FIRST 4 year game theme cycle theory

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I expect that we will not have a game hint (which always were clues to the NAME of the game, not its content), but a teaser in which we will be supplied with the game theme and name, but nothing clear as to what will be required to play the game.

I agree on the teaser being likely.

But I strongly disagree on the game hint being a clue to the name of the game and not the content. Very, very strongly. I'll go into detail about one hint in particular, with more on request.

For example, 2006's hint, if read correctly, detailed much about the game itself, and how it played. "A game piece obsessed with a shovel's show" was the second line--if you caught that "spade" is a synonym for "shovel", and David Spade is known for the show "Just Shoot Me", the hint indicated something being shot. (Which was a first for game pieces.) The other two lines revealed something about the game as well--but that second line was figured out within about a day of hint release. (Not that anybody knew that until Kickoff.)

Want me to go on in more detail? Of the rest since '03 (inclusive), only 3 were aimed primarily at the game name, and two of those included possible content clues. Three I can't recall the hints ('12, '13, '15); the rest were targeted at game content--with one exception, '08 #3, being the scrambled password to the Game Manual (and even that had a slight hint to the gameplay).

Now, with the trailers being the new normal, I suspect that name and theme will be the primary conveyances. And I do hope that "New Dozer" returns in all of them...