They do not need to waste money paying for advertising. They have enough people who know about it that they are just letting us advertise it for them with word of mouth.
It is still very odd, the lack of advertising. I really have to wonder how the PR dept. is justifying their paychecks. I mean, you probably work for three years with almost nothing to do, then when it comes time to really "do your thing", you do nothing? How do I get a job like that?
I can understand that they may have decided not to spend much money on ads during the initial release, but they aren't even doing the cheap/easy things like ads on the gaming sites, sponsored youtube links and a proper social media/viral marketing campaign.
Other MMOs didn't fail because they had proper advertising campaigns. They failed because the ads got box purchases, but the games were not worthy of retaining most of those buyers as ongoing customers. GW2 is the "Real Deal" of MMOs, a game that is easy to sell and a game you won't be ashamed of selling, so I really do not get it. If you can't sell this product, you wouldn't be able to sell water to someone dying of thirst!
It's still possible that they will do more with advertising to build upon the positive word of mouth post release, but, again, that doesn't explain or excuse being awol on even the most basic and inexpensive means of building brand recognition via the web and social media.
I said once months ago that it felt like NCSoft expected the fans to do all the marketing work for them and some people jumped down my throat. The discussion also attracted an Arenanet response to the issue on another fan site basically saying "we haven't even begun to market the game yet and when we do, you will certainly know it"! Well, I'm still waiting...
In my opinioin they would like to profit from Diablo III-s fail launch (I know thats not an MMORPG, but the hype is quite equal). They will surely advertise the game AFTER the inital release, but with everything going smooth from the start, it would be flick to Blizzard. Also journalist reviews would make this comparasion, witch would come handy for Anet.
Advertising costs a lot of money, and when you have word of mouth spreading news of your game everywhere, combined with PRESALES (not pre-orders, actual sales) then you presumably know exactly how many people are expected in game, and probably can say "hey, we dont need advertising!" if you have already hit your target.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Most of advertising money goes so 'special coverage' and insane numer of articles rather that to banners, pop-ups and so on.
Besdies come on - Guild Wars 2 has propably longest pre-release campaign in history. It is like 2 years with constant flow of info about GW2 multiple times / week.
Besides BadSpock - why you care if there is advertisement campaign on some corporate sites like IGN or not?
Where is the advertising campaign for Guild Wars 2?
IGN - nothing.
Gamespot - nothing.
PCGamer - "GW2 Week" but no advertising.
MMORPG.com - nothing.
Massively.com - nothing.
Even Forbes hasn't had an article in a week or so - which is odd they had so many there in the first place!
Where is the advertising campaign for GW2 Anet/NCSoft?
They have managed to convince the players to do the advertising for them.. they put some kind of subliminal message into the GW2 beta tests that have made everyone go mad over the game.. so nearly every message on mmorpg forums is abotu how amazing GW2 is.. why spend money on advertising when you dont need to lol... GW2 is the second coming all bow down before your new god..
Tho there are a few people not affected by these subliminal messages and can see the truth of things lol but we wont go into that..
No pre-launch advertising is the smart way to go. They have already sold over a milion preorders. A number they are likely to be comfertable with their servers can handle with little problem. So, there will be a smooth launch, creating even more buzz by the public. Meanwhile, ANet will iron out the issues that will surely pop up at launch. Then, expect the marketing campaign to hit full-force 2 weeks into launch.
Where is the advertising campaign for Guild Wars 2?
IGN - nothing.
Gamespot - nothing.
PCGamer - "GW2 Week" but no advertising.
MMORPG.com - nothing.
Massively.com - nothing.
Even Forbes hasn't had an article in a week or so - which is odd they had so many there in the first place!
Where is the advertising campaign for GW2 Anet/NCSoft?
They have managed to convince the players to do the advertising for them.. they put some kind of subliminal message into the GW2 beta tests that have made everyone go mad over the game.. so nearly every message on mmorpg forums is abotu how amazing GW2 is.. why spend money on advertising when you dont need to lol... GW2 is the second coming all bow down before your new god..
