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SE "official player" experiences revealed as fake
choujiofkono
Member Posts: 852
SE setup a marketing campaign which features popular names in Japan and their experiences playing FF14. Some of these folks have written dozens of stories and drawn popular manga which has been endorsed and circulated by SE.
Official list of "Official Players" :
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/
"Square Enix’s latest Final Fantasy XIV update is showing the company’s usual forethought and attention to detail – the update adds a public “player history” feature which shows exactly when players were playing and what they were doing, with no option to turn it off.
"Whilst on paper an innocuous addition, in practice the update handily exposes MMORPG addicted NEETs and employees sneakily playing on the job in violation of company policy, to say nothing of exposing the fact that most of the game’s “official players” quit weeks ago."
"It is not however doing itself much of a favour – players exploring the feature [quickly searched] the showcase players who were enthusiastically shilling for the game:
Seiyuu Rina Katou logged in once on the 2nd of October and never again, and after writing about her experiences playing the game with such enthusiasm throughout the rest of the month… "
"Mangaka Kayoko Saito wrote extensively about the game and drew 5 mangaka about it, but only played for 10 minutes: "
"She also reported visiting places her play history reports she never got to…
Investigation of the rest of the official players reveals most of them gave up playing weeks ago, perhaps their only honest act whilst endorsing the game."
So basically it's simple to see who is telling the truth about the game and who is fervently working to stem the tide of bad press this game is recieving.
Seriously, this is getting to be a bad joke now. SE... Please... JUST ... STOP. LoL
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
Comments
While a great many people might not care, it's still a pretty funny story.
[Mod Edit]
I'd be willing to bet that most of those women made different characters to avoid online stalking.
That the people agreed to participate in this promo also doesn't mean that they all planned to continue with those characters. But even if some did quit how does that prove that they are fake?
She is still playing:
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/player07/index.html
As is
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/player03/index.html
and
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/player04/index.html
and
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/player01/index.html
and
http://stories.finalfantasyxiv.com/player05/index.html
seems like most to me, a couple haven't updated in a week but I don't know what that really proves.
http://xivpads.com/?1595680
http://guildwork.com/users/murugan
For people having difficulty picking out what's happening...
The stories from the "official players" are continually being added and their experiences are being used to sell the game but when you use the new "feature" to check their stories and match it to their actual in game progress the two don't match up. They are continuing to write stories without actually having experienced these "stories" in the game. AKA they lied and SE has a way to verify the stories and they published them anyway. You can check into it yourself with the stated feature if you are technically savvy enough to get it done.
They sound more than a little 2 faced to me.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
So basically you're calling out player ghostwriting methods as fake? Of course they are fake. Some people like their privacy. Especially when dealing with the otaku and their devious methods to track down and harass people.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Idk... No matter what twist you want to give to the fact, in the end, SE just shot itself in the foot... again. ><;
God knows how much I've supported this game! I'm plvl 40, but I stop playing almost 2 weeks ago cuz the game is just bad with nothing to do but mind numming grind.
I went back to it today. I lasted 10 seconds... Just the sounds of people crafting when I was logging in was enough to make me want to log back off. Its that bad!
while I do enjoy a good conspiracy theory, it would take more time to research and fabricate the stories they wrote then to actually play the game and write about it first hand.
most game reviewers and gaming podcasters will hide their game identities. Many might go so far as to tell you what organization they belong to in game (guild, clan, org, linkshard) most wont tell you the actual characters name they are playing.
I know if I was writing a favorable review of this game the last thing I would do is tell you all my game name and how you could locate me in game. That would pretty much be game-over by constant harrassment
So you are saying that these writers made multiple characters and played them simultaneously while writing stories of their progress and did so because they were afraid that someday someone would search them out in game and harass them...
and the names they used to "fool" people were intentionally linked to gameplay that didn't match their story experiences?... hmm interesting theory. *facepalm
Given the extreme slow process of leveling in the game and the relatively short playtime the game has had so far and the length and detail of the stories these people have written I would highly doubt they could look into the future and percieve this database search was going to happen. They simply didn't see this coming. SE didn't see this coming, they just plopped the feature in there to add to the "features" that were missing. They thought they could do whatever they wanted because noone would ever be able to track it anyway. OOPS!
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
So you're basically saying that you find it more likely that SE didn't anticipate them adding their own feature later (that they have probably had slated since before they ran this project) than people taking measures to hide their own identity online.
Eh.. The hate, it runs deeply within you.
.. But in a good way.
In comparison WoW achievements stick to a (relative) few events. You can't track a persons daily experiences with those kinds of details. These FF14 "achievements" are a record of every single time you finish any quest or event.
You can easily follow along the stories some of these people have written about their experiences and pick out exactly when they decided to stop logging in... it's not like they even attempted to hide it. They had no idea there would be a way to track it in the future or that they even needed to hide anything. It simply popped up in the details when the "feature" was added. Hidden one day and open to the public the next.
It's not limited to celebrities you can check out anyones toon easily if you look at the screenshots on this website or any other and pick out a few names...
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
gosh are you really trying a real conversation about such BS? seriously?
what do you expect us to say: "yeah you are right all along SE is soo bad we gonna quit the game and follow you"
as far as other people are concerned: we do NOT care for you. Post whatever you want doesn't make a difference in our point of view. and yeah come to think of it: you don't think other firms do this as well?
why might this have come out you ask? that SE might have done this?
well a lot of people hate on this game and SE in general (yeah they went downhill we all know that blablabla). So they suck up everything they can.
and yeah before you try to defend your opening of this stuff please be aware: you did this to clarify that SE is so bad they have to fake player entrys or pay them. or maybe to inform us about this horrible thing SE does.
disgusting how you list up every little thing in these forums that you can find.
but you sure are a motivated person with so much to say. too bad you don't like the game....
