Good morning fine GW2 fans and ArenaNET people (at least its morning where I am). I am groggily writing this as I recuperate after three long days at the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston. It was a great time! But onto the crux of the conversation I want to start.
Where the heck is GW2’s marketing department? Why are they not pushing this game outside of strictly GW2 markets? I’m talking about representing themselves at community events (PAXEast and other game conventions) and online outside of specifically GW2 communities (MMO Champion as an example).
At PAX I spend most of the convention just talking to people primarily because my wife works in the industry so I tend to support her at panels and doing some husband as forklift jobs while she’s doing interviews with devs and folks. I spoke to dozens of complete strangers about what games they play and what they thought of the MMO scene in general (given that really there is only Wildstar and Everquest NEXT in the AAA queue which is a little scary after years of having something new to look forward to). No one mentioned GW2 and when I brought it up the reaction I got from a lot of people was a shaked head followed by “Its sad that it failed”. When I explained that economically the game is actually doing quite well and has delivered content more regularly than any MMO I am aware of I was universally met with disbelief – the average MMO player seems to equate GW2 with SWOTOR and Warhammer Online (as games that have ceased to create content outside of things to buy… or simply ceased being).
I’ve gone to PAX for four years. Outside of the PAX prior to release, ArenaNET has never really been active at the convention and even then it was just on the panels, never with a booth. This year apparently Jon and Colin were onsite but they had a room completely separate from the convention (it was in the adjacent hotel) and it was for Press only.
GW2 is a great game. I’ve been playing MMO’s for over a decade and GW2 is the first that I really just fell in love with. I play everyday, I play PvE and WvW and ever so occasionally sPvP (although I have begun watching the tournament and those are really fun). There is so much content within the game! I honestly believe that even a modest booth with a game play demo would have resulting in hundreds of game sales. Heck, there was a THREE HOUR wait at the Microsoft Booth to play Killzone on the Xbox One. That game has been out for six months and I think it would be hard to argue that their level of content has increased even at a fractional level where GW2 has a year worth of bi-weekly updates and a movie that summarizes new content and changes!
Your forum community managers are superb. Your game and design are impeccable (not to say improvements can’t be made, but you tend to make them). But its time for ArenaNET or NCSoft to reach out to top notch professional marketing teams that can trot the product around (the less said about the live action GW2 commercial from just post launch the better).
Next year at PAXEast make sure you have a presence. Look at Bioware’s model, this year they didn’t have their booths and didn’t have high profile panels, but they did setup their own room in the convention hall and have trailers for their games past and present rolling, writers, devs, and community managers available to talk to fans and I think they are going to walk away with a lot of both awareness and good will.
If this weekend was any indication, the greater community seems to have forgotten that your game exists, do not let them. I’m writing this as someone who is VERY invested in your game, world, and future prosperity.