Another bad effect of bmp marketing

OH Btw gaile if u read this, i want u to make sure that if the BMP is offered again by having to qualify a purchase, u do announce it soon and make it so that the purchase can be made from either a while back (u can check the ncsoft account history) or make it so that u CAN transfer the key. while i would be somewhat pissed that the BMP is offered again, i wouldnt really be that mad. i WOULD purchase extra online crap if it means my 2nd account can get these items.

also, there are quite a bit of ppl holding off on line purchases so if ur company quarterly is coming up soon, the best thing would be to announce the pack offering to jack up the online store.

strcpy's problem isn't the exclusivity of the BMP, it's a perception that the wording of the eligibility criteria suggested that it would be exclusive, leading to him (?) making a purchasing decision he would not otherwise have made, and in fact would have been unhappy with (because of the pretty box and so on).

It's reasonable enough. The question is whether it was appropriate to believe that the BMP would have been exclusive. strcpy argues it was, Gaile argues it wasn't.

OK Gaile you win,

So when you gonna rerelease the CE's for those that werent able to get them either as the same wordings were used. Lets not forget the first dragon festival, Since it wasnt my fault my neighbors house burnt down and took the electric out so I should get my first dragon mask right.

Wait wait i open this thread not to know about the first bmp. My request was is now worth to spend money to buy two slot (i don't need them fast) or do you know something about future promotion and it may be worth to wait for a little?
(maybe access key to beta gw2)

121212121212

Thanks for clearing that up Gaile.

Pity it wasn't cleared up previously, perhaps when the promotion was announced, or when several threads appeared over different fansites looking for clarification.

I agree that Anet has not lied to it's community, however it has misled it, intenionally or not. If it had been made clear at the start that there woule be other ways to get this content I certainly would have waited and not paid considerably over the odds in the online store.

I try not to give my money to companies that mislead me, I'm odd like that.

On a final note, anyone see a correlation between promotion and Bonus mission pack?

Yay Gaile!

At last some common sense.

I recall reading several threads when the BMP was first announced and it seemed almost a given that that it would be sold later. These "exclusive" arguments (with laughable connection to the marketing blurb) didn't surface until shortly before the release. Some folks started expressing disappointment/annoyance at missing out and received all the usual "clever" lectures from certain types, who felt the need to dredge through all the marketing stuff they could find and bind it to their point of view.

I have the BMP, I never expected it to be exclusive. The wording was clear to me - that the pack would only be applied to qualifying accounts, as part of the promotion, at that time. Trying to extend that to mean "never ever available again" is just silly. Those comparing it to the CE features are simply wrong (had a more colourful term in there, originally)! Those features *were* described as exclusive, the BMP wasn't. It's always struck me as more comparable to the GotYE weapon pack, used to promote the re-release of Prophecies and eventually sold in the store.

The OP didn't say they wanted the BMP, they wanted to know if there would be a different promotion coming up soon.

It's part of the name. o.O

May access key to beta of gw 2

(Since Bold Emphesis is so popular in this thead!)

Let me get this straight. You mean to tell me that buying EOTN in the online store instead of the boxed version was completely useless since we will get the BMP by cheaper/simpler means anyway?

I am certain the majority of people who wanted the BMP had to either get more character slots or skip out on the boxed version of EOTN.

Good job Anet... tricking us into needlessly supporting your store.

But on a lighter note, why don't you take it a step further and give us some paid access to all those Collector's Edition perks that most of us missed out on? I'd appreciate that, who cares about the loyal customers that bought the Collector's Editions in the past. Apparently Anet just wants to make some quick bucks off their "loyal customers" anyway.

Ah well, I couldn't resist:

I know, I purchased Prophecies too late to get the collectors edition, but since it was not a promotion (even though it was not billed as time limited) I am silly for thinking I may be able to get the Divine Aura.

I mean, yea it said it was exclusive to the collectors edition but they never ever stated that the only time I would be able to choose to get those rewards was at the time of release - at least until well over a *year* after prophecies was released. I expect that to be a lie then as it was obvious they intended to sale the CE stuff to those of us who later found out that the game was good (those that purchased it assuming Anet would make it worthwhile be danged), after all the simply said it was exclusive to the collector's edition, not that the collector's edition was only available for a limited time.

