such to begin with or would prefer focusing on the game itself and prioritizing making that as best as possible and focusing on making it in tip-top shape first versus haivng to rush and crunch away from the game itself to make trailers and demos specifically for the E3 venue that many not even be representative of the final game, again, not that most developers even are likely to have much of a say one way or the other but just gotta due what they're told regardless and it's just kinda is what is is.
And as stuff like the Federation Force and Amiibo Festival examples show, among like countless other games in similar situations, even when games aren't leaked, it's not like that suddenly affects whether people care about them or not and on the contrary, the hype building to insane levels and not being satisfied can just lead to backlash against perfectly alright games (to be clear, not amazing, but alright, and not deserving of the sheer amounts of hatred they got in any case from day 1), just things that weren't what people expected, but that not mattering at all because of what Jason's talking about, the exact type of unhealthy attitude toward games he brings up, and well, hell has no fury like a nerd scorned apparently, and games like those certainly never recovered from that, with not a single iota of people caring a single bit about the effort that went into making them being shown just because they didn't get leaked.
And so, I dunno. Cory is nonetheless right that tons of effort goes into this stuff regardless, but at the same time the tragic fact of the matter is that people just typically don't care about that stuff one way or the other, whether a game is a complete surprise, whether it's leaked, or anywhere in between. Cory's nonetheless right that hard work goes into that regardless and that should be acknowledged and realized and appreciated far more than it is, but the tragic fact of the matter is that it's not, and that whether a game's leaked or not doesn't really change that one way or the other because most people don't care about the real people behind these games much to begin with, and so to use the fact that real paper are indeed behind these games to defend stuff not being leaked just seems kind of cynical to me in that kinda way because the simple matter is that most people don't care about that stuff whether a game's leaked or not.
And if he's trying to make an argument that should be changed, and I do agree with that, well, in that case, it shouldn't matter if a game's leaked or not because it definitely remains true that lots of talented people worked incredibly hard on these games, and that doesn't change whether a game's leaked or not and people should appreciate that hard work regardless of whether a game is leaked or not, as that hard work doesn't just vanish or anything. So the more I think about it, the weirder of an argument it seems. Because on the one hand, Cory acknowledges that if a game's leaked, that may indeed take away from hard work that was done on the game, and that shouldn't be the case, which is a tragic but nonetheless real truth. But nonetheless, if you're going the sad-but-true route, it's also sad-but-true that most people just don't care regardless, whether a game is a complete secrete, completely leaked, or anywhere in between, and that itself is the problem that needs to be solved and addressed here in that case, the lack of respect or care that people have towards the products they consume in general, being happy to enjoy and consume these games but not caring about the well-being or the hard-work from all the very real people that lead to those products being able to become real in the first place, it's those kinda attitudes and lack of caring about the faces behind the products in general that are the problem here, and nothing specifically to do with leaks or games not being leaked or anything, as that's not really the root problem in the end (and thus the cases of stuff like Metroid: Federation Force).
And of course, to be clear once more, lest this be interpreted otherwise, this is not in any way an argument for games to be leaked willy-nilly, that each and every leak is okay, and that they're never a problem, or anything of the sort. Rather, this just feels like something that's very much not black-and-white at all but rather is a case-by-case basis that really depends on the reality and situation of each specific game and depending on those kinda specific individual factors and considerations the answer could be very different for each game, and it just doesn't make sense to like try to apply one general policy to everything because the game industry is just too large and diverse for that and just too much depends on the specific situation of each game.
Of course, that might not be a very satisfying answer to come up with or say, and it's one that certainly takes a lot longer to explain than one like "leaks are always good" or "leaks should never happen," as this post itself is testament to, but nonetheless that's how I feel I guess: that this is very much not black-and-white and really depends on the situation of each individual game and what exactly we're talking about when it comes to a specific game, how it was or wasn't affected, what was or wasn't leaked, and just so many factors like that that just don't make any sense to speak in generalities or anything but the specific case of each individual game, if that makes sense.
