Let’s Talk About Marketing...

[NotOverlyCheesy.9427]

You need to have a more holistic way to the marketing than adding random quotes from people I don’t know to an already existing trailer. I found this kind of lazy from the marketing team but I see the motivation to not send this ad out to the public but rather get the community involved in how to do marketing better so I’ll give my thoughts about this.

1. Get influencers to play the game with sponsored streams/videos. — It’s incredibly important for people to be able to find content from their known gamer to see how a game is before making the purchase decision. Also make sure that they don’t play just open world for 4 hours straight. Have them try out fractals, meta-events, raids or even a story chapter or 2 (recap for story is ESSENTIAL).

2. After you’ve got the basic ”bread” content available from influencers, you can start to get people hyped with a trailer and you have to reshoot it. The one shown with the quotes shows that we have pretty game with mounts. Following points are things that in my opinion are strong points of GW2. The order is all over the place but I’m not here to make a script for the trailer, I’m here to give ideas.

2.1. Structure new trailer in a way that shows strong points of GW2. — New players are interested in what a game has to offer. There are tons of pretty games out there but if the gameplay/content is unknown why would they go for GW2 instead of any newer game with better graphics.

2.2. Have a few scenes of cool fights from different perspectives. — The combat system is awesome in this game so you have to show it off. For example you could have some footage from what it’s like when a squad takes on a boss like Dhuum from players perspective and from an angle that shows the whole arena. Or you could show WvW clashes, Serpents’ Ire meta event or even someone soloing Lupicus.

2.3. Continuous story updates. — Game gets updated frequently now and footage you have works with this segment.

2.4. Joy of movement. — Mounts are incredibly cool addition to the game and should be definitely shown off. You could show an actual mount race and griffon master adventure from player perspective.

2.5. Simple yet diverse class system — We have 9 classes with 2 elite specs each for incredible build variety. Also we have no gear threadmill.

2.6. Show off the terrain. — I know what I said before and it is definitely an asset but don’t focus on this above all else.

2.7. Use quotes from critic reviews in segments that make sense. — Metacritic has critic reviews and you can use any of those for example in you mount segment. Don’t overdo it though ’cos it’s a bit cheesy if you have a quote every other second on the screen so find the right balance.

3. Use your community. — If you need a guild that you can record for raids, contact a raid guild. If you need WvW footage, contact a WvW guild. If influencers don’t know how to participate in meta-events, fractals or raids, offer them a guild that can help out. There could even be a gift for those who help out.

4. Optimize internet marketing better. — I saw GW2 ads only in videos that were about GW2. If you want to get new players to join you need to expand your keywords. The people who look at GW2 videos most likely own the game already.

[Okami.4287]

I think the video is interesting, the images are nice. But i really don't think the player quote stuff is interesting at all, i think it's distracting from the real stuff going on, and it feels fake.

But more importantly, i think you have to think like a player wanting to get information about the game. If a new player watch this video, will it know that there is end game in gw2 ? will it know there is raids, fractals, event with 50+ people playing it, world vs world, etc ? The answer is no. The person watching this video would only know the game looks nice, and there is mounts. They will not know anything about real gameplay, real endgame, gamemodes etc.

When i am looking for new games to play, graphics sure are a factor, but most importantly, knowing what there is to do in the game will make me want to buy it or not. And this video shows nothing of it, unfortunately :(

[Grigdusher.9760]

@"Mike Silbowitz.1827" said:Great feedback. Finding a way to clearly detail this is existing players will help provide context to the quotes. :-)

about the "cherry picked" quotes factor, i have seen this video:

not all quotes need to be extremely positive.

and BTW plase make a praise joko, "join the awakened today" video.

[Rafty.4298]

As with many of the other users have stated I think the quotes in the video are silly, as a viewer I don't care about these quote from a random poster on the forum or even if they were from a game news website like IGN. I think if you are trying to capture the attention of new players you should be showing off the unique features of guild wars two - mainly the big "free" content updates that come regularly and examples of features that come with them such as raids and fractals, etc.

[SovationBoss.1638]

I appreciate that you try to involve the community, but lets be honest:If thats all the marketing team can pull off, I’d fire them right away. That trailer looks like some half-ass made trailer from some cheap F2P game. It doesn’t show anything that makes this game unique, like the combat system, the dynamic events e.g.

If you want to reach potential new customers you definitelly need to get your Instagram going. A lot of your new potential customers are in an age where their phone is kinda „the center of their universe“ and a lot oft them are using Instagram too.If I look at your Instagram, the last post was from 2 days ago and that one before from 5 days ago (at the time I’m writing this). You should post more frequently, like at least once a day. You could post like 1 min videos, showing stuff like gameplay scenes, dynamic events, some of the beautiful maps, or simply show some insides from the arenanet office and so on.

