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Are you Really Doing That?

PapaprikaPapaprika Member UncommonPosts: 55
I noticed something the last few years in the MMORPG world. Allot of advertising for things you will never do in game. I believe this goes hand in hand with enticing players from titles to title, a very clever marketing trick. But the reason I am here to talk about it is because I noticed it has gotten to the point where people are disillusion thinking they are doing things that they are not! Or perhaps they are playing, being suckered in to do something they will never do.

Let's take a look at this strange phenomenon. 

I will start with an Mmofps, Planet side 2, since it is one of the easiest examples. I was thrilled to start playing this game. I had never played the first one and was amazed a sequel with enhanced graphics was actually going to be F2P! Great! A 3D open world mmo like shooter! I have not played anything like this. Most of my open world shooters are single player games like FarCry. So, what was I getting into? Like all games I play, I do research BEFORE going in. I noticed This gameofficial videos and the Game client images durring loading. 

  As the game loads you will see images of troops hanging onto the enemy aircraft shooting in at the pilot. Now, I thought we could really get this level of action. After all, in Batlle Field 2 and Battlefield F2P, you can pick up certain sniper rifles that shoot through glass and touch the pilot or driver of vehicles. So, after all, Planet Side 2 should be able to do what it is advertising right? WRONG! 
  Take a look at this video. You will do nothing that it shows in game (not the guy shooting in the plane, this is a image in the client and now a graphical video to sell the game): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRmOyn3Q63Q
You can't say the video is old when the new client uses the same imagery. 

I have seen videos promoting the use of off 4 wheel bikes doing insane jumps and even some LANDING on the aircraft roof to get cheap ride...I have never seen this in game, and if you try this I am sure you explode in a firey mess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jZ30WSGFWY

That is marketing. The fans and current players know the difference right?////.....//// Right??? oh....no. 

From Forums: "This game is the best FPS. You can fly and ride other vehicles" - "This game is like no other FPS, you can fly and ride vehicles"...etc etc... But once in game things do not roll like this. This is not at all the in game experience. So where are the cockpit shooting, bungie jumping, rocket packing, and motorcycle airplane riding adventures at??? I guess it is all in our head. 
  That also works as a hidden motivation to "play to end level or pay cash, perhaps the game experience will get better"...

 

Final Fantasy 14:  Recently a new member of the Final Fantasy club launched. I lkeep reading these mixed reviews from best game out there (top of the morpg.Com charts right now) to mediocre rating of 7, or out right fail and should never have launched. But what are they advertising? I see the typical marketing of chocobos, and the logo art of all the other franchises, but a little something extra caught my eye. A player review praising this game: "This game is so alive! The game world you can hear birds in the forest. The NPC's from the Final Fantasy world are gorgeous"... WOW! What game is this guy playing? Do some players log in, and are so fan boied out they begin to hallucinate??? What is going on? The reality: 
  The birds are piped in sound bites. You will see no birds ever in the game. The NPC's are rigid. They just stand there and move arms and mouth. People are defending this! They see something else or create excuses to cover up the embarrassment of the fantasy world that does not exist. They say "oh well that is all RPG's and this sticks true to Final Fantasy lore"...no! 

  Final Fantasy, since Final fantasy 1 and 2 has had MOVING AND WALKING NPC's in the villages! That is friggin nintendo and super nintendo level.... Final Fantasy 6 has birds you can actually see and hear. There are even barking dogs to interact with in FF6. What is this new modern 3D model excuse of a game? I think they are doing mind games with you. Warping you'r brain to think something is there that is not really there. And you play perhaps, with that wish one day you will BE in that world, just have to pay a little more and get a little closer to the end.

 

 

World of Tanks: This is another one of my favorite examples. The patch 8.0, one of the games biggest updates, to date, offered so many things people did not need (lighting was just a nasty glare effect. Grpahic overhaul is useless in a game people use official addons to remove graphics and vegetation to get better shots. etc. etc.). What was the biggest mental mind ward was the fact you could not 1) Trek anywhere you want and 2) GET AIR DUDE! 

