450 réponses à ce sujet

[Wynne]

This entire thread is one giant out-of-context facepalm.

David Silverman is marketing to newcomers, period. His job is to make it sound not-intimidating to people who've never heard of the games before, or have heard of them but resisted buying the first two installments for whatever reason and may not yet be ready to pick them up. How do you think he'd sound if he said, "Everyone should pick up the first two games before they buy Mass Effect 3!" Like a salesman saying, "If you want to buy this computer, you should also get this speaker system and monitor without which the computer will not work as well!"

People tend to roll their eyes at the guy who says that, even if he's right, because it seems obvious he just wants more money from you. Making the series sound like a large commitment of money and time is necessary in order to be able to enjoy #3? Will cause a lot of people to think, "This is overwhelming. I can't justify buying three games and spending hundreds of hours on them; I have a job and a kid." Whereas, if a person plays and enjoys Mass Effect 3, it may make them curious about how it all began.

Is it as much fun as playing them in order? No. But if they otherwise would've stayed away from the series entirely, isn't it better that a person jumps in at #3 than if they don't jump in at all? It's the classic foot in the door technique, a principle of, what do you know, marketing.

David Silverman is trying to attract outside attention for this game. All that he should be judged on is whether he makes Mass Effect 3 sound appealing to NON-FANS. No, hands down, none of us are non-fans, we can only *speculate* on how we would feel, not comment on how good a job he is doing. We do not know, we are guessing.

If you want to hear what hardcore fans will like about the game, don't look at the marketing guy. Look at Casey Hudson and company. They know the game best anyway, because they made it. That is all.

Modifié par Wynne, 10 août 2011 - 12:55 .

[Therefore_I_Am]

Il Divo wrote...

iakus wrote...

Meh, as long as it HAS a main plot this time I'll be... well, content.

But I'm seriously disillusioned about the whole imported saves concept.  That will no longer be a selling point for me.

I didn't really have faith in the concept from the start. It sounds too difficult, given their game development. The only potential argument I've seen work is that Bioware purposely restricted ME2 carry overs from ME1, so they could "go crazy" with Mass Effect 3.

I have always thought about that as well. Casey himself said that the whole choice importing is an expensive endeavor, and a complicated one at that as the variables are numerous.
I would settle for at least a few of the major choices in ME1 & ME2 to transfer over, but even then it's a huge feat.

Modifié par Therefore_I_Am, 10 août 2011 - 12:46 .

[SalsaDMA]

didymos1120 wrote...

SalsaDMA wrote...

xXRevan0515Xx wrote...

Well, I guess there is only one thing left to say...Sorry to those who don't like the direction of Mass Effect, best of luck in your search for other games to play.

Yeah.. Let's just accept the turning of yet a company into a faceless drone producing basicly the same game everyone else are making.

So what do you suggest?  The only power you have to make them heed your displeasure is to not give them your money. People can complain, and complain, and complain, but if they buy the games anyway, all they can expect is to be ignored.  So no, telling people "good luck finding something else" isn't advocating that people "just accept" anything.  It's advocating that they do the only thing actually matters to a business (and especially one that is publicly traded): put that money in someone else's coffers.

Well I have yet to give them any money for DA2. I'm still waiting for that one to get below the pricetreshold of where I would bother forking over the cash. Chances are, with the current marketing line, that ME3 is going the same route for me.

[WoolyJoe]

Who cares about the game. Let's just argue

[SalsaDMA]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

slimgrin wrote...

RocketManSR2 wrote...

A recent tweet from Casey:

"The most expensive complication in #ME3 development is integrating your past decisions, so that will definitely be a big part of the game."

I find this hard to believe, not that I think he's lying, but the decisions carried over in ME2 were negligable.

And you expected every decision made in ME1 to have an immediate and dramatic impact during the middle part of  the trilogy?

Considered that they could let the decision impact without adding further treebranches to the past decisions, then yes. In this regard it has zero effect that it was the middle game when the amount of variables pushed towards the 3rd is the same. There's a huge difference between getting a stupid email and getting acknowledgment through the plot and/or actual game of your past decisions, though.

[Pallid]

sael_feman wrote...

It's a good jumping in point from the perspective of Bioware sales revenues.

Why almost every thread have a perfect answer in the second post?

[Collider]

This is marketing speech. Of course they're going to say that the game is a good point to start. They want to sell the game in general, not just to existing fans.

[Luigitornado]

Wynne wrote...