On another note, you should probably interact more with the community. You could do that by simply replying to some of the comments you get under your youtube videos, your instagram posts or by showing some participation on reddit (only Ben does this on a „regular“ basis afaik).I as a customer would feel more connected to your company and the game. If people feel like the company cares about them and about their opinion (feel adressed WvW-players :D), they feel satisfied and are probably more likely to recommend that game to their friends or to other people in general.

You’ve created an amazing game which brought me 5 years of fun and which I still enjoy to play, but if you want to reach new customers it takes more than just a half-ass made video which shows nothing from what this games is actually about and what it makes so unique compared to others MMO’s.

[Lanhelin.3480]

@Mike Silbowitz.1827 said:Any constructive feedback you can provide about this video, either positive or negative, will help us present GW2 in the best light possible.

I assume you had a very good reason to show the smallest seized male human riding the jackal? Is this seize used the most by players? Because larger seized characters do not appear as small on this mount as the video suggests.

[Renkku.7451]

The thing that stood up to me about the video is that three quotes in a row use the word "amazing". If you read them all back to back like in the video, it starts to feel very repetitive. I'd rather pick quotes with more variety in words used and comments on specific aspects of the game. One or two more vague ones can work in between, but you don't want to read basically the same comment three times in a row and with such a short video you would want to pack as much information in as possible. The quotes that mention specific things are better, stuff that's related to the story, game play, maps, mounts etc.

[ReaverKane.7598]

Is this April fools? Oh, It's not April....Don't quote mine the forums for crying out loud! OR if you do, please add the "Mounts are overpriced"/"Toxic lootboxes", i mean you want to be balanced... :p

If you want this to be taken seriously, then get some quotes from IGN, PCGamer, Times, etc. I know it's an accolade video... But accolades from a random Joe (don't confuse with Angry Joe, that would make some sense)... kinda don't work. I mean, MO is pretty much saying they're close to begging to finance the game, and you're wasting resources with a video that didn't put any effort into researching a few quotes from actual critics?

Also i don't mind the way it's edited much:"The desert is gorgeous"> Cut to Balthazar... It doesn't make sense.Get swooping views of the desert, you can even use a overheadshot of a player in a Griffon to showcase it (cat's out of the bag). Also show more of the highlands, so that people know it's not just sand and yellow and brown. IDK the full score, but you can change the tone of the video from pure desert to highlands with a change of beat, then pick it up and move to fighting and balthazar scenes.Show us the world more, get more open shots with large FOV, show usp the beauty of the world, the world is gorgeous, so show us... Not some guy running in a sandstorm.Overhead shots of the Griffon flying over the highlands, a side shot of a raptor cliff-jumping in Desolation or Riverlands, etc. Show all the mounts, not just jackal and gemstore skimmers.Me, personally, i'd split the footage into two themes, a World display, quiet, serene and a Muscled, fiery display of heroes battling a gallery of Rogues, starting and ending with the Elonian Hero fighting balthazar. You can split those into two halves, which would be boring, or splice them in the movie intertwining the experience of the world vistas with the battle. A bit of a musical remix to fit the themes, and you'd be set.

Also spice it up with shots from Twilight Oasis and Underworld, i know this is an Accolade of the PoF release, but a few sneaky shots won't be too out of place, especially from the fractal, since it's the same theme.Again, if you're trying to appeal to people outside the community, show them what's in the game besides pretty scenes and an unknown guy with too many horns on his helmet.Also, don't add RNG mounts to the video... Purple skimmer shot. It's bad enough that you have that practice. You don't want to get new players tweeting their mates about that shot on the video that shows a mount you only get from a lootbox.IF you want to showcase those, include a quote about the gemstore like "Cosmetic only Premium Store".

There's a lot of great moments, the way the music explodes when you do the Jackal dismount, is pretty awesome. You guys clearly know your game, but i'd show a bit less "Generic Elonian Hero vs Balthazar" and more World shots. Sure show us the baddy, also show us ALL the baddies. There's a lot of more interesting and menacing looking villains in the expac that will entice people outside the community.

[Snowskau.4369]

If I came across this trailer as a non-player, I'd get the impression that Path of Fire has some mounts, and... A desert? A big boss guy? I'm not really impressed. The quotes from random people I've never heard of before do nothing, either. In fact, it would give me the impression you had to resort to these random people as if no established critics had anything positive to say about the product.

Show off the content here. Show some gameplay, a quick list of features, let people know what they're being sold on.

[Nemmar.8491]

Hello Mike.

First of all let me apologize because i didn't have time to read this whole thread before posting but i want to drop a bit of feedback.I have a degree on Marketing myself, but i do think that the most important angle here is the gamer angle.

From what i know of gamers, they don't like being told what to do or think. When you make a trailer with quotes from people saying how much they loved the game, it sounds reaching. Sounds like you are feeling the need to do this because you don't have a very good game and need to pamper it (wich isn't the case!). I think that kind of gamer communication is better in it's origin sources. Let that information flow by itself, don't try to involve yourself in it as it will make it look biased.

