People Remember Feelings, Not Details

As much as some of us would like to believe we're rational creatures who weigh evidence, details and information to make our decisions, we usually follow our emotions. This is a huge reason why using a trailer to call out game features and quantities of those features are usually not the sole thing which will successfully sell us on a game.

As far as I can see, the rationale behind pointing out a game's features in a trailer is so the viewer will assess and think to themselves something like: "I like a game which has: a lot of content, several modes to play, amazing boss battles, characters play, upgrades to purchase, costumes to wear, and a variety of levels. Therefore this is a game I will buy." If this were how people made purchasing decisions, then trailers wouldn't be much more effective than a few game clips combined with a list of bullet points. But that's certainly not the case when compared to a really well made trailer.

People will remember how you made them feel more than what you say.

A well made trailer can instill feelings of: excitement, awe, suspense, happiness, laughter, sadness, nostalgia, fear, loss, mystery, curiosity, adventure, caring, sympathy, empowerment, and a whole lot more!

A poorly made trailer can make someone feel: confused, frustrated, irritated, angry, lost, apathetic, awkward, embarrassed, offended, belittled, insulted or worse.

I've said before that a trailer is like the start of a conversation; this is a really important thing to consider because it's not only the first impression of the game, it's the first impression of you or the team you're part of. How you treat the audience via the trailer will create a whole other feeling not necessarily related to the content of the game, but no less important. Is it likely you're going to want to buy a game which made you feel the way this trailer does?

I moved recently, which means I've been on a lot of phone calls with customer service people. One thing I had to do was buy a new health insurance plan (yay America -_-). When I called my previous insurance to cancel my plan, the call quality made it incredibly hard to hear, the service representative mumbled through their words a lot, and overall I had a terribly frustrating experience that made me more than happy to never have to call them ever again (hopefully).

In contrast, the new health insurance company's customer service was possibly the best I've ever had. Firstly, I only had to select from one phone menu option (e.g. "Press 1 if you're calling about...") before I was almost instantly connected to a human representative. The audio quality of the call was excellent and both representatives I talked to (I mysteriously got disconnected once) were extremely helpful and clearly very well trained. I didn't feel like I was talking to a person who works at a phone bank for pennies per hour talking from a script flow chart. After that experience I felt really good about my choice to buy health insurance from them, and confident about what my future calls with them would be like. 

Cats will definitely remember more about
how you made them feel than what you said 😹

The first company made me feel angry and frustrated. The second one made me feel taken care of and secure. The worst game trailers I've seen are like the first company, and even if I'm confident enough to see past the poorly conceived trailer through to the game footage, I don't feel like I want to support people or a game which gave me bad feelings. But if a trailer is extremely well made and gives me good feelings, I'm more than happy to either share it or buy the game. I think in general, people like to support people who make them feel good.

You might be thinking: "But what if your game is very video game-y and doesn't have a rich, emotional narrative?" It doesn't need to have a story and dialogue to make people feel good in some way. The absolute minimum you can do to make people feel good from watching your trailer is to fulfill their needs, respect their intelligence and respect their time. An obtuse, cryptic, or unclear trailer won't fulfill their need to understand what the game is about, which will make them confused and/or frustrated. A trailer which explains plainly obvious things won't respect their intelligence, which can in turn make them feel belittled or insulted. A trailer which plays too coy with details the audience wants will also make them frustrated and irritated. 

Make the audience happy and satisfied they received the baseline of knowledge they expected from the trailer and you'll already be on pretty good footing. Any additional positive feelings you can instill in the audience will heavily depend on the design of the game you're making a trailer for. Treat people well with your trailers and they will appreciate it.