Expectations don't matter

[vivster]

Lonely_Dolphin said:

vivster said:
Psychology, ever heard of it? Expectations influence everything, if you want it or not. The issue is that you can't influence your expectations a lot. They're built by prior experiences and perception. You can try to temper them but you won't ever have them completely under control. The only people who can control your expectations are the ones in control of the product. If a person gets too high or low expectations it's entirely on the shoulders of marketing. There are of course exceptions if the expectations are based on outdated or wrong information, or are built on something that's just not realistically possible.

If I have the wrong expectations of a game and I did my due diligence in gathering information you can be damn straight that I'm gonna blame that on whoever was in control of marketing.

How is it then that two people can have opposite expectations about a game despite having access to the same information? That you admit there are exceptions means people are totally in control, as their expectations can be decided based on whatever they want, whether it makes sense or not.

Ha, you definitely did not do your due diligence if marketing was your sole source of information.

Looks like you didn't actually read a word of what I said.

First I said expectation is shaped by perception AND prior experience. Imagine people having different prior experiences that will lead them to have different expectation even if they have access to the same information.

Also having access to the same information isn't the same as actually getting that information. There are more than enough people who don't actively seek information.

I never said marketing was the only source. That is specifically the case for games when there are no other resources available, namely long before a game is released, aka the period where the vast majority of expectation is created.

Then there is of course the matter of first impressions which have a massive influence on expectations. People can have the same information but have wildly different first impressions, for example merely based on the order they processed the information. First impressions will taint every single bit of information you receive after it. Information can be presented differently outlet by outlet. You don't control how information is presented to you, so you have no control over what kind of expectations they create.

All anyone can do is get as much accurate information as possible and even then it isn't really possible to have accurate expectations. That's because the only way to attain 100% of information is to actually play the game. Everything else is incomplete data.

Stop being willingly obtuse. You're not some superhuman who can bend his involuntary information processing to his will. Nobody can.