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Now they're bribing people to join the SWG Facebook page?
ArcAngel3
Member Posts: 2,931
A friend of mine brought this to my attention on another forum:
"We’re excited to announce that The Official Star Wars Galaxies™ Page is now live on Facebook! We love having an additional place where we can interact with our fans and share information about the game. I’d encourage you to get on and become a fan (link)… it could prove to be very rewarding. "
and
"Now to see which server shows up force! Tell your guild and anyone you run into! You never know what joining the fan page for SWG might mean for everyone. Don't want to be left out! " (From Drakuul on the O-boards)
They have to try to entice people to join their fan page with the possibility of rewards? I think that seems a bit desperate tbh. I also noticed the Drakuul was boasting about hitting the 1000 fan mark. I wonder if SOE will remember to mention that these folks were enticed with rewards in any marketting announcements.
Comments
Meh its all they ever do anymore. Rewards for buying cards, rewards for buying the new superultimate collect super packge, rewards for joing the newsletter, and finally rewards for the facebook page. seems to me they think if they give us a cookie all will be forgoten or ignore, and the sad part of this is its working.....
Out of sheer morbid curiosity I popped over to see what these "fans" are saying. This might not be working out as well as SOE hoped lol. Here are two of the comments I read on page 1:
"Old player, quit around the time shortly after the Battle of Restuss. Im going to try and get back into the game but knowing I'll have to start over in a game that once held 2nd place of all MMOs only to plummet because of the NGE...going to suck."
and
"So are we going to see a real expansion in 2010 or more TCG $$$$$ smash and grab loot?"
I wonder if they're going to moderate the facebook page the same way they do their forums.
Heh wouldnt suprise me they have that no toleration for criticism thing down pat after the NGE fiasco.
SOE: "But... but we gave you a cookie! You joined our Facebook page! How could you betray us like that? WE WANT OUR COOKIE BACK!"
They take out a plunger. You run away and continue telling people how bad SOE is.
I got cookie from wolf63's post, and also because I'm kind of hungry.
Yeah not much love for them here. still looking for something decent to play, at least once i get rid of this ancient comp.
Have friends who still play and dump 100$ into the TCG for loot cards, i dont understand it.
Must be something about Facebook that appeals to companies operating MMO's that aren't doing to hot. Funcom has the same type of adds going on for AOC's facebook page, they're offering free game time as a reward. Not sure what you have to do to get it. Look for more doing it in the near future, I take it WOW has a lot of facebook friends and everyone else wants some to.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Ohh i know what you have to do to get your game time, it involves things seen on the bad 80% of the internet.
For the star wars fans: http://thechive.com/2009/12/30/star-wars/
This type of thing is done by companies all the time. Turbine offered a chance to win a prize if LOTRO players joined Xfire, follow Sears on Twitter for a chance to win a power tool, subscribe to an email newsletter to win a years supply of cat food. They're not desperate, they are just promoting their product.
I would think they would offer accounts then to try an get new people in, with the item rewards all they will attract is the player base, which is already paying. Just seems odd to me.
I love how it's just vague enough that they really don't owe anyone anything if they choose not to.
65% of the SWG playerbase is active on their forums.
The SWG facebook page has around 2,000 followers and I wouldn't even call many of those "fans" judging by their comments.
Yup, that about sums it all up.
Becareful ... apparently Drakawak thinks he can ban your SWG account for the comments you make on Facebook.
I love how it's just vague enough that they really don't owe anyone anything if they choose not to.
It also seems to appeal to the same kind of thinking that hooks people on the TCG booster packs: random chance to win ingame items. Maybe this is the new target audience: people that can be manipulated to market for them and throw money at them for a random chance to win virtual loot.
Please tell me you're kidding...How the hell can they connect the dots? I could sign up as Smedley and they wouldn't know the difference. Wow lol. Are you serious?
Well Drakuul's already boasting about the number of "fans" that have signed up. In FreeRealms, SOE seemed to use alleged numbers to make the game more attractive to others. A healthy population, after all, is a draw for new players. A happy population is also a potential draw.
