Curse

Ravious · Dec 04, 2008, 02:53 PM // 14:53

I think this is a two-banger:
(1) I fully agree that poppa NCSoft told ANet to can it in order for Aion to stay center stage. Guild Wars is a western game with a western following. Aion is an eastern game and therefore has a higher cost of entry to be successful in the western market. Internal competition would be bad. This is also why we have seen Blade and Soul stuff. Something before Aion drops would be nice, but my internal clock has been reset so that i think we will get the explosion after Aion gets their jive in.

(2) ANet wants to drop a bomb of awesome. Once you start down the rollercoaster ride of GW2 marketing, I think it won't let up. Guild Wars is still not as well known as other games. It is not well understood by other MMOers. Like it was said at the PAX interview, many people still see Guild Wars as a PvP game. If it gets a bigger splash it can bend the minds a little better than if it leaks out a slow stream.

(3) Contrary to the goals of (2), 2008 was quite a year of goodies for the MMO genre. AoC dropped, WotLK dropped, MoM dropped, WAR dropped, and they all dropped with pretty extensive marketing campaigns (read:competition to gain attention). Those are some heavy f'in hitters. 2009 on the other hand looks comparatively dry.

My biggest fear is that things have changed. I know it's silly because things always do, but with this much silence you start creating the game in your head with the few design goals we know. I just hope that the new information is not too contrary to what was said so long ago.

imnotyourmother · Dec 04, 2008, 03:22 PM // 15:22

Well these things are all fine and dandy that there weren't as many things that came out in 2008. The thing that Anet does not want is there fan base being lead to some other game because of a lack of information to the people that play GW1.

Also once they launch GW2 will GW1 become as obsolete as the Commodore Vic 20 when the 64 version came out. (if you remember this then you are as old as me)

It also seems like everyone wants the coolest, newest and best things that are out there. The old stuff does not matter much so as a result there will be a massive exodist and the market will crash. I am not sure if they are going to recall all of the old GW stuff that is on the shelves right now.

I saw in the Game Spot store last night a wide selection of GW games available from the Prophecies Original game - too cool - to the game of the year edition to the factions and nightfall and even all three in one very small package. I think that this alone would cause much confusion to the consumer right there without throwing in another one or two things for GW2 when it comes out.. like the prerelease and the game itself.

So I think that they are not expanding their fan base and they are not disclosing very much of GW2 and it is my understanding that the game dynamics will be so different that GW2 will not be able to be compared to GW1. I give you the fact that there will be Z axis motion in GW2.

So maybe, since it seems like Anet has grown wiser over the last 3 years that they have some tricks up their sleeves. Lets hope that GW2 will provide us gamers with a very dynamic game that has a wide reaching impact on the gaming world in general.

We already know that the HoM might just be a clue for us GW1ers that something maybe good is in store for us through that hall...

Remember, only time will tell...

Skyy High · Dec 04, 2008, 05:30 PM // 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravious

(2) ANet wants to drop a bomb of awesome. Once you start down the rollercoaster ride of GW2 marketing, I think it won't let up. Guild Wars is still not as well known as other games. It is not well understood by other MMOers. Like it was said at the PAX interview, many people still see Guild Wars as a PvP game. If it gets a bigger splash it can bend the minds a little better than if it leaks out a slow stream.

The problem with that is they started out with pretty much the biggest "bomb of awesome" possible: an entire magazine dedicated to GW:EN and the move to GW2. I can't think of a marketing campaign that could top that.

Abedeus · Dec 04, 2008, 07:43 PM // 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyy High

The problem with that is they started out with pretty much the biggest "bomb of awesome" possible: an entire magazine dedicated to GW:EN and the move to GW2. I can't think of a marketing campaign that could top that.

A car for everyone with 3+ years account in GW 1. And a good one, not one of those American cars. AND A HAMSTER!

...What?

Quote:

Those are some heavy f'in hitters.

Wut? AoC is good as dead,

WAR will soon loose all EU players due to ineptitude of GoA and Mythic (for example, people that have cancelled their subscriptions found out their sub renewal was AUTOMATICALLY refreshed, without their knowledge) and will probably loose a lot of people that thought WAR = PvE + PvP. Because right now, it's better to do PvE than PvP. Maybe 1.1 will change that, hoping so. Right now, I'm happy with my City of Heroes. PATROL XP FTW, DO WANT IT IN GW.

MoM - Let me ask you - que es MoM? No se :/
WotLK - Only high-end players or at least 55+ will use it, so don't expect another too muchs. Actually, only 3 mlns were sold, almost 3,5. It's at least half they expected to get.

Ravious · Dec 04, 2008, 08:20 PM // 20:20

Marketing, Abedeus, put it back in context, big boy.

Abedeus · Dec 04, 2008, 08:37 PM // 20:37

I can only speak from the perspective of European, Polish dude.

