Much discussion is being made about how ZOS must ben 'shocked' by the negative response the forum fans are giving this game announcement. I was thinking about this and I've come to some interesting (at least to me) conclusions:

The people at ZOS and Bethesda Softworks aren't stupid. They have a plan. Why would you let a third party magazine handle your big announcement? In my opinion, this is only phase 1 of the announcement. I think the teaser trailer and the magazine article amount to the same thing: they are supposed to get people buzzing about this project. They are supposed to get the passionate TES fans talking, and the MMO crowd wondering about the details of this game.

Well, phase 1 is working just fine. There is a lot of "hate" on the forums, but guys, you know this - it takes passion to hate something. That passion is a good thing.

Now ZOS needs to follow up with Phase 2:

We need a big, Apple style reveal: something like a panel of devs on a stage with in-game footage playing on a huge monitor. Show us how your game is different from WoW. Show us how it is really bringing TES lore to life in a massive, fantastic setting. After that, let the press or audience ask the panel of devs questions. Address some of the freak outs.

Anyway, I think something kinda like this is coming. E3 is next month, right? I'm just wondering if a month of speculation and slow leaks is too long. We'll see

Well said. I think ZOS and Bethesda have more of a clue than the dozens of self-declared armchair RPG wizards who all predict doom and gloom while gazing into their crystal balls.

I was surprised that the announcement came out of no where. The Skyrim announcement was much more exciting and the wait to see screen shots made them that much better. I didn't feel any hype for this.

Yeah, that's kind of why I think we can expect a lot more in the near future. The video was clearly meant to be an early teaser - not a trailer. I just hope they don't wait too long to address some of the fears I'm seeing.

Actually its the other way around, nobody wants to wait 2-3 years after a game is announced to play it, and waiting on info or screens when you know it exists sux, i think having an out of the dark reveal is much better.

I mean cmon, people have only been asking for an online TES since Daggerfall. ( I.E another reason EQ was so popular.)

Yeah, all you have to do to find a self-proclaimed expert on these forums is throw a rock. Seems everyone here is a professional game designer and market wizard, if tone and content of posts are to be believed at face value.

Personally, I think the best thing to do would be to release two videos, one gameplay (first) and one story (second). The reason for the order is that cinematic trailers tend to make people suspicious if they haven't already seen gameplay. Then people can, instead of pretending they've played the game when they say the gameplay is a crap clone of WoW, at least be basing their complaints on something tangible*. Then the story trailer, which can be ether gameplay or cinematic, but it may be easier to go with the latter. This could go a long way to explaining some of the things people look askance at while saving the lore folks the trouble of linking to the sources that either justify or partially justify the faction alliances**.

Of course, dev diaries would also be welcome. Selling the crew is an easy way to sell a product, and seeing the level of excitement and earnestness among the Zeni crew may help alleviate some fears***.

*Obviously, they won't stop complaining, but complaining and pointing to evidence of your complaints being valid at least means actual discussion can occur.

**See original footnote. People will still complain that the game is taking a dump on, [censored], or murdering TES but, again, complaints based on actual evidence can be proven or refuted rather than just angrily stated and restated.

***Again, not really, but at least it would be talked about beyond "I'm right!-NO I'M RIGHT!-UP YOURS!-[censored] YOU!"

I dont think the developers are the type to listen to fans. They've been working on this game for about four years now with no input from fans at all. Funny that they kept it so secret when its just a rehash of DAOC with a DAOC developer making it.

Quite the opposite. Big corporations think like drug dealers rather than like artists, while RPG veterans think along the lines of "for gamers by gamers". So yes, RPG vets are psychic in this matter and have more of a clue than Beth/Zeni.

Regards,
Eno

Actually, they were pretty smart to keep their work under wraps for the first 5 years. Think of the grief other game companies have gotten for 'hyping' their game years before it was ready. And let's be honest - I HOPE it has a lot of DAOC in it, cause that will immediately negate the idea that this is a WoW clone. I'm pretty sure they worked very hard to keep a TES feel to the game, though, and I think a lot of the complaints will go away as we get more info.

I'm an optimist, though. I've seen MMO fail one after the other, even been a 'really devoted fan' to some of the failures: Vanguard, AOC, WAR... I don't know why I am not a pessimist by now, but I'm not! I think this game is gonna be awesome.

Pretty insulting, Eno, and now I'm sorry I spent so much time replying to your posts yesterday. There are 250 very hardworking individuals at ZOS, and I am sure that most of them feel very passionate about their work. I'm sure most of the are gamers and I'm sure that most of them believe they are making a game that they would want to play and that they are proud to offer to other gamers.

Buzzing like hornets, dawg.

I hate Apple products. They are basically "luxury" goods (p2p) that should be "inferior" goods (b2p/f2p). Sometimes that offbrand device might work a hell of a lot better than your IPhone and at a fraction of the cost.