This entire thread is one giant out-of-context facepalm.

David Silverman is marketing to newcomers, period. His job is to make it sound not-intimidating to people who've never heard of the games before, or have heard of them but resisted buying the first two installments for whatever reason and may not yet be ready to pick them up. How do you think he'd sound if he said, "Everyone should pick up the first two games before they buy Mass Effect 3!" Like a salesman saying, "If you want to buy this computer, you should also get this speaker system and monitor without which the computer will not work as well!"

People tend to roll their eyes at the guy who says that, even if he's right, because it seems obvious he just wants more money from you. Making the series sound like a large commitment of money and time is necessary in order to be able to enjoy #3? Will cause a lot of people to think, "This is overwhelming. I can't justify buying three games and spending hundreds of hours on them; I have a job and a kid." Whereas, if a person plays and enjoys Mass Effect 3, it may make them curious about how it all began.

Is it as much fun as playing them in order? No. But if they otherwise would've stayed away from the series entirely, isn't it better that a person jumps in at #3 than if they don't jump in at all? It's the classic foot in the door technique, a principle of, what do you know, marketing.

David Silverman is trying to attract outside attention for this game. All that he should be judged on is whether he makes Mass Effect 3 sound appealing to NON-FANS. No, hands down, none of us are non-fans, we can only *speculate* on how we would feel, not comment on how good a job he is doing. We do not know, we are guessing.

If you want to hear what hardcore fans will like about the game, don't look at the marketing guy. Look at Casey Hudson and company. They know the game best anyway, because they made it. That is all.

Yeah this is obvious. HOWEVER in the world of Web2.0 where communities are connected through social media, like these forums, it's important to check yourself when "marketing" to not ****** off your current customers, which is easy to do -- we're all cynical on the internet. It's easier to keep an existing customer than find a new one -- not to say some fans will refuse to buy the game because some marketing dude said the first game came out over 8-years-ago, but it could hurt word of mouth, which is more important in today's world of marketing...because it is FREE.

Silverman should understand that current fans will be listening to him; telling the community they shouldn't care because he isn't speaking to us is rather silly, and ignorant if that is what Silverman believes. Anyway what I'm trying to get at is that if Silverman is trying to practice good marketing in Web2.0 he needs to be aware of all consumers; not just the peeps.

Modifié par Luigitornado, 10 août 2011 - 01:34 .

[Xeniphe]

Hopefully new players who are planning to play Mass Effect 3 will buy the previous games before the final game is released. Or something...

[Uhh.. Jonah]

No matter what game they are going to sell, whether it's the last installment or the first, they will always say "it's a great starting point for newcomers."
ME3 is definitely the worst starting point, but that's their marketing strategy and it probably always.will be.

[BDelacroix]

One thing I have noticed about the entertainment industry is they greatly underestimate the intelligence and memory capacity of their audience.

This may be just a case of speaking to his audience (speaking to new comers). I hope it isn't a sign that they are following the same path as hollywood, but nonetheless, I'll be getting mass effect 3.

[ratzerman]

BDelacroix wrote...

One thing I have noticed about the entertainment industry is they greatly underestimate the intelligence and memory capacity of their audience.

Totally agree. Market the game to whoever you want, but don't insult your existing fans. David's "who even remembers what happened in the first game?" comment felt like a slap in the face.

And just to fend off the quotation police, yes, I paraphrased his actual remark.

[javierabegazo]

Folks, I generally like to keep topical discussions into one thread vs 2 threads, but I don't want to unnecessarily close threads, especially when they have excellent and relevant posts already in them.

Would most in here be against a lock with a redirect to this thread: http://social.biowar...78351/1#8078523 ?

[Mystranna Kelteel]

javierabegazo wrote...

Folks, I generally like to keep topical discussions into one thread vs 2 threads, but I don't want to unnecessarily close threads, especially when they have excellent and relevant posts already in them.

Would most in here be against a lock with a redirect to this thread: http://social.biowar...78351/1#8078523 ?

Wouldn't standard procedure be to lock the new thread with only a few posts and redirect to the existing thread?

[Phaedon]

javierabegazo wrote...

Folks, I generally like to keep topical discussions into one thread vs 2 threads, but I don't want to unnecessarily close threads, especially when they have excellent and relevant posts already in them.

Would most in here be against a lock with a redirect to this thread: http://social.biowar...78351/1#8078523 ?