Its funny to see your signature says ......... But in a good way .
LOL
Personally I think we should all show SE as much mercy as they showed the MMO players when they released the game in this state. There are a lot of folks out of a lot of good money. A lot of young people don't have disposable income and paid a good chunk of their total earnings just to play this game. It's a sad situation for everybody.
If there is news to be told then it's fair game.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
Are you joking? This thread is on topic, it covers a new subject matter(in this case, SE lying to it's own customers) and it's also, dare I say it, hilarious. As a matter of fact, the only person currently trolling in the thread is you, with your statement above.
I've never trusted celebrity endorsements but in Japan they tend to mythologize(I just made up a word, I know) their celebrities so the celebrities in their country carry a lot more weight there. I'm sure a lot of kids in Japan were duped into buying this shell of a game because of celebrity [play experiences]. That said, SE isn't the only Japanese company that does this, any big product launched in that country gets similar treatment, just standard marketing there. Here, it would be a lawsuit.
That's quite hilarious. Can't even get their paid shills to play the game.
The man has every right to tell everyone in the world what a trainwreck this game is, and if you like it, too bad. Learn to live with the fact that you may like a game that the rest of the gaming world looks down on as a masterpiece of disaster. A true "How to NOT make a MMO" guide was followed every step of the way by FF14. This thread is truly showing how pathetic SE is as a company and the lengths they will go to make it seem like their game is enjoyable and populated, it's neither. If you have a problem with people bitching about this game or proclaiming it as bad, it's your problem and you just need to stop looking at the forums. The game is universally hailed as a shitstorm in anyway so please tell us, what has he done wrong other then state in afew threads just how bad he thinks FF is? You know they were some of the most hardcore fanboys afew weeks back right? They are just smart enough to bite into a sandwich filled with shit and call it like they see it instead of deluding themselves into thinking said "shit sandwich' is actually good to eat and isn't so bad once you get past the smell and the awful aftertaste. FF14 is comparable not to the worst games of the year (STO, APB) but with the worst games of ALL TIME. It really is just that bad and SE will apparently go to any length to stretch the truth on this digital turd.
Oh consideirng he is totally right in anything and you all agree on it, why do you not sure directly SE instead of make over and over the same topics again? Considering the size of the company you sure can find someone that would try it.
It's possible that they created alts to use for their stories, but why release the names of their characters at all if they're not going to play those particular characters? Perhaps those characters would be buffed by SE for the purpose of a PR event in the game.
However, I would have to agree with the OP. The bottom line is that SE's own tool appears to have caught them in the act of an advertising stunt and it apperas that the fans here are attempting to explain the situation away. However, the fact that this sort of thing happpens is no real surprise. Companies have been using celebs for endorsement for a long time.
I wouldn't expect truth in advertising. That this all appears to be fabricated, especially by female celebs who are popular with SE's target audience, probably should not be a surprise.
I'm not sure what is more amusing, the botched marketing campaign or the people trying to defend it.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
The conversation from:
As expected the original thread has been reopened so continue this topic in it's original thread.
Thanks!
Please continue the natural discussion from this topic if you feel inclined.
Everybody remember to be nice to each other we are all Gamers.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
That's fine and dandy, but why did you feel the need to post this in other threads?
.. But in a good way.
Not get me wrong, but is it not a bit of to overdone to add to the profile picture the text:
'SE "official player" experiences revealed as fake', special since it is mainly an assumption and not actually a fact?
I mean I honestly understand if Square people not want to be revealed to the public, special considering some people these days.
Aside of that it would be actually easy for the owner of the Server to create fictional playtimes as well. The databank normally spills out what you save in it, so it would be easy to create fictional playtimes. On the other hand this maybe sounds to rational and not allows such great big news threads I assume. Not to mention that propably any company does it in some degree, you will not belive how many marketing guys work on stuff like that worldwide.
I sincerely doubt SE has a marketting department >_> Wtf are you thinking?
.. But in a good way.
Yeah lol, this was great and made my day lol. Thank you OP! It's always hilarious when a company gets busted using these kinds of marketing strategies. Yes, pretty much every company uses them, but not all get caught and that just makes it funny as hell when one does get caught.
Reminds me of the Nividia Fermi's demo when they were busted for using a moch up instead of having an actual working card lol.
Again, yes I know it's common practice, but that just makes it all the funnier when someone gets caught lol.
It makes it maybe funny, but as said we all aspect things like that from any company only in this case we make an elephant out of a fly.
There are sure worse things around like Blizzard with their gift spending for help organisation by selling a virtual pet. Basicly they got because of this "good deed" more money in as if they would have got without it.
Hm this maybe would be a good topic in the general forum. It is really sort of interresting behind how many "good things" is pretty well calculated marketing.
In an even more bizzare move, one of the "official players" must have felt embarassed enough from being caught lying about her stories that she felt the need to play for a few hours again. Wonder how long she will last?
Can't wait to see if her new stories actually match with her experiences this time around. LoL
" Mangaka Kayoko Saito drew 5 manga about the game and reported extensive travels (none of which, strangely, showed up in her play history), but her play history logged only 2 achievements over (at least) 4 minutes of playtime.
After the introduction of the history feature and the subsequent reduction of the “official players” to laughing stocks she suddenly took a renewed interest in the game, logging 14 achievements over a 6 hour play session – her first since the game launched over a month ago. "
None of the other "official player" characters have completed as much as a single mission.
Maybe they cashed their checks already?
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"