Thursday, June 26, 2008

What so great about Warhammer again? RVR... huh what?

Soo this is not to rail against WoW or warhammer or ne thing like that but to get people thinking about marketing. Yes, marketing. Blizzard has it in spades, so does microsoft(Bungie) and so does Disney/pixar. Warhammer, ..so far, has not really been marketed to me well except by my excellent blogging friends at Keen and Graev and the greenskin and Waaagh. Putting them aside, hard as that is, let us consider a few things:

The average Joe (me) has been playing wow and maybe lotro for a while and along comes this warhammer game. Big whoop. Alright so my wow friends are excited about it. All of them are. But they don't bother to explain to me whats so great about it. Or they use acronyms like I'm supposed to know what they mean to convey what's special about it. RVR? Ok they explain to me it means Realm versus Realm. The wrong picture is still in my head though. I have personally been happily playing my own little game and haven't heard hide nor hair about this new game except through word of mouth. No tv commercials, no commercials that make sense on gamespot or ign or whatever.

Ok so lets pretend I am looking at buying the game, maybe a few months after it comes out because no-one in their right mind plays a game right when it comes out unless they are in such a frothing rage about it that they are willing to put up with bugs and stuff. Wow had bugs at launch, so did lotro, and I waited half a year before playing wow, although I did take a look at it on launch week through my cousins eyes. and lotro I didn't really play until they had patched the bugs and filled it out a little. Why am I bringing all this up?

Cuz I have a point. My case is not that unusual. Most people need to be convinced that something is worth buyin', especially if its in any way similar to what you've already experienced. If they were to tell me that warhammer has something like world pvp only it works and is fun that makes more sense than spouting rvr, rvr all the time. But I am a special case there. I know what "world pvp" means. Lets pretend I don't. Lets pretend I have never played an MMO. I would love WAR but I am cautious about getting into this MMO thing and I don't know why I might love this game more than any other one. Try to sell it to me. Cuz EA/Mythic sure isn't.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that EA Mythic realised this, and in recent weeks they've stepped up the level of marketing - there's been many videos released on big sites recently. I think also they don't want to market too early, because if you see a vid for an awesome game, and are like - WOW, I NEED TO PLAY! Then realise it's a year off, it's a huge downer!

Thallian said...

good point. Still they could do some slow build up. (Blizzard with their frozen image as an example) I'll have to keep my eyes out for those videos.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the problem is that probably the WAR website wouldn't have enough daily hits to make it effective, and most people visiting the EA site would be like - 'What WAR? The WAR in Iraq?'

Thallian said...

lol

Keen said...

Watch this video if you haven't already:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35509.html

Slightly over halfway through the video, Jeff Hickman explains it perfectly.

Thallian said...

thanks Keen, I appreciate it :)

Gamer Hudson said...

I think that if you are a fan already of the Warhammer IP, as I have been for years and play the miniatures game, this one is a no brainer.

NOw 40K...that would that be interesting. But being in the beta, i can honestly say I will be uninstalling WoW for good when this launches

Chappo said...

Hmm, try to sell you warhammer online, thats a tough one.

Well, you get to play the Warrior Priest..what more do you need to know? But seriously, I think aside from all the RVR hype and jargon one of the things that looks delicious is the classes you can choose. Each one looks amazing, they can do crazy spells, and had their own individual leveling zones so you can lvl all the way without leaving your little dwarven hidey-hole. How good is that?
And the time required to level to the lvl cap is quite short meaning that you can easily try out various classes and their zones at your leisure.
Overall, I think WAR offers a personal experience with the game, it is group oriented and to quote Paul Barnett; 'Its to be played with other people, and against other people.'

Thallian said...

Thanks for the sale Chappo :) Whether I was gonna try it out was not in question, but whether I'm excited about it was. You may have hit the nail spot on though because I love to explore different classes and how they play. Warrior Priest for me! Fight while healing! I'm all over that like cheese on broccoli.

Thallian said...

@hudson I am unfamiliar with the warhammer IP though you havea point. I suspect that I am in the majority on that actually. So I hope they dont rely too hard on people knowing their IP and making sense of things. I am sure it will turn out good, if it doesnt turn out great, then thats ok cuz I have lots of demands on my time anyways.