Early Access!?

[AgentMoore.9453]

12 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

There was no early access, there was a PR tour for some journalists and content creators.

I hate to break it to you, but when you access something early, even as part of a tour, that's what early access is. Now, you may be referring to the marketing buzzword, but I am referring to literally accessing something early.

12 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

There is nothing wrong with that.

And I didn't say that there was, only that it was different from previous handlings of the same sort of thing and therefore a bit weird.

12 hours ago, yoni.7015 said:

You can literally play the game in two days! 

And I did say this; glad to hear we agree in the end.

12 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

I think you are confusing Betas (BWE) with early access.

I'm not; I consider any access to content before it's available to the broader population to be a form of early access. I put betas under the same umbrella.

12 hours ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

we visited Amnoon in the BWEs.

Which means we visited/accessed Amnoon early - before the release of PoF. The purpose of this (and the Silverwastes preview period) was to give people a taste of what was coming and to generate hype and buzz in addition to press tours that were also happening at the time.

If you want to hold strictly to the buzzword meaning of early access (full, unrestricted access to the entirety of something), that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about accessing content early, before its release - even in a limited form - and how it was handled differently with EoD compared to other times. I'm not offended that there was a press tour (those are completely normal and have happened in the past as well), but I am pointing out the differences between this prerelease period and other xpac releases ArenaNet has done.

[Linken.6345]

16 minutes ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

I hate to break it to you, but when you access something early, even as part of a tour, that's what early access is. Now, you may be referring to the marketing buzzword, but I am referring to literally accessing something early.

And I didn't say that there was, only that it was different from previous handlings of the same sort of thing and therefore a bit weird.

And I did say this; glad to hear we agree in the end.

I'm not; I consider any access to content before it's available to the broader population to be a form of early access. I put betas under the same umbrella.

Which means we visited/accessed Amnoon early - before the release of PoF. The purpose of this (and the Silverwastes preview period) was to give people a taste of what was coming and to generate hype and buzz in addition to press tours that were also happening at the time.

If you want to hold strictly to the buzzword meaning of early access (full, unrestricted access to the entirety of something), that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about accessing content early, before its release - even in a limited form - and how it was handled differently with EoD compared to other times. I'm not offended that there was a press tour (those are completely normal and have happened in the past as well), but I am pointing out the differences between this prerelease period and other xpac releases ArenaNet has done.

Early access is you get access before anyone else and can keep playing untill launch day tho this did infact not happen to any release after the core game.

Edit

Should have read the whole post before replying, I see you brought this up.

In what way have they handled EoD previews any different then earlier ones?

Edit 2

One thing I can think of is the Rng item you had to grind for to get into the heart of thorns preview Im glad they dident do that again.

Edited February 27, 2022 by Linken.6345

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Well, what you consider 'early access' and what it actually is may be two different things.  🤷‍♂️

[AgentMoore.9453]

1 minute ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Well, what you consider 'early access' and what it actually is may be two different things.  🤷‍♂️

Yes. Marketing buzzwords and the same words in the English language can sometimes mean different things, so I thought it best to clarify my position to help people understand it better.

[Donari.5237]

The thing is that wasn't really access as such.  It was a preview with a lot of stuff missing, same way all the live streams cut out a huge amount of what we'll actually see.  The press was then able to share what it had seen with the public.  It seems very unlikely that they learned anything they could use for a "leg up" at actual launch and in fact I am sorry for them, they won't have as much "oh shiny" as the rest of us once they can play on their own characters.

 

It wasn't even as full a look as book and movie critics get before release so they can post reviews.  Those at least get to read/see the whole thing.  Are you annoyed at the critics for getting that early viewing?

[StarPT.7431]

On 2/25/2022 at 4:52 PM, AusarViled.7106 said:

I feel bad, because I always feel bad, anti consumer practices in general make me feel bad on top of that. I not invested in GW2 enough to care about the tour in this particular case. It’s called a hypothetical that others can feel 

What's anti-consumer about showing it to partners so they can hype up the public? xD It's called marketing.

[Gorem.8104]

On 2/26/2022 at 2:57 AM, Danikat.8537 said:

As far as I know it was only for journalists and streamers, so it's part of the promotion of the game. They give those people early access so they can write reviews, which then gets more attention on the game and helps potential customers decide if they want to buy it or not. It's not like Anet just decided to let them play early as a favour or a gift, they did it as part of the marketing for the expansion.

 

Yeah but, its not good promotion. I see Anet continuing their usual stance on having the worst marketing team besides maybe Nintendo. They are promoting the game, to people who already watch the game. If you watch WP, that means you most likely play the game or already know of the game or know of the Expac. I know people who play other mmo's or don't play mmo's. If I asked them "did you watch the tour" they say "what? Gw2 is getting an expac? neat" 
Anet needs to learn to market the game to none of us. Can't bring flesh or new blood in or bring people back if they have no idea this expac even exists. I played GW2 at launch, and quit for six years. 

In those six years I had no idea GW2 had 2 expansion releases until I came back to the game last year. And this would explain why, they are promoting the game... to people who already own it. 

[Gorem.8104]

11 minutes ago, StarPT.7431 said:

What's anti-consumer about showing it to partners so they can hype up the public? xD It's called marketing.

 

What public though? Public ourselves? Public the GW2 Community? Did a single new person who doesn't watch GW2 content and doesn't know about GW2 and doesn't know about the Expansion watch? 

[StarPT.7431]

8 minutes ago, Gorem.8104 said:

 

What public though? Public ourselves? Public the GW2 Community? Did a single new person who doesn't watch GW2 content and doesn't know about GW2 and doesn't know about the Expansion watch? 

All of the above, who knows if it was effective or not?