As far as trailers to celebrate the game, i have the opinion that footage (not just an image in this case) is worth a thousand words. Show us footage from the live servers. One of the most amazing things in GW2 are the large scale taxi's for meta's and Bounty hunts. Show how many people there were on those. How amazing it was to play the game. Don't say it, show it! Show your players enjoying the game in great numbers. I find that is the biggest motivator to playing an mmo. Knowing you have alot of people to play with.
If you put some text in, let it be just all the content you are offering.

The other thing and more in regard with reveal trailers and exciting people is to show a villain that makes sense and is frightning. This isn't your field as you are not a developer, but Balthazar was difficult to sell. He was always on the run and never made especially threatning action. That is where the competition definitely trumps GW2. Villains need to be better developed and frightning. Their action has to have had consequence and shaken up the world already. The people you want to appeal to, don't know GW lore. So, a villain that is understandable and is not only a threat but has already delivered on that threat is the thing that calls you to action.

Finally, something that i consider very important towards marketing an mmo, is to have a game plan to share. Always having something to look forward to is the best way to hook mmo gamers. But, i know that is probably not in concordance with the company president's views, as much as we like him. ^^

Well, it's my opinion. I hope it's of use.

[Phil.7369]

ty for doing this Mike Wazowski!I don't have to add much because the comments are already full of great suggestions. I'd only say... take a look at how WOW advertises their upcoming content and try doing it in a similar fashion.

Something like this:

@"Cragga the Eighty Third.6015" said:

Like:"Five sprawling new maps, filled with adventure and mystery.""Mounts that let you travel the world as never before""Face a rogue god, bent on destruction."

and of course this:

@Alatar.7364 said:

EDIT2: Forgot to Add, that this Post of Yours is finally a Step in the Right Direction. Because, with all due Respect to all of Anet Staff, there was not much of a Communication which is the very foundation of succes in MMO games. Good Job.

well said

and please get yourself a dev ANET forum icon. At first I thought you were a random player who made his own fan-made video.

[Kana.6793]

A lot of people have linked you WoW trailers and I agree, they are a great format to copy. Blizzard do great trailers. I have another example of the sort of thing you should try to emulate. Path of Exile release content patches with each new league and you could think of these releases as their version of a living story release. Each league patch has its own trailer showcasing the league mechanics and new content. Here is the latest:

I think you should do something like this for every living story patch. Note that the Path of Exile trailer shows plenty of in game footage of combat and the new maps and they make a point of "new gems" "new bosses" "new maps".

You should do something like this. For PoF showcase:

• 5 new zones
• 9 new class specialisations - new talents, new skills
• new story missions
• mounts
• new mastery system - unlock combat and travel abilities for your mounts
• new guild hall
• new mini-games
• new weapons
• new armor sets
• bounty quest system

Have in-game footage of each and put some story cinematic stuff around it.

For the Living world stuff do something similar.

• living world season 4 - log in between (date range) to unlock content for free
• new zone
• new raid
• new fractal dungeon
• new story missions
• new quests
• new open world events

Please forget about spoiling things, if you do it the way PoE and WoW do you will not spoil anything, you will generate interest. You need to point out that the patches are free, lots of people even in game don't know how living world unlocks work. Use generic MMO terms for things in the trailers, like I did above. Non-GW2 players don't know profession means class and they don't know what a fractal, heart or adventure is either.

Point out that the mounts aren't just normal mounts, they have abilities. Show off the mastery system the way Blizzard were showing off artifact weapon progression. You have to point out every feature.

I hope you see this!

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

I’ll just say, that video is beautiful but forgettable. It’s generic. The video shows features common to many other games and doesn’t highlight this game’s strongpoints. Some guy on fire. People riding mounts. Landscape shots. Nice music. Pretty, but nothing that sticks in your mind. The other game’s promo videos gets your blood pumping even if you know nothing about that game. Y’all’s video doesn’t raise excitement levels. And the quotes..... Who are these people and why should I care about their opinion? You could have given some guy $5 and had him say something nice for all I know.

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

@Mike Silbowitz.1827 said:

@IndigoSundown.5419 said:Other posters have provided suggestions about things to add to the video (or to replace some of the existing vignettes). How long of a video are you aiming for? A minute seems short for a Youtube video, but placed on other platforms might be just about the right length.

Hi! The video is intended to be about 1 minute in length and utilized via social channels targeting people who play video games but have not yet played GW2.

I don't think you should be trying to do 1 video everywhere. People expect different length content on Twitter vs youtube. You need to have appropriate content for the mode of advertising. A 1 min vid on Youtube will turn off people because they will feel it's lazy, but will be more than enough for twitter.

