In recent times, I’ve come to have a strong dislike for this “Hype Culture” mentality that has plagued the gaming community. As an example of what I mean by this: Simply look at my thread discussing “Game of the Quarter (Winter)” or the OpenCritic Prediction League line-up of games. The number of titles on these lists is massive for how short the span of time is in which they’re release, and these are all games releasing on almost all platforms; yet people complain because there isn’t a major blockbuster revealed for [insert your favorite franchise]. It really does feel like the online gaming community views the state of the industry from the lens of “How many SUPER HYPE games have been revealed?!” instead of “What games have come out recently? Anything fun worth checking out?”, i.e. their interest in gaming is more for the HYPE fix they get as opposed to the actual playing of video games.

To add: My recent distaste for this HYPE culture has reslly been exacerbated by Nintendo fans as of recent. We have so many super solid games releasing, we have so many games from NS1 and prior we can revisit, yet all I ever hear is “WHERE’S THE NEXT DIRECT?!!! WHERE’S 3D MARIO?!!! SMASH BROS?!!!!! SWITCH 2 IS SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT!! NO GAMES!!” It’s gotten to a point where I’d rather if Nintendo just stopped with these Directs. Nobody is ever happy coming out of them, all I ever hear is complaints, and it truly only serves to fuel this HYPE culture in gaming.

What are your thoughts?

I don't even think a lot of those are actually Nintendo fans, and are mostly just trolls trying to get clicks/views revenue money on youtube/tikktok by telling you Nintendo doesn't have any games, have poor sales, has bad games etc.

First world problems really

It's kinda like those people actively seeks reasons to get upset

I can only guess they have nothing really serious in their lifes to worry about

That’s why I just watch these events myself so I can judge them for myself and see if there’s anything I like.

Living in a world where social media is viewed as a career and means to make money, there’s always going to be a LOT of people that will run things like this purely as a means to drive engagement to get paid.

I wish Nintendo would stop most of their Directs. Most of them just lead to disappointment in my eyes and an unhealthy hype cycle. And so many people hype them up way worse than I do.
A big look at individual games would be enough. I'd be more than fine at this point to just get shadow drops of unveilings of new games without them in a Nintendo Direct.
One of the things about anticipation is that for about 4 or more years now I keep saying: Is this the Direct we get the new 3D Mario announced? We obviously know it's one of those games that is pretty much always in planning and development but still.

These past two months are the first two months in many years where I haven’t been super fixated on awaiting an upcoming Direct, and I must say, it has been extremely refreshing. It’s no longer as though Nintendo is constantly weaving between “Everything is good” and “Everything is bad! We need a Direct NOW! It’s February/June/September”, but rather, “Hmm I wonder what game I’ll play this weekend.”

I have such a backlog of games on multiple platforms that I will never ever run out of things to play. 

And for people who have Switch 2 and have run out of things to play in terms of backwards compatibility and native games they must be super picky or only be interested in full price games that they might not be able to afford right now. 

There's this guy on YouTube with the username of TheBitBlock who would complain about Wii U ports on Switch (because he had most of them on Wii U) and games like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade he didn't care about. And then he would say he didn't care about most third-party games unless they "felt Nintendo". He must only get 2-4 new games a year to play at most. That's really picky. 

@bold: I feel the exact same way. When I see video game enthusiasts complain about a lack of interesting games to play, my brain short-circuits a little bit. I'm half kidding when I say this, but I wish studios would release fewer games, so I have a fighting chance to catch up  

I don't really get hyped anymore with few exceptions. I can get intrigued but I need to learn more about it. Mechanics, Accessibility options. Possibly story depending on the game. Just follow the information as more it released over time. Just in case that one thing that tells me, not for me. Souls like. Roguelite. Tower Defense etc. The exceptions when I get hyped is either a genuinely new IP that looks interesting but cautious hype was Stellar Blade. Ended up loving it. The other was a series I already enjoyed in a genre I love. So Ninja Gaiden 4 from a studio I love, PG.

Something Nintendo Directs are generally best at. Explaining to me what the game is. What you do in it. Sony generally does the generic hype machine bullshit. CGI trailer or a bunch of talking heads masturbating to their newest game with buzzwords. I'm not interested in a lot of what Nintendo shows but mostly not rolling my eyes so far back I can see my own brain like most Sony SoPs.

I don't care what masses say about something I am interested in or not. It has zero affect on my choice.

The internet allowed for this. Before, the world was small. Unless you were buying magazines, or drowning in newspapers and TV shows, you were in the dark at all times. Your reality was taken in small bites. You woke up in the morning, completely detached. You didn't know what was happening beyond that bedroom. You didn't know where your parents were, your friends. You didn't know what the government was doing, your co-workers, your town etc. You only knew what you knew in those tiny little slices of life. And that kept your nervous system in balance. You didn't get overwhelmed easily. You didn't get anxiety. You only knew what was in front of you. It was a more natural life, because that's how most of us lived until the turn of the century. Our systems were (and are) designed for it. They're not designed for the internet and social media and all this noise and knowledge and data 24/7. So when you feel overwhelmed, understand what is causing it. And if you don't like it anymore, step away and breathe and allow your mind and soul to live for awhile without it, to live how you're programmed to live. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.