Look at this video. The "Enhanced Gameplay" footage is a MASSIVE game of bumper cars! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo_tuhXtqy4

 

I am sorry, but this never happens in game. 1) you can not go anywhere new, you can just fall to your death or die in water. This did not open up any new strategic road lay out. 
2) NO ONE PLAYS BUMPER CARS! Occasionally, we get guys that ram other guys. But that was around since last patch. But this "get big air, and land on your enemy! Team up and push guys over the edge" DOES NOT EXIST! If you even have the chance to roll up with speed on some one, you are lucky as you will get shot before you can even roll up on some one.
  Getting air to push or smash other people is more rare (I would say impossible, but guys working together in a private server can probably spend weeks trying to do it just right on video, proving it is possibly possible...) than a shark bite. I guess it COULD happen, but the reality of what you are experiencing in game is not at all the reality this major patches, content, and videos are marketing to you! YET FAN BOIS live in this fantasy world of "this is happening"...when it is not. It is odd. Is this a new form of brain damage or just over hyperactive imagination mixed with fan boi-ism?

The reality of this game, if you go up to a tank not your class or tier, you will do nothing. You can sit there, parked. Face to face. And just shoot all day and he will not die. He will slowly look at you....and "lol" in chat. And then 1 shot you. Welcome to world of Tanks. 

 

I can go on and on. The games that offer dragons in the art and videos. You will never see a dragon, or it's super far end game.

 

I can talk about how Guild Wars 2 has no Guild Wars....

 

I can talk about the Star Craft 2 using real world advertising and videos (human graphics etc..) and then early sale launch, they pulled all the ads off the shelves and replaced it with World of WarCraft art. YUP. All the old posters dissappeared and these new Star Craft 2 posters and cardboard cut outs and website layout all flooded the market with the same cartoon art that is used for World of Warcraft...but reflected nothing in game. And yet sales exploded after because so many people are living in fantasy market land.

 

Who is to blame? Is it fanatical fan bois or super efficient marketing? Have you noticed this in the games you are playing? Are you given a mass promise and image of a game, only to find out the reality is not even close to the marketing? Or do you know super fan bois that won't face the facts? 

 


(Count the number of bricks)

 

Comments

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059
    Actually my first encounter with it was when I was a little kid and went to Burger King only to realize that the pile of junk they handed me in a foil wrapper looked nothing like what they showed on the TV. After that I knew better than to trust any advertisement. It's just business. Present the best image you can and throw out what's cheapest. If any one is to blame it's you and me for going ahead and buying it anyway before ever looking at the actual product. Since they suffer no consequence nothing changes. indeed, it gets worse because frankly we reward appearances before substance.
  • GrahorGrahor Member Posts: 828

    I understand that English is not your first language, you being from the US and stuff, but dude, please, try to learn it a bit before posting long rants. It's just painful to read. 

     

    As for your rant, it has some merit, yes. Indeed, videos shown do not reflect the game itself fully; even (in your WoT example) if you could push the enemy off the cliff, no idiot is going to sit on that aforementioned edge of the cliff, so... Of course, I did land my light/medium tank from the bridge on top of the Maus a couple of times, doing from 70 to 90% damage to Maus, but that's at best a gimmick.

     

    However, that's the nature of advertisement. And especially in case of "player reviews", no game company is responsible for deranged players.

  • PapaprikaPapaprika Member UncommonPosts: 55
    Originally posted by Crazy_Stick
    Actually my first encounter with it was when I was a little kid and went to Burger King only to realize that the pile of junk they handed me in a foil wrapper looked nothing like what they showed on the TV. After that I knew better than to trust any advertisement. It's just business. Present the best image you can and throw out what's cheapest. If any one is to blame it's you and me for going ahead and buying it anyway before ever looking at the actual product. Since they suffer no consequence nothing changes. indeed, it gets worse because frankly we reward appearances before substance.

    Exactly. 

     And my article is about more than appearance and having your own like for something. It is about ACTUALLY believing that what you are doing is real when it is not. Like the guy ordering burger king, thinking the fake gold crown is a real golden crown, then telling every one how he rules over a heard of chickens and kills fresh ones to make ripe chicken nuggets every night...That is where the mmorpg fans get a little...psychotic...

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