Guild Wars 2: Missing Advertisement?

[Deleted]

http://www.geforce.com/games-applica...er?id=hp-promo

Thank you

[Ganja0102]

Why waste heaps of money on advertisement, when the "whole world" is already talking about it.

I logged into the stress test, 7 mins late and already over half the servers were full.

[Hockeyhacker]

I read this over at another forum and it got me intrigued because it's true..

the op asked if anyone else noticed that something was missing?

specifically: ADVERTISEMENT

now that you think about it.. do you even see any?

seriously.. think about it now.. here's a list of missing advertisements

• Gamestop Posters or Posters of any kind at all!
• Website ads
• Gametrailer/IGN/Gamebreaker/Gamespot/etc.. no ads
• Cinematic trailers pre-release to get crowd buzzing?
• Any trailers at this point before launch

etc etc.. in this age of extreme marketing.. ArenaNET has virtually zero advertisements

anyone else find it odd and curious...? GW2 is missing something.. it has no ads!

how are people going to find out about this awesome game?!

There has been plenty of advertising... just not your traditional advertising. Quit frankly I have seen more advertising for GW2 then I ever saw for anything Sega Genis back in the day or even Nintendo SNES products. Forums, youtube, games conferences, friends showing friends showing other friends.... go look at the view counts on some of the major youtube channels and twitch channels for example totalhalibut, omfgcata, yogscast, talesoftyria, and many many others not to mention the smaller channels that also get 1,000-10,000 views. If 150,000-800,000 views per video on the major channels isn't considered advertising I don't know what would be.

[charlieprince]

Compared to the releases you see from companies like EA or Activision or Ubisoft, GW2 has a very modest marketing budget.

However people saying, "GW2 doesn't need advertisements because it's so good!" are fooling themselves. Bigger marketing budgets absolutely translates to more awareness of the game, increased interest, and higher sales numbers.

That being said, their online marketing is going well, they just aren't pulling out TV slots or plastering posters across bus's and billboards like you see for other big title games.

^ this

There has been plenty of advertising... just not your traditional advertising. Quit frankly I have seen more advertising for GW2 then I ever saw for anything Sega Genis back in the day or even Nintendo SNES products. Forums, youtube, games conferences, friends showing friends showing other friends.... go look at the view counts on some of the major youtube channels and twitch channels for example totalhalibut, omfgcata, yogscast, talesoftyria, and many many others not to mention the smaller channels that also get 1,000-10,000 views. If 150,000-800,000 views per video on the major channels isn't considered advertising I don't know what would be.

word of mouth?

those aren't .. "Advertising"

honestly, the only thing that I can explain/rationalize as to the reason why AN isn't doing any advertising whatsoever regarding GW2 is that thw Word of Mouth has taken a life of its own and the world is literally engulfed in a fever right now

it's at critical mass right now

however, like edge said.. anyone who thinks GW2 doesn't need ADS in the MAINSTREAM media is deluding themselves

it's the difference between 5million at years end and possibly 7million and more! in a year!

unthinkable numbers that are impossible to reach without proper advertising

[Deleted]

As a matter of fact, I've had GW2 ads on Youtube + Minecraft Skindex earlier today. 'Bout the same amount of advertising as I've ever seen for any other MMO tbh.

[Hockeyhacker]

^ this



word of mouth?

those aren't .. "Advertising"

honestly, the only thing that I can explain/rationalize as to the reason why AN isn't doing any advertising whatsoever regarding GW2 is that thw Word of Mouth has taken a life of its own and the world is literally engulfed in a fever right now

it's at critical mass right now

however, like edge said.. anyone who thinks GW2 doesn't need ADS in the MAINSTREAM media is deluding themselves

it's the difference between 5million at years end and possibly 7million and more! in a year!

unthinkable numbers that are impossible to reach without proper advertising

Firstly I never said that "mainstream" advertising would hurt anything, just merely that there IS advertisement for it no matter how large or small, where as the way the OP worded it he/she sounded like they where saying that there was no advertisement for it. The question isn't wither or not that say a TV ad which costs a lot to even play one single time and never again where your target audience may still be at work/school/etc, to have effective TV ads you have to spend a lot of money to have them air multiple times a day across many weeks/months. The question there is lies is the increase in sales from "mainstream ads" going to more then cover the cost of the ads in the first place. Lets assume that an average 30 second ad costs $20 per 1,000 viewers, now lets assume that .2% of the world population is your target audience of people who would play an MMO, which would mean for every 1,000 people that view said commerical two would play MMOs, which means for every 2,000 people that view said commercial (since retailers take a cut from the sales and so figure at most NCSoft/ANet make $40 per copy) would be four people of your target audience, to even break even in the cost of TV ads you would have to have 25% of your target audience purchase the game due to that 30 second ad. And that is under the assumption that everyone who sees the ad has never seen it before.

