What is the line between good marketing and too much? Did Bioshock: Infinite cross it?
OK, OK. I might be exaggerating a bit here.
While I mentioned reading some negative posts by other people, in terms of impact of all of this hype I can only speak for myself. First and foremost, the awe was not quite where I had hoped it would be when I first stepped into Columbia. When I played Bioshock, I think I actually stopped for a second, with my mouth wide open, when the elevator drops in one of the earliest sequences in the game. I did not catch myself doing that when I started playing Infinite. In fact, a lot of what I have played so far has seemed very familiar. Well, no duh….I have been reading about it and watching videos on this sequence of the game for the last 4 months. I killed it for myself, I know that.
Secondly, I feel like the current level of Elizabeth interaction is going to scrutinized to a very high extent. I caught myself watching all of the little things that she was doing. It was all because of the “Creating Elizabeth” videos and the interviews where Kevin Levine was talking about all of the difficulty of making an NPC react to the world like a normal companion would. With those expectations in my mind, I was catching myself paying more attention to what she does next than the general surroundings. Ultimately, if you look close enough at any piece of art, you are bound to find flaws.
The real end result of the marketing campaign comes through the sales numbers. If the heavy amount of marketing results in very high revenue, than all of this was a success. Marketing is about getting the product in the hands of as many consumers as possible. Clearly, it worked for this game. Still, I feel like the amount of it will result in a fantastic game, which should be played by all, falling just short of legendary status.
