In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how much marketing you do, a failed product remains a failed product. Yes, you have to pre-purchase to get guarenteed access. Yes, those who pre-purchased are those who already liked what they saw of the game enough to buy it. We will be biased, however, we are biased in such a way that if we don't like what we saw during beta, you can almost be assured that everyone who had paid would make sure that everyone who had not yet purchased would know exactly what kind of crap they were about to buy. ArenaNet took one hell of a gamble on the Pre-Purchase + Beta weekend. Had it not been awesome, they could have flopped their game even before it launched. People enjoyed it, dispite the bumps that occured. And no amount of marketing will make you like something that you tried and hated.
I still see commercials for TOR and no matter how cool they look, i won't buy the game.
Wouldn't a bigger gamble be to allow anyone to beta test it with out having to spend any money?
While yes, it's brilliant marketing, you also need to remember that you don't have to prepurchase to get into beta. The only way to GUARANTEE your access to beta is to prepurchase. However, it's possible that you'll be selected to participate in a BWE if you signed up beta access back in February.
I have yet to see the FIRST person say that they got into the game because they were lucky and got selected to participate.
The games at fast food restaurants work the same way. They say "no purchase necesary", and that you only have to send them mail and they give you a game piece. How many people do you know do this? While it is POSSIBLE, I am pretty sure a very high percentage of those that played in the beta weekends pre-purchased.
Back to the point though, GW2 does have faults that could have caused huge uproars had the mayority of their playerbase been general community players: Login issues, Lag Issues, autorepeating "quests", cash shop dependancies to open some loot, ect ect. But the fact that those that are currently playing are the fans that see no wrong in what ANet does, the voices of reason get shut down.
Anything you say, that in any concievable way, can be interpreted as "bad" about the game, will immediately be tackled by what some forum users are calling "GW2 white knights" and "Damage control". This is actually quite unique to GW2 because while other games do have their fans, normal players and haters, the fans that have played the game are at a much higher proportion to the normal player that have played the game, and the haters just do not have the access to the game to show believable complaints.
So, I agree, it is brilliant marketting that I hope NEVER catches on. If it does, this will be the one surefire way to give companies the advantage in siphoning money from the players for mediocre or downright bad content.
With that said, I hope all those that payed for the privilage of playing beta are enjoying it. And I REALLY hope that the current issues with the game get resolved before release, because if it doesn't, it will affect the rest of the playerbase in a negative fashion since it will be telling other developers that they can overhype a game, collect money, and give the players garbage in return. Access to beta should NEVER be guaranteed if you buy or pre-order a game, and instead should be done through pure sampling of the general population. If its done the way GW2 is doing it, the feedback and reviews will be heavily skewed in favor of the game.
In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how much marketing you do, a failed product remains a failed product. Yes, you have to pre-purchase to get guarenteed access. Yes, those who pre-purchased are those who already liked what they saw of the game enough to buy it. We will be biased, however, we are biased in such a way that if we don't like what we saw during beta, you can almost be assured that everyone who had paid would make sure that everyone who had not yet purchased would know exactly what kind of crap they were about to buy. ArenaNet took one hell of a gamble on the Pre-Purchase + Beta weekend. Had it not been awesome, they could have flopped their game even before it launched. People enjoyed it, dispite the bumps that occured. And no amount of marketing will make you like something that you tried and hated.
I still see commercials for TOR and no matter how cool they look, i won't buy the game.
That's a comment in hindsight. You wouldn't know something is a fail product till it failed. You wouldn't know that great marketing didn't sell the product because the product is selling well.
While yes, it's brilliant marketing, you also need to remember that you don't have to prepurchase to get into beta. The only way to GUARANTEE your access to beta is to prepurchase. However, it's possible that you'll be selected to participate in a BWE if you signed up beta access back in February.
I have yet to see the FIRST person say that they got into the game because they were lucky and got selected to participate.