I really don't see how they are relevant. This OP states complaints about BioWare's marketing suggesting that ME3 is a good jumping point, the other is a news thread which quotes Casey Hudson stating that newcomers will get unique content.

I can see it as being pulled as an argument card in this thread, but beyond that I really can't see any relevance whatsoever.

EDIT: Actually, iirc, the OP is 100% a reaction to a Gamerant copy/paste of an interview with David Silverman.

Modifié par Phaedon, 10 août 2011 - 02:27 .

[javierabegazo]

Mystranna Kelteel wrote...
-snips-

I only hesistated at that, because there's a chance of Hudson's recent tweet being looked over, which I think, is highly relevant, and discussion altering.

[Badpie]

Okay let's not call for Mr. Silverman's head on a pike or his job. That's not what this thread is for. Everyone's been keeping it pretty civil for the most part, which I appreciate.

I'm happy to see the tweets from Casey Hudson reassuring people. I have been optimistic - cautiously optimistic about the direction the Bioware has been heading in general, but there have been some disappointments.

The new direction of both ME2 and DA2 was one of "BIGGER, MORE EXPLOSIONS, SEXIER, BRUTAL, AWESOMERER, MORE BADASS, MOAR MOAR!" And I'm not interested in that game. So when the marketing reflects that, I get concerned.

Obviously I'm not the only one.

And to agree with Ratzerman, yes feel free to market the game to whatever audience you wish, but don't crap on the audience you already have.

Javier, I think this thread has been going pretty well with some good discussion about the marketing.  I'd prefer to keep it open, but whatever you think is best.

Modifié par Badpie, 10 août 2011 - 02:28 .

[javierabegazo]

Phaedon wrote...
-snip-

Fair enough, nevermind folks.

[LilyasAvalon]

It's Silverman, who cares?

[Mystranna Kelteel]

javierabegazo wrote...
I only hesistated at that, because there's a chance of Hudson's recent tweet being looked over, which I think, is highly relevant, and discussion altering.

So keep it in its own thread...  I don't see a close enough topic to merge threads.  If these two threads are "topical" then so too are 900 other threads around here.

EDIT: NEVERMIND

Modifié par Mystranna Kelteel, 10 août 2011 - 02:29 .

[Phaedon]

Badpie wrote...
The new direction of both ME2 and DA2 was one of "BIGGER, MORE EXPLOSIONS, SEXIER, BRUTAL, AWESOMERER, MORE BADASS, MOAR MOAR!" And I'm not interested in that game. So when the marketing reflects that, I get concerned.

And this is the point where I retrieve my hat and wave goodbye to this thread.

Even if you are acknowledging that this is your opinion and not a fact, it still is extreme, accusatory and not really constructive.

I'll just go ahead and remind you that Silverman said that they are not putting action for the sake of action, and that they are looking forward to maintaining their storytelling reputation, but considering that this conflict is multiple times bigger than anything we as humans have seen so far, cutting down on the action for the sake of...cutting down on the action (Sweet, sweet irony) would cheapen the experience.

And yes. For the record, I do consider a conflict a few hundrend times bigger and bloodier than WW2 not containing explosions and action to be a very bad joke.

Modifié par Phaedon, 10 août 2011 - 02:36 .

[Badpie]

Phaedon you misunderstood me. I'm not saying to do away with any of those things. I'm saying the entire marketing campaigns have existed to showcase those things as the most important things about the games. And I feel like in some sense the games I was referring to reflected that marketing in a way that I feel is a direction I'm not very interested in. Only I am interested because I'm invested in this point so I want ME3 to be the best game possible.

[Texhnolyze101]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...

Silverman is the worst PR guys ever... He's trying to act cool, but sounds like an absolute fool...

kinda like that guy who was representing ubisoft at E3

Modifié par 101ezylonhxeT, 10 août 2011 - 02:53 .

[SpiffySquee]

Buyer, "I've never really played Mass Effect, but 3 looks great! I'm also looking at buying Skyrim... I wonder which one I should buy."

ME3 Rep, "Whoa Whoa!!! You want to just buy ME3???? Silly Billy, you can't do that! We insist that this game will be completely pointless unless you shell out 50-60 bucks for the first 2 games! And then you should shell out another 30 for all the DLC. Then you have to devote 60+ hours to the games. Then, and only then, could you possibly understand ME3."

Buyer, "Oh.... guess I'll just get Skyrim then."

ME3, "I love discouraging the new fan base just to keep the old fan base happy. It's a great business model...."