News is Ruining My Game Experience

A man visits his therapist.

"So what is troubling you today?"

"Well, it may sound like a trivial thing, but I am no longer having fulfillment with the thing I like to do most."

"Well, this is definitely not trivial. The intimacy between a man and woman is a biologically important thing as well as..."

"Doctor, I'm talking about video games."

"...*Ahem* Yes, well, why do you think you don't enjoy them anymore."

"I've come up with two potential reasons."

"Please, do share."

"Perhaps I am now too old to submit to my imagination and enter the worlds and characters I was able to do when I was younger. I seem to want to quantify the games I play and often find myself rushing through them as if they are something I must be accomplished and nothing more. Achievements and trophies only seem to exacerbate the problem. Nowadays, to decide what game I want to play I often look at my gamerscore and see which game needs improvement."

"Oh my, that does sound miserable."

"It is. But the second thing I've come up with is that because I look up video game news on a daily basis as well as read video game magazines and listen to podcasts, I already know what is going to happen in a game before it even comes out. Fox example, I was playing through Gears of War 3 today, the end of one of my favorite trilogies ever..."

"You can only have one favorite, by definition."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, continue please."

"Anyway, as with many games I have played lately, it was a frustrating and often a melancholy experience. Here are some of my thoughts while playing the game. 'Hey look it's Carmine. I wonder if he's going to live or die in this game? I remember the poll where Epic let people choose his fate by either buying a "Carmine must die" t-shirt for their avatar or a "Let Carmine Live" shirt. I wonder if this game will be as good as Uncharted 3. That's all that's talked about on the N4G forums every time there is an Uncharted or Gears news article. The graphics are good but I wonder if the Xbox 360 has reached it's limits. Yet another common news discussion. I've heard that Microsoft will release a new console in 2-3 years. Wow, look at that lame character running animation during this particular part. Oh, here's that weapon Cliff Blezinsky kept writing about on Twitter. There are very few surprises now when I play games.' Trailers are terrible as well. That epic part in Uncharted 2 that I was excited about? I rushed through it when the actual game came out because I had already seen it in a trailer of some gameplay footage. One of the most blatant offenders of this is Batman Arkham City, which was a game I was looking forward to this year, but not anymore."

"And why is that?"

"Rocksteady, the company that develops it, has already told the public everything about the game except the final boss. And they'll probably reveal that next week."

"Oh dear. So why do you seek out these video game news websites and magazines if they seem to to spoil the experience for you."

"I was wondering that myself, doctor. It's an addiction I guess. It's hard to avoid. I know I'm not the only one. But when a game like God of War III comes out THREE years after the second one it's hard not to devour every bit of news that comes out about it. And while I look for information about that I'll see something about another game and it leads to a chain reaction. I end up believing that I must know every little detail about every game I'm interested in."

"So, if you were able to completely avoid all video game news, then do you think you would have fulfillment when you play these games."

"That, doctor is the root of the problem. If I thought that was the case I would have stopped a long time ago. I like to compare it to smoking. Why can't people stop smoking? Yes, the nicotine addiction, obviously, but smoking a cigarette makes them feel incredibly good. The feeling of smoking is perhaps even better to them than quitting and living a healthy life. It's similar with video game news. While watching gameplay footage for a game like Dead Space 2 (and in the process ruining a cool sequence in the game) I have a good time. I get my high of finding out something about the game before it comes out. I also feel like I have power, like I'm more up-to-date that everyone else in the world."

"But in the process, you ruin the original experience that you would have playing the game with no prior knowledge."

"Exactly."

"Well I have a simply strategy for you to try."

"Yes?"

"Why not go for a few months without looking up any type of information for video games. No news sites, no magazines and no podcasts."

"You know, I may just do that. Obviously it won't matter with all of the games coming out this year that I already know about but perhaps for the beginning of next year."

"There you go, and pass on the strategy to other people you know who video-game."

"Will do, thanks Doctor."

[-Alpha]

Nice. This, and the fact that everybody exaggerates and overhypes exclusives sets me up for disappointment sometimes

[Jinxstar]

You know. I started with GOW3 and have continued with every game since that I am excited about. I had seen 0 trailers on GOW3 prior to release. I avoided article and even screen shots and I enjoyed the hell out of the game, Since then games like Batman AC, Uncharted 3 and many others have gotten 0 views from me. Some games I will watch trailers for like fighting games as to me it doesn't spoil the experience. Some games I'll watch trailers and see screens until I decide if I will buy the game or not. Example being "Rage". I watched trailers until I decided "This game is a buy" unless in the next few days a slew of 6-7 review scores come out. Games I know off the bat I will buy I only watch the initial reaser for. i.e. Batman AC. Since then I have seen almost no info on it. I have seen a few headlines like "Catwoman Playable" or "Penguin in game screens" but I didn't click on them so all I know is in some way you'll get to play as catwoman... Maybe... I really don't know and penguin will be somehow in the game...

This had really made games a lot more enjoyable for me. I have seen some n the uncharted online MP stuff but other then that I do my best to avoid all video. During the sony presser I turned off the volume and only took very short quick looks at the screen to see when it was over. From what I gathered there is a runway with a plane you jump onto... Thats it. Oh and a boat that looks really cool... also some building thats on fire your running through I believe with Sully... I tell you it really is great being oblivious.

The reason I didn't buy resident evil 5 was because I knew everything there was to know before it released. Also the controls are just way too dated for me... but I think I would have bought it if they had been a lot less forthcoming with everything in the game...

I really understand where your coming from and I don't know what to say otherwise. just put as much effort as you can into not watching and reading up on games that you know you will buy. Games your no sure about watch until you are 99% sure(Reviews are always the tell tale for me) and then stop. If you decide your not gonna buy a game (i.e. Deus ex or Modern Warfare 3 for me) then spoil away... Who cares.

[MidnytRain]

I myself skim through every front page news story and once thought it was impossible. Then, I thought to myself, how much of this is actual news? Eventually, I just stopped reading about games I knew I was getting anyway. Now, I only bother with news if it's on a game I know little about. I mean, there are some things you're going to want to know about, but there are others that won't influence your decision, so why bother?

[vickers500]

To conserve money. Sometimes, a sequel to a great franchise can end up being terrible, resulting in a waste of money (as I've heard is the case with Dragon Age 2).

Though I do completely agree with this blog post, especially the first part. It's kind of depressing :(

Wasted money doesn't matter so much when you're a kid, but when you're an adult, it's not so easy to dismiss.

And there's one of the problems. You get excited for a game, but you need to be sure that it's going to be worth your hard earned money, and you do that by either watching footage, reading info, or reading reviews, but in the process of doing those things, the experience becomes somewhat spoiled when you actually play it. I guess the best option is to take a leap of faith/gamble/chance and hope that it turns out okay. Of course that wouldn't be too much of a problem if game makers hadn't jacked up their prices so much and would sell them at a decent price, because 65 dollars is just far too much money for the majority of games out there.

[SamPao]

I think its okay to watch stuff before the game releases, not too much of curse, but the thing is NEVER watch trailers or ANYTHING while you are playing the game, that ruins everything!

[Sillyace92]

I have the same problem