The games at fast food restaurants work the same way. They say "no purchase necesary", and that you only have to send them mail and they give you a game piece. How many people do you know do this? While it is POSSIBLE, I am pretty sure a very high percentage of those that played in the beta weekends pre-purchased.
Back to the point though, GW2 does have faults that could have caused huge uproars had the mayority of their playerbase been general community players: Login issues, Lag Issues, autorepeating "quests", cash shop dependancies to open some loot, ect ect. But the fact that those that are currently playing are the fans that see no wrong in what ANet does, the voices of reason get shut down.
Anything you say, that in any concievable way, can be interpreted as "bad" about the game, will immediately be tackled by what some forum users are calling "GW2 white knights" and "Damage control". This is actually quite unique to GW2 because while other games do have their fans, normal players and haters, the fans that have played the game are at a much higher proportion to the normal player that have played the game, and the haters just do not have the access to the game to show believable complaints.
So, I agree, it is brilliant marketting that I hope NEVER catches on. If it does, this will be the one surefire way to give companies the advantage in siphoning money from the players for mediocre or downright bad content.
With that said, I hope all those that payed for the privilage of playing beta are enjoying it. And I REALLY hope that the current issues with the game get resolved before release, because if it doesn't, it will affect the rest of the playerbase in a negative fashion since it will be telling other developers that they can overhype a game, collect money, and give the players garbage in return. Access to beta should NEVER be guaranteed if you buy or pre-order a game, and instead should be done through pure sampling of the general population. If its done the way GW2 is doing it, the feedback and reviews will be heavily skewed in favor of the game.
Very true. I hope the game comes out to be just as good as everyone anticipated but I'm also not a fan of how the beta was done.
This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the... /yahdeyah
So, what you are saying is that people who have bought it and the press that have played it LIKE IT?
Excellent, then we agree.
The game is good, as good as the marketing has said it would be.
If you want to see some amazing marketing, have a look at games that are highly hyped while being a lot less transparent than ArenaNet is with GW2. Especially the games that had a very high hype till launch, and then lost a good portion of gamers (a.k.a. "failed") a while afterwards. If the marketing department could sell a doomed product that well, the marketing has to be top notch.
I thought this was the best thought on the topic so far. OP, I understand where you are coming from. Only the most hyped about the game would pre-purchase the game and gain access to the non-NDA Beta Weekend to hype it up for everyone else. It's a good strategy. However, the best marketing departments will be the ones that are selling a doomed product, not a great product. The marketing department for good games don't have to work as hard as those of bad games, it's just that simple.
People who pre-ordered SWTOR were pumped for that game as well but there was a ton of disappointment posts during the beta for that.
Everything that Anet promised is in the game right now and it works as advertised. Basically Anet is competent and people are really happy with the game. I've ever read posts here from former haters who tried the game and changed their tune.
Actually those should've gone to Gamescom or other conventions as well I've been on the past 3 editions of Gamescom and hadn't put much research into GW2 before that but I was completely blown away by the demo and other information presented. Also some of the actual devs were on the showfloor as much as they could spare the time for it as opposed to other companies that just put some community team members in their boothe and maybe have a few panels with 1 or 2 devs but stay in the business areas doing pre-arranged interviews for the rest of the time. Yes that's also part of the good marketing, but having been able to have a short conversation with some of the Anet team showed me how passionate they really are about their game and dedicated to making it good. That wasn't fake marketing talk with people who went through acting classes for it, but face to face human communication.
Of the other big upcoming games during those past 3 editions I found SW:TOR and Tera the most underwhelming both from my brief hands on time with the games and the actual information provided. And after release I'm still underwhelmed as much so I guess hands on experience on game shows actually do give you a valid impression about the game.
After I returned from the show that enthusiastic about GW2 fro two consecutive years this also started to trigger friends to look into the game and all of them prepurchased although they normally wouldn't and most of them disliked the original GW. They weren't dissapointed during the BWE that I passed my hype on to them either
This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the... /yahdeyah
So, what you are saying is that people who have bought it and the press that have played it LIKE IT?
Excellent, then we agree.
