What annoys you in game trailers?

[Izziee]

Steam has a vast library, and trying to sift through titles can be a chore sometimes, but I also enjoy it, but the best way to get an idea of the title is through their trailers. There's so much that royally Pee's me off though:

- Long starts just showing the studio, publisher, engine...this is especially egregious from triple A studios like Ubisoft. Oh my god, just show the game play!

- Japanese titles often spend 90% of the so called "trailer" showing a still image of the cast characters. Stop it! Show gameplay!

- Smaller indie studios often show 2 seconds of game play which fades to black and giving you text "Deep mechanics allowing you to do X" or "Level up to 100" or "living breathing world".

- Random nobodies or steam "curators" being quoted in the trailer.

When I'm shopping for a game, I don't need to know which studio made the sound for rustling leaves on the trees. I don't need a 10 second screen showing the developers names followed by another 10 seconds of publishers then another 10 second showing the engine...All that can be done in 2 seconds, or even at the end...

JUST SHOW GAMEPLAY!!

I know, I know...first world problems, but when I've got so much on my wishlist, or there's a sale with 5000 games on, I'm not going to spend 2 minutes watching NOTHING followed by maybe 5 seconds of gameplay. It's annoying and I'll skip your game and move onto the next. A minute of gameplay montage can tell A LOT about a game, maybe that's WHY, because the games not good enough so you need to sell it on other B/S. I just wanted to rant, and hope developers stop doing this rubbish, because it sure as hell doesn't help sell your game. It's a game! SHOW GAMEPLAY!


Are there any "trends" that developers do that annoys you?

[まりさ]

Two words: No gameplay

[Three English Letters شازام]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από まりさ:

Two words: No gameplay

Exactly.

[Ogami]

CGI Trailer.
Nothing more worthless.
"Here is a cool video of cool stuff happening, none of which you will see in the game or will remotely look as good!".
YAY!

Most hated thing is the " captured in game engine".

WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Its still prerenderd garbage that does not resemble the real game in 99% of all cases.

[J4MESOX4D]

I don't pay any attention to game trailers these days. Most of them are deliberately upscaled and don't reflect the true gameplay on offer.

I am also sick of publishers claiming trailers to be 'gameplay' when they merely include some in-game footage such as a cutscene - Microsoft were guilty of this tactic a few weeks ago in their big Series X reveal where the gameplay trailers included no gameplay whatsoever.

Raw independent gameplay remains the best way to judge a game.

[Izziee]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Ogami:

CGI Trailer.
Nothing more worthless.
"Here is a cool video of cool stuff happening, none of which you will see in the game or will remotely look as good!".
YAY!

Most hated thing is the " captured in game engine".

WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Its still prerenderd garbage that does not resemble the real game in 99% of all cases.

I know, when developers have to outright lie to show their game (Looking at you Ubisoft, EA, Activsion) it shows they don't have confidence in their own title, so why the hell should I?

[Izziee]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από J4MESOX4D:

I don't pay any attention to game trailers these days. Most of them are deliberately upscaled and don't reflect the true gameplay on offer.

I am also sick of publishers claiming trailers to be 'gameplay' when they merely include some in-game footage such as a cutscene - Microsoft were guilty of this tactic a few weeks ago in their big Series X reveal where the gameplay trailers included no gameplay whatsoever.

Raw independent gameplay remains the best way to judge a game.

You're talking about Ubisofts assassins creed "gameplay" trailer, that had zero gameplay in?

It's hard to find actual raw gameplay for non-released triple A titles these days too, and they've gotten even worse with putting out NDA's on reviews, or only allowing select reviewers (I.E IGN because they'll almost certainly give it a high rating) or the studios that won't allow anything past a certain point.

[J4MESOX4D]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Ogami:

CGI Trailer.
Nothing more worthless.
"Here is a cool video of cool stuff happening, none of which you will see in the game or will remotely look as good!".
YAY!

Most hated thing is the " captured in game engine".

WHICH MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Its still prerenderd garbage that does not resemble the real game in 99% of all cases.

I think the most shocking case of this was Anthem when the trailer came out before the game itself even existed. Most of us were expecting the classic downgrade but little did we know that the trailer was not even a tech demo.

[𝕙.𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤]

Install Augmented Steam extension for Chrome/Firefox and access Youtube reviews and gameplay videos directly on the Steam store page.

A one minute trailer won't tell you if you'll enjoy a game. For further information on pros and cons of a game the specific hub is a valuable source.

[Crazy Tiger]

Trailers are marketing tools. Showing gameplay does not help in that. Gameplay is a repetitive feat that is hard to judge by seeing, it's better judged by experiencing. Many games look boring to play, when in fact they're exciting to play. Same goes other way around, fun looking gameplay can be very tedious.

The only purpose of a trailer is to get you interested enough to further find out things about the game.

