Guild Wars 2

I was hoping this was a joke. Looked at the calendar and it is still November not the end of March.
http://migration.guildwars2.com/en/

Not sure who the target audience is but think it may backfire a little.

Edit: If this thread is still alive after the 10th of December would someone who won mind coming on to give their impressions of the contest?

If I didn’t already play, something so ridiculous would most likely keep me from ever starting. Kind of like that weird eye video I still haven’t been able to sit through, which I’m also glad I didn’t see before purchasing.

ANet, it’s a game, and while I do think interactive media design is just as much an art as any other medium, a culinary artist doesn’t advertise his best cuisine by making an abstract painting hardly representative of his work and expect people to be enticed by it.

People want to know what it looks, sounds, and most of all plays like, in a concrete way; not some quirky advertising specialists abstract take on the game that tells you nothing or a contest that feels awkward and uncomfortable and sets such an expectation of how you will feel among the games existing community.

Advertise with cinematics, gameplay footage, bits and pieces of the story, public output from the designers, and contests with output that actually has to do with what the game is really about- the gameplay, art, and story of the actual game.

Here’s an alternate link for those that cannot load the page (as it seems to be down now).

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/29245

If this is true, it is wrong on so many levels. This is a new low.

Edit: Finally got the site to load. The video was awesome, I’ll admit. Would of loved to be in that cab. I just don’t like the whole “communist” attitude about the contest.

Honestly, that video looked like some Anet folks having some silly fun to me.

Hehe, I love the video.
Definitely a new interesting way to advertise a product.
Lets up we get a couple of new Tyrians ^^

gotta get people to play the game somehow, right?

God people are such a bunch of pessimists, it’s not like it’s affecting us in any way…

did not say it was affecting me. Just confused about who they are targeting and frankly wondering if it was not the best move for the company.

@coglin What?

I am happy they had some silly fun spending advertising money on this. An expansion would also bring players in and or back.

Oh my gosh, this is so corny. I felt a little embarrassed watching that.

Someone at Arenanet a taxi cab confessions fan? lol

It was kinda funny. There is new stuff every two weeks (thats what everybody is complaining about, but oke). You never feel like grinding? Wasn’t that the other thing so many people complain about.. that it’s grind grind grind?

Besides I think that video is really rude towards GW2 players. Like if they are all some sort of crazies.

i think this is a really bad idea and to me it looks like people embarrassing themselves for 30$

I think it is an interesting idea and a fun way to show off the game that they created and support.

I thought this was super cute. Made me smile

So GW2 is trying to become the communist MMO?

If I did not already own the game this would be an interesting chance to win one. Really might enter it for a chance for an account as a gift this year.

It’s embarrassing to watch to say the least.
They really should turn to the, let’s say, Wildstar’s marketing team, and actually learn how to attract people.

First THE trailer, and now this. shivers

Haha, oh man, this explains a lot.

Facepalm

40% off of Guild Wars 2 at the moment (Will definitely go up to at least 60% off later), and advertisements like this popping up left and right. I think that tells us what the population of Guild Wars 2 is like.

My goodness, that was hard to watch though.

Was really looking forward to a Citizens! in there somewhere, but alas, Subdirector Blingg has not been allowed to move away from that portal.

Awww! The girl’s cheerful voice was so adorable! How cute!

Galtrix.7369:

Facepalm

40% off of Guild Wars 2 at the moment (Will definitely go up to at least 60% off later), and advertisements like this popping up left and right. I think that tells us what the population of Guild Wars 2 is like.

My goodness, that was hard to watch though.

I think it’s completely irrelevant. Advertisement is advertisement. They’ve done sales before, and other advertisement campaigns.

This is like saying WoW going partial F2P with a starter edition is a desperate move. It’s merely to try to get people more to try out the game and get them hooked.

One can consider that a game is not doing well when it goes F2P when it originally was B2P, P2P or what have you (say for example Tera, Rift, Aion, etc.).

The fire in Aidan’s eyes when he says “draconic subscription fee” is priceless!

Pledging allegiance to a video game?? Don’t you guys think this is just a bit over the top? I’ll give points for originality, I don’t recall any other gaming companies stooping this low going to this extreme to get more players in their game.

I thought it was kinda funny, silly and a little bit embarrassing. I don’t see what’s the big deal about it and why anybody would be so negative about it. It was kinda clear already that AN are not afraid of making fun of themselves or their game, or of having fun with it, for that matter.

