Hello world!

I played a lot of halo 2 in my days, maybe not as hardcore as some but non the less, I played it a lot. With halo 3 coming out i fear disappointment because of the hype that is going on. Hype can turn ugly really fast, especially when the reputable halo 3 might not live up to its expectations.

(yes I use halo 3 here because this is the most current hype example)

Halo 3 is launching here soon and the marketing of that game has been going on for months. I do understand that Microsoft wants to spend top dollar on halo 3, considering their success with halo 2, but enough is enough. I can’t go to gamestop or target or any store that sells games without the employee asking me “would you like to preorder halo3?”

Not to burst anyone’s bubble. I never really had anything against halo (the first halo), it is during the second one when the halo community online alternative gave be a bitter view on it. Ever since the grinding “love” for Halo 2, I feared that the 3’d one would be going through extreme marketing to get the news out. wow, to think of it, I was right. Now how bad is it when something is over marketed? Well personally, next time an employee asks me about preordering halo 3, I might just end up in jail. Cause I am honestly sick of this. You see it on TV, on your drink (mountain dew), it echoes through out the Internet, you see it on bill boards and people jamming it down your throat.

Here is my fear, when something is this heavy marketed, you expect something extremely revolutionary. I’ve seen things that had me impressed for a year after it’s release. For those of you who do not know, I beta tested halo 3 ( 2.5). Now as I look at my husband play it (it was only online based so since it didn’t have single player testing, I wasn’t that interested playing it). I did observe and kept in mind that this was supposed to be 360 biggest title.

Halo 3 isn’t the only game being so heavily marketed. Alot of games were hyped up to extreme. Those games either lived up to their expectations, or suffered the cries of an outraged gaming audience! “cough”…..Gears of war…. cough”.

I also kept in mind that yes, this is a beta and there are going to be flaws. Now as a spectator, I have to admit, I didn’t see the difference between halo 2 and halo 3. Sure they threw in a few things that they left out in halo 2. Then why ask the consumer to purchase the same game with just a little bit better graphics and a few extra items?  Why not just call it halo 2.5, create a boosterpack for download for half the price and have it over with? Yes I understand that some were very much impressed with the beta and a lot of people are big fans of the halo series, but do not expect that everyone will feel the same way. I like halo, I think that in it’s time it was very new and very revolutionary, that is why I am disappointed with the hype and the product not living up to it’s expectation.

I know that after this article I will get an earful of people telling me that I don’t know what I am talking about and that it IS indeed the greatest game ever created. Well it’s a matter of opinion. If you are a fan of the halo series, you are going to look pass the flaws of the game. Understand this also, that not everyone is overly stoked about this game, in fact, recently there was a site that posted their opinions about halo 3, pretty much pointing out flaws and stating that it is being over hyped. They got pretty much bashed by a bunch of halo fans. It is sad that when someone speaks their opinions about a game they tested and didn’t like, that they have to deal with angry mobs. I have friends that love halo, and you know what? Good for them, but speaking from my own experience of the beta and all the commercialism being put into this game, I am more then ready for a let down. It is not me being ignorant, nor is it me being “hatin'”, it is me stating my view, my opinion of this entire situation. I think it’s being over marketed and creating room for disappointment. I believe that there is such a thing as overexposure. Because people will be expecting something larger then life.

For instance, a 60 second trailer was aired on ESPN on december 4th.
Pepsi-cola announced a new variant of Mountain Dew, along with that crappy commercial that goes on TV during prime time.
It goes on and on people, all over the world.

[I]”The marketing for Halo 3 has been extensive and is planned to be epic in scope. Much of the advertising to date has focused on appealing to the general public, rather than just hardcore fans of the game. Microsoft has announced the launch of an international advertising campaign using the Forerunner Structure imagery (often with massive banners hung from city skyscrapers).”[/I]

Now for you who say that Halo 3 pre orders are larger then halo 2, well you might be right, but so far halo3 has recently reached 1 million copies in north America, whilst halo2 has it beaten with 1.5 million copies.

On the good note non the less, the video saving thing is going to be great. What saddens me is that It’s going to be a video of me, getting T-bagged by a high pitched little pimple pusher, telling me how much I sucked because he thinks it’s cool to do glitch cheats. I never really had anything against halo, the single player, the design and story, is very cool. I didn’t experience single player on beta, so it’s hard to draw a conclusion. All I am hoping is that it will live up to the hype.

[B]Also I’d like to mention that Godfree loved the beta[/B], that only proves that some people will love it and some people won’t. Godfree feels that the beta shouldn’t have been released in the first place. He is right. Cause then most likely I wouldn’t have been disappointed. Then again, to keep reminding myself, this is just a beta. We will see more of it when the final version launches. Let’s hope it lives up to everyones expectations!