PR: how not to do it

Yesterday was Midsummer, a day where you are obliged to participate in strange ceremonies like dancing around a huge cross covered in flowers, eating unhealthy amount of food you normally wouldn't eat, and drink a even more unhealthy amount of booze. While all that is fun, I spent the entire day today trying to stop my head from hurting. Ah, human nature, our true arch enemy, what stupid things you make us do.

So I spent the entire day sitting in my bed browsing the interwebs while hitting the keys as softly as possibly, and found quite many enjoyable things. I read a week or so ago about the game Limbo of the Lost on GamePlasma, where they discovered that graphics in the game had been blatantly stolen from numerous big games, one of them Oblivion (which I love by the way). The theft was so painfully obvious that there wasn't even a slightest idea of even denying it. A picture say more than a thousand words. The publisher pulled the game from the shelves, and we will see what legal actions will be taken against the creators.

Now this is in itself a juicy drama to feed the Drama Fish with, and I wouldn't really write much about it, but the entire thing have grown as people began digging about this game and found more than a few pair of dead bodies in the closet. That the game is painfully bad made flamers show no mercy as they poured oil on the already blazing inferno. Or the game could actually be good if you read the review on Just Advenure before it was discovered (game got a B first, and changed to F later) about the graphics, but as I read the "review" on RPG.net I can't possibly see what's good with it, even if you ignore the theft).

Background checks reveal that the game was created by Majestic Studios, and had been in productions since the early 1990s, first for consoles and later for PC in 2003. Someone even pulled out a magazine article about the game when it was for consoles back in 1995, further proving that you can't stop the Signal (page 1 and page 2 of the magazine).

What make the story compelling enough for me to write about it, this being more of a MMO gaming blog and all, is what was revealed about their PR when people had been digging. Apparently someone at Majestic, under the alias Fable, began making forum posts at GameBoomers and Just Adventure about the game, pretending to be a normal person. Also a poster announcing himself as the company Majestic Studios dropped in and soothed people who had trouble getting copies of the game. Simply praising the game and offering advice to a reviewer on GameBoomers, the entire thing would never have been discovered had he not become upset when he thought the reviewer would publish hints or spoilers. Angry words were traded, and when a moderator discovered that Fable and the poster who told he was Majestic Studios had posted with the same IP... well, people were pretty upset. In fact the reviewer felt so betrayed that the finished review was pulled before publishing and the user Fable/MStudios was no longer welcome on the forums. People who had announced they looked forward to the game decided not to play it.

This make me furious - forums and blogs are for the people and by the people, where they can express honest opinions (and usually be flamed alive for it). Companies - and I'm sure there are plenty, but few that become known - that disguise themselves as normal people praising their game should be either crucified or stoned to death. Reading a comment made by a normal person saying that a game was good or bad can have great impact on me, simply because I know he comment is from a normal person just like me. Not as much impact as a professional review will, but it could just tip the scale of me deciding between buying or not buying a game.

Before Internet (what was it like, I can't even remember) word of mouth was simply people telling their friends, while nowadays word of mouth can be what you write on a blog or post in a forum about, and people link to it or talk to other about what you wrote. The entire Limbo of the Lost scandal prove just that; I guess Majestic are quite dumbstruck by the amazing power Internet and today's communication is; blogs, forums and Digg make news travel horrible fast.

And what where they thinking? They thought people wouldn't notice?

While posting how great your game is anonymously can be tempting for companies, the gain is not that great - if the game is bad no amount of PR posting will save it, and if it's good word will go around anyway - and if discovered... well, let's just say you should pray that doesn't happen.

Viewing this extremely bad PR got me thinking about WAR, where the PR is the best I have seen yet. The personal touch and sheer excitement that Paul Barnett brings in his videos also got me extremely excited about the game. And here I am, writing a blog and promoting WAR - for free.

Trading guilds in WAR

"WTS level 25 guild, two months old, not used much. PST"

In your average MMO, being in a guild is nothing more than a extra chat channel and a guild tag under your name. Some games offer advantages, such as guild housing, guild banks, and taking keeps, but that's nothing that moving to another guild will keep you from doing.

But what happens when your guild is facing trouble and players leave the guild to look for greener pastures? The remaining people log in one day and find that the once glorious guild with a hundred members now lie in ruins with just a dozen people. The remaining people in the guild then have a few options: they can take leadership of the guild and invite new people, hoping that the good name will help them; or they can follow their brethren and quit the guild, finally ending it.

Warhammer Online will introduce guild levelling, where your guild gain experience and levels as the players in it do. Taking your guild to the highest level (40) is not something done overnight, and offer interesting advantages, such as bonuses to your banner, wielded by the standard bearer on the battlefield.

This will maybe offer a new, third option. Christian Bales says in a interview by Massively:

If a guild does experience some sort of upheaval, where it's a very large guild, lots of progression, and it's relatively high level within the guild system, and then it sort of fades away, trickles down and suddenly there's only a very small number of people left, we don't take away any of the benefits they've earned. They keep all of that. It's what they've earned as a guild!

Which means that a guild that's been around for a long time, and have gained the maximum guild level, will be worth something. Players that have been around the guild since the beginning will feel a certain pride and ownership of the guild, and simply leaving the guild to start another might not be as easy as before.

One new possible option, that might or might not be common, is to sell your guild to someone. Levelling up a guild to the cap for all the great benefits take time, and if you have plenty of gold, why not just buy a guild that has all these things? While it's uncertain if you will be able to rename your guild as easily as in Age of Conan, even with a name not of your choosing, taking control of a high level guild will be tempting.

