Guild Wars 2

/tinfoilhat on

I’ve always found it odd that major gaming websites such as Gamespot and IGN usually shy away from anything GW2 related. Sure, if you go to TenTonHammer you can see HoT advertised all over the place, but considering the huge success that GW2 has had in the last years, and the fact that it is about to launch a gamechanging expansion in a few hours, why exactly are gw2 related news nowhere to be seen when visiting these websites? You can be sure that if this was a wow expansion, everyone would be covering it.

That being said, one can’t help but wonder what exactly is going on behind the scenes.
It’s kind of sad, really because even if i don’t personally visit these on a regular basis, i know a lot of people who do, and it would definitely help Anet reach an even wider audience.

/tinfoilhat off

Perhaps, ask GameSpot and IGN?

Good luck.

What i’m about to say is purely based on my personal opinion and not based on facts, but i have a feeling it probably has to do with shady politics and pressured (bought) boycotts. Considering the extremely biased reviews published there, i wouldn’t be surprised if HoT got a terrible score anyway, if only because Anet refused to buy the reviewers.

I know i might get infracted for saying this, but the truth is that it had to be said, and i find it regrettable that at the end of the day, more people might have decided to try gw2 if they had read coverage on one of those major gaming news websites.

There is no doubting gw2 has had incredible success in the past, and I wish Anet the best for HoT and the coming years. I don’t believe they need coverage from IGN and Gamespot to do so, but you know… It certainly wouldn’t hurt.

These sites operate on advertising revenue and they show preferential treatment to games/companies that feed them money. The reason they don’t talk about GW2 that much is likely because Anet isn’t spending much money advertising on those sites.

GragorR.9768:

What i’m about to say is purely based on my personal opinion and not based on facts, but i have a feeling it probably has to do with shady politics and pressured (bought) boycotts. Considering the extremely biased reviews published there, i wouldn’t be surprised if HoT got a terrible score anyway, if only because Anet refused to buy the reviewers.

I know i might get infracted for saying this, but the truth is that it had to be said, and i find it regrettable that at the end of the day, more people might have decided to try gw2 if they had read coverage on one of those major gaming news websites.

There is no doubting gw2 has had incredible success in the past, and I wish Anet the best for HoT and the coming years. I don’t believe they need coverage from IGN and Gamespot to do so, but you know… It certainly wouldn’t hurt.

I am not sure that one can accurately argue that IGN has not provided coverage for GW2, or that they have a bias against the game, when they did review the game very positively at launch:

“ArenaNet has built one of the most exhaustively detailed and rewarding MMOs in existence, one that never unfairly penalizes and fosters an incredible urge to explore through a generous reward system and achingly pretty environment design. It’s a virtual world that more than anything wants you to work together with others, and provides a huge number of possibilities for cooperation while minimizing restrictions. For those disappointed in the lack of open world PvP, the World versus World alternative is a fascinating, complex system that demands teamwork, and the arena PvP modes should provide an instant-fix for those who thrive on fast, adrenaline-fueled combat. Whether you’re looking for competitive play, want to be told a story or simply want to go for a walk through fantastic countryside, Guild Wars 2 lets you do it all with a minimal amount of arbitrary, irritating limitations, and all without a subscription fee.”

Gamespot said:

“Guild Wars 2 is a paradise for explorers and thrill-seekers alike, and the best online role-playing game in years.”

Claiming some sort of bias against the game on the part of those two sites when they have both reviewed the game in the best possible terms seems odd to me.

GragorR.9768:

but considering the huge success that GW2 has had in the last years, and the fact that it is about to launch a gamechanging expansion in a few hours

GW2 has been very far from being a “huge success” in the last years. ArenaNet has said it themselves – if they did the Living Story thing right, they wouldn’t release an expansion. Yet, after two failed Living Story tries – and both failed to actually increase the earnings of GW2, much less create the kind of spike that expansions do -, it’s expansion time.

Not to mention all the other (rather obvious, tbh) signs that the game is doing poorly: the move to free to play (do you remember any MMORPG that changed its business model while the previous one was being a “huge success”?), losing important ArenaNet staff (the original GW2 lead developer has just left, for example), the rushed release of HoT (legendaries will come “later”, raids will come “later”, the new squad system will come “later”, and so on).