The game is good, as good as the marketing has said it would be.
Well good or bad is an opinion but yes if people playing it enjoy then all the better.
In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how much marketing you do, a failed product remains a failed product. Yes, you have to pre-purchase to get guarenteed access. Yes, those who pre-purchased are those who already liked what they saw of the game enough to buy it. We will be biased, however, we are biased in such a way that if we don't like what we saw during beta, you can almost be assured that everyone who had paid would make sure that everyone who had not yet purchased would know exactly what kind of crap they were about to buy. ArenaNet took one hell of a gamble on the Pre-Purchase + Beta weekend. Had it not been awesome, they could have flopped their game even before it launched. People enjoyed it, dispite the bumps that occured. And no amount of marketing will make you like something that you tried and hated.
I still see commercials for TOR and no matter how cool they look, i won't buy the game.
Wouldn't a bigger gamble be to allow anyone to beta test it with out having to spend any money?
Who is more likely to give honest feedback, people who bought the game and liked it/disliked it, or anyone who could get?
I'm sorry but the only one saying anything about the second coming is you. Fans of a game accept its flaws and strengths.
If you want to see some amazing marketing, have a look at games that are highly hyped while being a lot less transparent than ArenaNet is with GW2. Especially the games that had a very high hype till launch, and then lost a good portion of gamers (a.k.a. "failed") a while afterwards. If the marketing department could sell a doomed product that well, the marketing has to be top notch.
I thought this was the best thought on the topic so far. OP, I understand where you are coming from. Only the most hyped about the game would pre-purchase the game and gain access to the non-NDA Beta Weekend to hype it up for everyone else. It's a good strategy. However, the best marketing departments will be the ones that are selling a doomed product, not a great product. The marketing department for good games don't have to work as hard as those of bad games, it's just that simple.
Oh absolutely. I'm specifically addressing what GW2 is doing because it is looking successful and because of this we might begin to see the same style used by other companies.
This post isn't about the quality of the game or whether its good or bad its just about something I found rather ingenious. ArenaNet shows some footage of the the game here and there not giving away too much but enough to make some assumptions about the game. Does a closed beta followed by a press beta. Then sets up an "open" beta which you get into by prepurchasing the game. Now what they've done with this is have only people who like the game enough, just from the info given out so far, to pay for the game entirely before release. Now those people are the ones populating the beta and surprise they like it which is statistically likely as those people were willing to prepurchase it. (Here what im sressing is not the preordering it which I've done a several times and then been unhappy with the game, but the prepurchasing which requires the the paying of the game entirely.) Now because of this the beta receives nothing but amazing reviews from most everyone in the beta. Just a little thought I had.
If you want to see some amazing marketing, have a look at games that are highly hyped while being a lot less transparent than ArenaNet is with GW2. Especially the games that had a very high hype till launch, and then lost a good portion of gamers (a.k.a. "failed") a while afterwards. If the marketing department could sell a doomed product that well, the marketing has to be top notch.
I thought this was the best thought on the topic so far. OP, I understand where you are coming from. Only the most hyped about the game would pre-purchase the game and gain access to the non-NDA Beta Weekend to hype it up for everyone else. It's a good strategy. However, the best marketing departments will be the ones that are selling a doomed product, not a great product. The marketing department for good games don't have to work as hard as those of bad games, it's just that simple.
Oh absolutely. I'm specifically addressing what GW2 is doing because it is looking successful and because of this we might begin to see the same style used by other companies.
Though you're only looking at the pre-purchase scheme here. How can you be sure they did that as a pure, calculated marketing strategy to get a more biased group in to give better reviews? To me at least, a more logical explanation would be that they need some income to keep the publisher/investors happy, so that they won't get a release date forced on them, with the game releasing too early/buggy.