[ElvisDeadly]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Three English Letters شازام:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από まりさ:

Two words: No gameplay

Exactly.
:itsboshytime:

BINGO

[Izziee]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Crazy Tiger:

Trailers are marketing tools. Showing gameplay does not help in that. Gameplay is a repetitive feat that is hard to judge by seeing, it's better judged by experiencing. Many games look boring to play, when in fact they're exciting to play. Same goes other way around, fun looking gameplay can be very tedious.

The only purpose of a trailer is to get you interested enough to further find out things about the game.

That's just not true, maybe it is for you but I can tell almost immediately whether the game is for me via gameplay and whether the game is for me. As someone who has thousands of games, spanning almost all genres except for maybe sport I have enough experience to tell whether it's going to be a waste of time or not. Works perfectly for me.

[ElvisDeadly]

I guess the exception to the gameplay thing is with franchises, a cinematic trailer to announce, for example, Borderlands 4 wouldn't need to show gameplay. The target audience knows how those games play and the trailer just needs to geneate hype.

[Crazy Tiger]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Izziee:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Crazy Tiger:

Trailers are marketing tools. Showing gameplay does not help in that. Gameplay is a repetitive feat that is hard to judge by seeing, it's better judged by experiencing. Many games look boring to play, when in fact they're exciting to play. Same goes other way around, fun looking gameplay can be very tedious.

The only purpose of a trailer is to get you interested enough to further find out things about the game.

That's just not true, maybe it is for you but I can tell almost immediately whether the game is for me via gameplay and whether the game is for me. As someone who has thousands of games, spanning almost all genres except for maybe sport I have enough experience to tell whether it's going to be a waste of time or not. Works perfectly for me.

I wasn't talking from my own PoV, but from a marketing PoV. Cinematic trailers sell better because they encourage the "oohs & aahs" in the general public to generate the interest.
Demos can be a tool used to showcase gameplay, but they turn away people from sales more than cinematic trailers do.

Personally I prefer to see gameplay. I don't even watch cinematic trailers for movies.

[Izziee]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Crazy Tiger:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Izziee:

That's just not true, maybe it is for you but I can tell almost immediately whether the game is for me via gameplay and whether the game is for me. As someone who has thousands of games, spanning almost all genres except for maybe sport I have enough experience to tell whether it's going to be a waste of time or not. Works perfectly for me.

I wasn't talking from my own PoV, but from a marketing PoV. Cinematic trailers sell better because they encourage the "oohs & aahs" in the general public to generate the interest.
Demos can be a tool used to showcase gameplay, but they turn away people from sales more than cinematic trailers do.

Personally I prefer to see gameplay. I don't even watch cinematic trailers for movies.

You keep talking about cinematic trailers, yet I was talking about gameplay trailers, and so were you. A gameplay trailer can tell you A LOT about the game, even a short one. For example, looking on the store page I can see a new release "Jet's 'n Guns 2" and I can tell you it's a fast paced shooter with colour biomes/levels, a fair few weapons, satisfying combat and gives me most of what I want in that type of genre. All from a 1 minute trailer.

What I can't tell you is how long it is, which I can use the reviews for, what the story is about..which, I don't want to know, for any game and how optimised it is, which again, I can use the reviews for and it doesn't matter anyway because I have a powerful computer and it's very unlikely it would be a problem.

In fact, despite being the first and only game I clicked on to give an example, that's the perfect trailer, short, sweet and to the point.

[Crazy Tiger]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Izziee:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Crazy Tiger:

I wasn't talking from my own PoV, but from a marketing PoV. Cinematic trailers sell better because they encourage the "oohs & aahs" in the general public to generate the interest.
Demos can be a tool used to showcase gameplay, but they turn away people from sales more than cinematic trailers do.

Personally I prefer to see gameplay. I don't even watch cinematic trailers for movies.

You keep talking about cinematic trailers, yet I was talking about gameplay trailers, and so were you. A gameplay trailer can tell you A LOT about the game, even a short one. For example, looking on the store page I can see a new release "Jet's 'n Guns 2" and I can tell you it's a fast paced shooter with colour biomes/levels, a fair few weapons, satisfying combat and gives me most of what I want in that type of genre. All from a 1 minute trailer.

What I can't tell you is how long it is, which I can use the reviews for, what the story is about..which, I don't want to know, for any game and how optimised it is, which again, I can use the reviews for and it doesn't matter anyway because I have a powerful computer and it's very unlikely it would be a problem.

In fact, despite being the first and only game I clicked on to give an example, that's the perfect trailer, short, sweet and to the point.

No, I was not talking solely about gameplay trailers. I was talking about cinematic trailers vs gameplay trailers in both my first and my second post. I'm also talking in general and not on personal level.

On personal level I fully agree with you. However, that's not how things get viewed in general and, most importantly, by publishers who create the trailers.