Why lack of hype and silence around ED future updates might be a good thing

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

http://www.pcgamesn.com/star-citizen/star-citizen-fps-module-hits-delays

There are two sides of the story - as crowdfunded efforts, games like SC and ED depend on worth of mouth or a bit of hype for upcoming things. Before early access no big AAA companies even tried to hint or show stuff before Beta. These days it's more prevalent thing.

However there's catch. If you fail to resonate or you fail to deliver on time, there's response issue. Especially if you delay things - how to keep people excited while you develop stuff which you have no clear release date yet?

Food for thought.

 

[Alien]

It's word of mouth, as in people talking to other people ... sorry, just me being picky.

I think the way Frontier do PR for Elite Dangerous is wrong. Here is how I perceive the PR currently ...
* Frontier let the community know they will have something to announce at the next games event, or that the next update will have something good.
* The community start speculating
* Frontier announce at the games event what the big thing is
* It's not what the community thought it would be. Some are excited, some are OK, some complain
* If it's an update Frontier posted the change list for, the community beta test it. It gets progressed from beta testing after a week. The community's first complaint is beta testing was too short. Then the community complains about little things in update.
* Frontier bust a gut trying to bugfix the update
* Frontier then announce something else good is coming ... it all starts again

Here is the problem. Frontier announce they will have something to announce. They don't actually let the community in on what it is they are going to announce.
I get it, I do. Frontier need to sell copies of the game, that's why they announced the XBox version at E3, and to sell copies they did a deal with Microsoft for a timed exclusive, something Microsoft do with a lot of games, so this is not an unusual thing. But whatever hype Frontier tried to generate in the community before E3 was the wrong type of hype.

Frontier had the community speculating, but the community didn't know what it would be, and this is almost certain to be guaranteed disappointment. After doing their PR this way a few times, Frontier start getting a bad reputation within their own community, the exact people who should be hyping Elite Dangerous for Frontier.

Here is how I think Frontier should do their PR for their games.
* Frontier announce something good is coming. Frontier actually tell the community FIRST what that good thing is. I'm not talking full details ... let's take the E3 announcment as an example ... if before E3, Frontier had told the Community merely this "Elite Dangerous is coming to XBox at some point" ... the community would have speculated about the XBox version, is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? Will it crossplay? etc etc etc. If the games review sites like Rock Paper Shotgun are smart, they're watching this forum and would have picked up on this.
*Frontier go to E3 ... OK, they announce Elite Dangerous for the XBox, but yawn, we all knew that ... NO WAIT, there is more! Elite Dangerous on the XBox will have a new mode called CQC or Close Quarters Combat and it's a timed exclusive and coming to PC later in the year!!!!

See? Everyone wins. Frontier get their big announcement, Microsoft get their timed exclusive, journalists get their big story (CQC), the community got to speculate on the XBox version, they were not kept in the dark.

Yeah sure, there'll always be some in the community who will complain no matter what, the community shouldn't be viewed by Frontier as a group that spoiled their big surprise. The community should be viewed as a potential hype machine ... IF USED RIGHT and feed information.

 

[Ice30]

TBH Star Citizen is a completely different kettle of fish from many games when you factor in the ludicrous amounts of money people have dropped on in game items, particularly ships. I mean when $100 gets you what seems like an equivalent to a cobra in terms of ship hierarchy and the developers are promising insane amounts of content, you know that the developers are just attempting to bleed customers dry. This is why I quite respect FD's approach to only having aesthetics as buyable items in the game and also why I think ED is more desirable. People complain about grind in ED, just wait for the grind RSI will put in their game so that they can get people to take out their wallets.

IE Customers are more invested in Star citizen, having dropped 100-1000 dollars on it.

*Puts on flame retardant suit*

 

[Iskariot]

http://www.pcgamesn.com/star-citizen/star-citizen-fps-module-hits-delays

There are two sides of the story - as crowdfunded efforts, games like SC and ED depend on worth of mouth or a bit of hype for upcoming things. Before early access no big AAA companies even tried to hint or show stuff before Beta. These days it's more prevalent thing.

However there's catch. If you fail to resonate or you fail to deliver on time, there's response issue. Especially if you delay things - how to keep people excited while you develop stuff which you have no clear release date yet?

Food for thought.

But FD could show some more concepts over time to feed the hype without committing to a release date.
The single planetary landing concept art we saw got a huge number of enthusiastic reactions.
One more would not hurt .

 

[Moriarte]

Storm in a tea cup FD-style. An attempt to create hype by not saying what's coming.

