Are the Fandom expectations too high?

EDIT: July 24, 2012 - I didn't expect this thread to regain popularity months later, so I want to mention that I have seen the community here mature and grow in some great ways. We have moved out of the random speculation stage of Forum Growth (due in large part to the communication of the devs) and I really enjoy the community. (and hype is fun)

I am excited about this game, and am impatient for its eventual release, however, I have noticed a trend of unusually high expectations on this forum.
Things like "In this game anything is going to be possible", and "Its an infinite universe with infinite options", and "This game will have limitless potential", and my all time favorite, "What Tiy is doing here is sheer magic. They're looking at everything that a gamer could ever dream of, and wrapping it together into a seamless work of brilliance."
(names removed, because I don't mean this to be personal in any way)

Maybe the game will meet these expectations, but the last time I saw expectations like this was on the Spore forums a few months before it released...

For those of you who don't know, Spore was a Sim-everything game, that was going to have infinite possibilities and conclude in a sandbox in space with moldable planets, species, etc. But it turned out that it nowhere near met expectations. As a game it wasn't awful, I enjoyed hours messing around with multiple species and planets, but because people expected so much more, it flopped in the fandom.

What do you think? Am I being too much of a wet blanket to draw attention to these expectations on a Pre-release fan forum?

TL;DR: are we fantasizing too much, and will we be dissappointed because of it?

 

....darn, right before I create my thread about this subject.

But in all honesty, I do believe a number of us are fantasizing a tad to much, but I don't believe we'll be dissappointed at all. Look at Spore, even though it wasn't as "magical" as everyone thought it was going to be, it still turned out to be a rather decent game. I think when some of us end up going to Youtube out of boredom and look up Starbound videos, a number of us will remain "hooked" as a result of LPs (please no more "british" accent LPs, just cause 'they' can do it, doesn't automatically mean you can to) as well as doodles, mods, adventure maps, etc. I'm sure a few people such as OdysseyGamez will be join in on the fun as well. Its like a party, you stay for a number of reasons, one is because of the people, and if this game has easy multiplayer access with other people (even if its something like a duel or a brawl), I'm sure it will stay for many years to come.

 

Expectations are always too high for something when a large group of people are waiting and talking about it daily.

If everything that's been mentioned by the team creating Starbound is actually in the game, then there might not be widespread disappointment. The people who have extraordinarily high expectations beyond the information that has been released officially should probably calm down.

Are people actively talking about this game anywhere else except for this forum and random Youtube videos? I remember way back when people were posting about Spore all the time on digg, etc.

 

While it is true that some expectations are so high that some may be disappointed, this game WILL get updated, so if there is something a large amount of the community doesn't like, they fix it. Expectations may be high for the initial release, but for the updated product no.

 

I guess I am also a little worried that there will be a deluge of disappointment rants if starbound isn't as good as fan X envisioned it.

and, Cat_ you're right, this game doesn't have anywhere near the hype of Spore, (no GDC general session speaker for one. ) but I couldn't think of a better comparison, and Starbound makes me think of the the space stage in Spore.

 

No but really I think it's going to be worth the price of the waiting and the money, but hey I've been wrong before.

 

I think this game is gonna b awesome even if it doesnt live up 2 the hype. I plan on getting it on release da and playing the crap out of it. if this game is anything like the devss hav hinted towards it will be good . no doubt

 

This has happened with many game that either have developers that have previously had a part in a popular game (terraria), a sequel to a brilliant game, or just developers glorifying the
content of the game (Skyrim).
Mass Effect 3 was incredibly hyped up for, many people had super high expectations for it because of the previous success of ME and ME2, it met up to many people's expectations,
except for it's endings (they're seriously bad), people are raging on how the ending ruined the whole series, while the gameplay is superb. As you can see from this situation, a small
dent (debatable) could ruin a game's reputation.
You can see where I'm going with this post.

