Trailers and Tribulations

Ah, game trailers. Those little bits of eye-candy that tease us with epic details and amazing visuals. Ocular pornography for geeks who like games, I like to call them. You’ll see the latest trailer I assaulted my eyes with at the bottom of this post.

It got me thinking, really. I mean, gamers today react in two ways to a trailer for something. They either get extremely excited and psyched, or they adopt a sense of cynicism about fluff that doesn’t present the realities of what gameplay is actually going to be like. These are two extremes that I think present themselves in any comment thread on Youtube or Gametrailers, with sometimes hilarious results. Nothing like seeing “MAN THIS IS AWESOME” next to “MAN THIS SUCKS”. Ah, contrasts.

Me? Even though I’m not surprisingly in the “MAN THIS IS AWESOME” column, I also have realistic expectations about the visual orgy that hits my face when I see a games trailer. Trailers are curious little things, and like movies, are meant to tease, elicit a small sense of surprise, and generate buzz. That, however, is all they can and should be. They aren’t an indication of actual experience. They sometimes aren’t quite the graphical look the game will have. And they most certainly aren’t a prediction of how badly a game decides to crash when you’re in the middle of killing something.

I think as long as people understand what game trailers are, then it’s not only easy but also appropriate to be excited and happy about them – because that’s what they’re supposed to do. In that respect, I’d rather be happy for the 2+ minutes I’m watching one rather than cynical for life. So that being said, here’s the latest trailer I’ve watched for TERA online, a new MMO coming out soon. Will it succeed? Time will tell – but for now, just enjoy, right?