Actually, the zombie hordes of H1Z1 were already in “Yummy, brains” position, waiting for a bunch of trigger-happy zombie killers. But a disappointing gameplay trailer, a later date for early access, and a lack of information are now causing disillusionment on reddit: Did SOE miscalculate when hyping the zombie MMO?
The hype of a game, especially an MMO, is a sensitive matter. Ideally, the excitement should rise steadily leading up to the release, peaking at launch when people are camping in front of game shops, forming long lines and typing the name of the game into Google every 4 seconds. This seems to be somewhat failing for SOE with their zombie MMO H1Z1.
Reality, not rendering: Gameplay trailer causes disillusionment
While gameplay announcements about a zombie survival simulation, which is inspired by The Walking Dead and DayZ, along with talkative developers and an upcoming release date for early access created a lot of hype. But at E3, a trailer showing “actual” gameplay was seen, which looked somewhat rough around the edges, to say the least. While many publishers prefer to wow players with rendered demos or stun them with cutscenes, H1Z1 now seems to be suddenly disenchanted.
In addition, there is the delayed access to early access – according to a dubious source at Gamespot, it is allegedly planned for late June, but nothing is more specific here. Actually, H1Z1 fans were expecting to hunt zombies and each other by mid-May. However, that turned out to be nothing. The date has since been pushed to “soon,” which does not seem to be coming any closer, but rather sliding further back.
Out of hype?
The SOE devs justify the delay of the alpha by saying they want to ensure that they provide players with a really good build.
On reddit, the alternate homepage of the game, there is now a long thread where players are complaining about their decreasing interest in the game. Many state that they were totally excited about the game, but the E3 trailer, the delay, and the lack of information felt like a cold shower.
Mein MMO says: Could the zombie hype not withstand the encounter with the real game perhaps because many players envision such a great game in their minds, that one made of bits and bytes cannot measure up? Especially with zombies and zombie-related products, atmospheric expectations are often associated, which appear better in the players’ minds than on a monitor.
Or is it simply that as soon as a date is pushed back, the hype dwindles – just like with the Xbox and PS4 fans of TESO? Or is this just a distorted perception of the fans on reddit and the “normal” players are just as eager for the game as before the trailer and the delay?
With SOE’s new policy of keeping players informed at all times about the state of the game, players and developers are treading new ground. If delays occur, the otherwise talkative devs cannot retreat to a “When it’s done” or “soon” like more conservative developers. This could backfire: Not only can zombie dogs smell when something is off.
