Support NeoGAF

[NexusGamer]

You're right, but why not the weekend before release (or 48 hours)? Many people have copies of the games in advance, and usually provide good information.

my thinking as well

 

[JBourne]

I'd like to see them go up 24 hours prior to release. Not just for hype, but for information. There have been OTs that sold me on games that I otherwise would've overlooked. They've also saved me from buying games on day one that I would've ended up being disappointed with. Stores break street dates, games hit Steam a bit early. Those impressions are worthwhile, and I'd be bummed to miss out on them.

 

[RadarScope1]

With the rise of hype threads, it would seem to make sense to pare back the pre-release OT time frame. However, we need to make sure the OT is up at release. What if the person who makes the OT has to work all day that day and wants to post the night before? Better that it be a bit early than a bit late.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

im cool with that.

but i wonder which community's fault is this?

dragon age 2 OT

 

[charlequin]

Just from my personal experience, I don't follow every game on the way, so to have an OT at least a week early gives me some idea and maybe some time to decide since there is (presumably) a large aggregate of information available.

One theme I'm seeing a lot is that |OT|s provide some visibility and informational purpose for small games, which makes sense. I'll think about whether there's anything we can do that might serve a similar purpose.

what about some Japanese titles that have 6+ month gaps? seeing as the forum is predominantly English speaking, you might want to consider that too.

This hasn't ever really been a problem. For most big Japanese releases with a long gap, we get a relatively small |OT| with importers and people living in Japan, then a much bigger one at the US/EU release.

 

[fedexpeon]

Aww, I like the week advance since I can fall for the hype.
Getting hyped and disappointment are part of my gaming experience.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

I support the idea of tweaking the policy to be 1 day before, and the idea of Pre-OT threads to collect information and discussion. I've never been a fan of the "new threads for new news" policy, it splinters discussion and makes things harder to follow. Conscientious updating of OPs (and thread titles if possible) in Pre-OTs would be necessary for them to work well, but that's possible right?

 

[Deleted member 30609]

Smart move.

 

[Papercuts]

One theme I'm seeing a lot is that |OT|s provide some visibility and informational purpose for small games, which makes sense. I'll think about whether there's anything we can do that might serve a similar purpose.



This hasn't ever really been a problem. For most big Japanese releases with a long gap, we get a relatively small |OT| with importers and people living in Japan, then a much bigger one at the US/EU release.

It might be kinda messy but the only thing that comes to mind is still have the OT made and up a week(or less) ahead of time, stickied but locked, and unlocked/unstickied at the release time so people can get the information part.

 

[Brandon F]

I'd like to see them go up 24 hours prior to release. Not just for hype, but for information. There have been OTs that sold me on games that I otherwise would've overlooked. They've also saved me from buying games on day one that I would've ended up being disappointed with. Stores break street dates, games hit Steam a bit early. Those impressions are worthwhile, and I'd be bummed to miss out on them.

My thought as well. With pre-order bonuses having gotten out of hand, GAF is often the best source for making informed buying decisions, usually stemming from elaborate OT posts. I'm fine with shortening the post date, as a week did feel a bit lengthy, but day of launch isn't too helpful for pre-purchase intentions, on top of what you mention as well.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Thank the Lord. A working man finds it difficult to keep up with an OT that is 100 pages before a game is even available live on a digital store.

 

[Robot Pants]

Agreed. Good move

 

[three_muffins]

Agreed. I think this is a poor decision. Games always break street date and that includes folks on GAF getting their hands on a game before actual release date. There not being a consolidated place to talk about it (aka an OT) is kind of a bummer.

I actually have to agree with this. A week, or at least a couple of days before actual release makes the most sense (to me).

 

[dreamfall]

Definitely a good call. I loved the pre-week hype, but it'll be a lot more conducive to following the game.

 

[Ozium]

What do you do in instances where a game is released earlier than the specified date? for instance, recently both The Evil Within and Alien: Isolation went live on Steam earlier than they were advertised. It wasn't merely an hour or so before either, but either several hours or even a day.

I'd assume that if it's live the OT can be posted, but just curious.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

What do you do in instances where a game is released earlier than the specified date? for instance, recently both The Evil Within and Alien: Isolation went live on Steam earlier than they were advertised. It wasn't merely an hour or so before either, but either several hours or even a day.