[notebene.3190]

@Asum.4960 said:You might want to have a look at some of the fan made Trailers that are out there, they are some of the best Trailers for GW2 I've seen.If you want to approach absolutely new players, I don't think just telling them "Hey, there is a new expansion out there and we think it's amazing!" is enough.A lot of very good points have already been brought up, but I'll potentially repeat one of the most important ones:

Tell them about the Features! The game being subjectively good to the established players is great and all, but why should "I" play Guild Wars 2!?Pique their interest with WvW, the special functionality that mounts in GW2 have, Gliding, Fractals, Raids, non toxic/communal open world experience.You have to sell new players on the core gameplay first before they are interested in an expansion, then tell potentially returning players what's new.

As I was reading up to this point, I was thinking, "How can you highlight some of the great social evolutions that this game has, like how there's no mob stealing, node gather stealing, etc. How you can just join one or more people fighting things and everyone gets experience and loot?" I like the one shot in this video where they show two people mining the same node. That's a great idea.

[Roam.2807]

I'm sorry guys but this is pretty week, I work in marketing and this sells to no one. You said this is for new players.. but its not. Why? you're not telling anyone about the games awesome features or value at all. If you're trying to promote a product you need to sell it with its best assets and why its better than others. As well as target people who are looking for those features or value.

I'm talking: Value prop: No sub fee. Features: Raids, Dungeons, sPvP, WvW, Mounts, Gliders, Story every 2 months, etc, etc.

SELL THE ACTUAL GAME.

If I'm new, never played GW2 or don't know much about it you have to sell it to me, Its like a sales pitch. If I didn't know what GW2 was and saw this Id turn off in like 5 seconds. If I tell my friends who don't know about the game do you think I would show them this video? hell no, I would show them jumping puzzles, fractals, pvp, wvw and mounts.

I'm sorry, I work in this field and if it's like you said you're trying to get new players, this just wont do anything. I hope this comment helps.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

I haven't read every comment but will agree with those who say the quotes from random players wouldn't particularly sway new/potential players. If you must have quotes, some from well-known review sites would be better.

The Crystal Desert is GORGEOUS, so really show it off. A night sky with the stars and the moon, more sweeping vistas. Could you show the Griffon mount with a disclaimer (unlockable content), because I think it would appeal to many. Finally, female characters are seriously underrepresented in this video. Thank you.

[Lonami.2987]

@Mike Silbowitz.1827 said:

@Lonami.2987 said:These two threads from reddit have a lot of information I think you will find interesting:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6sf4qy/discussion_lets_talk_about_arenanet_marketing_and/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6zi0en/comparison_arenanet_marketing_gw2_pof_expansion/

I really recommend reading them, not just for the OP but for the comments too (and keep in mind it's reddit, so there's always a bit of drama, spice of life and such). If you want a summary, what ArenaNet fails at (and pretty bigly) is at the marketing material itself. You need more screenshots (not just empty landscapes), video footage (not just showing people walking), and better trailers for each release (showing lot of the new stuff, including the new maps/fractals/raids, rewards, enemies, etc).

Make an effort to have all the artwork and soundtracks available at the highest quality, easy to access, from either the wiki or the official page, too. If I wanted to make a GW2 video now, I wouldn't have barely any quality material, and that's a problem. There's still people at 2017 using the pre-2012 footage for their GW2 videos, with those ugly graphics that have nothing to do with how far we've gotten.

I'll make a detailed analysis including better summary of the above threads tomorrow, because this is a really important issue, and I'm very, very, very glad to see it addressed.

Thank you for this. I have seen these Reddit threads and plan to read through every comment. We want to step up our game and this will be made possible with the amazing communication ArenaNet Marketing and our community now share. The Marketing team is so passionate about GW2 and its community. They are a talented bunch who work very hard. I am personally very honored to be welcomed into this team with open arms by both ArenaNet & the community. The feedback shared is being read and discussed by the Marketing Team. We will strive for perfection and we want to do you all proud.

I look very forward to your detailed analysis and thank you so much for putting in so much time and effort to partner with us. :-)

This isn't quite the long analysis I promised, but I don't want to repeat what others have already said, and I felt the need to continue with the overall discussion of the thread too.

First of all, I don't think that test trailer you posted works in any way. It's just pointless. Can be good as a small piece to post in social media and such, to say "hey we're still here", but the impact beyond that is inexistent. Personally, just scrap the idea altogether. I firmly believe it won't go anywhere.

The major problem I see, both with the team and few players giving feedback here, is that you all live in a bubble of sorts. You have good ideas, yes; for those who are already playing. Most of these ideas are just terrible for outsiders, and that's a prevalent mistake. Of course, I'm assuming the goal of the marketing team is to attract new players and those who stopped playing a long ago, not just to keep current players playing.

The situation could be improved by having a direct channel of communication with major guild leaders, who usually understand the game and why people leave or come back. The Spanish community had this kind of relationship with their old CM, David Ortiz. He was gathering specialized feedback all the time, as a personal decision. No idea if any of that reached the higher echelons, but he worked to get and understand that feedback. Keep in mind that good guild leaders work really hard to keep their members interested in the game, and they understand the motivations of other players better than anyone else.

