Don't Believe the Hype

Just how much power does that thing called Hype possess in the gaming industry? Mention something coming out and anyone will ever be excited or dismiss as rubbish with astonishing venom. Indeed, it is interesting how much excitement can be generated here in this age where the nerds have officially taken over and the Internet rules over all.
It doesn't pay to get sucked into hype: If the game turns out great then so much so the better and if the game sucks then you don't lose. How many games have actually lived up to the hype? And what is the ratio comparing them to the hyped games that turn out lousy?

But the mystifying thing for me, is that we keep falling into the trap of being seduced by hype. How many more disasters must happen before we finally wake up to the truth and not get sucked in? Are we at a point where a game can't stand on it's own two feet without being hyped for all it's worth?

This evil thing known as hype, not to mention it's iron grip it has on the gaming industry, has got me thinking. so for today, I thought I'd share with you this story I heard when I was a kid:
Some 300 hundred years ago, a new flower was introduced into Holland: Tulips. These flowers are grown through underground bulbs. Being anew thing thing, many people wanted them and and a seemingly equal amount of people saw a chance to get rich through selling bulbs.
Problem was it takes three/seven years to raise bulbs from seeds. Some people didn't want to wait that long so they began selling the bulbs before they got them. As a result, money kept changing hands for bulbs that didn't exist. Prices got higher and people even sold their houses just to buy a tulip bulb to sell.
Finally, the people of Holland eventually saw reason: They grew frightened of spending so much on tulip bulbs. Prices dropped, sellers with bulbs couldn't sell them and many people were left broke and/or homeless. And thus Holland was nearly ruined - all becuase of tulips.
(for a more detailed explanation of this crisis click here)

And that was over 300 years ago. You'd think in the time since we would've learned better by now.....