129 réponses à ce sujet

[AllThatJazz]

This thread is where optimism goes to die.

 

Aaahhh, I certainly didn't mean for my post to sound horrible. I've been a massive fan of BioWare's games since way back when, and like most on the BSN I want only the very best for Inquisition, have the utmost respect for the hard work the devs are doing, and I'm as sure as I can be (without actually playing the game) that I will absolutely love DAI, having always enjoyed Bio output even when it hasn't been brilliantly received by press/gamers at large. And generally I'm pleased with what they've been doing and I'm pretty optimistic that DAI will be a fantastic game. I just feel like I should express concerns if I have them, even if they turn out to be unfounded - otherwise if I didn't express them, and they do turn out to have had merit, then I'll feel as though I did Bio a disservice by not providing feedback when it mattered. It's all meant with affection and respect, though

 

@Allan - personally, yes, or just with the character name on it. Then later a link to the VA vid or character interview, because these are terrific - I've seen really positive reactions to Claudia/Brian's and Freddie's vids, both because it showed a snippet of the actor in character, and gave a nice little bit of insight into that part of game development. And the interviews are really good - they give a proper sense of the character, as well as of the person who wrote them - good stuff!

[stormhit]

I've never been very good at explaining things, but I'll do my best with the allotted time I currently have (which isn't a lot), and obviously this is just my opinion on the matter.

 

I do agree that the marketing for Dragon Age: Inquisition hasn't been great. There are some things that come to mind such as clipping and glitches visibly shown in screenshots and trailers. It does feel like whoever has been putting these things together wasn't too careful with his/her work. If it happens once or twice then no big deal, but it's happened a lot and it's made me raise an eyebrow.

 

The 2nd big thing that comes to mind is the quotes in the character introductions. I think the idea is pretty solid and it reminds me of the character quotes from Final Fantasy IX. However one of the big criticisms made towards Bioware these past few years is the drop in quality of writing. I'm not gonna get into past games for obvious reasons, but with Dragon Age: Inquisition I figured that this game has been in development a lot longer than DA2 and ME3, so I felt confident that the team could pull off a better job. Well if the character quotes are a true reflection on what the dialogue is going to be like, I can't say I'm too optimistic towards DA:I's writing being an improvement.

 

Like I said I'm not good at explaining things so I'm not gonna attempt to describe what's wrong with these quotes from an academic point of view, but all I can say is that to me they don't seem cleverly written. When I look at the character quotes from FFIX, some of the quotes speak volumes of that character and make me think about what they're saying. My three favorite lines are:

 

Freya: "To be forgotten is worse than death."

Zidane: "You don't need a reason to help people."

Vivi: "How do you prove that you exist...? Maybe we don't exist..."

 

By contrast, DA:I's quotes (with the exception of a couple imo) come off as a bit juvenile, which is the only word I can think of to describe them. Now obviously not everyone will feel that way so I know this is purely subjective. However to me, if you're gonna have these quotes, I want the quotes to make me feel for the character, not chuckle at how witty they sound. Dorian, Iron Bull and Sera's in particular I find to be a pretty bleh. I don't mean to offend anybody over in the writing team, this is just how I feel.

And in my opinion those lines are laughably melodramatic, and sound like an undergrad trying way too hard to be deep, while saying nothing. 

[drake heath]

Which is why trailers would be much better.

 

You'd get more lines, how they say them and other nuances that can be left out of just a quote.

 

Like take Cole for instance, he sounds like an emo kid from his quotes, but the context and the way he says them could be completely different and make him sound much better.

[Apollexander]

I love what the devs provided, like the screenshots, the trailers, the interviews, the quotes, etc. But I don't like that there are something they announced but failed to provide. For example, the follower friday, the cosplay kits. What even dissatisfied me is that they had announced the follower friday and then just ignored it, without even a notice. And it made me feel that they have no good plan about marketing during about last three months. And I don't know why they just introduced three or four followers in the E3 trailer 'Stand together'.

But thankfully it seems that they decide to show something about the important characters continuously. I hope they can finish the companion introduction in a new trailer.

[MarchWaltz]

I don't want too much info on the characters, I would like to find out in game. They are doing a swell job.

[Maraas]

Which is why trailers would be much better.

You certainly can convey more that way, yes. But frankly, I'd rather they wouldn't make trailers for companions. As awesome as companion trailers for ME2 were, they spoiled too much (and not only Jack). And it's not like someone is seriously worried about companions not being interesting and well written.

Something BioWare had never done before would be much more interesting trailer material. Like big living-breathing and all that open(ish) world, for instance. For ME2 they didn't have anything else to sell the game—followers were the main, if not single, selling point. That's why they used it so extensively.

I think they have much more up their sleeve this time around as to not show actual in-game introduction and main plot events of each and every companion.

[Mathias]

And in my opinion those lines are laughably melodramatic, and sound like an undergrad trying way too hard to be deep, while saying nothing. 