Few points, after reading the 5 pages of comments so far:

• No one cares about developers or experts talking. It reeks of smoke selling. Your game is good? Well, prove it. Show it. Don't lecture me about it. Save that for technical videos explaining features in detail.
• No one cares about quotes of random people, that is prehistory marketing. If they want to see the opinion of someone else, they will go check youtube and such, and look for it themselves. It sounds like cheap excuses and clickbait, both which we don't need, because this game is full of quality, and we can and should show that directly.
• Avoid art. Use game footage exclusively. Some people love the art, but there's a lot who kinda dislike it as well. Everyone likes gameplay, so focus on that. Leave the art for the cinematics.
• Cinematic trailers are usually a bad idea. They're too expensive, and most of the time, they won't look good. The HoT cinematic trailer was pretty bland, and I'm sure it wasn't cheap at all. However, the
  was pretty good (though it could have been better).
• You don't need to pay anyone to promote the game. As I said before, you fail at promoting the game itself. Its pointless to buy influencers (I know you did with HoT, with various youtubers through game-sales) if the potential players who are interested find nothing to interest them further. I won't play a game just because my favorite youtuber told me so, I might check it out, but if there's nothing interesting once I make the click, I will leave.
• Narrators aren't needed all the time. Sometimes you can just show, with no need to tell.
• I don't know why you don't show more stuff, but it's the biggest mistake you've made in the last 5 years. You need to show EVERYTHING in each release. You're killing the marketing potential of weeks just for a few seconds of surpise at release day.

How would I do a good marketing video? Well, let's try Path of Fire:

• Game footage or machinima, recorded specifically for this video. No recycling.
• Story isn't one of the biggest selling points of GW2, so ignore that. The world, however, is very attractive, so we'll focus on that through gameplay, adventure, and fun.
• The target audience of GW2 is a mix of Lord of the Rings and D&D-esque anime fans, so that's where we should focus. This is a fantasy setting after all. Avoid purposely dumb stuff altogether, GW2 humor is cringy for outsiders and you'll only drive them away. This is a serious game, with its fun moments, yes, but it is not a comedy.
• Show a party of 5 characters, of different races and professions. These will be our protagonists in the video, and they're supposed to represent players, having fun together. Give each one a pretty blatant personality.
• A quick draft for the characters:
• 1-Female sylvari elementalist, scholarly attitude with the leaf hairstyle.
• 2-Male asura necromancer, quirky creepy kind of guy with the rotten ears.
• 3-Male charr warrior, savage and violent but easy on jokes.
• 4-Male human ranger, Krytan, gentle and patient, with a longbow and a gazelle pet.
• 5-Female norn engineer, subtle and wary, with visible norn tattoos.
• The highest selling points of the game are: Events with lot of people, jumping puzzles, exploration, and the combat aesthetics. Focus on that.
• Start the video with the elementalist inside a dark tomb, using a light to look at some carved images. They are telling a short story, of dragons rising or whatever. Then the cave trembles, and she gets called by someone else from outside.
• She gets out and we meet the necromancer, riding a raptor, next by a resting jackal. He's telling her it's time to leave. We see they're in the middle of a desert. Use the entrance to Kesho in Elon Riverlands for these scenes. There's a storm brewing to the west.
• Both characters ride their mounts, jumping over a gap, the raptor by leaping, and the jackal by teleporting. Then they ride in the distance, and we see scenes of the landscape and the fauna for 5 seconds, showing a sunbathing hydra, a djinn by a cliff, and an alligator in a marsh.
• They reach a hill, where they meet the other three characters. The warrior welcomes them, and tells them to have a look. The engineer is crouched in the top, with her rifle ready, while the ranger is playing with his gazelle pet.
• There's a loud sound, and the engineer says something like "it's worse than we thought". All characters peek through the cliff, and we see a large army of forged advancing, escorting the giant Warbeast. No Balthazar, just Forged.
• With this, the introduction is over. This should have taken 45 seconds so far. Now we'll focus the other 45 seconds in showcasing the various features of the game pretty quickly.
• Scenes of 5 seconds, in no particular order, each with a feature title:
• NEW REGION: CRYSTAL DESERT. Aerial zoom view of each zone with a transition.
• DESERT MOUNTS. The players participating in a mount race, while some choya run around. The ranger flies by with the griffon, cutting the scene. (Important to avoid "new feature: mounts" because it looks bad outside to say we didn't get mounts until now, focus on how cool our mounts are instead)
• NEW ENEMIES. Various awakened, a sand shark jumping to knock down one of the players, a branded forgotten commanding a branded hydra to breath fire, and forged slaughtering civilians.
• NEW CHALLENGES. Characters running and jumping across the djinn palace in Desolation and the dwarven ruins in Desert Highlands.
• ELONIAN ELITE SPECIALIZATIONS. Show short scenes of combat, using the 5 characters above. Don't make them fight enemies, make them spin in place and attack invisible targets behind the camera.
• NEW REWARDS. Make a transition from the elite specs and keep rotating player models, this time showing the new armor and weapon skins. Elonian armor and weapons, Bounty Hunter armor and awakened weapons, Forged armor and weapons, and Primeval armor and weapons, 1 shot of each, of the best-looking weight.
• The last 15 seconds will be a teaser of sorts for the final mission. We'll see Balthazar for the first time, next to the Warbeast, in Kodash, and then the camera will turn around to see a roaring Kralkatorrik. Then some flashing images of various locations, with the PoF logo appearing. The logo shouldn't start to appear over a white background, specially with how long its animation is. End of trailer, total time: 90-120 seconds, depending on time adjustments to the various scenes.

