Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
That was my thoughts when I made the OP but you would think some advertising would be required to some minor degree...right now there is nothing at all other than veterans and web homepage. Everything else coming from SOE and LEC are statements/interviews to spin an issue or defend a position.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
Or its advertising dollars that would be better spent on SWTOR knowing that advertising dollars spent on SWG at this point would return nothing as far as ROI.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
Plus it is very complicated to re-map your keys so you can even come close to a decent targeting/combat interface (I am being VERY generous when I say decent here).
They do not explain this in the tutorial so you are kinda stuck with the craptastic NGE targeting system (well last time I ran through the tutorial it was like that, people can correct me if I am wrong).
In order to know this, you have to go to the forums, at which point you are exposed to sheer toxicity -- truly it is Hateville, USA there (Elias actually encourages flaming and trolling, as long as you support SOE) -- the nastiest place on the internet other than DailyKos and/or the Huffington Post.
I don't think even Vince from ShamWow could sell this game...
What about Billy Mays?
He's too busy selling MIGHTY PUDDY! And a bunch of other useless knicknacks, but MIGHTY PUDDY is teh schnitzel.
-------------------------------------- A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
I would say that this is the No. 1 complaint of players who actually understand the population issues the current game faces -- that there is ZERO presence in stores (and it's not like stores "won't carry it," they just stopped making disks); that there is ZERO presence in gaming media; and that the ONLY players that are ever marketed to are former players who are most likely pissed off and have no interest. The periodic vet trials bring back a decent chunk of people, but I'd guess that the retention level is insanely low. I'd be willing to bet that LucasArts has put the kibosh on too much advertising. No sense in broadcasting competition to its own upcoming product.
I'd like to take this opportunity to agree with you 100 % .
I think they were just counting on the IP to carry the title.
DING DING DING DING DING!
After all, it worked for all the other boxes of bantha poodoo labled "Star Wars" that LEC had been foisting on the gaming public for years.
To be fair, there needs to be a division of reference within Lucasarts itself.
The Pre-Phantom Menace 90s version which rocked with alot of great titles needs to be spared. This was when LA was at its best.
The Post-Phantom Menace version which drops off awful Star Wars titles in quick succession like a bad case of diarrhea needs to have tomatoes thrown at it.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I would say that this is the No. 1 complaint of players who actually understand the population issues the current game faces -- that there is ZERO presence in stores (and it's not like stores "won't carry it," they just stopped making disks); that there is ZERO presence in gaming media; and that the ONLY players that are ever marketed to are former players who are most likely pissed off and have no interest. The periodic vet trials bring back a decent chunk of people, but I'd guess that the retention level is insanely low. I'd be willing to bet that LucasArts has put the kibosh on too much advertising. No sense in broadcasting competition to its own upcoming product.
So if SOE doesn't even care about the game enough to put disks in stores why do you care so much about what vets say about it?
I would say that this is the No. 1 complaint of players who actually understand the population issues the current game faces -- that there is ZERO presence in stores (and it's not like stores "won't carry it," they just stopped making disks); that there is ZERO presence in gaming media; and that the ONLY players that are ever marketed to are former players who are most likely pissed off and have no interest. The periodic vet trials bring back a decent chunk of people, but I'd guess that the retention level is insanely low. I'd be willing to bet that LucasArts has put the kibosh on too much advertising. No sense in broadcasting competition to its own upcoming product.
So if SOE doesn't even care about the game enough to put disks in stores why do you care so much about what vets say about it?
Does it matter?
EDIT: To clarify ... I don't care what the "vets" say about the game, as long as it's actually true. I DO care if they lie or grossly exaggerate, and I DO care if they libel the current players. As far as their opinions of the actual game, based in truth? To each his own.
So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys...I was terrified. But I pressed on, and as I made my way past the breakers, a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you, Jerry, at that moment ... I was a marine biologist.
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising. I imagine LEC feels the same way.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
Plus it is very complicated to re-map your keys so you can even come close to a decent targeting/combat interface (I am being VERY generous when I say decent here).
They do not explain this in the tutorial so you are kinda stuck with the craptastic NGE targeting system (well last time I ran through the tutorial it was like that, people can correct me if I am wrong).
In order to know this, you have to go to the forums, at which point you are exposed to sheer toxicity -- truly it is Hateville, USA there (Elias actually encourages flaming and trolling, as long as you support SOE) -- the nastiest place on the internet other than DailyKos and/or the Huffington Post.
That is enough to turn anyone off forever.
This is the biggest problem by far, and it completely negates the positive of bringing back auto aim and fire because it's barely there due to the incomplete UI.
