Hello Neighbor, FNAF, and…Apple?

[starseerdrgn]

So… Something dawned on me last night that made me realise just why secrecy is so important to Apple, and why sites like MacRumors and Think Secret are…somewhat assholish for violating that secrecy. And it has to do with the games Five Nights at Freddy's and Hello Neighbor.

See, the two developers employed completely different tactics in how they handled promotion of their games. With FNAF, Scott Cawthon always employed teasers that showed nothing of the gameplay, but still built anticipation among the fanbase. Meanwhile, Tiny Build pushed out open alphas before releasing the game, thereby showing players what to expect.

And those are the two key words here: Anticipation and Expectation.

With FNAF, we didn't know what to expect with each of the games. We just knew something was going to happen, it'd expand on the lore, and probably be a sit-and-survive game of some sort. Of course, curveballs were thrown with FNAF 4, FNAF Sister Location, and FNAF Pizzaria Simulator. And that made things more exciting when we finally got to play the games. We didn't have much in the way of expectations, but we were anticipating what would come. And that's what I believe made it extremely successful.

Meanwhile, Hello Neighbor showed people what to expect with their open alphas. You got used to the mechanics. You saw what the neighbor looked like. You saw the art style. And you kinda got the feel of the game's core ideas. Only the story was really left up in the air. And when the final game came out... Well, it was more of the same. Aside from the bugs, it just ended up being mostly underwhelming from a gameplay standpoint, and the ended left people feeling unfulfilled.

People had expectations for Hello Neighbor, and when those expecations weren't met, they weren't happy. But people didn't have them for Five Nights at Freddy's, and because of that, they were mostly surprised and had positive things to say about the games.

The same could be said for Apple's products. When fans and followers of the company didn't know what was coming, most people were rather excited about the new products when they were finally released. But when suppliers and websites spoil what's coming, people just yawn at the actual release.

Anticipation drums up excitement, but knowing what to expect just ruins that fun. It's why we hate spoilers with various story-driven media.

And news sites—in their infinite drive to find as much of a scoop as possible to grab readership—will gladly throw up anything that might seem plausible to drive up those expectations, because they know it'll draw in people itching to know more about what's coming. In the same way an idiot can spoil a movie or TV show, these guys are doing the same for Apple products and calling it a career.

And having realized that this is how that sort of thing works...it actually makes me angry that sites like MacRumors and Think Secret were willing to do this sort of thing. As many in the furry fandom say about headless suiters, it ruins the magic. It drives up expectation and destroys anticipation. And that's not right. They shouldn't be taking away a company's right to such secrecy, and they shouldn't have a right to take away that anticipation just to make a few bucks.

That's just my opinion, though.