So there's been a lot of talk lately about how games choose to promote themselves, i.e. trailers. And the eternal back and forth between CGI trailers with the omnipresent "this trailer does not represent in game footage" marker in a corner of the screen and so called "gameplay" trailers that a lot of the time aren't even genuine representations of actual gameplay.
Firstly, let's go back to basics. What is the purpose of a trailer? In its most simple form it's to promote a product to a consumer who ideally then contributes to the company behind that product in whatever method they are looking to financially benefit from said consumer, through a game sale or by being inspired to buy a console or subscribe to a service or whatever it might be. It is in the company's best interest to show off their product in the best way they can, a lot of trailers for games specifically choose to do so in the form of CGI trailers, opting to represent themes and ideas as opposed to "this is what it's is like to actually play this game". And this style of trailer can be very successful, Death Stranding I think it's safe to say is the most famous example of this kind of game promotion and I would argue that for some games its impossible for a simple trailer to represent what it's like to play a game regardless of how many gameplay trailers they release. How does a game like Celeste convey the "feel" of how the game plays? I had seen Celeste in action so had a limited grasp on what it was, i.e. a platformer but it wasn't until I sat down and actually played the thing that I came to appreciate the mechanics, level design and how it all came together for me to get a real idea of what it was like to play that game.
Now there is this viewpoint that a CGI trailer is an inferior way to show off and promote a game, that the only way to "legitimately" promote a game is through gameplay. Which I can understand the idea behind it but the reality is that gameplay trailers rarely if ever provide a proper representation of gameplay anyway, and in the case of unfinished games is it even fair to demand that of game companies? I want to briefly draw some parallels between gaming and the other medium that it is most commonly compared to: Movies. How many times do you see a trailer for a movie where the CGI is so early that it obviously looks unfinished and not representative of the final quality of the movie? I would say rarely if ever (except maybe for Sonic the Hedgehog but that's a whole other kettle of fish). There is that famous case of X-Men Origins: Wolverine being leaked with the most basic PS2 level of CGI. The person who leaked that went to jail, the film industry does not fuck about when it comes to protecting their investments.
My point is: Why do gamers have this unrealistic expectation of trailers for videogames and how they should be promoted to consumers? Halo Infinite is the most obvious recent example of a game that is obviously unfinished being shown off and people are dragging it to hell and memeing it because it doesn't look polished enough for them yet. Can you blame any game company for being reluctant to "honestly" promote their products to consumers when this is the kind of reception it often gets? You don't see movie companies showing off unfinished CGI for movies in the same way that music isn't promoted with rough cut demos or books promoted with first drafts before being edited etc etc etc. This seems to be something unique to videogames and I think it is down to how immature the gaming industry is in comparison to other forms of media.
The other thing I want to say is that the fabled "gameplay trailer" is in most cases pretty much nonsense anyway. They are carefully created and scripted vertical slices of games designed to show off the game in the best way possible in the same sense that a CGI trailer is supposed to. You have the classic "I'm going to slowly move around and show off things and make it looks vaguely cinematic" style of gameplay trailer and, let's be honest, no one plays games like that. It would be more accurate for them to show off some clumsy looking gameplay, constantly sprinting, actually dying or failing etc. Often these so called gameplay trailers are missing a proper HUD or there are other obvious things which are a dead giveaway. Also think of how many things can go wrong with a legitimate gameplay demo. Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag full on crashed when it was being shown off at E3. I find it extremely interesting that these days all these gameplay demos don't have any flaws or glitches or fuckups that can cause embaressment. Oh wait, no I don't, cause it's all faked. Then there are those cringey Ubisoft style gameplay demos with the fake gamer chat. I mean look at The Division 2's E3 2018 "Gameplay" trailer. A lot of that trailer is utter bollocks and as far as gameplay goes it might as well just be a CGI trailer for how representative of the game it is. Or hell, look at Anthem's gameplay demo. Or <insert most gameplay trailers here>
So let's not fetishize "gameplay" trailers as the only legitimate way to promote a game. The point of trailers is promotion, CGI or otherwise. And if a game does show off footage from an unfinished game maybe don't lose your god damned minds because the lighting isn't perfect yet or a puddle doesn't look the same in the finished game or the framerate isn't a locked 60 FPS or whatever it is you want to try to do to tear down the hard work of something that a team of people often work long hours to make for the enjoyment of others. Or wait until there is a demo if you really want to know what a game is actually like before you buy it. Unless that game demo is Metal Gear Solid 2.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Firstly, let's go back to basics. What is the purpose of a trailer? In its most simple form it's to promote a product to a consumer who ideally then contributes to the company behind that product in whatever method they are looking to financially benefit from said consumer, through a game sale or by being inspired to buy a console or subscribe to a service or whatever it might be. It is in the company's best interest to show off their product in the best way they can, a lot of trailers for games specifically choose to do so in the form of CGI trailers, opting to represent themes and ideas as opposed to "this is what it's is like to actually play this game". And this style of trailer can be very successful, Death Stranding I think it's safe to say is the most famous example of this kind of game promotion and I would argue that for some games its impossible for a simple trailer to represent what it's like to play a game regardless of how many gameplay trailers they release. How does a game like Celeste convey the "feel" of how the game plays? I had seen Celeste in action so had a limited grasp on what it was, i.e. a platformer but it wasn't until I sat down and actually played the thing that I came to appreciate the mechanics, level design and how it all came together for me to get a real idea of what it was like to play that game.