The forums, despite the moderation, often seem to depict just how divided the remaining player population at SWG is. Greypawn called it a poisoned community, and I agree with him. Maybe they're trying to put a new face on the community via Facebook (pardon the pun).
Up to this point though, the same kind of angry comments seem to have flowed out of the O-boards and into Facebook. Also, unless SOE finds ways to beef up their numbers (ala those who claimed to find themselves active on FreeRealms despite never playing or signing up), I wouldn't be surprised if the Facebook numbers demonstrate how small the population currently is in SWG, compared to where it was at its zenith.
For example, WoW has a facebook page and has over 78 thousand fans. Drakuul was excited when SWG's page hit the 1000 mark. Btw, if SWG suddenly surpasses 78 thousand facebook fans, I'll be suspicious of the numbers lol. How many millions is FreeRealms supposed to have now? My friends that tried it out said they couldn't possibly imagine where SOE was hiding all those millions of people. Since they've also just recently changed the game's entire business model, I have to question how successful it actually was.
This is the part of the message that struck me as uncommonly desperate:
"Tell your guild and anyone you run into! You never know what joining the fan page for SWG might mean for everyone. Don't want to be left out! "
What's going on here? Drakuul appears to be setting guild members up to pressure each other to join Facebook, so that the guild may have a random chance at getting some kind of undisclosed reward. As if the community isn't in bad enough shape, now those who put random chances at loot ahead of things like say...friendship...are going to be "encouraging" guildies to join Facebook. Why? Apparently so that Drakuul can boast about the number of "fans" SWG has. Imo, that's not community management at all; it's manipulating the remaining players to provide SOE with potential marketting material, and using guild networks to do it.
Man you sure do know how to put a spin on everything SOE related.
I do have to give you props for your tireless, relentless creativity in finding how to fit in negativity in so many SOE issues.
You should be a campaign manager…
I would like to state that in no way shape or form that anything I receive from SOE influences my opinion about SWG or their company. Im pretty much a typical average player enjoying the game.
Man you sure do know how to put a spin on everything SOE related.
I do have to give you props for your tireless, relentless creativity in finding how to fit in negativity in so many SOE issues.
You should be a campaign manager…
I don't feel that it takes much creativity or effort to find negativity with SOE. I think I'm representing Drakuul's comments accurately: "It might be rewarding...tell your guild and anyone you run into...you never know what joining the fan page for SWG might mean for everyone...don't want to be left out!" Tbh, I think these comments speak for themselves. Peer pressure, use of existing social networks, chance at rewards--yup, it all looks to be there. Maybe you're down with that sort of thing; I'm not. Smells too much like guerilla marketting.
Btw, your sig says that anything you receive from SOE doesn't affect your opinion. Are you aware that if you receive anything from them (not just cash) federal law in many jurisdictions obligates you to fully disclose this relationship, anytime you promote their products? Friendly fyi.
Man you sure do know how to put a spin on everything SOE related.
I do have to give you props for your tireless, relentless creativity in finding how to fit in negativity in so many SOE issues.
You should be a campaign manager…
I don't feel that it takes much creativity or effort to find negativity with SOE. I think I'm representing Drakuul's comments accurately: "It might be rewarding...tell your guild and anyone you run into...you never know what joining the fan page for SWG might mean for everyone...don't want to be left out!" Tbh, I think these comments speak for themselves. Peer pressure, use of existing social networks, chance at rewards--yup, it all looks to be there. Maybe you're down with that sort of thing; I'm not. Smells too much like guerilla marketting.
Btw, your sig says that anything you receive from SOE doesn't affect your opinion. Are you aware that if you receive anything from them (not just cash) federal law in many jurisdictions obligates you to fully disclose this relationship, anytime you promote their products? Friendly fyi.
What would you consider "promoting" their products? also the friendly fyi felt like bullying from my standpoint, or is it okay for you to behave this way and not SOE?
I read his topic for joining facebook, i just read it as someone excited and wanting people to spread the word about it and offering rewards at some point, kinda like Blizzard has multiple twitter accounts for their games and offer contests to win prizes and also when they launched these sites they told people similar stuff as this guy said.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
You can find a facebook page for about any mmo you can name, even a lot of the F2P games. For that matter any game console, PC Gaming you name it. You like comic books? There is a facebook page for DC Comics as well as Marvel. A certain genre of movies your cup of tea? Yup there is a facebook feed. I hope this knowledge doesnt interfere with the daily SOE bashing but I thought perhaps some facts might prove usefull.