I'd assume that if it's live the OT can be posted, but just curious.

make a thread about it

 

[Kiyo]

I also agree with what others have said about having at least 24 hours before the launch date. I'd go even farther and say 3 days, but I was also fine with the week before release rule so maybe I'm a little biased.

For some games, you may want to organize with people on what servers to play on, what factions to join, etc. before the game actually launches. Also, it was brought up in this thread already, but some people do get the game early, and I've found their impressions valuable at times.

 

[Ozium]

make a thread about it

make a thread that says "x game is out now, whoever claimed the OT go make it!!" seems kind of um dumb imo

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

make a thread that says "x game is out now, whoever claimed the OT go make it!!" seems kind of um dumb imo

Like it has been said, now people are going to have to stay up till midnight to post an OT for a popular game.
There needs to be some way to hand off the posting duties to the mod team. Just send them a txt file or something with all the formatting. If not, new thread for new news is going to have to be the way to handle it

 

[Vibranium]

I would also say 24 hours before launch date, and that would be great. I pretty much agree with the moderation team otherwise.

 

[NCR Redslayer]

I thought gaf was doing this before but okay.

 

[jiiikoo]

I would also say 24 hours before launch date, and that would be great. I pretty much agree with the moderation team otherwise.

Yeah. A day before release would be nice if im honest.

 

[EatinOlives]

I don't understand why some people think this'll kill communities. There's still going to be plenty of news threads and launch trailer threads leading up to the release of a game for people to come in and start discussing the game before it releases.

And I feel the people saying that "there's just going to be hype in other threads now" and "mods want to kill all hype!" are both missing the point. I highly doubt their intention really is to "kill hype". The forum would gain very little from this. The main thing is to prevent OTs from becoming truly gigantic echo chambers that serve no purpose other than "omg day 1" posts. There's plenty of those (and plenty of opportunity to post those) in any of the threads about pre-release materials. Plenty of places to build hype. They just want to mitigate echo chambers that truly get bad only in OTS, because they're massive threads for that one game and almost nobody has the game at that point. And I REALLY doubt their intention is to actively kill hype. They just want to kill useless mega threads, which is in line with the previous changes in forum rules (such as removing threads literally named "the ____ megathread).

 

[Byron Bluth]

So where do those that are hyped for a game (usually at its peak the week leading up to release) go to talk about it?

Make a leading up to OT thread? Seems silly especially when The Last of Hs Remastered came out and there was like 3 OTs and 3-4 other threads about it which was a bigger annoyance and nothing was done.

 

[TetraGenesis]

I really wish it were 24 hours before release. For reasons many others have already stated in this thread. I won't retread, but I think that buffer is ideal for establishing a central gathering place right before release without it falling apart and becoming too unwieldy like the week early OTs have lately.

 

[Foxix Von]

Solid reasoning, sure, unfortunately I often am reminded that a game even exists because of the ot's around here and frequently rely on them being posted early to remind me to pick up a game on its release date/find out when a game is releasing at all.

If it weren't for the threads being posted early I wouldn't have known when destiny would be releasing and I would also be missing out on senran kagura...

 

[Ludovico]

I think this will work well for big games, but smaller/niche games might suffer. They usually don't get much discussion or news before release to begin with, and OT proved an opportunity to bring discussion of those titles to light before their release.

Just from my personal experience, I don't follow every game on the way, so to have an OT at least a week early gives me some idea and maybe some time to decide since there is (presumably) a large aggregate of information available.

I also don't mind the idea of OTs going up a day or two before release either. I see both sides though. I've had experiences in the past where I criticized a game and got a few upset reactions by it and I've seen it enough to never really want to post in OTs. Though I also see what people are saying in that people will just take the hype elsewhere. Then again I'm not really a "get hype!" kind of person so what do I know.

Yeah, I'm kinda torn on the decision. I love informative OT's, and have impulse bought several games thanks to the prominence of the OT, information therein, as well as the enthusiasm of the posters. On the other hand. OT's are, for me, almost entirely for lurking (at least during the lead-up and initial first week). Echo Chamber is a great description - there's a ton of great information, but finding it can be difficult and asking for it can be ignored or even sometimes seen as obtrusive.

It'll be interesting to see what effects the new rule has on the hype culture in general here.