I really do not see how one could read it any different. Er, well, I suppose if Anet decided to sale the stuff later in their online store this would be that case, after all they never said the CE stuff would only be available at release, stupid us for thinking that should be the case - you know "assume" makes an Ass of U and Me.

I don't see a difference here - Until WAY ofter purchase Anet never claimed they would be only available during the initial release and in the initial promotion used *exactly* the same language, plus many of us never had the chance to get the CE rewards. Ahh, good for all of us loyal customers who spent extra in the online store for no physical goods but a strongly implied exclusive content - good thing we didn't expect non-special content. Then we may get something everyone else gets - er wait, us "loyal customers" *do* get it but have the honor of not only paying extra and getting no physical goods but we can also tell everyone it was during the "promotion" period instead of simply the "product release". Yea, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy over spending extra (not only that, but told I am a dunce for thinking that exactly same wording for other exclusive time limited content means exclusive time limited because it wasn't explicitly stated, being told I'm an idiot makes it all worth it 150%!).

*sigh* still one of the best games out there, this just makes me not want to do anything outside of what benefits me the most in playing it.

I'm a little puzzled as to why, if it was so glaringly obvious that the BMP would be available after the promotional period, that was never stated point blank during the initial uproar...?

It seems like that would have circumvented a lot of the ill will on both "sides" of the issue, unless the intent was to muddy the waters and create a false panic that the promotion would be the only way to access the BMP content, in which case, feigning incredulity that consumers might have reacted exactly as they were intended to seems a little disingenuous.

Since when has any marketing campaign included words along the lines of "snap up this offer... or don't, we might do something you prefer later"?

People are being very foolish here.

I won't even be in this position, Gaile, if this is what you told us back then.

I, among other people, had some dilemma over wanting boxed GWEN AND the BMP but don't need anything else from the online store. If you've come out and said "Oh, guys, you don't need to worry. The BMP isn't exclusive to this promotion" (I know you'd want to use such phrase because it doesn't mean that it will be available later, but it *can* be). I would guess these would've been the result.-

1. I would've bought boxed GWEN happily, knowing that I might get a shot at BMP later (instead of losing faith in your company and quit the game entirely like this).

2. The amount of online store sale would've been less (and your boss would've been angry at you).

3. Players who wanted the BMP asap would still have done everything to get it.

All in all everyone would be more or less happy. I know I would have.

So why didn't you do just that? Why did you let me, among other people, call out on how the whole BMP marketing is so questionable and that the only side that would be win/win is ANET and not players? Can you HONESTLY say that you didn't think of saying such thing back then? Or that the truth is you did think, but you couldn't say it because of the point no.2 above?

i clearly remember the last few days the promotion was running a big banner camped at gw login screen saying "HURRY, THESE ARE THE LAST FEW DAYS FOR YOU TO BE ELIGIBLE TO PLAY THE BMP"
don't remember the exact words but i'm very very confident that a.net wanted us to be more then SURE that those days were our last chance to ever play the BMP. that was pointing a gun at our heads. "if u want the bmp, spend 26eur/29$ in our store NOW, it's your last chance."
^ u CANNOT go wrong with such a sentence.

should the bmp be sold alone for less then 26eur i can guarantee from now on i'm not taking part in any promotion a.net might roll in nor buying any collector edition again.
gaile, u can play with words as u like, but ppl are feeling fooled here.

Personally, I wanted to purchase both Factions CE and Nightfall CE. Although the released information told us that CE version should be in the stores the same time as the regular version, both games were late in shipment for my location. Since I made the decision to play earlier and stick with regular version, I don't blame anyone.

It's true that consumers never get proper detailed information on a certain product they are planning to purchase; however, with this said, it is still consumers' responsibility to do researches beforehand to ensure that the right decision is made. It is likely that you would point out that the company itself holds a responsibility to the product, but we need to note that the company has to ensure several other factors regarding this product such as licensing, the legal laws behind this product and more importantly, the right market idea to deliver this product to the consumers. Knowing this, it is not surprising that Anet may have misinterpreted some people in this case; however, I do wonder, why didn't people ask for confirmations at the time to ensure that they made the right decision? Despite that Anet's so-called misinterpretion may have been a contribution to your misery at this point, you got to know that you are the one who makes the final decision in purchasing a game, and thus you do have most responsibility to your decision.