I think the whole point of this thing is to see the market for MMOs in the TES fan base. The MMO is going to be a terrible game mainly made to test the market. I'm not excited about it at all but I'm not letting that bias this specific post at all.

I'm not at all surprised to see that the amount of people NOT happy about the MMO is out numbering people excited about it 3-1 according to the poll in this sub-forum. It makes sense, people play TES because they want an awesome single player medieval RPG. They want to be the hero and control their own adventure. Adding MMO qualities takes that all away and people know that.

I believe Bethesda.. or for the idiots that get angry thinking that Bethesda in particular has NOTHING to do with it, which isn't true... zenimax online.. is simply throwing out this game to test the market and see if there is true potential here for money. If not it'll be free2play within 3 years and the majority of servers will shut down. I strongly believe this will be the case because as we can see.. people aren't happy about it.

The numbers will stay about the same, 3-1, even with the outright public adverts. Though I also think that bethesda is letting the third party magazines, etc. handle the adverts because they do not want to throw to much money at the project seeing as it's a market testing game.

If this game is a DAOC clone, ZMO can have a direct line into my wallet for all I care. It's been far too long since the genre has seen any decent PvP.

Seconded - but I think it will be more than a DAOC clone. I think we are in for a pretty awesome game.

One can hope. I'm staying cautiously optimistic, myself. I've liked everything I've heard so far, but the art direction isn't thrilling me. I'm afraid that it won't feel like TES.

Oh dear me, your bias is showing!

That's an interesting idea, though I think you are way off. I think in the next 12 months we are going to see a pretty huge marketing blitz.

Ummm no... research a bit. 3-1 people are angry about it. The rest was just about how in my personal opinion the whole game is just a market testing product. If it suceeds, they will make it bigger and do more with it, if it fails, they will let it die hard. Innitially they aren't going to spend to much money advertising it because it's a market testing product. That's why you are seeing a poorly done teaser trailer and an introduction article done by a third party magazine publisher. It's cheaper.



Possible.

That's a lot of money for a marketing experiment, being it's been in development for years already.

And never trust A: forum reactions and B: especially TES forum reactions. The whole fanbase is really a bunch of knee-jerking whiners. I know, I've done it myself, for years. I've still bought every major TES release since I bought Morrowind, and even with a few speedbumps have enjoyed all of them. Trust me, the loudest haters are the most consistent players. I think the game will do fine. While I hope it's free to play or becomes so eventually so I can play it, your assessment really just sounds like a teenager pretending he understands what cynicism is. It's an earnest release of a game they've spent years and lots of money making, not some big conspiracy you can feel smart by "exposing."

EDIT: Also, take a peek at Skyrim's reveal: a teaser with little/no info and a GI article. So this, pretty much.

No offense, but people need to learn to ignore what they don't like. Your days will be happier this way.

So, Zenimax has been developing an MMO TES game. Whether the game will be successful, that only time will tell. Whether developing it was the right decision, again, time will tell. Bethesda will still develop our dearest single-player RPGs, don't worry. Zenimax is guilty of no crime.

The TES fanbase has some of the most dedicated modders and fans, but sometimes, it's the whiners who are loudest.

I just sealed my fate.

Ha ha! Though I know I've been making a fuss about this "game" as well I see where you are coming from.. People like to have their opinion heard. If only the people excited about it posted here the devs would think "Oh great! Everybody likes it! EVERYBODY!" soo... I'd prefer to have my opinion heard. Though eventually in the coming months I'll just stop posting when they transfer this sub-forum to it's own seperate site as the stuck topic reads. Out of site out of mind LOL!

Bro, your signature hurts my eyes.

1. Quote from Matt Firor, doesn't sound like 'testing the waters':

2. Did you say the teaser trailer was poorly done? I thought the CGI of the three headed ring was awesome and voice over and music was very professional. I guess there's no accounting for taste...

3. Interesting note from Tengen Toppa about Skyrim's reveal. I didn't realize they had the same strategy.

First of all, my comment wasn't aimed at you, but at everyone claiming to know all that this game is and isn't. I still haven't read most of the posts in this thread, and that includes yours.
No one asked you to keep your voice down. We share opinions here, aggressively at times, yes.

I only wish gamers showed more respect to developers, especially those gamers who have no idea what it's like to design a game. It's not an easy task, and I assure you, Zenimax are professionals. Keep in mind that even those make mistakes.

baby their is no such thing as "bad" publicity

hate it or love you want to know more about it

The idea that someone that doesn't directly involve themselves in the manufacture of something cannot be knowledgable enough about it to have a valid opinion is one of the most vile and stupid things a human being can say.

Inspecters, Critics, and regulators of every single industry would be completely pointless if that were the case. The idea that that opinions outside of the creators are unneccesary is how we end up with crap like the ME3 ending.