In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how much marketing you do, a failed product remains a failed product. Yes, you have to pre-purchase to get guarenteed access. Yes, those who pre-purchased are those who already liked what they saw of the game enough to buy it. We will be biased, however, we are biased in such a way that if we don't like what we saw during beta, you can almost be assured that everyone who had paid would make sure that everyone who had not yet purchased would know exactly what kind of crap they were about to buy. ArenaNet took one hell of a gamble on the Pre-Purchase + Beta weekend. Had it not been awesome, they could have flopped their game even before it launched. People enjoyed it, dispite the bumps that occured. And no amount of marketing will make you like something that you tried and hated.
I still see commercials for TOR and no matter how cool they look, i won't buy the game.
Wouldn't a bigger gamble be to allow anyone to beta test it with out having to spend any money?
Who is more likely to give honest feedback, people who bought the game and liked it/disliked it, or anyone who could get?
Thats a loaded question because the very much is a phenomenon where people after having spent money they can't get back convince themselves of the wiseness of their choice. Look at console fanboys. I bought a 360 and its the only system I've played so its clearly the best system even though I've never played a ps3. People have a habit of convincing themselves that they make the best decision even when they didn't.
I'll add that I think you're underestimating players' reasonableness when you assume that everyone who prepurchased the game will automatically, unquestionably like what they try in beta. If the game truly was bad, or failed to meet the expectations they've developed, players would be absolutely irate--especially so since they already bought the game and couldn't get a refund. They wouldn't just happily pretend to to enjoy themselves forever.
If you want to see some amazing marketing, have a look at games that are highly hyped while being a lot less transparent than ArenaNet is with GW2. Especially the games that had a very high hype till launch, and then lost a good portion of gamers (a.k.a. "failed") a while afterwards. If the marketing department could sell a doomed product that well, the marketing has to be top notch.
I thought this was the best thought on the topic so far. OP, I understand where you are coming from. Only the most hyped about the game would pre-purchase the game and gain access to the non-NDA Beta Weekend to hype it up for everyone else. It's a good strategy. However, the best marketing departments will be the ones that are selling a doomed product, not a great product. The marketing department for good games don't have to work as hard as those of bad games, it's just that simple.
Oh absolutely. I'm specifically addressing what GW2 is doing because it is looking successful and because of this we might begin to see the same style used by other companies.
Though you're only looking at the pre-purchase scheme here. How can you be sure they did that as a pure, calculated marketing strategy to get a more biased group in to give better reviews? To me at least, a more logical explanation would be that they need some income to keep the publisher/investors happy, so that they won't get a release date forced on them, with the game releasing too early/buggy.
That could be true. I'm looking at just the prepurchasing scheme because its an industry in and of itself. Preordering has become the standard for predicting success and establishing a game.
I'll add that I think you're underestimating players' reasonableness when you assume that everyone who prepurchased the game will automatically, unquestionably like what they try in beta. If the game truly was bad, or failed to meet the expectations they've developed, players would be absolutely irate--especially so since they already bought the game and couldn't get a refund. They wouldn't just happily pretend to to enjoy themselves forever.
I'm 50/50 on that. I don't think that everyone will blindly love the game but at the same time I do believe people can strongly sway themselves to think things they may or may not truely agree with.
interesting theory. would be more interesting to see evidence to support it.
giving the subject very little thought my first reaction is that there is more evidence to the contrary. i'm afraid in this business customers who have spent money on the product do not seem inclined to love what they bought based on that monetary investment. we seem all to quick to be willing to write our investment off as wasted money on a garbage product.
I'll add that I think you're underestimating players' reasonableness when you assume that everyone who prepurchased the game will automatically, unquestionably like what they try in beta. If the game truly was bad, or failed to meet the expectations they've developed, players would be absolutely irate--especially so since they already bought the game and couldn't get a refund. They wouldn't just happily pretend to to enjoy themselves forever.
I'm 50/50 on that. I don't think that everyone will blindly love the game but at the same time I do believe people can strongly sway themselves to think things they may or may not truely agree with.
You know, you're starting to sound like a cold reader to me. :S
On topic: would that not apply to every single game though? So the question boils down to this: how can you trust any review of any game, as people could be prone to stating things they may not truly agree with?
