Regarding 60 Day Time Cards and state of advertising...

So... I work at a retail store and decided I'd go browse around for a bit to see what I could find for Final Fantasy XIV... took me about 30 minutes to realize, there's absolutely nothing for FF XIV in my store... no time cards, no extra copies of FF XIV : RR / Heavensward... nothing... So I chalked it down to "It might just be the store.", a couple of days later, I walk into a Walmart that is very close to my house and decided to look around there for time cards just to see if I could find anything, and the only thing I found was a PlayStation 3 copy of Heavensward, absolutely nothing else... This struck me as interesting. So when I got home, I logged into my computer and checked the retailers near me to find out if they have anything FF XIV related in store, "nothing in 250 miles of your specified zip code" "nothing with in 50 miles of your location." "Only order-able online. Will receive a digital code in 24-48 hours"

I know the MMO genre is evolving and it is getting harder and harder to pull new people into MMOs because of the subscription fee... but... No advertisements at all? No extra products out on market for consumers to pick up to look at and see the art and effort put into this multi-billion dollar game?

Yes, there is Fanfest, E3, Gamescon, and Cons in general, that only caters to a specific group and isn't going to draw any type of "new" crowd in. There has been a serious lack of advertisements in the states for anything gaming recently (I cannot speak to state of advertisements outside of the US...)

I am not a business major, and I don't work in advertising so take my ideas with a grain of salt if it goes against all sorts of ideology of how advertising works...

My thoughts, wouldn't it be better to advertise to get new blood to come into the game while there's a lull in (major*) content? You have already put a catch up mechanic into the game for new people going through FF XIV : RR. Why not increase your advertising too? Yeah there is a monetary cost for advertisements, but if there is none to be had, are you not losing out on potentially new revenue?
Regarding the 60 day time card. Why you no have Walmart, Best Buy, and Gamestop? : <
*as in raids or 17 new quests for the Main story quests which I love btw great job in the main story line SE
(these ramblings were brought to you in part by the sadness of a player who could not find a 60 day time card in any store to pick up to re-register his account so he could play some more and before you ask, yes there is a reoccurring sub fee that I could utilize but I don't always have the money in my main card to do so, and Gift Cards! )

Sorry for the 3 posts in my own thread apparently I am long winded when rambling... : ( 1000 characters per post limit vs a 2676 character / 500 word essay... . _ .

But yeah, anyone who says MMOs are dying, well... yeah, they are because they stopped advertising. I'm not saying "Play today with over 5 million people!" type of adverts online, cause people actually have Adblock due to some advertisements using Flash player and instant play the ad which a virus can piggyback off of... but "Explore the vast continent of Eorzea in Final Fantasy XIV today!" on TV and stuff... Advertising still works, I get over 500 calls a day "I saw this product on the TV, do you guys have that? Why don't you?!"...

You can edit your first post to bypass the 1000 limit

Oh? Well then... lol Good to know, thanks! : )

I have seen plenty of advertisements for FFXIV on tv. I took a 6 month break and then saw the tv ad for Heavensward and decided to come back and try it out. I am not a regular player again.

Best buy use to sell the game cards, at least around here, don't know if they still do. Seriously though you can order them from Amazon or someplace if you need cards.

The problem here is, is that final fantasy isn't really that big as you'd think in the west. It's definitely one of the more anticipated and known jrpg's over here, but the playerbase isn't as high as it is in the east. Real marketing for FF stopped after FF7 where every bus stop had a cloud imagine embedded on it. The gamecards also doesn't earn the store any money at all. There is a 0% margins on gamecards. It's something extra a store could use to attract customers, so you'll sooner see something of the popular games like WoW and LoL.

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Originally Posted by NoahArks

It's something extra a store could use to attract customers, so you'll sooner see something of the popular games like WoW and LoL.

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You dont see much of WoW either. MMOs just arent as popular as you think, especially now with MOBAs. Even at it's height in the UK you;d only get a couple of WoW adverts when an expansion launches.

PC games as a platform aren't as popular as consoles, and yes I know you can play it on console too. A subscription is probably offputting to most.

Maybe they should call it a monthly DLC as that seems to work for Destiny.:p