Believe the Hype

GuildCast episode 19

at the 29 minute mark:

Gary(Host): James says, "What is your opinion on the hype of Guild Wars 2?  Will the game live up to it or has it been overhyped by the community and other factors?"

Scott:  No.  It's a disaster.  People are going to hate it. 
Elixabeth:  Total trainwreck. 
Gary:  We're totally just trolling you people.  That's all we're pretty much doing.
Scott:  We've spent so much time setting this up to be the biggest joke.  Like next weekend everybody's going to walk in and just go, "Wait a minute.  You mean it's all just stick figures?"
Gary:  The 27th's going to launch, and you know what, people are going to be like. . . .

 (Plays cat animation)

. . .

Richie:  A couple of months ago, I might have been a little more nervous.  Here I am following this game religiously, making videos, writing about it and basically realizing I've been doing all of this effort and I've never even played the game.  Then with the two recent beta events and you see all the press and so many critical eyes on it and most people have just amazing things to say about it.  I'm pretty convinced now it's not just merely hype.  There is something to back it up. 

. . .

Scott: That's where I come from (a MMO hoppper looking for a home), because I liked the first Guild Wars, but I'm not as invested in it coming up to Guild Wars 2 as Ritchie and Elixabeth were.  I've been playing virtually every MMO under the sun because, you know, I'm mental.  But also because, as the leadup to Guild Wars 2, I'm into design and I'm into the mechanics of the games and I just started seeing how it looked, which is like unbelievable.  But then you'd see all these different choices (that the designers made) and you're like, "God, that makes sense.  I've been wanting a game to do that for like ages"  Or "Why aren't other games doing this?" which is the phrase we use so many times it's ridiculous.  It's a cliche.  It should be (announcer voice) "Guild Wars 2 - Why isn't anyone else doing this?"

Gary:  "Why did this take so long?"

Scott:  Yeah?  Why haven't you got this over there you fools?  So, that's what really built it up for me.  Before I first got my hands on it, I'm like, "it promises to sound great," and then I got my hands on it, and it pays off.  And that's what it comes down to.  Yes, it's hyped to an extent, but seriously, think of all of the negative reviews that. . . How much press have tested this game?  How many of them have actually given it a negative review? 

Gary:  Yeah.  Not many.

Scott:  Can you think of a game before that's got such positive feedback from press?