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Why did they stop selling...?

245

Comments

  • AstropuyoAstropuyo Member RarePosts: 2,178
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Dfix
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value.

    Sorry, but not all of us run around with tin foil hats in our back pockets. 

     Difference between tin foil hats and rational thinking.

     

    Physical copies are still for sale -> therefore stopping digital sales doesn't stop queues from increasing. -> their reasoning makes little sense.

     

    How many products have you bought where the commercials say something like "Best coffee ever" or other similar things. Since it would apparently require a tin foil hat to think that maybe they are exagerating the claims that it is the best coffee ever.

     

    You can buy digital still at gamestop, they still have plenty of active keys, same with amazon.

    They've stopped digital on their side, as I said they are cutting into the bottom lines of retailers and Anet is avoiding a anti-trust style thing.

     

    Look don't insult tinfoil hatters, I'm a tin foil hatter. I read and reason all the facts not just one side.

    This guy is looking for empty debate though and nothing more.

     

    A common look up at the market would simply end this stupidity.

  • evilastroevilastro Member Posts: 4,270
    Originally posted by gravesworn
    I was on guild wars 2 website yesterday and they had a large front page focus on employment. So mybe....

    If you ask the tin foil hat brigade on here they will tell you that is because all the developers quit out of shame, and went to go work on a better sandbox MMO.

    It couldnt possibly be because the game and ANet are doing well.

  • SnarlingWolfSnarlingWolf Member Posts: 2,697
    Originally posted by Adiaris
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value. It could be the truth it could not be the truth. The reason you don't know is companies spin/hide/lie about the truth all the time.

     

    I have to wonder if those same people listen to a political speech and just walk away going "Man so many truthful things I never knew before!"

    My job is to do exactly that, and while you tend to leave out stuff, not say things, focus on other things... you very rarely flat-out lie black on white in official communications to public or press, especially when it's not necessary.

     It wouldn't be a flat out lie.

     

    They are experiencing high volume, there is already some truth in it right there. They could have decided that when they hit this amount of players they would halt digital sales.... they also likely would have had that plan in place before launch ever happened.

    My suggested reasoning for it is more of a deal with retailers on how many digital copies can be sold compared to physical copies. Nothing in the announcement from ANet disputes that and everything they said could be part of the reasons for that decision. But at the same time you'd never come out and say "We need to sell more physical copies first because of a publication deal" because certain silly people would revolt at the idea and start talking about retail store boycotts and etc.

     

    To put it simply, I never said they went out of their way to flat out lie. I'm saying there is almost no communication that comes out of a company that isn't spun, adjusted, tweaked to sound better. The problem is that people always flat out believe it.

    People are showing quotes from CoH where they said 2012 was shaping up to be one of the best years yet. They naturally assumed that meant profits were well and the game was doing great. In fact the contect of that statement was to what the development team was adding to the game and in no way reflect how the game was doing. But by spinning the information in certain ways it makes people believe other things.

     

    Blindly believe if you want. It just helps me understand why advertising works so well when I thought as a society we'd learn to think beyond what we're told.

  • AstropuyoAstropuyo Member RarePosts: 2,178

    I waited until 12 am at night for the pre-release.

    Perhaps because I remembered how hard it was to find GW1 when it first came out.

    This game was bound to sell out everywhere.

     

    It's a mmorpg without a sub. Come on now. And the fact people can buy it and play it forever makes it a great gift.

    I watched some odd looking guy grab 5 box sets on pre-release.

     

    So yeah. I can imagine how digital direct from the publisher would devastate the bottom the dollar of a industry that really needs infusion.

     

    Anet is doing two things, sticking legal, and contributing to the economy. They don't really have to stop selling digital, they recognize though faulty cases and the long run business is at stake.

     

    Give em credit for that.

  • krakra70krakra70 Member Posts: 122
    Originally posted by Zeymere

    So why did they stop selling the digital copy?  For a game that is not subscription based this really concerns me.  It is very odd.  Please enlighten me.

    The game is in a bad shape atm. People are getting hacked left and right, the high level zones are buggy as hell, sPvP is bugged, new gamebreaking bugs emerge every day, class balance is WAY off etc. We are essentially still in beta. Most of the people who started in day 1 have already quit or are playing way less (see sharply declining xfire numbers). They want to fix the major problems first before they let new people in so they improve the game's player retention.