We had tons of footage since 2010, people played it first hand at Gamescom, PAX and other conventions.
As for marketing, yes it's great marketing, and healthy one too. At least we see real ingame footage, not some classy CGI cinematics. Arenanet allowed it's community to build hype.
This x10.
For the maybe 2-3 dev videos Anet released to "hype" the game, they had hundreds of players playing at conventions and thousands (hundreds of thousands) actually playing the game.
http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders/ it doesnt look that great for a game who should be the ¨messiah¨ of the MMO world. People here on MMORPG forums, need to undestand that not everyone is in love of the game after what they saw in the beta.
interesting theory. would be more interesting to see evidence to support it.
giving the subject very little thought my first reaction is that there is more evidence to the contrary. i'm afraid in this business customers who have spent money on the product do not seem inclined to love what they bought based on that monetary investment. we seem all to quick to be willing to write our investment off as wasted money on a garbage product.
Is that something you see yourself doing? I don't see myself doing that but I analyze a decision to buy something into the ground. I also don't think that my process is the norm tho.
http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders/ it doesnt look that great for a game who should be the ¨messiah¨ of the MMO world. People here on MMORPG forums, need to undestand that not everyone is in love of the game after what they saw in the beta.
VGChartz is off by about 300 - 400k there... We know there was more then 500k on just the Stress Test day and that was during business hours... The BWE was even more populated.
In the age of social media, it doesn't matter how much marketing you do, a failed product remains a failed product. Yes, you have to pre-purchase to get guarenteed access. Yes, those who pre-purchased are those who already liked what they saw of the game enough to buy it. We will be biased, however, we are biased in such a way that if we don't like what we saw during beta, you can almost be assured that everyone who had paid would make sure that everyone who had not yet purchased would know exactly what kind of crap they were about to buy. ArenaNet took one hell of a gamble on the Pre-Purchase + Beta weekend. Had it not been awesome, they could have flopped their game even before it launched. People enjoyed it, dispite the bumps that occured. And no amount of marketing will make you like something that you tried and hated.
I still see commercials for TOR and no matter how cool they look, i won't buy the game.
That's a comment in hindsight. You wouldn't know something is a fail product till it failed. You wouldn't know that great marketing didn't sell the product because the product is selling well.
You were commenting about marketing, specifically "ArenaNet Brilliant Marketing," People have now purchased GuildWars 2 and played it, albeit in a Beta Weekend. They have said what they like/dislike about the game and most of what people are saying is positive (of those that have played it). That is what will make me want to play a game. When i stated "a failed product," I am refering to a product which although it might have sold well at some point, the majority of people have expressed a dislike of said product. I have yet to see that in this case. And if people were expressing an overall dislike of guildwars 2, then although its yet to be released, would you who have not purchased the game, purchase it? Just my thought.
I'm sorry but the only one saying anything about the second coming is you. Fans of a game accept its flaws and strengths.
I'll add that I think you're underestimating players' reasonableness when you assume that everyone who prepurchased the game will automatically, unquestionably like what they try in beta. If the game truly was bad, or failed to meet the expectations they've developed, players would be absolutely irate--especially so since they already bought the game and couldn't get a refund. They wouldn't just happily pretend to to enjoy themselves forever.
I'm 50/50 on that. I don't think that everyone will blindly love the game but at the same time I do believe people can strongly sway themselves to think things they may or may not truely agree with.
You know, you're starting to sound like a cold reader to me. :S
On topic: would that not apply to every single game though? So the question boils down to this: how can you trust any review of any game, as people could be prone to stating things they may not truly agree with?
lol cold reader. I could see how it looks like that. As for your on topic question thats pretty much it. So the game of it is really trying to disect where it appears people are making comments that are truly informative and when people are just talking out their ass.
1) There are in fact lots of people who got into the BWEs without paying anything.
2) If the game was bad, it would have crashed and burned on the spot on the first BWE.