Then there is the possibility of rebellions. People who have been in the guild for long and don't like how it has turned out, seize leadership and remove big parts of the guild. After all, they think, why should the people who levelled the guild have to leave to start a new one? Time will tell how drama friendly the new guild system will be.

<A°)))>< Drama Fish feast on drama.

Age of Conan's Endgame - is there any?

During the last weeks several of of Age of Conan's first endgame encounters have been killed for the first time. At the spear point of progression can be found the familiar guild Nightmares Asylum known from World of Warcraft.

First to beat the dust by Nightmares Asylum were Vistrix, a huge dragon, with the help of some other guilds. It was done on the server Fury on EU, the server I played on before my guild rerolled on Wildsoul because Fury was too crowded. The entire fiasco with the availability of PvP servers on release is enough rant to fit into it's own post, so I will spare you.
Champion of the Honorguard and Yakhmar, a frost worm, followed. And what all of the encounters had in common was that they were horribly, horribly bugged. Encounters reset randomly, corpses disappeared, and some didn't even give any loot. That the endgame is buggy should be surprising to none, seeing how unpolished the rest of the game have been so far.

Fura, guild leader of Nightmares Asylum, posted a thread on the Age of Conan Raids and Tactics forum about the lack of endgame content.

So the citys are not working, the pvp system is not working, the hi end raids are most defiantly not working, the ui way off from being finished, there are serious game breaking bugs still in this game and I feel that its even worse than most betas out there. and were paying for this.....? Shouldn't there be some kind of law preventing them from false advertising a game as they were boasting about high end raiding, massive pvp, great crafting etc... and none of its in the game. isn't this false advertising or something?

While it's not really false advertising, the lack of polish is a valid point. It's not something one would expect from a product on the release date. Even for a MMO, which are never complete, I consider the game to be too unpolished for release.

Oh and my activity in Age of Conan is pretty much zero. My guardian have been collecting dust since a few weeks, and the recent stealth nerf to one of the actually good combos Overreach just sealed it's fate. I enjoyed playing a bit as Herald of Xotli and Conqueror, where I got both to around level 14, but I'm afraid that unless I can find a class I could actually level to 80 with, the game is closed to me.

Changes for AoC - new content and bigger breasts

Seriously, you have no idea how many times I rewrote that title.

Age of Conan's developers seem to be doing something good for a change. In a "Letter from the Game Director" they announce that they will focus development on certain areas. Not a stupid move from Funcom, as the focus points they are publishing are the main issues that players have been shouting about on the AoC forums (still closed to public, got to keep the complaints hush hush).

We will add content, specifically in mid-late thirties and mid-late fifties and make the leveling speed smoother in those areas, reducing the need to grind.

Something I have experienced myself, some level ranged are horrible as they lack quests to take you to the next level range and new quests.

We will have an overhaul of the PvP system – adding consequence and a host of small things.

Not very surprising, after Funcom got some bad publicity on ganking people in groups. And not only do they show lack of foresight by not setting firm policies on PvP from the beginning, but also badly trained Game Masters to represent them.

Not to only take one side, I must also say that the "victims" of these GM talks is the infamous guild Hordes of Goonheim, who require members to pay real money to be in guild, and use that money to destroy the game by creating bots, farming gold and generally cheating in any way they can. And also being general a**holes to anyone who dare criticize them, a bigger bunch of douche bags you have to look far and wide for.

And this in turn leads to

We are staffing up Customer Service, Quality Assurance and Community departments!

With qualified people I hope? Giving every player in AoC who want a GM tag will only make things worse.

And further changes will be

• We are fixing bugs you reported through all channels we can get information from.
• We will add a new large outdoor region in the 55-60 range this summer!
• This is only a small taster! More information about the exciting summer and fall Roadmap will come the end of the next week!

Overall very good changes, so maybe, maybe the game will be worth spending some cash on in waiting for WAR.

Breast sizes in Age of Conan
And when mentioning changes, Funcom have announced the following:

"Funcom can confirm that some of the female models in the game have
had the size of their breasts changed. This is due to an unintended change
in data that was introduced in an earlier patch, data which controls the
so-called morph values associated with character models and the size
of their respective body parts. We are working on a fix for this and your
breasts should be back to normal soon. The plastic surgeons of Hyboria
apologize for the inconvenience."

The picture here below should display the terrible change. Am I the only one who thinks the right picture looks better? Female warriors shouldn't have a large breast requirement, small breasts means slimmer figures, which could probably mean the difference between live or die in Hyboria. And this in turn caused people to get upset. Aereniel on the AoC forums writes in the post titled "Massive Mammaries – Hyboria and the Female Form":

Yet when I created my character during early access, the obstinate slider that controls the female chest area stoutly refused my commands to make breasts any smaller than those approved by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Tiny titties, it seems, are out. So too, are humongous funbags. Try as I might, the slider would not allow mammaries that require a forklift and a three-man team to manoeuvre. Needles to say, I felt dismayed and homogenized. Mine was to be a carbon copy of every other female avatar, with a bustier that had a "Hyboria Approved" sticker attached to the only cup size known in Hyborean times, the Crom-ordained D.

I was creating a Bear Shaman, so I refused to be disheartened by the lack of choice. I do, however, feel genuinely sorry for those players that hoped to create an athletic assassin, or perhaps an emaciated necromancer. In Hyboria, it seems, female necromancers receive their tutelage under the greatest necromancer of them all, Hugh Hefner.

And Aereniel got a point. MMO's are all about choices, and having something as a smallest-breast-limit is just plain stupid.
It truly is a age of, er, Conan.