 

That's what people said about Terraria. And what now? Red already had a stepping stone on how to program (SMBX or something like that) and experience, and yet when he announced that he was stopping the flow of updates, he said, and i quote:
"For the majority of the game's development, I was more or less just using the game as a testing ground to play with different ideas and learn C#/XNA"
And Tiy has had a stepping stone for spriting, so, isn't it safe to assume that maybe the same might happen? That Tiy might THEN create Starbound 2 after several months? Because, and again Red said this, that "We might not even be able to recognise Terraria in a few years", and then he didn't fufill this statement (He didn't promise us anything but that's what makes me hate it because he could just argue like a a-hole "I never promised you anything").
Why couldn't, why shouldn't, and why wouldn't it not turn out the same?

 

There are those who have crazy expectations for this game, but I for one haven't raised my expectations too high, as long as I get to fight things, explore, build, dig, do quests, travel to different worlds, discover awesome creatures, etc. I'll be happy.
I'm not expecting everything that was announced to be in the game to be there in the initial release, I do however HOPE that they will be implemented in later updates and patches.

 

Not only expectation are high, but some seems too over zealous on the subject.

But I GUESS they have a reason to be that excited. Having contact with the developers almost daily, the Lead Designer (Tiy) that was from the team of Terraria (other very successful game) beside the slight resemblance to Terraria itself.

All the features confirmed so far can give you a solid idea on how cool the game already is.

 

The game's core idea is something that Tiy, myself, and probably a whole lot of other people have been dreaming about since as long as we can remember. Like any fandom, people will get carried away and let their hopes and ideas for the game get the better of them, but I'd hope that's better than having a completely stagnant community. It seems like a worthwhile trade off to me.

 

I don't think I could've voiced my opinion any better than this. I am just happy as long as it's what it promises to be as an actual genre. A game where you explore and fight, much like Terarria. Hell. I could even do without the whole "building stuff" part, even though that would be kind of sad, but it would still be a great game.

 

So they've already announced a price? Man, I am behind in my starbound news...

 

I think that's only a rough guess.

 

Nope. I don't think that's possible and can only make the game better. We know enough about the game to be as excited as we are.

 

I believe the more excitement the game has, the more people will buy it. That will be good for business, and more business means more updates. Because of those updates, even if people are disappointed about something, it may eventually be added in/fixed. I think the hype is a good thing.

 

Too high? Absolutely not. What are we even "Expecting" from this game? What's there to expect? It's an aspiring project, yeah, but there's quite a small amount of detail that's been released. We're not in the expectation phase, we're in the hype generation phase. I know it might be hard to understand, but the Devs aren't promising us "The best 2D game ever." They're not promising us that we'll never want to play a different game. They're just working on the game, releasing tidbits, and letting people's imaginations go wild.

It's natural for people to be excited. Even more natural when we're not really given reason to doubt it yet. The Devs haven't promised anything I didn't believe they could do. They're promising an exploration game with tons of procedural generation, so that's what I'm expecting. The quotes you mention only prove that people are excited about it. It's called hype. It can be healthy for a game.I don't understand how it can be "Too high," at all. Some people get more excited than others. Some people don't get as excited that easily. That's pretty much it. We all like to think that a new game is going to be perfect, but it's not. That doesn't mean much at all. Nothing's perfect. Oh well, you know? We have a great community for what'll surely be a great game. A perfect game? Probably not. But you can't blame people for being excited.

That's what it is: High Expectations? Probably not. Excitement, fantasies, hopes and dreams for what the game will be? Sure. It's not a bad thing thing at all. You're describing a natural cycle. Worst that could happen is the game isn't perfect. I'm confident it'll be a good game, still. If people get disappointed, that's it. There's nothing we can actually DO about it. People are going to get excited for a game that has such aspiring goals; it's natural.

TL;DR: No. Our expectations aren't really too high. Most of us are here because of Terraria. (Sorry, it had to be brought up.) We can't help it if Starbound is giving us things we wanted in Terraria. That's mainly the reason for all the excitement. We'll be fine.

 

games like these might end up dissapointing a little bit mostly because of the hype but i think that it will still be a darn fun game i just hope they let us have our own summons or like tame pets because if there are gonna be tons of monsters then i want them to fight along side me like use guns and have a like poptart or just like a boar like creature to keep em off me