You can never truly predict which games will be a hit and which won't, but there are certain tropes I've learned to be very wary of whenever they're touted in pre-release marketing. These are the concepts that will never stop sounding exciting and fun, but almost never deliver—usually because there's something about them that simply clashes with the realities of game development.
They're so cool in theory that the industry can't resist coming back to them again and again, no matter how many times they disappoint—and as players it's easy to buy into the dream each time. That's why you need a cynic like me around to point out why these things never work.