The reason why few gaming sites are talking about HoT is because few people care.

Ashen.2907:

Claiming some sort of bias against the game on the part of those two sites when they have both reviewed the game in the best possible terms seems odd to me.

You do raise a fine point, they have indeed praised gw2 at launch and given it a pretty good score, which makes me wonder why there isn’t any coverage or ’’hyping’’ being done now that HoT is launching in a few short hours. If you visit the PC part of both websites, in popular games coming soon, or on the entire main page there is not a trace of gw2 launching an expansion, which seems odd to me because there isn’t all that much going on in pc gaming these days.

It’s more that gaming websites don’t often make posts about MMO’s. MMO’s as a genre are far less popular than single player RPG’s etc. Posts about GW2 aren’t very good clickbait. Not that many gamers care about MMO’s.

GragorR.9768:

Ashen.2907:

Claiming some sort of bias against the game on the part of those two sites when they have both reviewed the game in the best possible terms seems odd to me.

You do raise a fine point, they have indeed praised gw2 at launch and given it a pretty good score, which makes me wonder why there isn’t any coverage or ’’hyping’’ being done now that HoT is launching in a few short hours. If you visit the PC part of both websites, in popular games coming soon, or on the entire main page there is not a trace of gw2 launching an expansion, which seems odd to me because there isn’t all that much going on in pc gaming these days.

If there is no bias.

And if there is not much going on in PC gaming.

And if HoT is not getting much attention (outside of current GW2 players).

Is it possible that HoT just isn’t seen as very much of a big deal (outside of current GW2 players)?

Ashen.2907:

Is it possible that HoT just isn’t seen as very much of a big deal (outside of current GW2 players)?

If these sites don’t operate on advertising revenue, they would’ve posted about it. Because it’s not up to them to decide if it’s seen as a big deal or not. News is news, an expansion for a MMO is news.

But like I said before, these gaming sites operate on advertising revenue. They’ll gladly talk about games & news from gaming companies if they pay for their space & time.

gavyne.6847:

Ashen.2907:

Is it possible that HoT just isn’t seen as very much of a big deal (outside of current GW2 players)?

If these sites don’t operate on advertising revenue, they would’ve posted about it. Because it’s not up to them to decide of it’s seen as a big deal or not. News is news, an expansion for a MMO is news.

But like I said before, these gaming sites operate on advertising revenue. They’ll gladly talk about games & news from gaming companies if they pay for their space & time.

News is never news, all things happening in gaming are competing for the same attention. They publish the stories people are most likely to be interested in.

Anyhow gw2 has contracted a lot. Its no longer the everyman game, and no longer claims to be an mmo that will break into non mmo markets.

They ll review it eventually, but its not a big deal in the gaming world. Not even that big in the mmo world.

Everything that has been contributed so far is plausible, whether it’s because mmo news don’t generate enough clickies, or because no monetary incentivising has been done, the result is the same. An expansion is usually a pretty big deal for any game, and an opportinuty to attract new players to the game.

I would be curious to know what percentage of the current playerbase decided to give gw2 a shot after reading the glowing reviews published on IGN/GS back then, because as it is now, anyone who hasn’t heard of HoT today still won’t know what the kitten a HoT is tommorow.

I guess the whole point of this post was to vent out a bit, Gw2 has been my go-to game for so long, i just want to see it grow and not miss opportunities to do so, and i can’t help but feel like we’re missing out on potential new players here.

GW2 isn’t CoD, GTA, or some other similarly overrated/overhyped game hence why ign doesn’t care much.

GragorR.9768:

Everything that has been contributed so far is plausible, whether it’s because mmo news don’t generate enough clickies, or because no monetary incentivising has been done, the result is the same. An expansion is usually a pretty big deal for any game, and an opportinuty to attract new players to the game.

I would be curious to know what percentage of the current playerbase decided to give gw2 a shot after reading the glowing reviews published on IGN/GS back then, because as it is now, anyone who hasn’t heard of HoT today still won’t know what the kitten a HoT is tommorow.

They know people werent as interested in it as they thought. They have data with hiw much clicks previous hot news generated.

Also anet may habe beef with ign after that accidental spoiler release.

