The Daily Grind: Should trailers use only in-game footage?

by Brendan Drain on Nov 21st 2010 8:00AM

Expansions, Lore, Opinion, The Daily Grind

The purpose of a game trailer is undoubtedly to showcase the game and generate some excitement for it. Many companies opt to release trailers using in-game footage, making a big selling point of their game's graphics. This strategy has been used to successfully promote games from World of Warcraft to TERA. With a trailer containing actual game footage, players can get a good impression of what the game will look like before giving it a try. On the other end of the spectrum, some companies choose to create vivid cinematics to showcase the game's story and get fans excited. These tend to show some key point in the game's lore, which fans of that IP are likely to respond well to. We've seen some pretty epic cinematics for World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion, DC Universe Online's in-depth story, Lego Universe's unique gameplay ideas and Star Wars: The Old Republic's epic backstory.

With the latest few EVE Online trailers, there has been a strange merging of those two ideas. EVE's trailers were once filmed using only in-game footage, but over the past several expansions, CCP has begun moving into a more cinematic style. The trailers still depict the in-game environment but are rendered in an external scene-composition suite using higher resolution versions of all the models and textures in-game. The latest trailer for EVE's upcoming Incursion expansion certainly looks good and tells the story of what's to come, but is it missing something fundamental by using out-of-game graphics?

Where do you stand on this issue? Should game trailers use only in-game footage or do you find well-done cinematics more enticing? And is there a middle ground where the two can meet?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Tags: cataclysm, ccp, ccp-eve, ccp-games, cinematics, eve, eve-ccp, eve-mmorpg, eve-online, expansion, graphics, incursion, lego, LEGO-Universe, tera, tera-online, the-daily-grind, trailer, World-of-Warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (49)

I always preferred cinematic trailers, but nowadays with all those MMOs out there, i prefer to actually see what i'm getting myself into.

A perfect mix would be a short cinematic, followed by in game footage. Best of both worlds.

FMV cinematics are fine, but they should come after a bold message onscreen for 3 secs that says "this is CGI not gameplay" - you know... for the dummies that still confuse the two.

Blur studios do fine cinematics and the DCUO was very well done. I loved that trailer but the subsequent gameplay videos put me right off - hence, i distinguished the difference and am not interested in getting it.

number of The Old Republic sales would drastically decrease

I play EVE and I can tell you that it was the "cinematic" trailer that brought me too the game. And since the new graphics rendering that has taken place, they are quite close to what you see in the trailer: albight if you have a good gaming rig. I, however do not and still am entrigued by the graphic detail.

The trailers are more to tell the "Lore" of what the new expansion is about. I dont think demoing the gameplay is really necessary in an expansion trailer as the Website has many demo videos showing the current in-game graphics that would go into more detail prior to playing. Not to mention, the 2 weeks you get free to check it out. If you dont like it... you leave without a loss, but satisfying your curiosity.

Quite honestly, EVE online, having set a higher standard for graphics in a Single Shared server MMO should be given a little license to get artistic with their trailers. After all, how many multi-million dollar cinimatic craptastic movies left us let down with promises unfulfilled in the plot?

Only in-game footage. These cinematics without in-game footage usually show things you'll never be able to do in-game, so they are way misleading, they make you go nerdgasm for actually nothing (considering it fulfills the objective of you purchasing the game).

This is what gets me. I'm ok with graphics in the trailer not being indicative of the game, but I expect the character I create to be able to do exactly what the nameless NPC trailer guy is doing, and just as efficiently/effortlessly. Combat is the worst offender here - how many trailers show someone scything through enemies in seconds then the actual gameplay is much slower?

I like cinematics and I have enough brain cells to distinguish between cinematics and gameplay. Some of the greatest video-game cinematics are of pretty crappy games (warhammer mark of chaos for example).

But I believe that, exculding WoW most game developers underestimate the effect of in-game trailers. It speaks volume about a game when an entire-trailer can be made with in-game footage and this is something great in WoW.
Machinimas rule and developers should explore them but it requires a wide variety of animations that can be used in a multitude of cases and some interesting visual effects.

Katy perry once said "you think I'm pretty without my make up on" or something like that

Now, are you really quite certain this trailer brought 'alien' graphics into their video? I'm fairly sure the Incursion trailer is supposed to generate hype for the Carbon character creator it'll launch, as well as Incarna (Walking In Stations). Sansha, the character seen in the trailer, is clearly seen wearing a popular jacket from the test version of the character creator, and I think CCP made that choice to make a point.

