Is SE's Marketing / PR department -severely- hurting the games chances of success?

[Xeno]

Azury is right, Shai is wrong; but we can't do anything about it because SE is a bunch of liars and manipulators so it's going to be Shai's way.

[Jynx]

5 Million sales is weak for a franchise that is as well known as final fantasy. I think modern Warfare 2 sold more than that in the first 4 or 5 days.

We might as well compare XI to WoW then, those numbers are from a year ago and I wouldn't doubt they are higher, but thats beside the point. 5 million units is a respectable number no matter how you try and spin it. Most final Fantasy titles usually sell around 5-7 million units in there first year of sales so it's no market flop.

Just because something doesn't sell like CoD doesn't mean it is a unprofitable game.

[Azurymber]

Jynx, im not saying to get players back right now.
I'm saying that the game is designed to fail in the long run because SE isn't taking care of problems now.
Botters, Inflation, and a poor reputation are all long-term problems that can't be fixed in any way over night.

If SE would be more honest with its current customer base and make some changes like fixing LS's in game and the downloader there would be a lot more happy players.

I never said anywhere they should launch a campaign right now or advertise. I just pointed out many ways in which they are alienating their playerbase. And that has Long-Term consequences.

This isn't a single player game. Most people who play or get MMOs read up on them first because of the monthly cost and time involved. Starting an MMO is like an investment, and right now FFXIV is set up to look like defaulted mortgage loans rather than apple stocks.

[Warlyx]

http://www.square-enix.com/na/careers/#ma08

product manager - Marketing

apply for it

[Synthesis]

Their work is kinda slow. I know that dev. requires time I myself created a game. But overall I am not too satisfied with the game at the moment. I expected to see more since January. Now things like Ifrit battle, Beast tribes, battle improvement, chocobos > this all seems very interesting. I am wondering if we can see all this summer.

[Leeloo]

I'm saying that the game is designed to fail in the long run because SE isn't taking care of problems now.
Botters, Inflation, and a poor reputation are all long-term problems that can't be fixed in any way over night.

Character wipes for PS3 release!!

<runs away>

[Joeking]

Character wipes for PS3 release!!

<runs away>

Yes! Since this is extended beta anyways!

This would also solve all the market problems, as well as the bots hoarded Gil/Items.

[Jynx]

Jynx, im not saying to get players back right now.
I'm saying that the game is designed to fail in the long run because SE isn't taking care of problems now.
Botters, Inflation, and a poor reputation are all long-term problems that can't be fixed in any way over night.

If SE would be more honest with its current customer base and make some changes like fixing LS's in game and the downloader there would be a lot more happy players.

I never said anywhere they should launch a campaign right now or advertise. I just pointed out many ways in which they are alienating their playerbase. And that has Long-Term consequences.

This isn't a single player game. Most people who play or get MMOs read up on them first because of the monthly cost and time involved. Starting an MMO is like an investment, and right now FFXIV is set up to look like defaulted mortgage loans rather than apple stocks.

You seem to be saying that SE is being dishonest with the players, I don't see where that comes from at all. I also allready pointed out that any goodwill towards current players are something that is and will remain a low priority for them. Making the game functional comes before comunity features for a game with a very small comunity.

Yeah sure players read up on MMO's before buying, but they don't usually read up about the past especially when SE will be trumpeting there triumphs over the previous itteration of the game that scored so low. There star power will far outshine a small group of hardcore fans who are dissapointed with how they were treated during the first year of the games life. While burning it's hardcore fans is not ideal, it's what they are doing to focus on getting the game some legs before they try running anywhere with it.

Main mechanics first, community second.

[Shai]

I guess XIII selling over 5 million copies was a mere fluke for a game that received a rather luke warm reception from critics and the Final Fantasy series selling near 100million units as a whole is just some form of terrible PR and marketing. Just because it's not blaring on TV like a Halo add doesn't mean they don't know how to get the word out.

I hate XIII but Metacritic disagrees with us, Jynx. Mind blowing, I know.
(83 out of 100) ^^

So not a good example.

[TheRac25]

There seem to be alot of SIMPLE things they could be doing, clean up the UI/Linkshell management/etc, but its been what 8 months. Many things i see that would take one coder a day or two to fix have gone untoutched, instead we get shitty run around quests with equaly shitty rewards, an updater that doesnt work through firewalls and needs to download 300mb for "targetmode c".

How much longer do you realy have SE? wake up.