Online "press" channels already hit that same target audience, plus more and for the most part don't cost a single penny or a negligible amount compared to TV ads. Paying for ads such as in local retailers such as Gamestop, Wallmart, Bestbuy, blah blah blah would make more sense to do then anything on TV for such a niche genre without a major known lore behind it, ToR made sense to have TV ads because you get the audience who isn't online a lot that may buy the game, WoW makes sense to do TV ads because you don't need near the amount of sales per $ spent on the ad due to sub fees, GW2 would not see enough of an impact from TV ads due to no major lore behind it that people who are not on the internet would be interested in, and no sub fee to make that per sale of $ spent much lower needed to break even.

But to say that word of mouth, internet press, and major gaming channels(non press) are not advertisement is silly, in the MMO genre you get more sales via word of mouth then you do via "traditional ads" due to the nature of the genre. For MMOs, online (mostly) free advertisement and in video gaming stores is the two major places to advertise, NOT on TV unless you have something like Starwars lore backing it since most the people who will have seen the ad on TV who will buy a MMO will have already seen press footage on the major gaming channels. You remember many Genisis or NES or Gamegear or Gameboy commercials ever playing on TV? No? Maybe that's because their ads where in places where gamers would look for info and not wasted on a media where 99.98% of people viewing held zero interest in said product since it was still very taboo to be a "gamer" back then and a MMO market is an even smaller audience then that despite gaming becoming more accepted in society today.

[Loaf Lord]

I've seen GW2 vids being played at Microcenter. They did it with SWTOR and Rift too.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

There's plenty of ads, plus if you're a gamer, you've heard of this game without a doubt because the whole gaming community is talking about it. Some video game stores are not advertising it that well I guess because they'd have a midnight release 3 days after the game is basically out. But it's out there.

[slipn]

There are a ton of people unhappy with another game and want a new mmo. ANET doesn't even have to try to get most of us. They have changed alot and are offering a kinda different product. Can't wait for this weekend.

[carnifex2005]

I suspect they'll be plenty of ads in a couple of months just before holidays and when the first wave of people have gone through. That and I'm assuming the game will be a bit more stable than even now.

[Schmiggy]

The only thing I've picked up from this thread is that certain people have been oblivious to the amount of advertising AN are actually doing. Yes, word of mouth may be having the greatest effect, that doesn't mean they haven't been putting effort into other mediums. Someone has already submitted an image of cut outs and posters in one game store, and just about every EB store I've been past recently have gone GW2 crazy with advertising. As I said earlier they played the trailer for the game before The Dark Knight Rises (if that's not advertising to the masses I'm not sure what is), I've seen the trailer on TV several times, and then there's the internet advertising.

Someone please tell me how this is representative of a small advertising budget?

My location is Melbourne, Australia btw if that has any bearing on anything (if anything I'd have thought they'd have a smaller advertising presence in Aus)

[anothdae]

Why waste heaps of money on advertisement, when the "whole world" is already talking about it.

I logged into the stress test, 7 mins late and already over half the servers were full.

Agree. I would rather them not waste millions on TV spots and ads that no one sees online.

[Mif]

Nvidia has a tool dedicated just to tell whether your video card is powerful enough to run GW2. I'd say their advertisement is subtle and mysteriously attractive

I wonder if it's like the BF3 one where if you had a HD7970 it told you that your card was too shit and you needed to upgrade to a new Nvidia card

[ThisWillNotStand]

I wonder if it's like the BF3 one where if you had a HD7970 it told you that your card was too shit and you needed to upgrade to a new Nvidia card

But of course! the HD 7970 is only if you want Ultra settings! If you want the *hidden settings of the Gods which make your computer sparkle*, you must buy the HD7999.9999 (repeating of course) HD GTX TI OC RT Supercharge NOS...Limited Fatality Edition...XT... costs 2000$ and your soul :P

[Deleted]

As a matter of fact, I've had GW2 ads on Youtube + Minecraft Skindex earlier today. 'Bout the same amount of advertising as I've ever seen for any other MMO tbh.

Hopefully they're not like the World of Tanks adds that's placed so you cant click them away