The Marketing of WWD, or A Question for Black Pebble and Co.

I don't think they were really trying to hype up the entire SSA system, it's more of a "hey, here's a neat thing we're making for our subscribers". And with how the arcs turned out, any more hype then "hey, here's another one of those" would have caused anger at setting expectations too high, wasting money, trying to con Premium players into buying crap, etc.

The only bit that they really played up at all was "Statesman DIES!" and that's more of a mini-media blitz in homage to iconic character deaths than something related strictly to the SSAs themselves.

They actually did both when you look at the strategy. Very early on the piece we get the supposed incentive for 'remaining loyal' for the entire duration of the story with the two helmets, costume change emote, chest symbol and title.

That right there is marketing. This is specifically pointing out to the player that if you continue your brand loyalty (to use a marketing term), there will be these tangible rewards for that. The symbolism of the helmets is meant to engender a feeling of rememberance and fondness for the two signature characters.

THEN you get the announcement before the event that Statesman is dying. The rationale given by Zwillinger (who is just doing his job and trying to paint the best face on it) is that once a few people play it, keeping it secret wouldn't last. That might be true, but plastering it everywhere on the main site, in the forums and even in other gaming sites screams 'LOOK AT ME, I'm doing something IMPORTANT HERE!' like some sort of gaming George Costanza. It sounds desperate. It looks desperate.

NCSoft is trying at this point to 'promote' one of their games as making game-wide lasting changes (which won't take effect until some six months after the event happens...which leads into questions about the validity of the commitment to the changes) and Paragon Studios then chimes in with Matt Miller's letter about why the story was even written.

I think NCSoft had put the pressure on PS to perform, and by that I mean 'lift sales' with some sort of event. Clearly Going Rogue hadn't done all it was expected to, and going to a hybrid model had done only so much. Attention to this already aging game was needed. Killing off the marketing face of the game is a pretty big move, if handled well.

But then I think PS took it too much to heart. Instead of one character, they went two. But all the hype had been spent on Statesman, so when Psyche's turn came, the one-trick pony had been played and the criticism of the writing and plotting was withering, to say the least.

I really felt Miller's letter and the painful earnestness with which the last two chapters were handled, and especially this last chapter with tickboxes galore (scenery people wanted to see, an epilogue, an honor guard, etc) came off as almost an overzealous attempt to sell the product. In other words, I think they wanted to re-sell the concept (and most especially in the last chapter; look how people have been gushing over the level designs...not so much the story) and get the story out of the road quickly. Even I noticed there was a lot of 'shhh, don't ask questions! There's a story to play!' moments going on where things were just glossed entirely over.

The idea of 'ongoing' story arcs puts enormous pressure on the Dev team to introduce and then implement any planned changes they have in mind, and as much as there may've been some desire to update the game, I'm under no illusion the glaring eye of NCSoft came upon the game to say 'these stories from 2005...why are they still there?' And then they have to respond.

This is all about being given the resources to do this and an expected return on that investment. All you have to do is look at the checkboxes going into the market lately and you see the same thing.

Animals. Party packs. Flying discs. This is all targeted stuff. Put aside whether they may've been requested, this is stuff designed and targeted at people to buy.

There's absolutely no reason to expect that upcoming story arcs won't go the same route, because the new business model is about return for investment, not the old model of subscription for content. The market and by extension marketing is a hungry beast, and it is never satisfied....



S.

This was actually the reason given by Zwill I believe. Check the Dev Digest (might be in the community section).

It's been made a lot smaller by keeping him as the marketing face of the game

I have no idea of your point, if you have one. If you're agreeing to say 'yes, it didn't really do much,' then great, we're on the same page. If not...then I dunno.



S.