You can only make auto aim and fire work by basically rebinding virtually everything in the UI. It also requires you to write macros that switch toolbars to activate items/buffs because they've added buffs faster than toolbar rows.
That's all well and good for people who played the game a long time and know how to do all that, but a new player isn't going to know all that and give up in frustration because the bugs in the combat engine (misfires, etc due to packet loss due to it being designed too fast to work) are AMPLIFIED immesurably if you use the default NGE mode manual aim combat . Not to mention your hand wants to fall off after playing that way a couple hours.
But why can't the Devs be bothered to spend a couple hours worth of work making an alternate UI map that a player can select WITHOUT doing all that work that basically rebinds everything the way it was pre NGE?
Furthermore, why do they have to have it where you have to press a button to START auto fire every single fight, and also have very poor UI feedback to show you whether it's on or not? People were asking for that soon as they saw how bad this was handled, that INITIATION of combat while in auto aim mode, be it by default attack or via special should initiate auto fire...
ALL of these points are things that they could easily do (well, maybe not so easy, this isn't a Dev team of the best and brightest after all) but they haven't and won't do them, that would improve the game play experience a LOT for a very LITTLE.
IMHO, the reason why they won't make auto aim/fire combat the default NOR make it simple to switch to and work seamlessly is because upper management (Smed, Cao) won't let them do it as a face saving measure. This despite the fact that almost no one (at least at the time I quit) used manual aim, it's impractical, it leaves you even more vicimized by lag, and all it takes is a couple misses and you lose any advantage it would have given you.
Frankly the Devs run away from anything UI related like screaming little girls every time someone brings it up. Considering that the UI IS the face of your game to the world, that would seem to me a serious problem.
SOE, the devs and everyone else involved in the running of this game have given up on it... they are milking the remaining customers with the new TCG and increasingly inferior service to pay for the continued development of the Agency and DC universe.
They will never spend 2 cents advertising SWG or any of their other emblambed games....
SOE, the devs and everyone else involved in the running of this game have given up on it... they are milking the remaining customers with the new TCG and increasingly inferior service to pay for the continued development of the Agency and DC universe. They will never spend 2 cents advertising SWG or any of their other emblambed games....
SOE, the devs and everyone else involved in the running of this game have given up on it... they are milking the remaining customers with the new TCG and increasingly inferior service to pay for the continued development of the Agency and DC universe. They will never spend 2 cents advertising SWG or any of their other emblambed games....
The only thing they might advertise is TCG.
Yeah the card game is getting an expansion! That just cracks me up.
Comments
Having spoken and met with the marketing people from SOE some time ago, they do not feel you get enough bang for your buck with advertising.
I imagine LEC feels the same way.
fishermage.blogspot.com
That was my thoughts when I made the OP but you would think some advertising would be required to some minor degree...right now there is nothing at all other than veterans and web homepage. Everything else coming from SOE and LEC are statements/interviews to spin an issue or defend a position.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
fishermage.blogspot.com
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
Or its advertising dollars that would be better spent on SWTOR knowing that advertising dollars spent on SWG at this point would return nothing as far as ROI.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
Plus it is very complicated to re-map your keys so you can even come close to a decent targeting/combat interface (I am being VERY generous when I say decent here).
They do not explain this in the tutorial so you are kinda stuck with the craptastic NGE targeting system (well last time I ran through the tutorial it was like that, people can correct me if I am wrong).
In order to know this, you have to go to the forums, at which point you are exposed to sheer toxicity -- truly it is Hateville, USA there (Elias actually encourages flaming and trolling, as long as you support SOE) -- the nastiest place on the internet other than DailyKos and/or the Huffington Post.
That is enough to turn anyone off forever.
fishermage.blogspot.com
I don't think even Vince from ShamWow could sell this game...
fishermage.blogspot.com
What about Billy Mays?
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
What about Billy Mays?
He's too busy selling MIGHTY PUDDY! And a bunch of other useless knicknacks, but MIGHTY PUDDY is teh schnitzel.
--------------------------------------
A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
I'd like to take this opportunity to agree with you 100 %
.
DING DING DING DING DING!
After all, it worked for all the other boxes of bantha poodoo labled "Star Wars" that LEC had been foisting on the gaming public for years.
To be fair, there needs to be a division of reference within Lucasarts itself.
The Pre-Phantom Menace 90s version which rocked with alot of great titles needs to be spared. This was when LA was at its best.
The Post-Phantom Menace version which drops off awful Star Wars titles in quick succession like a bad case of diarrhea needs to have tomatoes thrown at it.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
So if SOE doesn't even care about the game enough to put disks in stores why do you care so much about what vets say about it?
So if SOE doesn't even care about the game enough to put disks in stores why do you care so much about what vets say about it?
