Hype in VNs

[OriginalRen]

Artwork alone is the hype that captures me when it comes to searching the world for a new visual novel to read.

 

I will painstakingly admit that a lot of VNs I had read in the last year have been a result of searching for the mainstream. When I wanted to play a new VN, I would stumble onto VNDB and organize the results by popularity/rating, and scroll through the list from top to bottom. I would look at the cover art for each game and decide (based solely on that) if the game caught my eye or not. If it did, I would start to play it. The plot wasn't of importance to me because it was the fact that I wanted to be surprised by what the game had to offer that made me search for new interests.

 

While this is the way I looked for a new visual novel to dive into, the idea behind hype and advertising in general is something I view in both positive and negative light. When I was in Japan back in November, VNs were advertised for the coming month. Sekai to Sekai no Mannaka de was one of the games (which just released this last Friday) that was hyped about 2 months beforehand, with stands and artwork (wall scrolls, etc.) all over the place in stores. They had a demo station which previewed the opening as well.

 

I think that's great, however a lot the times when I was in the Sofmap stores looking for something to play, I would just pick and choose whatever looked interesting. I didn't bother to really read into it, because I just wanted to be surprised. In that way the hype was great, but it didn't convince me to buy the game. If anything, it just made me want to look into other Lump of Sugar works.

[floral]

Hype is always going to be there.  It has to be.  

 

These companies, they will advertise their products.  Imagine if all the hype was gone, if it never existed, you would not know what was in a store until you actually entered.  Mario video games you would not know what it was till you played it.  You would not even know what a video game was till you played one.

 

Fan hype is somewhat dangerous to listen to.  After all, you may not have many people know or care what you like.  They may tell you more of the product than you would like.  Reviews may spoil some of it for you and you do not want it ruined.  You have to be careful.

 

Let's Meow Meow i took because of my love of catgirls and other types of animal girls.  Did not know any more about it, did not allow myself to.

[Beato]

I don't mind hype usually. But I'm also rarely disappointed by something. When I hype I'm not like "Yes something GREAT is coming!" but more like "Yes something that LOOKS like it can be GREAT is coming!" which means I'll get really into hype and rarely get disappointed. Though if it's something I already like I can be disappointed when it doesn't turn out how I wanted (The Hobbit Movies was like this for me). I tend to get more irritated during the hyping stage than I get when the actual product arrives actually, especially when everyone is hyping something I think will turn out bad

[Tom]

since i suck at japanese im not very hyped about a new VN coming out, but translations to be done for the old games

[Darkshine]

I agree that something like trailers make movies and games more epic than what their really gonna be so you should really not get your hopes up because you might be disappointed, but you know I guess they have to do something flashy to get people's attention so hype is not bad itself just don't get sucked into it and maybe you will find something that really is worth showing off for. 

[Undying]

hype in VN ive got a few right now, after playing the first ep of World end economica Im really looking foward for ep 2, and also theres the zero escape series that it just awesome, cant wait for the third game. 

[InvertMouse]

There's usually at least something to the hype. *Checks the app store* Oh wait never mind.

 

Anyway, when something is hyped, if we end up disliking it still, it's often due to several reasons:

 

- Personal taste.

- I hyped it too much in my imagination so the real product could never match it.

- I'm secretly envious that the product is hyped (even though I have no interest in the industry but I'm just a petty human) so I've prematurely decided to hate it no matter what.

- I'm a hipster and only like games made by random people in 1992.

 

Those are the common reasons. It's true folks .

[garejei]

Sometimes it's fun to be excited about stuff (like the new Xeno game on Wii U, etc.) but I don't go overboard with it. And I try not to rely on the word "masterpiece" too often. With hype I try my best to always remain skeptical a little bit, and yeah, I can be disappointed when something doesn't live up to my expectations. I still enjoyed Eustia very much and it's among my favorites, but I genuinely thought it would be kamige-tier... and it really wasn't.

 

I'm in a similar situation with Euphoria right now. I have *very* high expectations for the story after reading some reviews. After two and a half routes done I'm still not seeing what the big deal is, but if the story structure is anything like 999 there's still very much time for it to get epic in the true route, and that would redeem it in my eyes, sorta.

[Stanleys]

The way I see hype is that it all depends on the person. While one person can see something as being amazing, another person can see it as something they wouldn't like. Me personally, I don't mind hype all that much. I think it can sometimes help me decide if I want to see or play something. And I'm easily entertained so I can play just about any VN and enjoy it no matter what expectations I had for it.