Yes, because Half Life, the game credited with jump starting the 'you are the character' thing TOTALLY had Gordon Freeman facing away from you on the cover :-p

I don't think your theory is solid.

I don't think your analogy is solid.

No, the analogy is solid. Here's why. The game itself will prove it, which is the point.

Back to Half-Life.

No cutscenes. No breaks. Very little story. You're given tidbits at an opportune time, and heck, you can even ignore the vast majority of them (apologies to that one Barney at the end of the rail line that I killed a lot. I'm sure your words were important, bro!). You're given the freedom to interpret it however you want (Yahtzee wrote a real great piece on this very thing, actually. I encourage you to find it.)

Also, just to confirm Beorn, have you played Half-Life? I'm not asking in a gotcha manner, I just want to confirm so I know we've both played it. If you have, you clearly see it differently than me, which is fine. Your kink is not my kink but your kink is ok.

In a way, it's more open than Mass Effect and Deux Ex because you could do whatever the hell you wanted within the confines of the tools and rules you're given. Mass Effect doesn't let you shoot up the Citadel, for example.

And I mean jeeze, we're talking about the cover of the game here. Like we don't look at those mostly because we're busy tearing off the packaging.

If the cover of the game itself is what sells you on the immersion, and not like, you know, the game, then something is terribly wrong here.

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/download-your-alternate-covers-today/

It looks amazing, but it tells you zero about what the game is about and it wouldn't work from a commercial point of view. They had to have some sort of action, guns, heros theme.

Ha. I'd seem that image behind my disk many times but never thought it was reversible art! Learn something new everyday!

Same here actually, hahaha! I thought it was a little thing just behind the disk, not the entire cover :P

I never even noticed that my Skyrim had that! Awesome! Although I feel that Skyrim's cover is already pretty sweet, kind of elegant and minimalist I guess.

Totally. Makes me wish it was real leather and smelled of old books...

Indeed!

It's probably two things:

1. 97% of the good games in the world come from Japan or the US.

Ha, that's a good one! Actually, historically the UK has had a geographically disproportionately-large stake in the games industry.

2. People in Europe don't play as many video games. A gamer in the UK averages half the playtime of an American.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/27/survey-says-americans-play-more-games-than-europeans/

That is interesting. The stat for girl gamers in the US is particularly interesting.

I suppose a part of the reason I'm frustrated is that the UK doesn't really get the same level of games conferences that the US (and even Europe in general) gets. We've only really got this one, so if a developer passes it over that's it for the year. Hopefully by this time next year Destiny will either be released or very close to, and so the information drought will be well and truly over by then.

I dunno.

It's probably two things:

1. 97% of the good games in the world come from Japan or the US.
2. People in Europe don't play as many video games. A gamer in the UK averages half the playtime of an American.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/27/survey-says-americans-play-more-games-than-europeans/

Side note: I think the Traveler is the most iconic image from Destiny thus far, yet it's barely recognizable in this cover. :(

Seriously.

http://www.bungie.net/pubassets/674/destiny_desktop.jpg

Done. Awesome box art. They had it already!

I too plan on putting the disc in the tray and forgetting the box ever existed, but however minute or trivial a part of the game the box is, it is still part of the game.

If a backwards helmet can't be unseen, nothing compares to Poncho Chief.

Must be awful cold in that MJOLNIR armour to need a cape as well.

That trailer is exactly why I'm done with the Halo series, fwiw.

But... but you'll still be tinkering around with Halo Wars, right?

I never even noticed that my Skyrim had that! Awesome! Although I feel that Skyrim's cover is already pretty sweet, kind of elegant and minimalist I guess.

Totally. Makes me wish it was real leather and smelled of old books...

Okay. So publishers say we need generic action hero shots for box art to sell games to low-information consumers and dudebros. I get that. So let's do what Irrational did with BioShock Infinite and have reversible covers for every game. That way, we have have something a little more distinctive for those of us who like that sort of thing.

I'm seeing more and more movies and games do this, which is awesome. My Skyrim looks like this:

I never even noticed that my Skyrim had that! Awesome! Although I feel that Skyrim's cover is already pretty sweet, kind of elegant and minimalist I guess.

Okay. So publishers say we need generic action hero shots for box art to sell games to low-information consumers and dudebros. I get that. So let's do what Irrational did with BioShock Infinite and have reversible covers for every game. That way, we have have something a little more distinctive for those of us who like that sort of thing.

I'm seeing more and more movies and games do this, which is awesome. My Skyrim looks like this:

I get what you're saying about the marketing, but I still think its a poor cover. I sense the meddling influence of Activision in this one. Marketing is being handled on their end I believe.

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that this appears to have some Activision in its blood. That said, I think it's pretty solid and the characters looking in the same direction as the viewer is actually kind of interesting to me. In the end it'll be fairly irrelevant to me if there's a Limited Edition available because I'm most certainly going to grab that instead. That, and I don't plan to take Destiny out of my console tray if I don't have to, so when will I be looking at the box? ;-)

This is Bungie's big, bold step into creating a new fictional universe. And upon first inspection, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a cover for a new Halo game. Maybe even second inspection.

As you said, it takes Destiny's defining imagery and hides it, reducing it to clip art behind three poorly composited character images. No sense of adventure, of grandeur, of different.

It's three oddly placed characters with guns.