That would be the perfect trailer for me, something that I can show to friends and make them really interested in the game.

You can make feature trailers later on, with developers voiceovers or whatever you want, showing each section better, with more technical details, so those who view the above trailer and like it can go and learn more. The trailer should have links at the end, surrounding the "Buy the game" link, each to the video explaining each section in a playlist.

Each release should have something similar, showing the new stuff, and also a short story summary, which can let new players understand what's going on easily, and get interested in the story. Story is ok here, because these trailers are for MMO players, not just gamers in general, and the story is also vital for the LW. These trailers should begin with LIVING WORLD SEASON 4 - EPISODE 1 - TITLE, and there should be a link to "What's the Living World?" next to "Buy the game" at the end of the video. Half the trailer would be about the episode story and the new zone, and the rest for the features, including those outside the story like the fractal and the raid. The new rewards need to be shown too, specially the legendary weapon.

Talking about the website, the menu needs a section for each Living World season, not just a generic Living World button. People need to open that and see "wow so many seasons" before even clicking into any option. They should be treated like the expansions, as standalone products.

Also, the core game, the F2P experience, needs a trailer of its own, too. A new one, though I'd argue the core experience needs a heavy rework first, specially levels 1-30, to put it at the same level of quality from the expansions. Pointless to advertise something that won't keep players engaged on its own once they start playing.

Another thing you could do, is some sort of anniversary video, where you play the whole story of the game from vanilla to lw4, pretty quickly, almost with still shots, like a frenzied timelapse. Use this to show where we've gotten in 5 years, just visually and with no indicators. Start with the Personal Story of each race, and then keep going until PoF itself. Put Fear not this Night at the background, modified to be faster and have more rhythm, and you have a nice piece of "see how much stuff we got" in a video of 2-3 minutes.

@Mike Silbowitz.1827 said:

@Ricky.4706 said:anyone see the new Deadpool 2 movie trailer ?

I'd love to see something like that for gw2, because the game itself does have a great sense of humor thats part of what makes GW2 a fun place to be. "you ran from skrittt!!" ......something like a skritt narrating about life in tyria as a pirate lol! ...with random cut scenes of action packed fights from different parts of the game, filled with footage of users having fun.......and a funny script - those kinds of things have viral power, and the humor itself is a selling point that sets the tone of the environment we want you to have fun in! Plus the video script itself is memorable

Infuse and highlight the funny...I LIKE IT! This one makes it to the idea board for future videos. :-)

Stay away from stuff like that. It doesn't fit what you're trying to sell, and the result will be a guaranteed cringefest.

GW2 is a serious game, not a comedy. People want to play a fantasy world to kill dragons and go on an epic adventure, not to be a clown.

This is the same reason why you should avoid showing "silly" skins in trailers and videos. You need people to take GW2 seriously, to feel like it's a game where they'll feel immersed in the world.

Go for what makes sense, don't try innovation just for the sake of innovation. We have a history of awful marketing in the past, don't repeat that.

@Asum.4960 said:You might want to have a look at some of the fan made Trailers that are out there, they are some of the best Trailers for GW2 I've seen.If you want to approach absolutely new players, I don't think just telling them "Hey, there is a new expansion out there and we think it's amazing!" is enough.A lot of very good points have already been brought up, but I'll potentially repeat one of the most important ones:

Tell them about the Features! The game being subjectively good to the established players is great and all, but why should "I" play Guild Wars 2!?Pique their interest with WvW, the special functionality that mounts in GW2 have, Gliding, Fractals, Raids, non toxic/communal open world experience.You have to sell new players on the core gameplay first before they are interested in an expansion, then tell potentially returning players what's new.

This is a good example of what the F2P trailer should look like. Could be far better, obviously, because it was made with very limited tools, but you get the idea.

[xadine.7069]

I haven't read all post so what's I'm about to say has most likely been said by someone else earlier, sorry for that.