 

[Jarmel]

Midnight of release day is at least 9-12 hours before most people will get the game, unless it's available at midnight on download services, in which case there will be a small bit of leeway. But a full 24 hours before release is unlikely.

However a number of games on PC can be played early due to VPNs. It seems like 24 hours in advance makes sense to accommodate them.

 

[Sendou]

I think what happens here that a problem is trying to be solved which isn't a big one to begin with and by doing so a bigger one occurs: no place to discuss experiences from playing early copies.

 

[Skux]

I guess I'll be the outsider who doesn't like the idea.

I want to talk about a game leading up to its release. Discuss trailers, go over early impressions, discuss Twitch streams, find unboxings on YouTube, talk about achievements, stores selling early, pre order bonuses, etc, etc....

I guess... What's the "harm" in having it up for a few days before release? The conversation is already going? Eh, I've never complained, even when jumping into an OT two weeks after release.

I think what happens here that a problem is trying to be solved which isn't a big one to begin with and by doing so a bigger one occurs: no place to discuss experiences from playing early copies.

I agree, this is important stuff. With so many retailers breaking street dates you'll often find people playing the game several days in advance. Us talking about other people playing the game would be the same as the stuff we normally talk about in an OT right?

All this will do is make hype threads more prominent in response, splitting the conversation for a recent game release in two.

 

[pariah164]

I agree, this is important stuff. With so many retailers breaking street dates you'll often find people playing the game several days in advance. Us talking about other people playing the game would be the same as the stuff we normally talk about in an OT right?

This. Also, this rule doesn't really bode well for smaller, niche titles that won't have many threads before release. I think 24 hours before release would be better for the posting of the OT.

 

[Yoshichan]

I really dislike this change.

As a creator of many OTs, both for games and events (Blizzcon), I find this change a pain in the ass to deal with.

1: Plenty of people gets introduced to the game through the 1-week-hype. Look at my FFXIII-thread for example. Lots and lots of people had no interest in the game but managed to buy the game within a week and participate in the pre-discussion that was going on in the OT.

2: What about events? Do we wait until the second the event goes live and then create the thread? It's just dumb - there's no build up - people will have to accidentally stumble upon the thread once its live in order to know about it. Either that, or you'll have to know about the event before-hand.

I despise this change, I really do. Not every game has its own HYPE-thread. The week after the |OT|s been launched acts like one.

 

[charlequin]

Like it has been said, now people are going to have to stay up till midnight to post an OT for a popular game.

I feel like it's silly that I have to even explain this, but nobody's going to be sitting there watching the timer. "A little while before you go to bed the day before" is always going to be fine. The goal is to make sure we don't have threads going up whole days in advance, not to keep people from posting a thread at 9PM so it'll be ready for midnight unlockers.

2: What about events?

Event threads have never been |OT|s and have never followed the specific rules of |OT|s. That stuff's always going to be on a case-by-case contextual basis.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Release day is fine. I don't think we need them earlier just for information or hype reasons. That should be the developer or consumer's responsibility. If that fails before release then clearly there's no rush to buy the game launch day anyhow, so buying the game 1-2 days late because the OT triggered it shouldn't be a problem -- if having said game on launch is so important it shouldn't be dependent on a gaf OT anyhow. So I don't think one day early or a few days earlier for smaller games or anything is necessary. 1 rule for all games OTs on day one. I think this works good.

 

[Steiner84]

how does this idea appreciate people who got the game early?
Recent example would be driveclub where some people had the game 3 days proir to the release in NA/EU. Where will they talk about the game?


Will there be pre-release OTs? early bird threds?

 

[Coreda]

Bit sad there won't be some pre-launch discussion and interest build-up for smaller/less well known games. It's fun participating in OT threads before a game has launched, and a pity these larger games spanning multiple OTs and threads have essentially put an end to this.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

One week was too much but I agree that 24 hours before the first region's release would be better since copies do break street dates and reviews sometimes come in before launch. If that's not possible I guess a review thread could tide me over until the OT.

 

[Delusibeta]

I suspect this will result in a vast increase in pointless hype threads and won't do anything to address the problem of users getting confused over where to post.

 

[Yoshichan]

Event threads have never been |OT|s and have never followed the specific rules of |OT|s. That stuff's always going to be on a case-by-case contextual basis.