You can find a facebook page for about any mmo you can name, even a lot of the F2P games. For that matter any game console, PC Gaming you name it. You like comic books? There is a facebook page for DC Comics as well as Marvel. A certain genre of movies your cup of tea? Yup there is a facebook feed. I hope this knowledge doesnt interfere with the daily SOE bashing but I thought perhaps some facts might prove usefull.
There's certainly nothing wrong with any company marketing via facebook, and SOE is no exception. What most of us 'disgruntled vets' are waiting for is for them to conveniently forget to reward those who actually sign up as a fan. I have no doubt they will do so. There's been no binding promise of anything, only nudges and hints, nor can they actually link a facebook account, to a SWG account.
We wait and see.
Knowing SoE's style I'd bet their "reward" for signing up to their Facebook group would be a coupon for 10% off SWG trading cards.
Man you sure do know how to put a spin on everything SOE related.
I do have to give you props for your tireless, relentless creativity in finding how to fit in negativity in so many SOE issues.
You should be a campaign manager…
I don't feel that it takes much creativity or effort to find negativity with SOE. I think I'm representing Drakuul's comments accurately: "It might be rewarding...tell your guild and anyone you run into...you never know what joining the fan page for SWG might mean for everyone...don't want to be left out!" Tbh, I think these comments speak for themselves. Peer pressure, use of existing social networks, chance at rewards--yup, it all looks to be there. Maybe you're down with that sort of thing; I'm not. Smells too much like guerilla marketting.
Btw, your sig says that anything you receive from SOE doesn't affect your opinion. Are you aware that if you receive anything from them (not just cash) federal law in many jurisdictions obligates you to fully disclose this relationship, anytime you promote their products? Friendly fyi.
What would you consider "promoting" their products? also the friendly fyi felt like bullying from my standpoint, or is it okay for you to behave this way and not SOE?
I read his topic for joining facebook, i just read it as someone excited and wanting people to spread the word about it and offering rewards at some point, kinda like Blizzard has multiple twitter accounts for their games and offer contests to win prizes and also when they launched these sites they told people similar stuff as this guy said.
Sharing information to help someone avoid potential legal pitfalls certainly doesn't feel like bullying to me. In fact, I simply asked if he/she is aware of the parameters around receiving perks for promotions.
If I was a nasty type of person, I'd keep my mouth shut and wait for the hammer to fall. People who have pretended to be nothing more than fans (for Sony) in the past, have felt themselves on the wrong end of some fairly serious prosecution by the FTC.
LOL.... so very very true
You can find a facebook page for about any mmo you can name, even a lot of the F2P games. For that matter any game console, PC Gaming you name it. You like comic books? There is a facebook page for DC Comics as well as Marvel. A certain genre of movies your cup of tea? Yup there is a facebook feed. I hope this knowledge doesnt interfere with the daily SOE bashing but I thought perhaps some facts might prove usefull.
Aside from the sarcasm, I think you do make a valid point. You're quite right that many other companies use Facebook, MMO companies included. Do I have a problem with that? No, of course not. Likewise I see nothing wrong with SOE doing it. I think it's good business as a matter of fact.
In my experience though, SOE tends to take good ideas from others (lots of examples to choose from) and do something bizarre with them. What's bizarre to me in this case is trying to get players to influence other players to join the fan page by using the hope of random rewards as a motivator.
You know like,
guildie 1: "hey buddy, go join the fan page so that our guild might win some random rewards."
guildie 2: "Well I don't really want to join Facebook atm, thanks."
guildie 1: "What, you don't wanna help your guild? Wtf's wrong with you, we want our stuff."
SOE's approach seems to use the chance of winning loot and ingame social networks to maneuver people to join the fan page. It comes across as very manipulative imo. Reminds me of Amway actually lol. That's just not the makings of a good community feeling, in my experience. That's what I'm commenting on.