I don’t see anything wrong about this. And ad IS an AD. Some ad looks stupid to me, but to others, they are fine. But even if they are stupid for me, I just let them be because it may not be for me, but may be for others.

Anything that GW2 do legally to attract more players is fine by me….

I had a good laugh

Very nicely done.

Eh … just took a look at the page. With the posts in this thread I was expecting ANet to be demanding people’s firstborn or something. Turns out not to be the case!

I thought the video was funny and entertaining.

The contest? Maybe they are hoping some people will submit some cosplay entries. Those might be fun to watch. =)

That was painful and cringe worthy. Things like this make me embarrassed. Can you guys do something cool instead that make me proud to play GW2 and something that I can share with friends that don’t play GW2? I want to tell my friends hey check this thing out it is so cool. Instead of things like this that are so cringe inducing?

And do you realize this isn’t 2005 anymore, right? You realize most MMOs are F2P? Why are you talking about subscriptions? Most MMOs are F2P with less barrier to entry than GW2.

Xcom.1926:

That was painful and cringe worthy. Things like this make me embarrassed. Can you guys do something cool instead that make me proud to play GW2 and something that I can share with friends that don’t play GW2? I want to tell my friends hey check this thing out it is so cool. Instead of things like this that are so cringe inducing?

And do you realize this isn’t 2005 anymore? You realize most MMOs are F2P? Why are you talking about subscriptions? Most MMOs are F2P with less barrier to entry than GW2.

I think they are talking about subs because two big names coming next year (maybe) will be sub based. They want to differentiate themselves from the competition.

Sps.7862:

Galtrix.7369:

Facepalm

40% off of Guild Wars 2 at the moment (Will definitely go up to at least 60% off later), and advertisements like this popping up left and right. I think that tells us what the population of Guild Wars 2 is like.

My goodness, that was hard to watch though.

I think it’s completely irrelevant. Advertisement is advertisement. They’ve done sales before, and other advertisement campaigns.

This is like saying WoW going partial F2P with a starter edition is a desperate move. It’s merely to try to get people more to try out the game and get them hooked.

One can consider that a game is not doing well when it goes F2P when it originally was B2P, P2P or what have you (say for example Tera, Rift, Aion, etc.).

At the moment, it’s not about the amount of players in the game that they want. It’s money. What logical reason would they have for making the game 40% off and then advertising with this? If they were doing well, they would keep the game at 60 dollars and keep advertising. But nope, they drop it to 40% off and advertise to bring in more players so they will have more money.

And as much as I like WoW, that was a desperate move on their part to offer a starter edition. Their idea was to offer it in the hopes that people would come and see how great the game is, but most people play the starter edition and once they hit level 20, they delete the game.

that_shaman translated the license.

http://i.imgur.com/COjZZ14.jpg

Yargesh.4965:

Xcom.1926:

That was painful and cringe worthy. Things like this make me embarrassed. Can you guys do something cool instead that make me proud to play GW2 and something that I can share with friends that don’t play GW2? I want to tell my friends hey check this thing out it is so cool. Instead of things like this that are so cringe inducing?

And do you realize this isn’t 2005 anymore? You realize most MMOs are F2P? Why are you talking about subscriptions? Most MMOs are F2P with less barrier to entry than GW2.

I think they are talking about subs because two big names coming next year (maybe) will be sub based. They want to differentiate themselves from the competition.

That is a good point. So they are asking people to pledge and not jump ship?

Xcom.1926:

Yargesh.4965:

Xcom.1926:

That was painful and cringe worthy. Things like this make me embarrassed. Can you guys do something cool instead that make me proud to play GW2 and something that I can share with friends that don’t play GW2? I want to tell my friends hey check this thing out it is so cool. Instead of things like this that are so cringe inducing?

And do you realize this isn’t 2005 anymore? You realize most MMOs are F2P? Why are you talking about subscriptions? Most MMOs are F2P with less barrier to entry than GW2.

I think they are talking about subs because two big names coming next year (maybe) will be sub based. They want to differentiate themselves from the competition.

That is a good point. So they are asking people to pledge and not jump ship?

No idea. The whole concept they are trying to put across is very strange to me, which is why I created this thread.

i can’t tell which is a cornier marketing tool between this and that trailer they launched with real people

Shudders .\.\.\.\.\.\. Now I really don’t want to be telling people I play GW2.

That screamed “desperate” to me. -_-

“You never feel like you’re grinding”

Hahahahaha. Hah.