 

Well you do realize FFIX is widely beloved as one of the best entries in the franchise by many of it's fans. To call those quotes laughable is to call the characters and the story itself laughable, as the quotes directly reflect who these characters are and the arc they go through. Yeah it's your opinion and that's fine, but I feel very confident and comfortable when I say that character quotes for FFIX have made me feel and think a lot more than DA:I's.

I mean you say that these quotes "say nothing", which tells me you probably have never played FFIX. If you have then you obviously weren't paying attention.

[Dominus]

I checked the ones so far. I like the Varric, Sera and Vivienne Quotes. The rest aren't really blowing me away. I love their looks for the most part. Dorian's stache looks kind of weird, though. Cole has a cool creepiness.

Do you think it'd have been better if we simply teased Dorian and showed the picture, sans quote then?

It might go better, probably would help his intrigue a bit. The blurb is what you'd expect for a swashbuckling fancy-man.

[Warlock]

I actually don't think Bioware can really afford not to hype the game a little. Especially after ME3 and DA2.

 

The first time I saw a DAO trailer I could not have been more excited for a game. Now, the first time I heard of DAI was like "meh, another post "EAified" Bioware game". It was only after seeing the pax prime and reading a bunch of info that I became excited for it. 

 

Some of the stuff they show is great (not awesome), ie: the gameplay demos are actually good imho. Some of the stuff they show is "meh", ie: companions, though I actually enjoyed the Freddie/Iron Bull video. But what worries me the most is the fact that many of the best features they brag about have not been shown, and we are just 4 months short of release. Where's the fortress customization? Where's the character creator? Before DA2 and ME3 I wouldn't have even thought that them not showing things would be cause for concern, but now it just makes me think they can't be shown because they're riddled with bugs. And don't tell me 4 months is enough to fix most bugs in an almost-open-world game if some of the most important features are at a stage where they can't be run. This is worrying me even more after seeing the PR fiasco that other EA games are turning out to be (lol @ Sims 4 fans freaking out over the lack of toddlers and pools ). Note that I'm assuming that since EA is the publisher, the PR branch of the company handles that side of things for every developer, if this is not the case disregard that last bit.

 

And last but not least, I think this goes hand in hand with gamers reaching a point of being fed up at companies abusing us. Before, when we didn't see features from a game prior to launch, it was expected; now, we think they're simply lying to us/twisting truths/whatever. It's not that we're bitchy, it's just that that's what's happened lately.

 

Having said all that, I've preordered the game because I want to believe the good old Bioware is back

 

[CronoDragoon]

Instead of just teasing Dorian, I'd say use the writer interviews as the basis for the character reveals without the quote and character summary. The interviews have been REALLY good. My hype for Dorian went from ~4 to ~8.

[deuce985]

I don't want too much info on the characters, I would like to find out in game. They are doing a swell job.

 

Agreed. This is the first Bioware game since ME2 I've followed closely with their marketing. All the spoiler bombs dropped left and right from Casey in the ME2 trailers left me furious. Even the character trailers had massive plot spoilers in them(like Samara killing her daughter). Casey Hudson spoiled at least 3-4 major plots in ME2 and I'm not talking little details but actual endings. I'd prefer Bioware to keep showing the gameplay off(hopefully character creator/crafting/customization next) and keep the plot/character details to an absolute minimum. If the story/characters are great word will quickly spread. Word of mouth is your best marketing tool.

 

What I see from the environment, gameplay and world all looks awesome. While I don't know a lot about the story/characters it's probably the area I'm least concerned because it's Bioware's strength. Why not focus marketing in areas where your games is known for weaknesses but now is seen as a strength? You also don't spoil the coveted plot/character details that are critical to their games. I've always said Bioware's weakest design in their games was levels and a lot of their marketing is focused on that weakness that is likely a strength now. Same could be said about their party combat mixed with action elements.  I think it's smart marketing to be honest.

 

The only issue I have concern with is the technical problems you see in the trailers as others have mentioned. The graphics seem to steadily be turned down to what we've seen before and you do notice small details like clipping in a lot of the stuff. It's a concern the game will be shipped very buggy which EA is known to do to their games. Console gamers themselves are probably wondering when they'll see footage because we've only seen DAI on PC with a 5 platform development schedule. That's a lot of resources to spread around.  I wouldn't be shocked to see DAI delayed and I honestly kinda hope so that way I can wait for the Nvidia 800 series GPUs to drop lol. A December delay would make me a lot happier because I won't have to build a new PC and worry about missing out on new GPUs a month later.

[Allan Schumacher]

I actually don't think Bioware can really afford not to hype the game a little. Especially after ME3 and DA2.

 

Well, internally our marketing kickoff was considered to be "started" at E3.  The extra stuff was mostly a lot of extra fluff.  Even PAX was seen more as "something special to share with fans" as opposed to an overt marketing beat.  It may be that marketing is looking on snowballing things.

[wolfhowwl]

Gotta love how BSN complains about everything, even still photos. Any suggestions on how to make photos a lot better for marketing purposes? You seem to have it all figured out and the marketing department is clueless. If you're wondering more about the characters they've revealed details and you'll get videos later. I don't see the issue. The marketing machine gets oiled up the closer to release a game gets. Is this your first game?