There may be blind fans, but there are a lot of fans who post tons of feedback to make a good game even better. The forums were flooded with threads and posts each time something went wrong (stuck at 95% anyone), but also when something was good or needed improvement.
Bottom line is: Possibly GW2 is actually a pretty decent game, believe it or not.
Comments
Wouldn't a bigger gamble be to allow anyone to beta test it with out having to spend any money?
I have yet to see the FIRST person say that they got into the game because they were lucky and got selected to participate.
The games at fast food restaurants work the same way. They say "no purchase necesary", and that you only have to send them mail and they give you a game piece. How many people do you know do this? While it is POSSIBLE, I am pretty sure a very high percentage of those that played in the beta weekends pre-purchased.
Back to the point though, GW2 does have faults that could have caused huge uproars had the mayority of their playerbase been general community players: Login issues, Lag Issues, autorepeating "quests", cash shop dependancies to open some loot, ect ect. But the fact that those that are currently playing are the fans that see no wrong in what ANet does, the voices of reason get shut down.
Anything you say, that in any concievable way, can be interpreted as "bad" about the game, will immediately be tackled by what some forum users are calling "GW2 white knights" and "Damage control". This is actually quite unique to GW2 because while other games do have their fans, normal players and haters, the fans that have played the game are at a much higher proportion to the normal player that have played the game, and the haters just do not have the access to the game to show believable complaints.
So, I agree, it is brilliant marketting that I hope NEVER catches on. If it does, this will be the one surefire way to give companies the advantage in siphoning money from the players for mediocre or downright bad content.
With that said, I hope all those that payed for the privilage of playing beta are enjoying it. And I REALLY hope that the current issues with the game get resolved before release, because if it doesn't, it will affect the rest of the playerbase in a negative fashion since it will be telling other developers that they can overhype a game, collect money, and give the players garbage in return. Access to beta should NEVER be guaranteed if you buy or pre-order a game, and instead should be done through pure sampling of the general population. If its done the way GW2 is doing it, the feedback and reviews will be heavily skewed in favor of the game.
That's a comment in hindsight. You wouldn't know something is a fail product till it failed. You wouldn't know that great marketing didn't sell the product because the product is selling well.
Very true. I hope the game comes out to be just as good as everyone anticipated but I'm also not a fan of how the beta was done.
So, what you are saying is that people who have bought it and the press that have played it LIKE IT?
Excellent, then we agree.
The game is good, as good as the marketing has said it would be.
I thought this was the best thought on the topic so far. OP, I understand where you are coming from. Only the most hyped about the game would pre-purchase the game and gain access to the non-NDA Beta Weekend to hype it up for everyone else. It's a good strategy. However, the best marketing departments will be the ones that are selling a doomed product, not a great product. The marketing department for good games don't have to work as hard as those of bad games, it's just that simple.
My Guild Wars 2 Blog can be found here: Divinity's Reach
Actually those should've gone to Gamescom or other conventions as well
I've been on the past 3 editions of Gamescom and hadn't put much research into GW2 before that but I was completely blown away by the demo and other information presented. Also some of the actual devs were on the showfloor as much as they could spare the time for it as opposed to other companies that just put some community team members in their boothe and maybe have a few panels with 1 or 2 devs but stay in the business areas doing pre-arranged interviews for the rest of the time.
Yes that's also part of the good marketing, but having been able to have a short conversation with some of the Anet team showed me how passionate they really are about their game and dedicated to making it good. That wasn't fake marketing talk with people who went through acting classes for it, but face to face human communication.
Of the other big upcoming games during those past 3 editions I found SW:TOR and Tera the most underwhelming both from my brief hands on time with the games and the actual information provided. And after release I'm still underwhelmed as much so I guess hands on experience on game shows actually do give you a valid impression about the game.
After I returned from the show that enthusiastic about GW2 fro two consecutive years this also started to trigger friends to look into the game and all of them prepurchased although they normally wouldn't and most of them disliked the original GW. They weren't dissapointed during the BWE that I passed my hype on to them either
Well good or bad is an opinion but yes if people playing it enjoy then all the better.