From my perspective, as someone playing gw2 since launch I have several issues with this promotion trailer.1) the quotes... I mean, I don't know any of those players, and even if I knew them to me it looks like those quote a cherry picked. To me quotes are always the part where I shake my head and think "yeah... whatever dude...". Unless you have some kind of "community feedback" clearly identified in your video.2) no actual gameplay. GW2 have some amazing encounter why don't you show some of them?3) the video doesn't grasp the essence of GW2. What I mean is, GW2 have a bit of everything for everyone and this video doesn't show that. No PvP, no WvW, no raid, no WB, no craft, no tp... The only thing you can see is stoy fight and a tiny bit of exploration...I think that if you want to appeal you have to show what the game as to offer, as much as possible. Ofc if you want to keep the video short it'll be hard be still I think you can do a decent job in a 2-3mn video.

From my wife's perspective, very very very casual player with only the core game and playing almost only Teq ^^:1) "this video makes me want to play but I'll be disapointed because the game isn't like that". As a casual player she never got to experience epic fights. Sure she does alot of Teq but the fight itself isn't very engaging.2) no actual game footage. She also think this is a bad thing because it gives people a "false representation of the game".3) quotes... she looked at me and asked "who are they?" and "where those quotes come from?".4) she found the music epic but fell like the IG music is not as epic... (but this one is not really important imo since she play without sound most of the time^^)

I hope it helps. I only wish for the game to grow bigger and better.

[Teleniel.1809]

Overall I enjoyed the video, however I don't think if I saw JUST the video I'd feel I know anything about the game I didn't know before.

In a scene by scene

• Showing Balth is a bit of a tease. We know who he is, but to a new player he just looks like a guy in cool armor, and it might not land right after they've started that they can't play as him. That being said gorgeous shot/backdrop to open the video.
• Showcasing the Jackal mount for walking through the desert is a great intro, but showing it using the sand-portals/blink would be a great teaser as some have said about the unique/engage mount abilities.
• I would pan a little wider to show the waterfall under the domed city.
• The running on the pipe looks very Assassin's Creed, how did he get there, why did he go there. If you wanted something with unique places to explore, at least for me it would resonate more if we saw a character walk through a mirage glamour and 'reacted' to what only they could see.
• I enjoyed the scene(s) where we see the Jackal engage it gives an active feel
• I think the shots with the character engaging Balth give a strong feel, but they make you feel like it's you alone. It could be used to show that while you do play alone, there are others there to help you. Having a variety of friends to assist the hero would make sense in this second shot. Our good old pals which show up at the end are nice to see but they aren't obviously WITH our hero.
• I think the weaver look at the end is a nice tease about some of the combat graphics, and flows well into balthazar looking like he 'awakens'

I know I said the video didn't make me feel like I knew anything I didn't before. In 1 minute you can only get across so much but I feel the key points to address (regarding PoF and not GW2 as a whole)

• Integrated mount system as a means to more than just fast-travel (4/10, we show traveling, but not combat-engage or special action, so what's so great about them?)
• New/Beautiful places (8~9/10, I think some of the stunning details of locations are left out, but that might be to include wonder while you play)
• Enemies: Balthazaar/Forged (2/10, I just don't feel he comes across well)
• Enemies: Joko/Awakened (7/10, The charging our geared up dark zombie on a mount looks cool but there is no context. There really doesn't need to be though)
• New Specializations (6/10, I noticed weaver, and it had a flashy scene but it wasn't emphasized as different/new)

The comments that flow on the screen I think are more distracting than helpful through the video, maybe wait until near the end and have them drop down, or flood in with a yellowish grainy sand tone to fill the screen which brushes away to reveal the GW2: POF logo like it was uncovered.

I would say some of the comments to cherry-pick to be readable dripping slowly before the flood might be along the lines of:

• Dangerous new enemies
• 9 new specializations
• 5 huge new maps

After the screen is filled with sand-grey comment-particles drop this in red to lightly outline the logo

• You don't have to take them on alone

gust of wind effect reveals the GW2-POF logo on a sand, white or black background.

ok I'll stop now because at some point here I'm sure this sounded like rambling!

[OriOri.8724]

@"Mike Silbowitz.1827" I have 2 more points to add about marketing in general, not this video in particular.

1 - If its within your marketing budget, try to make 2 trailer/promotional videos for every release. 1 would be a regular trailer for people who already play the game. The other would be geared at potential new players, and should be advertised more. If its not within budget I completely understand, but what this would do is keep GW2 videos being pushed out pretty routinely. What this does for potential new customers - It shows them your release cadence. Getting new promo videos every 2-3 months, each one showing something completely new? They don't know that you guys release content that quickly. It shows them the variety of releases that we get, I'm envisioning separate videos for LW releases, fractals and raids, even if they drop on the same day. It also gives you the chance to make narrower videos, giving you significantly more time in each video to highlight content and features.

2 - Take a look at WoodenPotatoes getPoF contest (http://woodenpotatoes.com/getpof/). Its a contest for the community to make their own promo videos about GW2. The community as a whole has a lot more time to make videos than you guys do, just because there are so many more of us. And yes, a lot of them will not be on the same level as a professional promotion video, but some of them are. Now, I bring this up because I think that you guys can and should sponsor similar contests roughly once or twice a year, with the stipulation that you are allowed to use the top X videos as promotional videos. You can offer some prices too, gems, signed artwork etc... whatever you want. But I think that this would be huge, not least because it would blow up the number of quality trailers for the game as a whole, which gets it more recognition.