[Linken.6345]

16 hours ago, Gorem.8104 said:

 

What public though? Public ourselves? Public the GW2 Community? Did a single new person who doesn't watch GW2 content and doesn't know about GW2 and doesn't know about the Expansion watch? 

Pretty much any major mmo internet site got the preview right so a mmo player looking for something new will find info about the expac.

Edit

kitten I was tired sight lol fixed that typo

Edited February 27, 2022 by Linken.6345

[Danikat.8537]

7 hours ago, Linken.6345 said:

Pretty much any major mmo internet sight got the preview right so a mmo player looking for something new will find info about the expac.

Agreed. I'm not sure how much benefit there was in including streamers because presumably they're people who already stream GW2, but after the press embargo was lifted a lot of MMO and general gaming news sites had articles and videos showing off EoD which will help get the news out there to people who aren't currently playing.

Here's some examples I found:

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-top-five-new-features-of-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons

https://www.thegamer.com/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-preview-echovald-wilds-fort-aspenwood-strike-mission-siege-turtle-isle-of-reflection-fishing-legendary-weapons-aurene/

https://www.nme.com/en_asia/features/gaming-features/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-preview-cantha-is-all-about-togetherness-3142073

https://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/end-of-dragons-cantha-calls

https://www.gamepur.com/guides/all-upcoming-elite-specializations-in-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons

 

[Ashantara.8731]

A new review is out in German. This time about the Fort Espenwood meta. Looks like there were two early access events.

[Gorem.8104]

17 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Agreed. I'm not sure how much benefit there was in including streamers because presumably they're people who already stream GW2, but after the press embargo was lifted a lot of MMO and general gaming news sites had articles and videos showing off EoD which will help get the news out there to people who aren't currently playing.

Here's some examples I found:

https://www.ign.com/articles/the-top-five-new-features-of-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons

https://www.thegamer.com/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-preview-echovald-wilds-fort-aspenwood-strike-mission-siege-turtle-isle-of-reflection-fishing-legendary-weapons-aurene/

https://www.nme.com/en_asia/features/gaming-features/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-preview-cantha-is-all-about-togetherness-3142073

https://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/end-of-dragons-cantha-calls

https://www.gamepur.com/guides/all-upcoming-elite-specializations-in-guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons

 

Issues with using those articles is also that unless you follow them, you don't see it. What I see is basically what Google shows me if you look at it from a perspective of the way advertisement works these days. I look at Google recent news and get gw2 content cause google knows I am interested. When I wasn't, I did not get a single article on anything gw2 related show up. Idk, maybe they need to like pay google to promote their work to people interested in games? Put adverts out on TV's all over the world? Get popular Youtubers who play all sorts of games, like Let's game it out, to advertise? Honestly that last one is a great way to find gamers who may have never even heard of GW2, sponsoring popular independent people not affiliated with with google or news articles and gw2 itself. 

 

There's a reason Genshin is one of the highest grossing games of all time, they sponsor channels. They advertise on all fronts. Everyone knows about that game even if google never told you or you have never played it or watched it. 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Never heard of Genshin....

I'd guess people interested in MMOs do check out the MMO games sites. Those sites have articles on just about every kind and type of MMO. 

[Vayne.8563]

On 2/26/2022 at 3:47 AM, AusarViled.7106 said:

Feels bad, I hate early access, even if it’s a tour and only that, why would we not get equal treatment? I like many pre-ordered EOD, why would we not get access to said tour? Not saying I would personally care, but I know many do.

 

 

If it helps to sell games and get people interested I'm all for it. You playing the game won't sell games. People with decent sized followings might. It's about getting exposure. What's the point of having a release date if you don't get to show the game.

Keep in mind these people don't progress their account at all. They're playing the game on a beta server and nothing they do impacts the game itself.  

[Vayne.8563]

On 2/26/2022 at 3:52 AM, AusarViled.7106 said:

I feel bad, because I always feel bad, anti consumer practices in general make me feel bad on top of that. I not invested in GW2 enough to care about the tour in this particular case. It’s called a hypothetical that others can feel 

Hypothetically I think you know less about what people care about than you think you do. Also, giving journalists access to a beta server that doesn't advance their accounts at all is not anti-consumer.  Games have a right to advertise themselves and this is one way to do it. People complain all the time that this game doesn't get enough advertising and you're here complaining that they're trying to get the word out.

I think most people are happy they're trying to get the word out.

[Danikat.8537]

5 hours ago, Gorem.8104 said:

Issues with using those articles is also that unless you follow them, you don't see it. What I see is basically what Google shows me if you look at it from a perspective of the way advertisement works these days. I look at Google recent news and get gw2 content cause google knows I am interested. When I wasn't, I did not get a single article on anything gw2 related show up. Idk, maybe they need to like pay google to promote their work to people interested in games? Put adverts out on TV's all over the world? Get popular Youtubers who play all sorts of games, like Let's game it out, to advertise? Honestly that last one is a great way to find gamers who may have never even heard of GW2, sponsoring popular independent people not affiliated with with google or news articles and gw2 itself. 

 

There's a reason Genshin is one of the highest grossing games of all time, they sponsor channels. They advertise on all fronts. Everyone knows about that game even if google never told you or you have never played it or watched it. 

I've never seen an advert for Genshin and only know of it from people talking about it.

But I think what you're missing is these articles don't exist in isolation, you don't need a direct link to find them and they won't only come up if you're searching for GW2. They'll have been on the sites front page and other news pages alongside articles about other games so anyone visiting the site will have seen them even if they weren't looking specifically for GW2 news. Sites like IGN and NME aren't exactly obscure either, they get a lot of traffic.