  • SnarlingWolfSnarlingWolf Member Posts: 2,697
    Originally posted by Astropuyo
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Dfix
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value.

    Sorry, but not all of us run around with tin foil hats in our back pockets. 

     Difference between tin foil hats and rational thinking.

     

    Physical copies are still for sale -> therefore stopping digital sales doesn't stop queues from increasing. -> their reasoning makes little sense.

     

    How many products have you bought where the commercials say something like "Best coffee ever" or other similar things. Since it would apparently require a tin foil hat to think that maybe they are exagerating the claims that it is the best coffee ever.

     

    You can buy digital still at gamestop, they still have plenty of active keys, same with amazon.

    They've stopped digital on their side, as I said they are cutting into the bottom lines of retailers and Anet is avoiding a anti-trust style thing.

     

    Look don't insult tinfoil hatters, I'm a tin foil hatter. I read and reason all the facts not just one side.

    This guy is looking for empty debate though and nothing more.

     

    A common look up at the market would simply end this stupidity.

     I'm looking for empty debate? Look at my first post on here which is what all this back and forth is from and you will see I say that I believe the reason is because of a deal with retailors and how many copies they can sell directly vs the amount retailers sell. And since you just said that SAME EXACT THING and then say I'm out for empty debate..... what does that make your argument?

  • AdiarisAdiaris Member CommonPosts: 381
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Adiaris
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value. It could be the truth it could not be the truth. The reason you don't know is companies spin/hide/lie about the truth all the time.

     

    I have to wonder if those same people listen to a political speech and just walk away going "Man so many truthful things I never knew before!"

    My job is to do exactly that, and while you tend to leave out stuff, not say things, focus on other things... you very rarely flat-out lie black on white in official communications to public or press, especially when it's not necessary.

     It wouldn't be a flat out lie.

     

    They are experiencing high volume, there is already some truth in it right there. They could have decided that when they hit this amount of players they would halt digital sales.... they also likely would have had that plan in place before launch ever happened.

    My suggested reasoning for it is more of a deal with retailers on how many digital copies can be sold compared to physical copies. Nothing in the announcement from ANet disputes that and everything they said could be part of the reasons for that decision. But at the same time you'd never come out and say "We need to sell more physical copies first because of a publication deal" because certain silly people would revolt at the idea and start talking about retail store boycotts and etc.

     

    To put it simply, I never said they went out of their way to flat out lie. I'm saying there is almost no communication that comes out of a company that isn't spun, adjusted, tweaked to sound better. The problem is that people always flat out believe it.

    People are showing quotes from CoH where they said 2012 was shaping up to be one of the best years yet. They naturally assumed that meant profits were well and the game was doing great. In fact the contect of that statement was to what the development team was adding to the game and in no way reflect how the game was doing. But by spinning the information in certain ways it makes people believe other things.

     

    Blindly believe if you want. It just helps me understand why advertising works so well when I thought as a society we'd learn to think beyond what we're told.

    Sorry, I quoted you but I was referring to your response generically in regard to companies and lying.. not necessarily the specific issue at hand. In fact, it is not necessary to flat out lie to make people believe what you'd like them to. So, I actually sort of agree with you ;)

     

     

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,897
    Originally posted by Astropuyo

    This is one of the reasons the game market is tanking, direct from publisher effects many jobs in retail.

    Start thinking like adults and less like every company is out to kill/steal from you.

    This is simply them abiding by the law and looking cool doing it.

    What are you talking about?  Every retailer knows that publishers sell their games online in competition with them.  This has nothing to do with antitrust.  I've never heard of another MMO halting their own digital sales, not even the record selling SWTOR.

     

    Regarding what others have said, I guess it's possible that they made a deal with retailers that they would garner a certain % of overall sales.  I doubt it, but it's possible.  If that's the case suspending only their own sales would help in that area.

     

    It's telling that they didn't stop ALL digital sales of their product.  They only stopped their own sales.

  • FozzikFozzik Member UncommonPosts: 539

    All those other explanations are clearly just corporate marketing hype. Ignore what everyone else says. I have the reason why they stopped first-party digital sales, and it's quite obvious common sense once you think about it.