[Grafo.9852]

When I see quotes like this in any game trailer I feel that someone wants to use them just to force the audience to think that it is well, quite... a great game, better USE THE GAME to show that it is the greatest game (but not some random quotes!). I agree what The Last Hobbit.6492 said. EVE online trailers are the greatest in technical idea how to show the greatness of the game, try to learn from them. Right now I feel like "oh ok mounts and sand and some swords, hmm some fire, quotes yeah, are they real?". PoF and just core GW2 are so much more than that! So many things to be done, so many challenges, so many game modes! Epic wievs and battles.

How about more STORYTELLING marketing style?

Try to thrill audience that after trailer they want to join the story! Sorry, but after that trailer I would think that it's just another MMO, nothing special, features like in all games (but with bad graphics). People want to live another life, that is what is interesting in computer games. Just use some storytelling, make audience wanting to get into the story. Isn't it what forces this game in to future with soo big potential(expansions, living world, world bosses, meta, events, even the dialogess in the PoF cities, villages)?

[keyokku.5412]

Agree with what people are saying. The community is so united here! This trailer to reiterate for myself is nothing but a bunch of quotes. Other than the video clips itself not showcasing the good things of gw2 directly without any need for flourish, the quotes take all the focus away. The quotes are also from players or nobodies as far as the viewer is concerned. It cheapens the trailer and gw2 as if you need to show these quotes to get players and as if there aren't any legitimate reviews from media channels. It makes it worse and turns it into a nobody game.

If you want a community esque trailer, you should have tiny short action packed clips sort of cut like the Lineage Mobile trailer everywhere recently of people actually streaming or playing, community events, and fanmade things, art streams, Pink Day, maybe a staff party with players, and onward, real clips of people getting together and genuinely having a great time. And even then that should not be the official trailer, it would be only one version for community highlights

[Dessan.9420]

So obviously, this trailer is supposed to sell PoF. I can't see anybody buying PoF (or HoT for that matter) without trying the base game first, hell, it's free. Therefore I think that if you want to attract new players you should concentrate on selling them the core game, as in the core mechanics, the world and the general content that the game offers and what's their appeal. And it shouldn't be that hard, I mean, this is a great game.

So how about advertising those things in a trailer?

• Easy to learn but hard to master combatBAM, a 10 second gameplay sequence of somebody dodging through red circles and using some flashy skills
• Large scale PvE bossesBAM, a mob of people fighting the Claw of Jormag
• 9 diverse classes, 5 different racesBAM, just cycle through the character creation class choice screens
• More skins than you can shake a stick atBAM, a single character in 10 different armor skins in various colors
• A giant world full of fleshed out loreBAM, the Pale Tree, a mosaic of a god, some ancient ruins

And so on and so forth. You seem to concentrate too much on showing off how pretty the game is and how epic it feels and consequently the trailers often (certainly this one) feel pretty I guess, but also hollow and bland. Nobody buys MMOs because they're pretty, and have epic plots. So imo try showing what the game is actually about when you play it, instead of how it feels to watch somebody doing it.

[Ziooo.8932]

@Mike Silbowitz.1827 said:

@Ziooo.8932 said:I don't normally respond in forum posts, i tend to only read them and that's it. But i liked this one, so i'll give you my opinion :)The video is decent. But there are a few problems (is that the right word?) that i feel need to be addressed.

• First and foremost: the quotes! They seem a bit out of place, the color, the font et cetera. And who are those saying these things? I mean, i understand they are players (some of them seem to be, at least) but to a possibly-new-player? No. They also cover the background scenes, which imo sell the game better.
• Which brings us to the second point: the scenes! Well, apart from the fact that some of them are half covered by the quotes, they seem to be mostly fights and have way too much movement (which divides your attention while trying to read the quotes and understand whats happening in the background at the same time). All too flashy and intense (the first 30ish secs seem fine, then it escalates). Also, new players won't understand what's being shown (probably even returning players).

The rest seems fine. I really like some of the scenes and the music, kinda resembles the of the trailer (which i loved).

Thank you for responding :-)

I think we need to evaluate the fonts utilized. This is something I will discuss with the team.

I am a big fan of proving the fun by showing what real players think over press. Players love the game, which is why the have stayed with GW2. That’s powerful but I do agree we should add more context to the quotes themselves while fixing the fonts and placements. If under the player name we put something along the line of “GW2 player since 2014” would that help add context?

That'd be really cool :) Now thinking (after reading other comments), maybe using players voices (or ingame sounds) would be better than trying to work around those quotations? There are some really important GW2 personalities around, they could also help (youtubers, bloggers, streamers etc).