We live in weird times...

by narcogen , Andover, Massachusetts, Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 05:23 (4295 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Underpromise and overdeliver (ninjas on fire notwithstanding). Always leave them wanting more. Bungie knows how this game is played about as well as anyone.

They aren't really under promising. We're being told it'll be something completely new, unlike anything we've ever played. That's a huge statement. Once you say something like that, you're in trouble if it turns out to be not that different than the other MMO FPS type games out there already.

That's very true, but I'm sort of separating the vague "ninja on fire" sort of claims that we can't possibly judge at this point and therefore may be overpromising, with the actual assets we're looking at.

For instance, if we'd been shown an Earth City like demo, or a complete cutscene, or something like the "gameplay demo" of Aliens: Colonial Marines-- and then the actual released product had fallen far short of the promise of that experience, that would be overpromising and under-delivering in the context I mean-- by presenting a video and saying "this is gameplay" and then finding out that your gameplay experience isn't like that, and your game engine doesn't look like that.

All we have is concept art, a few seconds of characters running, some character and gun models... and some vague claims about social connections and ambitious goals. I don't even think it can be evaluated yet.

So we've got potential overpromises in terms of Destiny's scope and success, but underpromising with regards to specificity about production values and gameplay details.

I'm comfortable with that. Yes, if this doesn't become "bigger than Halo" I suppose you could say they'll have egg on their faces. But that'd be true whether they said anything about it or not, so why not swing for the fences anyway?

Although... ninjas.. ninjas on fire. I suppose ambition counts for a lot :)