Not going to work.

 

[mxcross2002]

It's word of mouth, as in people talking to other people ... sorry, just me being picky.

I think the way Frontier do PR for Elite Dangerous is wrong. Here is how I perceive the PR currently ...
* Frontier let the community know they will have something to announce at the next games event, or that the next update will have something good.
* The community start speculating
* Frontier announce at the games event what the big thing is
* It's not what the community thought it would be. Some are excited, some are OK, some complain
* If it's an update Frontier posted the change list for, the community beta test it. It gets progressed from beta testing after a week. The community's first complaint is beta testing was too short. Then the community complains about little things in update.
* Frontier bust a gut trying to bugfix the update
* Frontier then announce something else good is coming ... it all starts again

Here is the problem. Frontier announce they will have something to announce. They don't actually let the community in on what it is they are going to announce.
I get it, I do. Frontier need to sell copies of the game, that's why they announced the XBox version at E3, and to sell copies they did a deal with Microsoft for a timed exclusive, something Microsoft do with a lot of games, so this is not an unusual thing. But whatever hype Frontier tried to generate in the community before E3 was the wrong type of hype.

Frontier had the community speculating, but the community didn't know what it would be, and this is almost certain to be guaranteed disappointment. After doing their PR this way a few times, Frontier start getting a bad reputation within their own community, the exact people who should be hyping Elite Dangerous for Frontier.

Here is how I think Frontier should do their PR for their games.
* Frontier announce something good is coming. Frontier actually tell the community FIRST what that good thing is. I'm not talking full details ... let's take the E3 announcment as an example ... if before E3, Frontier had told the Community merely this "Elite Dangerous is coming to XBox at some point" ... the community would have speculated about the XBox version, is it going to be good? Is it going to be bad? Will it crossplay? etc etc etc. If the games review sites like Rock Paper Shotgun are smart, they're watching this forum and would have picked up on this.
*Frontier go to E3 ... OK, they announce Elite Dangerous for the XBox, but yawn, we all knew that ... NO WAIT, there is more! Elite Dangerous on the XBox will have a new mode called CQC or Close Quarters Combat and it's a timed exclusive and coming to PC later in the year!!!!

See? Everyone wins. Frontier get their big announcement, Microsoft get their timed exclusive, journalists get their big story (CQC), the community got to speculate on the XBox version, they were not kept in the dark.

Yeah sure, there'll always be some in the community who will complain no matter what, the community shouldn't be viewed by Frontier as a group that spoiled their big surprise. The community should be viewed as a potential hype machine ... IF USED RIGHT and feed information.

why do you people do this , correcting others post's , you know what they mean so why not just leave them alone

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

But FD could show some more concepts over time to feed the hype without committing to a release date.
The single planetary landing concept art we saw got a huge number of enthusiastic reactions.
One more would not hurt .

Yeah, I don't say FD is justified to have complete silence. Most of concept arts they have shown (for example stations) has been implemented as expected. Also ship concept arts really doesn't deviate much from finished result.

I guess something has changed in this regard at FD. I understand there can be some solid arguments behind this...still would like to see them being more open about upcoming things.

- - - Updated - - -

Storm in a tea cup FD-style. An attempt to create hype by not saying what's coming.

Not going to work.

I personally don't think they even want to create any hype. They said almost nothing about futher updates during E3 - event when all major media is around and exposure is easy pickings. That phrase from David was clearly meant for those who wanted to know something. If they could, they would have kept silence.

 

[Maruun]

I am rather fine with their communication.

Hype can go to a s.storm fast.... avoid the Hype avoid the s.storm.

I am rather moderate informed and being positive suprised, then hyped and disappointed. Maybe its just me.

We all know a kickstarted game that started monetizing its hype and trys to keep it at a constant AWESOME level in order to melk their fans.

 

[Derath]

Early access and paid betas are all part of a great social gimmick where people unable to control their own hype became willing guinea pigs as free testers. Its dumb and exploitative, though some people love it.

I think its here to stay, but I don't think its good, I also don't think its good to launch a game when its essentially early access under the guise of a full release, these things need tidying up these days. A majority of beta's are now more polished than full games used to be, yet offloading testing to the public generates hype while lowering costs they'd be idiots not to do it, but that still doesn't mean its right.

