Oh, there’s really a lot to say but I don’t have much time.
As Scott Hartsman wrote here, “there’s been a fair bit of vilification going on lately”. Not just about Smed, but pretty much against SOE as a whole, as an evil corporate brand that wants to impose itself above the single talents it has within. Pretty much what is being commented on this thread.
Darniaq did already write it best. Nothing to add there. Go to read and nod your head. Now.
As Penny Arcade was caught in the eye of the storm the defense was again an attack on the corporate level. Darniaq repeats what I think as well: “As to Penny Arcade, yeah, Chris didn’t say anything we didn’t.” So, honestly, nothing surprising.
The rest is about a letter from SOE to Joystiq:
9. Dear Joystiq-ers,
Wanted to drop you a note to let you know that we’re doing well over here at Sony Online Entertainment! Despite this post, running three of the Top 5 MMOs in North America (EverQuest, EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies) has not reduced us to a state of “desperation.”
From your piece: “Casual gamers or those new to MMOs might get suckered in briefly…” Yes, exactly, glad you’re getting the idea, at least partially. We currently have more than 800,000 people playing our games. Would we like more? Yes. How do we get more players? Marketing is one way. This includes advertising in magazines, on websites and — very occasionally, when we have the budget and really believe in a title — on TV. Marketing also includes media relations (what I am doing right now), creating demo programs, forging partnerships with companies like Intel and Nvidia or setting up cross-promotional activities like /pizza.
Calling our demos desperate is like referring to Joystiq’s cross-network linking as a sad attempt to get people to care about your site. How do you get people to look at your blog? You RSS your feed out – wow, it’s sad that Joystiq is so desperate for readers that you have to blindly cast your words out into the internet and hope that someone pays attention. OMG, Joystiq also accepts advertising dollars from evil marketing companies – SELLOUTS!
What’s up next? Is Joystiq going to begin criticizing every video game company that advertises in a magazine? Perhaps id Software and Valve are going out of business because they release free demos of Quake 4 and Half-Life 2. Maybe Coke and Nike are about to collapse because they run TV ads. I’d like to think that Joystiq is smarter than this, simply because I read and enjoy your site every day.
Both SOE and Joystiq need eyeballs to keep us viable as businesses. This is why we periodically run demos or ads for our games and why you guys are given support on other Weblogs, Inc. Network sites. This post was completely snarky and particularly stupid when you put on a thinking cap to look at what we’re doing from a business perspective, instead of merely trying to pile on to whatever random nonsense the supergeniuses at Penny Arcade spew out.
Gotta go, I’ve got a whole day of evil marketing ideas ahead of me!
Chris Kramer
Dir., Corporate Communications
Sony Online Entertainment
SOE is under fire. Honestly, I have to say that they deserve some of this. Even if the attacks are being now excessive and rather silly.
My comments about the specific topic are less “cheap” and demagogic:
—
EQ2 still actually costs quite a bit if you factor all the various extensions. Kingdom of Sky will include the base game, but it won’t include Desert of Flame, nor the two mini-packs that were released during the past year. And on top of this there are the station player services and, I think, the possibility to buy more character slots.
Which is what I actually wrote earlier in this thread: SOE wants you in and getting involved with the game. Then they have plenty of ways to make you pay more than 15$ each month. With two expansions and mini-packs every year they are asking MUCH more money to a customer compared with Blizzard and I don’t find surprising if they work to cut the “costs of admittance”. Which actually seems a good idea.
In fact this is their new marketing strategy that they are adopting everywhere. The idea of the “free game” they are working on is not because they expect this game to suck as well, but because they want to cut the costs of admittance and then get the money through alternate ways, like the micro-payments.
For DAoC I think they did a smart move with Darkness Rising (which is tiny and I wouldn’t consider a full expansion). It was released as a digital download and then packaged the week after with the FULL game + ALL the expansions even released in a retail box.
I wish more companies would adopt this strategy. It makes sense to offer in a SHOP (where you are supposed to lure in brand new players) full box sets that include everything to have the game “up to date” and offer the best experience without any other requirements. And, for the current subscribers, the digital download option, since they are already playing and don’t really need to go to the shop and buy a brand new box.