If hot was buzz ing in the streets they d talk about it.
They will eventually regardless im sure anet has interviews planned with media post release

phys.7689:

They know people werent as interested in it as they thought. They have data with hiw much clicks previous hot news generated.

Where did you even get that info? That’s not even it. Do people realize GW2 has the most unique hits on mmorpg.com? When you sort by this past year and this past 6 months, GW2 is #1 on unique hits as the most popular game on mmorpg.com. Sorted by this past month, GW2 is #2 in unique hits, only behind Wildstar. This is compared to all MMO’s people searched and posted about on a site all about mmo’s.

When gaming sites don’t post about an expansion launch, it’s very simple. It’s because Anet didn’t spend money advertising the game on those sites. They show preferential treatment to games that do spend money advertising. It has nothing to do with whether a game gets click hits or not.

Now of course MMORPG’s are not as popular as console games or FPS games. But I can guarantee you WoW’s new expansion will be talked about on those gaming sites. And why? Because Blizzard spends tons on advertising. You can have your personal game get its own article on those sites if you are willing to pay for it.

Anet likely has a small advertising fund for GW2.

You’re also comparing gw2, a good game with a large community, to wow…. another good game with a community that dwarfs gw2s.

gavyne.6847:

phys.7689:

They know people werent as interested in it as they thought. They have data with hiw much clicks previous hot news generated.

Where did you even get that info? That’s not even it. Do people realize GW2 has the most unique hits on mmorpg.com? When you sort by this past year and this past 6 months, GW2 is #1 on unique hits as the most popular game on mmorpg.com. Sorted by this past month, GW2 is #2 in unique hits, only behind Wildstar. This is compared to all MMO’s people searched and posted about on a site all about mmo’s.

When gaming sites don’t post about an expansion launch, it’s very simple. It’s because Anet didn’t spend money advertising the game on those sites. They show preferential treatment to games that do spend money advertising. It has nothing to do with whether a game gets click hits or not.

lol it has everything to do with it.

A site isn’t going to warrant a company advertising on it if it doesn’t draw readership and you draw readership by talking about games people care about.

People likely click mmorpg.com for GW2 related news because Anet has their stupid “lets push all news to third parties” plan where as other games let you know what’s going on on the actual site.

I never once had to go to a site like Dulfy to know what was going on in EvE or FF14. It as all there in the main site’s front page.

Sites aren’t going gaga over HoT because GW2 isn’t nearly as popular as people like to think it is.

They’re too busy giving average games 9/10 for kickbacks.

Not sure why Anet didn’t advertise to pique interest towards critical mass.

Instead they are throwing gobs and gobs of money away to make their esports dreams come true

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Wow-That-Prize-Pool-from-50K-to-400K/

$400,000 cash prize for a very small pvp community is not generous, it is unwise. The participants would have been happy with half of that amount.

It best for the community if they attracted more customers instead of giving away a lot of money to a handful of people

If there are problems with the expansion (ie. too little for the price tag), you WILL hear it from them.

Like we did when the BLTP got changed and there was no way to convert gold to gems with a custom number. It hit the net from one of those sites and within less than a week ANet fixed that issue and gave us a custom gold to gem/gem to gold converter screen.

Or when the pricing for HoT was announced and the veteran players cried foul. It hit the net through one of those sites and ANet gave the veterans an extra character slot.

Be sure that if there are enough complaints that even those sites say ANet crossed the line, you WILL see it there.

They don’t need it. They’re still EASILY operating on their huge sales success at launch. Their studio hasn’t grown, but shrunk, since.

HoT was announced too early and not fleshed out enough to warrant any kind of third party hype. Too much information was withheld intentionally and ANet has a history of doing this. Leaking this info or being first to the scene gets clicks as some people above mentioned, and ANet doesn’t want anyone at all to know what’s going on with their game it seems. As such, it’s not worth anyone’s time to try and write “news” about nothing happening.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

If there are problems with the expansion (ie. too little for the price tag), you WILL hear it from them.

People love a scandal.

Folks will be interested in a company doing something dumb/greedy even if they know nothing about it. Good news or praise will likely be passed over if it isn’t relative to the readers interest.