Does it matter?
EDIT: To clarify ... I don't care what the "vets" say about the game, as long as it's actually true. I DO care if they lie or grossly exaggerate, and I DO care if they libel the current players. As far as their opinions of the actual game, based in truth? To each his own.
So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys...I was terrified. But I pressed on, and as I made my way past the breakers, a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things, but I tell you, Jerry, at that moment ... I was a marine biologist.
You get lots more for positive word of mouth.
Negative word of mouth negates advertising which happened in 2005.
You may have something there. The game still does suck, even if it's better than when the NGE launched. I don't know if they, meaning LEC, to even want to give themselves any worse of a rep before their real game gets going.
I think if they did advertise, and people tried the game, and saw how much it sucks, it might sour them on SWTOR.
It's inarguable the game is better than it was on NGE day. It almost had to be no matter what they did. But of course NGE still stands for Not Good Enough. But they haven't really tried to fix it's deficiencies since mid 2006.
The outrage over the NGE itself aside, it STILL fails due to word of mouth. The combat system is still broken. Specials still misfire and take action and cooldown. Mobs that can target and shoot you STILL can do so through terrain and in places where you can't target and shoot back. Combat is still unnaturally fast and creates too much lag for real pvp to happen. Content is STILL largely "go here, shoot x number of y" with the addition being do this so you can eventually go get to shoot 10 millon HP Foozle in the instance.
In other words what they've done to it since really hasn't done anything to really FIX the game at all, nor bring it back to Pre-NGE levels of polish or "completeness". When I last played it during the last trial the UI and combat system still feel Alpha in quality.
Plus it is very complicated to re-map your keys so you can even come close to a decent targeting/combat interface (I am being VERY generous when I say decent here).
They do not explain this in the tutorial so you are kinda stuck with the craptastic NGE targeting system (well last time I ran through the tutorial it was like that, people can correct me if I am wrong).
In order to know this, you have to go to the forums, at which point you are exposed to sheer toxicity -- truly it is Hateville, USA there (Elias actually encourages flaming and trolling, as long as you support SOE) -- the nastiest place on the internet other than DailyKos and/or the Huffington Post.
That is enough to turn anyone off forever.
This is the biggest problem by far, and it completely negates the positive of bringing back auto aim and fire because it's barely there due to the incomplete UI.
You can only make auto aim and fire work by basically rebinding virtually everything in the UI. It also requires you to write macros that switch toolbars to activate items/buffs because they've added buffs faster than toolbar rows.
That's all well and good for people who played the game a long time and know how to do all that, but a new player isn't going to know all that and give up in frustration because the bugs in the combat engine (misfires, etc due to packet loss due to it being designed too fast to work) are AMPLIFIED immesurably if you use the default NGE mode manual aim combat . Not to mention your hand wants to fall off after playing that way a couple hours.
But why can't the Devs be bothered to spend a couple hours worth of work making an alternate UI map that a player can select WITHOUT doing all that work that basically rebinds everything the way it was pre NGE?
Furthermore, why do they have to have it where you have to press a button to START auto fire every single fight, and also have very poor UI feedback to show you whether it's on or not? People were asking for that soon as they saw how bad this was handled, that INITIATION of combat while in auto aim mode, be it by default attack or via special should initiate auto fire...
ALL of these points are things that they could easily do (well, maybe not so easy, this isn't a Dev team of the best and brightest after all) but they haven't and won't do them, that would improve the game play experience a LOT for a very LITTLE.
IMHO, the reason why they won't make auto aim/fire combat the default NOR make it simple to switch to and work seamlessly is because upper management (Smed, Cao) won't let them do it as a face saving measure. This despite the fact that almost no one (at least at the time I quit) used manual aim, it's impractical, it leaves you even more vicimized by lag, and all it takes is a couple misses and you lose any advantage it would have given you.
Frankly the Devs run away from anything UI related like screaming little girls every time someone brings it up. Considering that the UI IS the face of your game to the world, that would seem to me a serious problem.
Advertising costs money and they wern't seeing any subscriber increase due to advertising so obviously it was a waste of money.
SOE, the devs and everyone else involved in the running of this game have given up on it... they are milking the remaining customers with the new TCG and increasingly inferior service to pay for the continued development of the Agency and DC universe.
They will never spend 2 cents advertising SWG or any of their other emblambed games....
The only thing they might advertise is TCG.
The only thing they might advertise is TCG.
Yeah the card game is getting an expansion! That just cracks me up.
Maybe SOE should try doing negative publicity the way hollywood did for Gigli
[IMG]http://www.chattablogs.com/mesh/gigli review.GIF[/IMG]
One for SWG would never make it past a profanity filter....