Current trailers are definitely touched up, but not striving too far from the original look of the game, and the hints they baked in suggests that this mightn't be just a character they rendered for specifically this trailer, but an actual character model made with Carbon technology. And the station environment, as a consequence, then intices you to think about whether the hangar is something you'll see in game as well.

Touched up or not, I think that by the time Incarna strikes you'll be bashing your foreheads when you recognize these things.

Watch 7:19.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3P7cu4ekuY

I'm with you here. I don't think they used any foreign graphics, models, etc. I think it was all done in-engine with the new character model, and full liberty taken with scripting flight paths and camera control (and in the first scene I think they applied some sort of filter).

A big point is to notice how nothing is anti-aliased (watch it in 1080p). If they were really trying to pretty it up, they would have at least done that.

As I have extremely low expectations of new MMO games, I almost despise watching the smooth animation trailers coming off Blur studios who make alot of game trailers, because I think in the end, I would want to say I sort of feel insulted by the fake gloss that clearly factors into things for when anyone promotes a MMO game.

One suitable thing with trailers might be how a trailer can be said to represent or show the excitement found when playing the game. Perhaps only Eve online can realistically tug at such sentiments to gain an earnest approval of a player. Of course it might take some time to get to know and appreciate how that game can play out.

I want to add, that I think I was bothered by the notion of the elaborate trailers from Blur being expensive to make. So that the money could probably have been used to improve the game in other ways.

I tend to believe the less game play footage in a commercial is inversely proportional to how bad the game really sucks and the investors are trying to ramp up interest to break even before the reviews confirm our suspicions.

Gamers need to simply stop expecting game play footage in trailers. It's not hard to distinguish between flashy cgi and actual in-game footage.

It isn't hard to find game play recordings as the game gets closer to beta/release anyway.

What i think is important is capturing the look and feel of the game, regardless of the method you use, as with artwork you use to promote it, because even trailers that use in-game footage contain lots of tricks to make it look more 'cinematic' than 'someone playing the game', lots of cuts, impossible camera movement and angles, abilities the players don't have etc...

So i can't say i prefer one or the other, it depends on the game, and good riddance for EVE in-game trailers, every single one of them looked exactly the same as the one before it.

It depends on what the company is trying to achieve and whether in-game footage or cutscenes are better suited for that purpose.

Sometimes, the aim is "look at how pretty the game is" and of course you use in-game footage. Games such as Blade & Soul delivers well in this regard. At other times, the aim is to "shock, awe and impress", and cinematic cutscenes are used instead to drum up initial interest. I enjoy watching the cinematic trailers for World of Warcraft as well as each new chronicle for Lineage II, even though I have long stopped playing either game.

A point where the two methods commonly cross paths is when the trailer is showing a story scene. In this, I have no preference between the two methods, as both methods are able to do it well. I seldom base my purchasing decision simply on trailers alone, but exciting trailers that get me pumped up do make me want to know more about it. It's as simple as how manufacturers know shoppers are more likely to look at a product with an attractive packaging.

Depends on the quality of the ingame graphics.

If the in game graphics are of a decent enough quality then whether the game trailer is a movie or in game footage matters less. But the greater the contrast between in game and movie graphics the harder it becomes to not feel slightly misled about the game. Great game movie trailer and then 20 year quality graphics would definitely annoy me.

All that said, sometimes trailers are more about telling a story behind the game, rather than advertising "the game" and/or its experience, and thats ok by me. But people will always be annoyed to a lesser or greater degree by the difference between in game graphics and the trailer/movie.

Well the Incursion trailer does use in game footage. Its simple from a version of the game that is not playable by the public at this time. All the footage of Sansha is from the up comming Incarna expansion.

Cinematic trailers are a deception, plain and simple, and only rarely represent what you'd be getting in the game (and when they do, it's because the game uses them for its cutscenes). I'm rather surprised that, especially in the USA, there haven't been lawsuits attempted for deceptive trade practices/false advertising against game companies.

Give me game footage trailers, preferably with the UI up, any day. And I'll take in-game screenshots over "concept art" any day. Sure, they might not look as awesome, but at least it'd be more honest.

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The Daily Grind: Should trailers use only in-game footage?

Reader Comments (49)

Posted: Nov 21st 2010 8:19AM Loopy said

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