Hype Train to Nowhere

Cinematic Trailers are always amazing to watch and amazing to look at. They hype up games to unnatural levels to make players wet their pants at a chance to experience what they just saw. Unfortunately, few, if any, ever live up to the hype that their cinematic helped build. The same is true now as it was more than 5 years ago and far beyond that. 

This was the Warhammer Online Trailer from 2007. Needless to say, this trailer made me so excited to play WAR that I literally only thought about this game for the next year. Getting into beta test, I was addicted to the combat. Chaos-Empire T1 was a non-stop war on a massive scale that I only saw again during the Iron Rock server transfer that turned it into a super server, but no one from Red Eye Mountain could play their characters for a whole day. So we all jumped into a T1 all nighter, but that's a story for another day. This is about the trailer. I still get chills watching what seemed like the game of the century in the making. Bloody PvP built around the Warhammer universe. The tale of Warhammer, however, is filled with sadness for me.

Let's move on ahead...

This is the first Old Republic cinematic trailer. This made everyone excited and maybe a little too much. Maybe, just maybe, I was the only one mature enough to see through the CG trailer. Awesome as it may be for any Star Wars fan to witness, there was no way the cartoony looking game would ever be this bad ass. No way. Turns out, I was correct. Just because Bioware makes something does not mean it's automatically the greatest thing ever made, and now every one is aware of this fact.

Now, let's see something that has come up just this very day:

You can just feel those chills. How can this game be bad? And a beta sign up as well? Icing on the cake. While this post may leave you feeling empty with no real in depth look at the Elder Scrolls Online trailer, I implore you to walk away from this like I have. A cool trailer and a cool fight sequence with no added value to anything we've seen so far. Again, I still stand by my statements in my previous blog post titled A Pause for Concern that I believe staying power is not with this game. 

An interview today tried to address the staying power of the game, but the supporting evidence is exactly my point that everyone seems to be missing. In Bill Murphy's interview with Paul Sage, the games creative director, (which can be found here) he even states how excited and focused the team is on giving a player the ability to "build the character of their dreams." Oh, really? My friend is playing a Wood Elf, straight up, no exceptions. I like the Red Guard in previous games. No matter what, I'm forced to A) not play with my friend and B) not able to choose where my character fits in the overall war. Maybe my Red Guard doesn't want to be in your Alliance War. Did anyone ever think about that? Maybe I want to PvP and loot corpses and not go to Cyrodil to get a bit of action. Maybe I want to abandon my race and my people and side better with one of the other factions.

I don't care what you think is going to keep players "coming back for more," but your siege warfare isn't going to be it. I'll admit, I may still be jumping the gun and not giving this game the credit it deserves. I hope I'm wrong and every gamer finds happiness in ESO for the next decade, but I doubt it. But I've heard the same speeches from every AAA MMORPG in the past few years and they are all starting to run together now. Hopefully I see you all in beta, but time will truly be the judge of this game's fate.