Tho there are a few people not affected by these subliminal messages and can see the truth of things lol but we wont go into that..
Yep. There's no way they just made a good game, and let it spread via word of mouth. They had to have 'tricked' us. That makes perfect sense. They must've gotten their hands on that new government issue brainwave technology.
Seriously though, the game has minimal advertising. I think that's also what the OP is getting at anyway. There's been quite a few threads about Anet's 'ridiculous marketing campaign'. When in reality, they let the fans do it for them. And that works perfectly fine when you have a good product. It's not really that complicated a concept.
They have managed to convince the players to do the advertising for them.. they put some kind of subliminal message into the GW2 beta tests that have made everyone go mad over the game.. so nearly every message on mmorpg forums is abotu how amazing GW2 is.. why spend money on advertising when you dont need to lol... GW2 is the second coming all bow down before your new god..
Tho there are a few people not affected by these subliminal messages and can see the truth of things lol but we wont go into that..
Not all popular things are bad. I know people like you want to be hip and unique, but a good product is a good product.
Comments
Yes, they just need to concentrate all their efforts into making the game fun....in other words, keep the people playing!
It is still very odd, the lack of advertising. I really have to wonder how the PR dept. is justifying their paychecks. I mean, you probably work for three years with almost nothing to do, then when it comes time to really "do your thing", you do nothing? How do I get a job like that?
I can understand that they may have decided not to spend much money on ads during the initial release, but they aren't even doing the cheap/easy things like ads on the gaming sites, sponsored youtube links and a proper social media/viral marketing campaign.
Other MMOs didn't fail because they had proper advertising campaigns. They failed because the ads got box purchases, but the games were not worthy of retaining most of those buyers as ongoing customers. GW2 is the "Real Deal" of MMOs, a game that is easy to sell and a game you won't be ashamed of selling, so I really do not get it. If you can't sell this product, you wouldn't be able to sell water to someone dying of thirst!
It's still possible that they will do more with advertising to build upon the positive word of mouth post release, but, again, that doesn't explain or excuse being awol on even the most basic and inexpensive means of building brand recognition via the web and social media.
I said once months ago that it felt like NCSoft expected the fans to do all the marketing work for them and some people jumped down my throat. The discussion also attracted an Arenanet response to the issue on another fan site basically saying "we haven't even begun to market the game yet and when we do, you will certainly know it"! Well, I'm still waiting...
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
In my opinioin they would like to profit from Diablo III-s fail launch (I know thats not an MMORPG, but the hype is quite equal). They will surely advertise the game AFTER the inital release, but with everything going smooth from the start, it would be flick to Blizzard. Also journalist reviews would make this comparasion, witch would come handy for Anet.
Well, thats it for my first post
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Most of advertising money goes so 'special coverage' and insane numer of articles rather that to banners, pop-ups and so on.
Besdies come on - Guild Wars 2 has propably longest pre-release campaign in history. It is like 2 years with constant flow of info about GW2 multiple times / week.
Besides BadSpock - why you care if there is advertisement campaign on some corporate sites like IGN or not?
They have managed to convince the players to do the advertising for them.. they put some kind of subliminal message into the GW2 beta tests that have made everyone go mad over the game.. so nearly every message on mmorpg forums is abotu how amazing GW2 is.. why spend money on advertising when you dont need to lol... GW2 is the second coming all bow down before your new god..
Tho there are a few people not affected by these subliminal messages and can see the truth of things lol but we wont go into that..
Yep. There's no way they just made a good game, and let it spread via word of mouth. They had to have 'tricked' us. That makes perfect sense. They must've gotten their hands on that new government issue brainwave technology.
Seriously though, the game has minimal advertising. I think that's also what the OP is getting at anyway. There's been quite a few threads about Anet's 'ridiculous marketing campaign'. When in reality, they let the fans do it for them. And that works perfectly fine when you have a good product. It's not really that complicated a concept.
Not all popular things are bad. I know people like you want to be hip and unique, but a good product is a good product.
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