Now there is this viewpoint that a CGI trailer is an inferior way to show off and promote a game, that the only way to "legitimately" promote a game is through gameplay. Which I can understand the idea behind it but the reality is that gameplay trailers rarely if ever provide a proper representation of gameplay anyway, and in the case of unfinished games is it even fair to demand that of game companies? I want to briefly draw some parallels between gaming and the other medium that it is most commonly compared to: Movies. How many times do you see a trailer for a movie where the CGI is so early that it obviously looks unfinished and not representative of the final quality of the movie? I would say rarely if ever (except maybe for Sonic the Hedgehog but that's a whole other kettle of fish). There is that famous case of X-Men Origins: Wolverine being leaked with the most basic PS2 level of CGI. The person who leaked that went to jail, the film industry does not fuck about when it comes to protecting their investments.
My point is: Why do gamers have this unrealistic expectation of trailers for videogames and how they should be promoted to consumers? Halo Infinite is the most obvious recent example of a game that is obviously unfinished being shown off and people are dragging it to hell and memeing it because it doesn't look polished enough for them yet. Can you blame any game company for being reluctant to "honestly" promote their products to consumers when this is the kind of reception it often gets? You don't see movie companies showing off unfinished CGI for movies in the same way that music isn't promoted with rough cut demos or books promoted with first drafts before being edited etc etc etc. This seems to be something unique to videogames and I think it is down to how immature the gaming industry is in comparison to other forms of media.
The other thing I want to say is that the fabled "gameplay trailer" is in most cases pretty much nonsense anyway. They are carefully created and scripted vertical slices of games designed to show off the game in the best way possible in the same sense that a CGI trailer is supposed to. You have the classic "I'm going to slowly move around and show off things and make it looks vaguely cinematic" style of gameplay trailer and, let's be honest, no one plays games like that. It would be more accurate for them to show off some clumsy looking gameplay, constantly sprinting, actually dying or failing etc. Often these so called gameplay trailers are missing a proper HUD or there are other obvious things which are a dead giveaway. Also think of how many things can go wrong with a legitimate gameplay demo. Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag full on crashed when it was being shown off at E3. I find it extremely interesting that these days all these gameplay demos don't have any flaws or glitches or fuckups that can cause embaressment. Oh wait, no I don't, cause it's all faked. Then there are those cringey Ubisoft style gameplay demos with the fake gamer chat. I mean look at The Division 2's E3 2018 "Gameplay" trailer. A lot of that trailer is utter bollocks and as far as gameplay goes it might as well just be a CGI trailer for how representative of the game it is. Or hell, look at Anthem's gameplay demo. Or <insert most gameplay trailers here>
So let's not fetishize "gameplay" trailers as the only legitimate way to promote a game. The point of trailers is promotion, CGI or otherwise. And if a game does show off footage from an unfinished game maybe don't lose your god damned minds because the lighting isn't perfect yet or a puddle doesn't look the same in the finished game or the framerate isn't a locked 60 FPS or whatever it is you want to try to do to tear down the hard work of something that a team of people often work long hours to make for the enjoyment of others. Or wait until there is a demo if you really want to know what a game is actually like before you buy it. Unless that game demo is Metal Gear Solid 2.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
Disclaimer: I'm being completely facetious on that one, MGS2's demo is actually a great representation of MGS 2 as a whole and the Snake bait and switch thing is genius IMO.