    They stopped selling because they hate money and don't want any more.

  • AstropuyoAstropuyo Member RarePosts: 2,178
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Astropuyo
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Dfix
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value.

    Sorry, but not all of us run around with tin foil hats in our back pockets. 

     Difference between tin foil hats and rational thinking.

     

    Physical copies are still for sale -> therefore stopping digital sales doesn't stop queues from increasing. -> their reasoning makes little sense.

     

    How many products have you bought where the commercials say something like "Best coffee ever" or other similar things. Since it would apparently require a tin foil hat to think that maybe they are exagerating the claims that it is the best coffee ever.

     

    You can buy digital still at gamestop, they still have plenty of active keys, same with amazon.

    They've stopped digital on their side, as I said they are cutting into the bottom lines of retailers and Anet is avoiding a anti-trust style thing.

     

    Look don't insult tinfoil hatters, I'm a tin foil hatter. I read and reason all the facts not just one side.

    This guy is looking for empty debate though and nothing more.

     

    A common look up at the market would simply end this stupidity.

     I'm looking for empty debate? Look at my first post on here which is what all this back and forth is from and you will see I say that I believe the reason is because of a deal with retailors and how many copies they can sell directly vs the amount retailers sell. And since you just said that SAME EXACT THING and then say I'm out for empty debate..... what does that make your argument?

    Calm it down sunshine, the multi quote is on the fritz, if we have of the same opinion and multiple people are in the quote...who do not share such opinion shouldn't you be reasonable and deduce it's probably not you?

     

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,897
    Originally posted by krakra70

    The game is in a bad shape atm. People are getting hacked left and right, the high level zones are buggy as hell, sPvP is bugged, new gamebreaking bugs emerge every day, class balance is WAY off etc. We are essentially still in beta. Most of the people who started in day 1 have already quit or are playing way less (see sharply declining xfire numbers). They want to fix the major problems first before they let new people in so they improve the game's player retention.

    The queues for WvWvW and my still ending up in overflow servers say otherwise.

     

    Nice try though.

  • ShakyMoShakyMo Member CommonPosts: 7,207
    1 lack of capacity, not enough servers or support staff
    2 marketing, looks good to have "game so good its sold out" headlines
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,897
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Dfix
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value.

    Sorry, but not all of us run around with tin foil hats in our back pockets. 

     Difference between tin foil hats and rational thinking.

     

    Physical copies are still for sale -> therefore stopping digital sales doesn't stop queues from increasing. -> their reasoning makes little sense.

     

    How many products have you bought where the commercials say something like "Best coffee ever" or other similar things. Since it would apparently require a tin foil hat to think that maybe they are exagerating the claims that it is the best coffee ever.

    I think it would be a hard sell for ANET to force their retailers to stop selling their game.  Especially stores that allocate space on the floor.  Things would have to be catastrophic for them to do something like that.  The only way they could really do that would be to buy back their product from the retailers. 

  • kevjardskevjards Member UncommonPosts: 1,452
    Originally posted by Nadia
    Originally posted by kevjards

    reason i think this is because if they let more in before they have sorted the problems out it could end up giving them more of a headache than it already is..

    atm people who have been hacked are told they will have accounts back within 72 hrs or at least their tickets will be.

    if they allow more into the game without solving the current problems they are asking for a bigger headache..they will get there evenually..its just going to take time..other peoples opinion will differ.

    agree ANET is suffering launch pains

     

    5 days ago (sunday), ANET announced they hired 28 new support reps

    - and ANET is still hiring support reps to meet the demand

    i have to admit.its quite scary..if thhey hired more peeps to deal with support,they must be having serious problems.imo it would have been better if they had an authenticator in place..i,m sure they will do at some point soon.i,m just not sure i will get my account back.time will tell i suppose.

  • AstropuyoAstropuyo Member RarePosts: 2,178
    Originally posted by FrodoFragins
    Originally posted by Astropuyo

    This is one of the reasons the game market is tanking, direct from publisher effects many jobs in retail.

    Start thinking like adults and less like every company is out to kill/steal from you.

    This is simply them abiding by the law and looking cool doing it.