For example…

I never played Payday and I don’t care about Payday2 but when a story breaks that the development team when back on their word that they wouldn’t put in microtransactions I absolutely read about it.

I’ve heard that those sites like to be fed money for reviews. I don’t give them much credit.

Substance E.4852:

Ravion Hawk.4736:

If there are problems with the expansion (ie. too little for the price tag), you WILL hear it from them.

People love a scandal.

Folks will be interested in a company doing something dumb/greedy even if they know nothing about it. Good news or praise will likely be passed over if it isn’t relative to the readers interest.

For example…

I never played Payday and I don’t care about Payday2 but when a story breaks that the development team when back on their word that they wouldn’t put in microtransactions I absolutely read about it.

Two words:

Dirty Laundry

By Don Henley

DeceiverX.8361:

They don’t need it. They’re still EASILY operating on their huge sales success at launch. Their studio hasn’t grown, but shrunk, since.

HoT was announced too early and not fleshed out enough to warrant any kind of third party hype. Too much information was withheld intentionally and ANet has a history of doing this. Leaking this info or being first to the scene gets clicks as some people above mentioned, and ANet doesn’t want anyone at all to know what’s going on with their game it seems. As such, it’s not worth anyone’s time to try and write “news” about nothing happening.

They have more success in China. At least that’s what they tell the media

Not really surprising if they have, only because the China launch was so poor that they only really had the option to grow or stop bothering :P

GragorR.9768:

Ashen.2907:

Claiming some sort of bias against the game on the part of those two sites when they have both reviewed the game in the best possible terms seems odd to me.

You do raise a fine point, they have indeed praised gw2 at launch and given it a pretty good score, which makes me wonder why there isn’t any coverage or ’’hyping’’ being done now that HoT is launching in a few short hours. If you visit the PC part of both websites, in popular games coming soon, or on the entire main page there is not a trace of gw2 launching an expansion, which seems odd to me because there isn’t all that much going on in pc gaming these days.

Google “Heavensward IGN”, then google “Heart of Thorns IGN”. IGN reviewed heavensward and barely scrapped together a post about GW2. I’m not crying conspiracy, I’m also curious as to why I only ever find gw2 info when I intentionally look for it at dulfy, tentonhammer or the gw2 website.

gavyne.6847:

Ashen.2907:

Is it possible that HoT just isn’t seen as very much of a big deal (outside of current GW2 players)?

If these sites don’t operate on advertising revenue, they would’ve posted about it. Because it’s not up to them to decide if it’s seen as a big deal or not. News is news, an expansion for a MMO is news.

But like I said before, these gaming sites operate on advertising revenue. They’ll gladly talk about games & news from gaming companies if they pay for their space & time.

Actually it is very much up to them to decide. Not every news outlet covers every possible news story in the world. Decisions are made to focus on stories the outlet thinks will appeal to their readers.

These sites may be reliant on advertising revenue but ad revenue is dependent on readership. If the outlet isnt publishing what the readers desire the readers leave and ad revenue dries up. If these sites’ readers cared about GW2 the sites would feature GW2 more.

IGN, at least, tends to take money to put out positive reviews and information. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t cover a game because the company didn’t pay them to do so.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/23/guild-wars-2-hits-7-million-players-as-expansion-launches?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=Coverstory

Front page news!

DaikonSamurai.6714:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/10/23/guild-wars-2-hits-7-million-players-as-expansion-launches?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20(front%20page)&utm_content=1&utm_campaign=Coverstory

Front page news!

Front page news of meaningless numbers. 7million accounts means nothing. How many are active? Active accounts wouldn’t be near as hard to gauge as they make it sound. How many of that new 2million were spam bots or people making alt accounts when it went f2p? How many of those 7million have actually bought the expac? Why did only a small fraction of the 7million bother to finish the map?
Anyone can throw numbers out there to make themselves look good. PvP player participation went up by 135%? Congrats….I guess. What does that mean? Percentages mean nothing when you don’t have a baseline. Were there 100 PvP players in Nov, 2014? Or were there 1million? That 135% changes quite a bit depending on the Nov,2014 value. Funny how they avoid actual numbers in some cases.

Front page news would be any MMO developer posting any actual real numbers that actually mean something.