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Here are some issues i have seen reading posts, videos and reviews and in general following the trends and information on Gw2 and ofcourse playing the game in Betas
Patience: The fact that players require patience to learn the game and to understand its features is a major entry barrier. One they have revamped some general accepted norms of MMORPG's and they have gone to also decide on the philosophy of no hand holding. Hence asking the general player demographic to have to change / relearn thier gaming style when it comes to MMORPG's on their own terms and by them selves which in it itself requires patience and time (it may not be much ) but creates an entry barrier. Yes there are hints that pop up, NPC that explain what is going on. But Anet should know not many players like reading Tooltips and Hints that pop up, Every game does it but also holds your hand across first few levels explaning each feature, hence cancelling that first tooltip that pops up is our habit now and makes no effect on us learning the other game and hence making us think it wont here either.
Fanboism/Hype Train; This is not a Anet creation by itself, but they have encouraged it. I am not saying that they have encouraged the hype directly but they have been releasing info on their game for soo long over 2 years now that it is hard for some one to assimilate if they came to know about a game 3 months back before Betas started. This has lead to some players knwoing almost all features and game philosophy and every thing there is to know about the game for 2 years so when they make comments, you can see how they can be easily be branded as fanbois and blamed for creating hype. Where as some people who know some what about the game and have read a bit about it tend to give the "balanced review" and people who know nothing about it and havnt been hand held in the first few hours of the game tend to give " First impressions"
Marketing: This has been my biggest bane with ANET as a company. They have decided just because we have made a good game is a reason our game will be successful. If i were the CEO or something of ANET i would first fire my marketing team. Just because you have a good product doesnt mean it will succeed. A good marketed product succeds at first then is retained by the product itself. For Ex. Blizzard. They market WoW a 8 year old game with already a large loyal fan base harder and better than ANET has ever done. And i like Blizzards marketing team, they can literally sell Ice to an Eskimo. ANET on the other hand uses game developers / content designers / Lore keepers to market their product ! Seriously ANET ? I hope they know there are professionals who make a living out of marketing products, get in some professionals and market your product better. Half the marketing is being done by gamers and GW2 "Fanbois" and if i may say so some GW2 haters are promoting GW2 better than ANET has.
A clear Example of above is the GEM store. I dont blame those who say it is P2W. It clearly does look like P2W. If you look at a gem store exactly same as this in any other game with no changes made to it at all, this same Gem Store will be a P2W and no one can deny it. Getting gold for cash with which you can buy items ? P2W for me in any other game, faster XP P2W for me in any other game etc etc , Unfortunately ANET fails at explaining how it is not P2W. How items bought with real cash will not give you and your team a significant advantage if any advantage at all. People see game philosophy and CS as seperate entitities. And i dont blame the gamers for it but the ANET team, they have to do a better job of letting the players base know.
Another NO END GAME content. It took ANET 2 years and only a couple of weeks back to give a slight insight into their "END GAME ". ANd even they started by saying " alot of people are asking us about our End game" Well if you ofcourse dont explain people what it is even though you have been releasing info for the last 2 years, ofourse 2 weeks before release people will ask you. I understand they want to keep content as a wow factor never seen before kinda thing but you have to give out info a lot more so people know better and not just your "fanbois".
These are just some my "first impressions" so you cant flame me for something i have said , but please go ahead ANET "fanbois" flame me !
PS: some comments above are sarcastic and back handed in nature if you dont get them i am sorry.
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Sherman's Gaming
Youtube Content creator for The Elder Scrolls Online
Channel:http://https//www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgYNgpFTRAl4XWz31o2emw
Back your comment(s) with facts or dont post at all !
/grabs popcorn
Oh boy, another episode of the ignorant parade.
I'm getting fat from all the butter
^.^ agreed
3rd. Also why does your avatar look more like a grimlin and less like asura? did you feed it after midnight?
Try non fat butter Pop Corn i say ?
What's the point of popcorn with no real butter?!?!
Dang you guys are not agreeing with my signature !! YOU MUST be wrong .. i dont know why .. but i just know it !
And dare you open your mouth about my ASura ... Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
Why is your grimlin/asura thing so special?
Because its an ASura?
And I know you were being sarcastic, but I do hope you know what we ment.
the point being - non fat butter helps shape your body .. oh no wait so does real butter shape your body .. i dont know .. i forgot why i started this post to begin with .. i am sure it wasnt to discuss pop corn.
I agree w/ the ops statement for the most part.
They need some comercials to help w/ more sells. If they actually explained stuff like when you complete the exploration part of the human starting are it gives you a key the key can unlock a chest the chest can contain another key, you can buy gems from auction ect.
Fanoi hype is meh.... People hype everygame so idk.
I agree and disagree with you about the WoW marketing, Blizzard started their proactive marketing campaign for WoW more then a year after the release. Where other game move to F2P when less and less games are sold, Blizzard started an active marketing campaign.
Sadly none of the other comapnies so far in the buiseness seem to have noticed it.
Currently GW2 has good marketing, they use a lot of the free tools available to push thier game. The so called hype is partly created by their brilliant marketing strategy. And so far it did not cost a dime (except for paying some sallary). Maybe further down the road they can decide to go and walk the Blizaard road of using commercial marketing sources, but right now, they just seem to do perfect.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
i totally agree this is not about popcorn, even if its the butter one. while its nice enough, i have to say that personally i found the toffee popcorn much nicer
You'd flunk out of marketing 101.
It's amazing people think TV commercials are the end all be all to push out products.
i Do agree with you to an extent .. that the little marketting or freelance marketing they have done till now is good .. and the Wow example of what Blizzard did does not work as well today for one 2004 there wasnt an MMO release every month .. but in 2012 its not the case. MMORPG have way more competition, from other genres also who have take MMORPG fascets into their gaming as well. A point in case is Diablo3, the game box sales were beyond rediculous and it was all down to the amazing agressive marketing Blizzard does so well. They know how to sell an IP.
if it was upto me i would ban you for life for saying Toffee popcorn and my fat loving butter popcorn fanbois would agree.
I love that you feel this way now walk outside and goto idk the grocery store and ask 30 people how many know what gw2 is. then ask the same question about wow. Then ask how they learned about wow. It wasn't searching forums like we do 24/7 lol
i didnot mean only TV marketting. Getting info out is what i meant and agresive marketing not just TV commercials .. but we are not here to discuss marketting school knowledge now are we?
You'd flunk out of marketing 101.
It's amazing people think TV commercials are the end all be all to push out products.
i didnot mean only TV marketting. Getting info out is what i meant and agresive marketing not just TV commercials .. but we are not here to discuss marketting school knowledge now are we?
Because they did it where it matters.
Video game conventions. Getting ads up on video game sites. Using the video game social media network.
Again, you would flunk out of advertising 101.
You always target your main demographic first. WoW didn't even start popping out TV commercials until it was already well established and was expanding its market to other demographics.
You really should stop. Because you clearly have no idea how it works.