    What are you talking about?  Every retailer knows that publishers sell their games online in competition with them.  This has nothing to do with antitrust.  I've never heard of another MMO halting their own digital sales, not even the record selling SWTOR.

     

    Regarding what others have said, I guess it's possible that they made a deal with retailers that they would garner a certain % of overall sales.  I doubt it, but it's possible.  If that's the case suspending only their own sales would help in that area.

     

    It's telling that they didn't stop ALL digital sales of their product.  They only stopped their own sales.

    Hold on, you've never heard of sales being halted?

    Could you blast back to the last popular game such as this ? Wow?

    Pre digital sales is when they released. That's the last release this big, so you have no trend for the current.

    I have heard of plenty of distribution being halted to not undermine the value. I've never seen manufacturers sell direct. You need a business tax id in general for that.

    You mention TOR: EA's practices won't let them halt any kind of production, ANET is ANET. TOR was Bioware/EA

     

     

    Publishers = manufacturers.

     

    The reason you are seeing a tanked game economy is DUE to these practices, there is a fine balance in the economy and newbies messing it up tends to do that. You see lotsa money if i sell direct.

    I see detrimental crushing to the service industry.

    [mod edit]

     

     

  • MrRealityMrReality Member Posts: 43
    It is a pure marketing ploy. When I log into the Northern Shiverpeaks it is always at medium level. Do you think they are really selling out of a digital exe file ? LOL ok...
  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf
    Originally posted by Dfix
    Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

    I will say I am amazed at how many people will just accept what a company says at face value.

    Sorry, but not all of us run around with tin foil hats in our back pockets. 

     Difference between tin foil hats and rational thinking.

     

    Physical copies are still for sale -> therefore stopping digital sales doesn't stop queues from increasing. -> their reasoning makes little sense.

     

    How many products have you bought where the commercials say something like "Best coffee ever" or other similar things. Since it would apparently require a tin foil hat to think that maybe they are exagerating the claims that it is the best coffee ever.

    I am not really sure if you are thinking rationally there.

    Yes of course they will slow down the expansion of the game by not offering the game digitally from their own store.

    That is the only reasonable thing they can do, right?

    It would be horrible wrong if they stopped the possibilty to registrering a retail copy... imagine the situation when people come home from the store and tries to register their game key.

     

    But now they do not stop physical copies, hinder the business of 3rd party retailers, hence you think their resoning doesn't make sence. That is not rational thinking.

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
    "You have the right not to be killed"

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by MrReality
    It is a pure marketing ploy. When I log into the Northern Shiverpeaks it is always at medium level. Do you think they are really selling out of a digital exe file ? LOL ok...

    do think making support tickets wait 72 hours is a marketing ploy?

  • CalkrowCalkrow Member UncommonPosts: 92
    I managed to buy a boxed copy, new stock I presume, from Game (UK) on Thursday but they're out of stock again now.
    Forum Post count does not = Game Intelligence or Knowledge  it just shows how often people like to talk.
  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Originally posted by Rayshe
    My opinion is that they need to slow the sales so that their support team can get big enough so people aren't waiting days to get a GM to help them. they are likely hireing new GM's ATM.

    Your opinion is quite different from what Anet has said.  Your opinion reeks of alarmist rhetoric.

     

    No it is not quite different. To get the support team to catch up might very well be one of the reasons for them to announce this.

    And if so, making it possible for the support team to catch is a positive thing...

    "o ensure the highest quality service we have temporarily limited the number of copies of Guild Wars 2.

    As more capacity becomes available, we will make Guild Wars 2 available for sale again.

    In the meantime, we encourage you to visit our retail partners , who may still have copies available."

     

     

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
    "You have the right not to be killed"

  • MrRealityMrReality Member Posts: 43
    Originally posted by Nadia
    Originally posted by MrReality
    It is a pure marketing ploy. When I log into the Northern Shiverpeaks it is always at medium level. Do you think they are really selling out of a digital exe file ? LOL ok...

    do think making support tickets wait 72 hours is a marketing ploy?

    No that is just poor planning on their part. How could you not expcet atleast a million at launch and not have proper customer service coverage ? Sounds like Ncsoft wants to cut corners by not hiring extra people. Heck, atleast they could have hired people part time to help until the dust clears.