Gotcha.

Events are fine then, that's great. I just can't get the feeling that under-hyped games will become even more dead now with this change. Let's take Lords of the Fallen for example. The few people here on GAF that've actually heard of it seems to be disliking it - there's no real 'hype' thread for it (other than the one that was created yesterday but that's nowhere near the kind of thread that would draw plenty of attention). No one will have heard of the game until it's launched and I just feel that one week is the perfect breakpoint in order to create some sort of hype especially for the games that needs it.

 

[Radec]

Why aren't hype-threads of games that are not |OT| being re-evaluated as well?

I'm seeing "(Insert unreleased game title here)-thread 10" still in the Gaming section even if the game is not even released yet.

What's the difference of those threads to |OT| threads that are 1 week ahead of release date?

 

[Nyoro SF]

I suspect this will result in a vast increase in pointless hype threads and won't do anything to address the problem of users getting confused over where to post.

Pretty much.

Limiting the discussion to the day of release is heavily limiting. Information will be flying around at crazy speeds and will promote a lot more hyper disjointed posting.

It would be much smarter to limit the OTs to 48 hours before release. There should be a little more buildup and not as much interfering OTs on the 1st page.

 

[Stimpack]

Sounds great to me as well.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Why aren't hype-threads of games that are not |OT| being re-evaluated as well?

I'm seeing "(Insert unreleased game title here)-thread 10" still in the Gaming section even if the game is not even released yet.

What's the difference of those threads to |OT| threads that are 1 week ahead of release date?

I don't understand this post. That's what they are changing the OTs so they aren't echo chambers and you can actually have a discussion about the game with people that have played the game.

 

[Roo]

I'm also in the same boat as those saying a 24 hours window before launch is the best way to handle this issue. What means "release day" for me, it can be "release date was/is yesterday/tomorrow for others.

Plus, mods should dictate an specific region to post OTs
For example, Captain Toad will be released November 13th in Japan but we will have to wait for it until December overseas. So should I go for the Japanese release date even tho the west will be more vocal about it?

It happened the same in the Smash OT where the game was released in Japan first 3 weeks before the US launch and in the meantime that thread was nothing but "hype"

 

[Sushi Nao]

This makes a lot of sense. I know that sometimes I feel lost in some huge threads, especially when a great game sneaks up on me and I buy it a bit later than release.

 

[grandjedi6]

A long overdue change. Good job!

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

better solution to useless and excessive hype threads if that is a result is to just prohibit those too, not funnel them into OTs. entire point of this is to clean up the excessive pre-release repetitive hype so if there are side effects to the OT change than those can be cleaned up too

in rare cases of disjointed releases, life will go on if a handful of people have to wait a few days for an OT; but i'm sure mods will be sensitive to soft release dates as the "launch date" -- no one is trying to be a dick. entire point is just to wait until people are actually playing so if a lot of gaffers have early access, i'm sure there can be consideration to that being the actual 'launch date'. we've had beta and early access threads too so i'm sure events like that can be case-by-case.

as for in the case of smaller titles, if someone has to wait a week for the OT, the game will still be there a week later. i don't think creating hype for a developer that can't do it themselves should be a justification for formal threads.

 

[Yoshichan]

Read through all the posts in this thread.

I get it that we'll never go back to 7-days-prelaunch OTs, but I would love it if ya'll would considerate trying out 3 days beforehand first.

 

[shinobi602]

This makes a lot of sense. I know that sometimes I feel lost in some huge threads, especially when a great game sneaks up on me and I buy it a bit later than release.

What's there to feel lost about? If you have a question, ask it. There's always someone or more than one who will reply.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

We've been looking at this kind of thing, as well. In general, I think the |OT| |OT|'s purpose has been perverted quite a bit since its inception, and we've had to deal with issues many times where someone thinks they "claimed" a thread and have the right to make the thread and not collaborate at all, when in reality the purpose of the thread is to set up collaboration. If multiple people want to work on it, they should be able to.

This is going to introduce its own problems, but maybe require that a second poster vouch for the person who claims the OT?

Could you maybe set Community to require moderator approval to make a thread in? That way the person who claims the OT could "drop off" the thread there before going to bed or whatever and a mod could have it appear when the time is right