 

You're right, I'm not paid to do this but I'm not sure someone needs to be to question marketers who are rather strangely releasing photos with blatant glitches and promoting characters with quotes that are often cringeworthy. Personally after the rough shape DA2 released in, I would be exercising care to show people that Inquisition will be a polished game. The clunky wording and cringeworthy character blurbs I think are also really not presenting the character writing (a strength of BioWare games) well.

 

Yes, I am aware that marketing will be intensifying as we get closer to release. However these initial efforts seem rather careless and lackluster in quality and my impression is that they are having a negative effect, even unfortunately among people who want to like this game and would love for it to be a return to form.

[Joseph Warrick]

You mean the "he's deadly with people who hurt innocent people"; "she wants bad things to happen to bad people" type of descriptions.

 

Yeah I wouldn't expect them to become a staple of English literature.

 

On the other hand I agree that the writer interviews and bioware base videos are good.

 

So all in all things are pretty ok.

[Maraas]

You're right, I'm not paid to do this but I'm not sure someone needs to be to question marketers who are rather strangely releasing photos with blatant glitches and promoting characters with quotes that are often cringeworthy.

What cringeworthy is blatant nit-picking and mind-numbing quibbling: "Also?" WTF? This is not proper English! The character blurbs have been awful! Abandon ship!

Ugh.

[ohnotherancor]

The quotes I can take or leave, but the writer interviews and the VA videos are excellent. The latter gives insight into the characters without spoiling too much.

[TurretSyndrome]

For me, characters themselves in the game are more important than these pointless one liners in the screenshots. Don't really care how they market the game, only that it is worth getting.

[Allan Schumacher]

However these initial efforts seem rather careless and lackluster in quality and my impression is that they are having a negative effect

 

It could be that where you're looking is mostly like minded people.  Depending on where I go, I'll find different opinions.  I just put out a question for twitter for whether or not people were enjoying the character blurbs, and it was a sea of enthusiastic yes.  I don't know if I got one that said no.  Now maybe they wouldn't say, but I think more likely that the group that follows me on twitter isn't randomly selected and they happen to all be excited about it.

 

 

There's other metrics that I don't have any visibility into, such as social trending, page hits, preorder reality vs expectations and whatnot.  Marketing is a bit of a mystical black hole for me (I see it as a lot of art and less science, but that's me speaking ignorantly.  Probably a lot of case studies and whatnot but so many variables....)

[Reznore57]

I think overall people are pretty positive about DAI...

There's always going to be people complaining , or simply not liking what they see.It's fair enough.

But I'm following the Sims 4 promotion right now , and errr...it's like seeing a car crash in slow motion.

[TheTurtle]

I think overall people are pretty positive about DAI...
There's always going to be people complaining , or simply not liking what they see.It's fair enough.
But I'm following the Sims 4 promotion right now , and errr...it's like seeing a car crash in slow motion.

EA and Maxis are lucky I'm a lifelong fan of the Sims because if I wasn't Sims 4 would never see a minute on my computer.

[Reznore57]

EA and Maxis are lucky I'm a lifelong fan of the Sims because if I wasn't Sims 4 would never see a minute on my computer.

 

Sorry off topic:

Well last year I wanted to pre order (it's the only game I wanted with DAI in 2014) then I decided not to...and I just decided last month I just wasn't going to pay full price for this.So I'll wait for some sales.

 

So yeah.

[AllThatJazz]

Yeah, toddlers seem like a really big thing to exclude for people who like playing families ... and no pools, no create-a-style, reduced number of lots in a neighbourhood ... and it's pretty late in the day to be announcing these features aren't there, when fans will have taken some of them for granted, I guess. I was considering picking it up on release but I'll be waiting now - especially since I bet toddlers and pools at least will turn up in an EP 

 

OT: Yep, I do see your point Allan - I tend to lurk on places like NeoGAF and the Obsidian forums which tend to be pretty critical places so it could partly be that I'm not seeing as much of the positive feedback. That said, NeoGAF at least seems to be getting more and more positive about DAI overall as we get closer to release, so clearly marketing is doing something right! I see more criticism there of the blurbs than of anything else - screenshots are being well-received, as are writer interviews. I've seen a few questions from posters about the kind of post-game content we can expect, and a wish to see more of the tactical combat (you guys are probably aware of this stuff, I just don't know how much attention you pay to general gaming sites etc)

[Allan Schumacher]

Course correction time now though

[Braindeer]

I actually like the quote teasers. For me, they offer just enough info to give an impression of the character - kind of like a snapshot - without giving it all away.

I don't think we as fans need to be worrying about what other people will think of the game either. I imagine the majority of people currently following DA:I on social media have played the other games in the series and are already fans, so will have an idea of how Bioware writes characters and won't base their impressions of the entire franchise on those few quotes. People who are new to DA probably won't become aware of any marketing until much closer to the release date, and I assume the marketing team will target them differently.

[wright1978]

Loved Companion blurbs personally.