Who is more likely to give honest feedback, people who bought the game and liked it/disliked it, or anyone who could get?
I'm sorry but the only one saying anything about the second coming is you. Fans of a game accept its flaws and strengths.
Oh absolutely. I'm specifically addressing what GW2 is doing because it is looking successful and because of this we might begin to see the same style used by other companies.
Preaching to the choir. Hmmm.
Though you're only looking at the pre-purchase scheme here. How can you be sure they did that as a pure, calculated marketing strategy to get a more biased group in to give better reviews? To me at least, a more logical explanation would be that they need some income to keep the publisher/investors happy, so that they won't get a release date forced on them, with the game releasing too early/buggy.
Thats a loaded question because the very much is a phenomenon where people after having spent money they can't get back convince themselves of the wiseness of their choice. Look at console fanboys. I bought a 360 and its the only system I've played so its clearly the best system even though I've never played a ps3. People have a habit of convincing themselves that they make the best decision even when they didn't.
I'll add that I think you're underestimating players' reasonableness when you assume that everyone who prepurchased the game will automatically, unquestionably like what they try in beta. If the game truly was bad, or failed to meet the expectations they've developed, players would be absolutely irate--especially so since they already bought the game and couldn't get a refund. They wouldn't just happily pretend to to enjoy themselves forever.
That could be true. I'm looking at just the prepurchasing scheme because its an industry in and of itself. Preordering has become the standard for predicting success and establishing a game.
I'm 50/50 on that. I don't think that everyone will blindly love the game but at the same time I do believe people can strongly sway themselves to think things they may or may not truely agree with.
interesting theory. would be more interesting to see evidence to support it.
giving the subject very little thought my first reaction is that there is more evidence to the contrary. i'm afraid in this business customers who have spent money on the product do not seem inclined to love what they bought based on that monetary investment. we seem all to quick to be willing to write our investment off as wasted money on a garbage product.
You know, you're starting to sound like a cold reader to me. :S
On topic: would that not apply to every single game though? So the question boils down to this: how can you trust any review of any game, as people could be prone to stating things they may not truly agree with?
This x10.
For the maybe 2-3 dev videos Anet released to "hype" the game, they had hundreds of players playing at conventions and thousands (hundreds of thousands) actually playing the game.
http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders/ it doesnt look that great for a game who should be the ¨messiah¨ of the MMO world. People here on MMORPG forums, need to undestand that not everyone is in love of the game after what they saw in the beta.
Is that something you see yourself doing? I don't see myself doing that but I analyze a decision to buy something into the ground. I also don't think that my process is the norm tho.
VGChartz is off by about 300 - 400k there... We know there was more then 500k on just the Stress Test day and that was during business hours... The BWE was even more populated.
You were commenting about marketing, specifically "ArenaNet Brilliant Marketing," People have now purchased GuildWars 2 and played it, albeit in a Beta Weekend. They have said what they like/dislike about the game and most of what people are saying is positive (of those that have played it). That is what will make me want to play a game. When i stated "a failed product," I am refering to a product which although it might have sold well at some point, the majority of people have expressed a dislike of said product. I have yet to see that in this case. And if people were expressing an overall dislike of guildwars 2, then although its yet to be released, would you who have not purchased the game, purchase it? Just my thought.
I'm sorry but the only one saying anything about the second coming is you. Fans of a game accept its flaws and strengths.
lol cold reader. I could see how it looks like that. As for your on topic question thats pretty much it. So the game of it is really trying to disect where it appears people are making comments that are truly informative and when people are just talking out their ass.
1) There are in fact lots of people who got into the BWEs without paying anything.
2) If the game was bad, it would have crashed and burned on the spot on the first BWE.
There may be blind fans, but there are a lot of fans who post tons of feedback to make a good game even better. The forums were flooded with threads and posts each time something went wrong (stuck at 95% anyone), but also when something was good or needed improvement.
Bottom line is: Possibly GW2 is actually a pretty decent game, believe it or not.