  • UhwopUhwop Member UncommonPosts: 1,791
    Originally posted by Astropuyo

    Simple facts to consider.

     

    Of course things are spun positively, on the flip side to that is when things go baddly if you accept the responsibility for it..the base will forgive you. (Bet you didn't see that did you guru's?)

    GAMES: Games compete with manufacturers (publishers) this is a rarity in the world where buying direct from manufacturer is not generally allowed, only in software is this really able to be done.

     

    This cuts into your retailers bottom lines, your retailers will give you the fist of god via a anti-trust (As you guys have bound together under an agreement). You undermine your "partners" and you'll get sued.

    You may not lose the case but the case against you is usually enough for retailers to be wary and enough cases and bam you look like a terrible lot with great lawyers.

     

    So while it's cute to hear artificial demand/supply the facts are you can still buy them from the retailer.

     

    This is one of the reasons the game market is tanking, direct from publisher effects many jobs in retail.

    Start thinking like adults and less like every company is out to kill/steal from you.

    This is simply them abiding by the law and looking cool doing it.

     You should maybe look at where job growth is occuring in the U.S.  In most states it's retail, and then nursing.  My state alone is expected to have some ridiculous increase in the number of retail jobs needed within the next 10 years.  Stores are being built all over the damn place, it's insane considering we're supposed to be in a recession.

    Obviously online sales is going to have some impact on box sales, but to think that any company is stopping their digital distribution for the sake of box sales is beyond idiotic.  It benefits Anet more to sell the digital copies then it does to supply retail stores with boxes.

    And what law?  Where do you people get this stuff from.

     

    It's real simple. 

    When I log into a game, on a U.S. server, at 10 in the morning EST time and I'm getting dumped into an overflow map, there's to damn many people on. 

    When I log in in the early afternoon, and I have to wait over an hour to get off the overflow map, and then more then hour after that just to do WvW pvp, the problem gets pretty obvious.

    There's to damned many people in the game.

    Believe it or not, and I know many people here refuse to believe anything but their own jaded opinions, GW2 is a pretty good MMO.  It caters to pretty much everyone, and there's no subscription fee. 

    The servers are way overcrowded, new account registration can't keep pace, and customer service isn't able to keep up.  GW2 isn't another ToR, TSW, or TERA, it's pretty much another WoW like event and they don't have 100+ servers to for everyone.  Getting new servers up, hiring personel, expanding the current server limits, all these things take time; they don't happen over night. 

    I wouldn't be suprised if they already limitted restock orders, but didn't say anything to anyone.  Going into a store and hearing we're sold out is pretty common and easy to understand.  Going to a website and trying to buy a digital copy of something, and instead getting a sorry we're sold out message is a little harder to swallow as a consumer. 

    You have to announce halts to digital distribution, retail distribution doesn't require them to say anything.  Retailers are rarely ever informed when a product is being intentionally delayed, they usually only get a notice of backstock issues, but rarely an actual explenation for it.  They can't exactly stop letting people buy current stock, but they can tell retailers they're only allowed to restock to a specific amount. 

  • TsaboHavocTsaboHavoc Member UncommonPosts: 435

    @Snarlingwolf

     

    you re not alone pal, the corporate world is full of wolfs and snakes in sheepskin,anet is not any diferent. they just have a shiner and more inocent disguise. only a fool take a PR stuff seriously.  

  • MosesZDMosesZD Member UncommonPosts: 1,361
    Originally posted by Rayshe
    My opinion is that they need to slow the sales so that their support team can get big enough so people aren't waiting days to get a GM to help them. they are likely hireing new GM's ATM.

     

    Yes they are.  I know 28 new CSRs finished training and went live yesterday (they tell us these things) and more are being trained.   

  • MosesZDMosesZD Member UncommonPosts: 1,361
    Originally posted by TsaboHavoc

    @Snarlingwolf

     

    you re not alone pal, the corporate world is full of wolfs and snakes in sheepskin,anet is not any diferent. they just have a shiner and more inocent disguise. only a fool take a PR stuff seriously.  

     

    No, but I will say this phony, 'sophisticated I see through this' position you and some of the other 'cool kids' take is pretty laughable.   Being skeptical is one thing...   But all things considered, you've taken it beyond the event horizon.

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