I hate to say it, but this was how I read the Moletariate Mad-Lib:

I, name, renounce “traditional” games and pledge my allegiance to Guild Wars 2. I likewise declare my freedom from honest and transparent subscription fees! That I turn my back forever on permanent, balanced, and rewarding content which is totally overrated. That I will take up arms to defend the gem store and crush evil with my wallet. I take this oath to Guild Wars 2 freely, without sarcasm because I am brainwashed.

I wish I didn’t feel this way about the game right now, but it is. Hopefully things will change for the better.

It’s harmless marketing shenanigans, so I’m not taking it as seriously representative of the game or company, but, man, is it cringe-worthy.

I don’t like it when players get a sense of entitlement, that they “DESERVE!!” whatever pet feature they want, or to be free of whatever they don’t want, but this kind of marketing feeds that sense of dramatized investment in the game in a bad way. I mean, the old manifesto was a little idealistic, but I generally got the impression it was coming from a sense of “Here’s what we want the game to be!” rather than “It’s so UNFAIR that you have to PAY UNJUST FEES for OTHER GAMES!” Even though I love GW2 and its business model, I hate framing it as a question of justice or freedom. That’s not idealistic; it’s embarassingly cynical, and I’m disappointed to see it.

Oh, and that spin on The New Colossus is a very tasteful comparison. I mean, on one hand, we have actual poor, tired immigrants, and on the other, we have a contest that can save you $30 on a game by recording yourself pledging allegiance to a game you very likely haven’t played before. I got on a guy a while back for appropriating FDR’s Infamy Speech in his complaint about the introduction of ascended gear to the game, and this isn’t any better.

This isn’t anywhere near the worst marketing campaign I’ve see for a game, but I’m disappointed to see GW2 rolling with it. If marketing wants to engage players by dramatizing the struggle against the dragons, or the frequently evolving world, that’s great, but if they’re going to dramatize the business model, I see no reason for players not to be just as dramatic about imagined injustices like gem store armor, ascended gear, grind, etc.

Edit: The video looked silly and fun. It’s…basically the rest of it that I’m rolling my eyes at.

Here’s my oath: http://youtu.be/rIFen1IyTg8
Hopefully I win a second account!

Grenth shave the Queen.

Not that she needs it. But shoes, a kingdom for shoes!

As much as I rolled my eyes at the time, William Shatner and Mr. T ads. “Classic”.

Lucky Shot.7650:

Awww! The girl’s cheerful voice was so adorable! How cute!

This I’ll agree with, but wow this was corny.

ghost.3208:

God people are such a bunch of pessimists, it’s not like it’s affecting us in any way…

Actually it can, because when you talk about Guild Wars 2 someone could bring up this commercial and be a bit turned off by how corny or creepy the video was.

So yes it can affect us, at least perceptions of the fans from the outside world.
Let’s take for example the much parodied Mac commercial style that WoW used.
Using celebrities they talked about how awesome their characters were and what classes they played.

It wasn’t some abandonment of reality, it was a neat minimalist video talking about a specific class or race.

Do I want GW2 to have a video of some celeb, like Bruce Campbell, talk about their favorite class, like the Engineer? Well no I don’t want to follow in lock step with what WoW did, but I would like to see a video talk about how the game plays.

In hindsight it would be entertaining if he said “This is my BOOMSTICK” when talking about the Engineer’s rifle.

ANet should work on videos that talk about the game’s capabilities for once, not just the “Two week DLR” pitch I’ve seen lately.
Talk about the death of the trinity, the fact you can play on your own or with people whenever you want, just bring up something about the game’s mechanics.

I just don’t feel comfortable knowing one of our game’s advertisements featured a Cash Cab style direction with folks acting like they have a break from reality. All while behind a motorized vehicle responsible for others’ safety.

Call me a stick in the mud, call me pessimistic if you want, but I’d rather have a commercial talking about what makes this game different in a better way.

Cringeworthy…..

Wethospu.6437:

Here’s my oath: http://youtu.be/rIFen1IyTg8
Hopefully I win a second account!

Awesome pledge lol.

This kind of marketing though really makes me worried about the state of the game.. :/ Like it’s in trouble or something.

Leo Paul.1659:

Wethospu.6437:

Here’s my oath: http://youtu.be/rIFen1IyTg8
Hopefully I win a second account!

Awesome pledge lol.

This kind of marketing though really makes me worried about the state of the game.. :/ Like it’s in trouble or something.

Don’t think it says anything like that. It does say that the Ad agency they hired has too much sway

I’ve seen much crazier stuff at my city’s First Fridays art walk event – this was tame by comparision lol.

Looks like they had a lot of fun with the video, good job guys