To be honest, despite how many complaints you make here in Guru, Bonus Mission Pack is still likely to be on sale for the people who didn't get it. The exclusive contents tied to CE will always be exclusive. You will not get the GW:EN box, although it would be amusing to find out how Anet is going to make this possible. What's your point, and most importantly, what's your intention to your arguement?

We did. I did. And as you can guess we didn't get anything back, until this thread.

I'm a "him"

Really, if that was *all* it was then I would mostly shrug my shoulders and go on - it wouldn't be the first time I misread something nor would it be my last. I've lived long enough to get used to that and I have been in the position of offering stuff to see it from the other end also.

I would guess that to be 50% of it - without that being true then nothing else would be. The rest is that Anet generally has fairly good customer service - nearly any of the other semi-widespread misconceptions are quickly squashed (look at my older posts on farming myths where I quote Anet on stuff that doesn't really matter). This one was WAY more widespread and Gaile and others regularly posted in those threads and never once said otherwise - in fact they came as close to saying it was true as one can without explicitly stating it. It was a VERY small handful of people that thought otherwise and none of them (as far as I am aware) have posted before Gaile responded to this thread that they always thought so (and a few changed their story) - even esoteric rumors are squashed by Anet MUCH faster and harder. This makes up a good 25-30% of it - given their standard level of community relations throughout this period and the obvious severe lack of it on this major issue I can only assume one of two things: incompetence or outright misleading me. So far they are insistent on the "misleading" end of it. Were it only a handful of wingnuts then I would be quite (again, not the first time nor the last I would have misunderstood something), however without the "incompetent/dishonest" thing coming back up there is no way they can claim they didn't know we all thought this.

Secondly add in that we (and that is a *really* large we) are "struggling" with a *really* simple concept which means I am stupid and I'm not a happy camper. No, again it was never explicitly stated, yet if I tell you that you can not speak or write clearly and can not fathom the idea that 2+2=4 then I don't have to explicitly state "you are stupid" for it to be apparent that is what you are thinking. This makes up the rest of it.

Best to have been up-front and squashed the thought that it was exclusive, especially how widespread it was and how may questions Anet answered that were obvious the poster thought it was their only shot at it (see the question I linked earlier for one of a myriad questions). Next best is to admit you were wrong - heck I, personally, would have accepted this one and would have argued on Anets side (again, look at my post history to see that I generally and not a whiner) . I will perfectly understand that there is quite a bit of money to make here and that takes precedence. Then we get into the bad stuff - denying that you did something that you clearly did. Even worse is to accuse your customers of not understanding something simple that we all know what you mean. In fact, Gaile's response has me of the mind that she could not see what you clearly did (and that makes her stupid) or is trying to exercise "spin control" (that is dishonest) and I don't really like either one.

I originally said I would hold off my final opinion until I saw that the final outcome was, however the post written while I was writing mine makes my last feeling on the matter, at best, bad. I rather suspect that it is "spin control" and not done fairly well - but the Gaile isn't really a marketing person and as such should have stuck to what she does best: be a liaison between us and the net staff. That means squash widespread misconceptions (especially ones that cost real world dollars) or tell the truth if they think they screwed up and not try and "spin" the thing - she does a pretty dang good job of that (I wouldn't want the job). Obviously one of those was skipped.

Much of this thread is just a great example of what happens when you ass-u-me. The advertising done with the promotion was done to excite and entice. It was a bonus mission pack because it was bonus (extra, additional) content added to the game. It was a promotion that had a limited time stipulation attached to it, and apparently some people believed that stipulation was applied to the content itself. That was an assumption, and it's nobodies fault but those who assumed.

It's still up in the air whether or not it will be offered again. That alone means that you (those complaining) are fussing and feeling betrayed over something that might not even happen! That is desperate. Even if it does happen, will you lose anything? No. In fact, we can still revel in the fact that we got it first. We've been enjoying it since the beginning. If it's released for purchase in the store, we can revel in the fact that we got it as a free promotional offer.

I honestly do not see what the big deal is.