 

[Alien]

why do you people do this , correcting others post's , you know what they mean so why not just leave them alone

*I* might know what Pecisk meant by "worth of mouth", but let's say someone else didn't. They see the phrase and don't know it's wrong. Then at some point, they go to use it in a conversation with friends or people they don't know. They use the wrong phrase they saw here, but their friends know what the phrase is. Maybe their friends correct them and think nothing of it, but by posting here the correct phrase I might have saved someone from potential embarrassment and looking stupid.

And you post criticising me for it without thinking why I did it.

 

[Kirk-Fu]

>yet another utterly useless thread from pecisk.

Can you really find nothing better to do than struggle to justify stupid marketing decisions?

 

[Moriarte]

I personally don't think they even want to create any hype. They said almost nothing about futher updates during E3 - event when all major media is around and exposure is easy pickings. That phrase from David was clearly meant for those who wanted to know something. If they could, they would have kept silence.

Suuure, they don't want the word of mouth spread around to generate more income. I get it.

 

[Tarman]

FD cannot into good marketing. They've consistently shown that their marketing people are by far their weakest link. Their big surprises are like getting socks for Christmas instead of an armed helicopter, in terms of reveal vs hype. I'd rather they divulge more earlier than keep up their Cavalcade of Crappity Surprises.

 

[Winterwalker]

I am rather fine with their communication.

Hype can go to a s.storm fast.... avoid the Hype avoid the s.storm.

I am rather moderate informed and being positive suprised, then hyped and disappointed. Maybe its just me.

We all know a kickstarted game that started monetizing its hype and trys to keep it at a constant AWESOME level in order to melk their fans.

I feel OK with level of communication too .. although it's cool to hear what's coming, it's encouraging that FD aren't hyping because, I think .. that this means .. that FD also think .. that this game aint finished .. yet!

There has been a lot of flame against FD for not giving us a roadmap, re-confirming (again) what's coming and whatnot . and while I can understand that kind of question (as in offline mode), FD really are better not feed the trolls, and put their main effort and resources into the game .. and let that speak for itself.

 

[HeimdallofHavn]

<snip>
Yeah sure, there'll always be some in the community who will complain no matter what, the community shouldn't be viewed by Frontier as a group that spoiled their big surprise. The community should be viewed as a potential hype machine ... IF USED RIGHT and feed information.

David Braben, can you hear me?

Hire this man

- - - Updated - - -

>yet another utterly useless thread from pecisk.

Can you really find nothing better to do than struggle to justify stupid marketing decisions?

I think a post about Frontier's marketing strategy is a wothwhile excersise personally

 

[el_tel]

Alien - the voice of reason.

FD - Please for the love of god, give her a job in your PR department.

 

[Bruce Warren]

I, for one, am glad FD are not doing the whole CIG thing when it comes to communications for two reasons

a) CIG appear to have taken communication lessons from the Gaffer sometimes - "Many words and few to the point" in other words reams of "communication" that doesn't actually say anything.

b) There's such a thing as worrying too much about what the fans think. Of course we're important but we cannot (beyond the DDF of course) be allowed to drive the direction of development. FD must be allowed to follow their own vision and not try to please everyone, since that's impossible and ends up pleasing no one.

Every so often we get threads where someone says "Can we have wormholes/gates/subscriptions/deathstars/magic rings/thing_they_saw_in_another_game ?" and FD have to ignore this and stay on target.

CIGs recent troubles appear to be a classic example of trying to please the fans and then getting caught up in your own hype with no way out.

They should never have used that stupid Best Damned Star Marine (BDSM) phrase or whatever they call it now because they've painted themselves into a corner. The market is flooded with FPSs. If they insist on being the best on the market rather than just a good one, then logically it can never be released because there will always be a better one coming out that they then have to beat.

Am I frustrated that FD don't give us lots of info?, of course I am, but I just have to trust them to know what they are doing.

 

[Brimstone]

I used to be amazed at the weekly shows and interviews that CIG have been putting out, but after thinking about it critically, it seriously looks like a huge waste of their crowd funded resourses. Aside from all the videos, they also put out massive newsletters too. I understand that they want to keep their fans informed, but great googalymoogaly people, it's just too much now.

I don't ever want that level of productivity going towards Elite hype and news updates, when it could be better spent on the game's development. With that said, I do think we could receive something a little better than what we get now. I love Michaels Dev updates, and the newsletter is nice most of the time.

Anyway, now that we have some more community managers, it looks like we could be getting more content eventually(Tm).

 

[Tinman]

I think the way Frontier do PR for Elite Dangerous is wrong.

<snip>

WHAT!?!? REALLY!?!?

Color me shocked!!!!!

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[Deleted member 38366]

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