AoC - there will be a Polish version of the game... in January. Yeah, awesome marketing. Sure, in Europe it's pretty heavy, but nothing amazing except for ZOMG WE HAVE COMBAT AND YOU CAN DO THIS THAT. Then there was a lot of negative press stuff and yada yada yada.

WAR in Europe - huh. Yeah, right. Only people really interested in MMO's AND Warhammer knew about the game here. In Poland, I've seen barely ONE ad and one review. And they gave the game 6.5/10.

WotLK - No denying it's marketing is heavy. All over the world, of course.

MoM - Still have no idea what the hell it is.

Besides, when I said the games like AoC/WAR are dead/dying, I was talking on topic. Because if you overhype your game (WAR was meant to be a massive PvP battle game, turns out nobody has the PC to run more than 30 vs 30 battles, and if someone tries, the game server crashes...) and don't live up to promises, you will sink, crashing and burning.

Small girl. Because calling people's lame names makes you the cool kid now, 'mirite?

Ravious · Dec 04, 2008, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Big boy is generally a friendly term, where I come from. Apologies for offense... just replace it with dude if it makes you happy.

Anyway, my point was that from a marketing standpoint in at least the U.S., where ArenaNet is located, the fact that AoC, WotLK, WAR, and the Lord of the Rings Online Mines of Moria Expansion (MoM) come from big games means there isn't much room to squeeze in.

No offense but Poland is going to be far, far down the ladder for marketing decisions for U.S. created MMOs.

fowlero · Dec 04, 2008, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

WAR will soon loose all EU players due to ineptitude of GoA and Mythic (for example, people that have cancelled their subscriptions found out their sub renewal was AUTOMATICALLY refreshed, without their knowledge) and will probably loose a lot of people that thought WAR = PvE + PvP. Because right now, it's better to do PvE than PvP. Maybe 1.1 will change that, hoping so. Right now.

Yeah i discovered that even though i expressively selected the non-automatic option mines been auto refreshing every month, having thought i'd cancelled it. Alas.

So i logged on for the hell of it, onto what was a high order high destro server, and got told i had free transfers to get my characters off the server since population was so low.

Lol.

As for hearing anything about GW2, i'm not expecting anything to well, well into the new year.

Faer · Dec 07, 2008, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katsumi

Where is Faer, and his three words?

GW2 is vaporware?
Told you so?
World of Warcraft?
Laugh out Loud?

WHAT THREE WORDS?

Kattar · Dec 07, 2008, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faer

WHAT THREE WORDS?

Duke Nukem Forever.

Faer · Dec 07, 2008, 03:12 AM // 03:12

Oh so yeah basically GW2 is vaporware gotcha.

But yeah lol DNF. Except even 3D Realms has released more on their vaporware than ArenaNet has (granted over a MASSIVE PERIOD OF TIME but whatever).

Abedeus · Dec 07, 2008, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Yeah, agree.

DNF at least has 5+ screenshots.
DNF has a TRAILER!
DNF has like 7 release dates.

...I still remember when an online shop in 2000 had an option to pre-order the game for $40 (back then it was a LOT in Poland - Diablo 2 was $35). Poor idiots that pre-ordered...

Quote:

Big boy is generally a friendly term, where I come from. Apologies for offense... just replace it with dude if it makes you happy.

Anyway, my point was that from a marketing standpoint in at least the U.S., where ArenaNet is located, the fact that AoC, WotLK, WAR, and the Lord of the Rings Online Mines of Moria Expansion (MoM) come from big games means there isn't much room to squeeze in.

No offense but Poland is going to be far, far down the ladder for marketing decisions for U.S. created MMOs.

Big boy is usually used with sarcasm. Like in "aren't you are big boy".

Poland is down the ladder, yeah. But at least we have, as opposed to NL or some other EU countries, our own server. This means that there were a lot of people in Poland that bought GW. Of course, tbh, I'm glad a lot of idiots went to those PL servers, as I was getting embarrased when someone shouted "KTO JEST S POLSKIIII MUUUFCIE MIII", which roughly translated means "WHO IZ FRM POLAAAND, SAAAYI MEEE".

About A.Net - you do know that they are a part of NCSoft now? And NCSoft is not exactly in US. Besides, each of the games you meantioned (except for WAR, but it will unfortunately fail if developers don't do something fast) is a PvE game. GW2 should have a focus on PvP. AoC, you say? Oh, true, but some F2P games have more players at this time.

Shasgaliel · Dec 08, 2008, 12:05 PM // 12:05

Games popularity varies between the countries in Europe which is not a one country but union of separate countries and with clearly separate marketing. I saw several reviews of some new online games in many European countries while in some they were just unnoticed.

Anyway looking at many games their primary marketing is in the country they were created in. For GW2 I am quite sure it will be US and Europe will be their secondary target. And still by Europe I can bet It will be mostly UK and Germany and only then the other ones....