The ARR website update that was supposed to come this week

[Abriael]

I always found funny to see people coming here (or in other gaming forums) trying to dictate when a developer should release information, hiding behind faux-marketing justifications the fact that they simply want to know and see more as a personal agenda.

As a matter of fact, marketing-wise, witholding information is just as effective (or sometimes more) than spamming it in creating hype and expectation, especially when all the assets aren't ready for the best showing. That is why most serious betas have a strict NDA in place.

They'll release more information when they'll feel ready to. Between the letter from the prioducer live and the 25th anniversary event they already gave quite a lot condensed in a small amount of time.

If you think you know better then them about what they should disclose and when, then I'm sorry to burst a bubble, but here comes the surprise: You don't.

[Soukyuu]

I always found funny to see people coming here (or in other gaming forums) trying to dictate when a developer should release information, hiding behind faux-marketing justifications the fact that they simply want to know and see more as a personal agenda.

There are times like that and... there are times like this, when SE themselves say they are going to release "a constant flood of information" that turns out to be a few raindrops in thanalan.

[Abriael]

There are times like that and... there are times like this, when SE themselves say they are going to release "a constant flood of information" that turns out to be a few raindrops in thanalan.

O really? You mean a 60 minutes talk show and a 100 minutes live broadcast plus more stuff and trailers in a month are "a few raindrops in thanlanan" for you? Your meteorological lingo is a tad rusty i see.

"constant flood of information" is a very generic promise, and one that they aren't breaking. The problem is in your skewed expectations.

Mind you, they released the subbed recording of the Letter from the producer live two days ago. So much for the raindrops. That alone includes a crapton of info.

[Starlord]

O really? You mean a 60 minutes talk show and a 100 minutes live broadcast plus more stuff and trailers in a month are "a few raindrops in thanlanan" for you? Your meteorological lingo is a tad rusty i see.

"constant flood of information" is a very generic promise, and one that they aren't breaking. The problem is in your skewed expectations.

Mind you, they released the subbed recording of the Letter from the producer live two days ago. So much for the raindrops. That alone includes a crapton of info.

[Soukyuu]

O really? You mean a 60 minutes talk show and a 100 minutes live broadcast plus more stuff and trailers in a month are "a few raindrops in thanlanan" for you? Your meteorological lingo is a tad rusty i see.

I see no "constant" flood in that example. It's more like a short rain of info followed by a drought, so no "few raindrops in thanalan" fits it quite nicely.

"constant flood of information" is a very generic promise, and one that they aren't breaking. The problem is in your skewed expectations.

I don't see anything generic about the word "constant".

Mind you, they released the subbed recording of the Letter from the producer live two days ago. So much for the raindrops. That alone includes a crapton of info.

The fact they needed 2 weeks to sub a 90 minute video when a fan translation is usually available within a day already makes that a bad example.

But for the sake of it, yes, it did include some interesting info.
Still don't see anything "constant" about it though. And it still doesn't explain why "early next week" didn't happen.

Also, what Elexia and Jocko said.

[Abriael]

I see no "constant" flood in that example. It's more like a short rain of info followed by a drought, so no "few raindrops in thanalan" fits it quite nicely.

Drought? funny since this "drought" lasted exactly two day by now.

I don't see anything generic about the word "constant".

Then maybe you need to refresh your English. Lemme help. "Constant" doesn't specify a strict frequency. A piece of information a month can be defined "constant" as much as a piece of information a day, depending on circumstances, field of application and a lot of other factors. SE is definitely releasing a "constant" stream of information. The fact that that "constant" isn't as often as you like is pretty irrelevant.

The fact they needed 2 weeks to sub a 90 minute video when a fan translation is usually available within a day already makes that a bad example.

If you think translating and subtitling 90 minutes of video that features continuous talk with any degree of quality is easy or fast, you're delusional. The little difference is that the "fan translation" doesn't have any quality requirement. If the translator screws up, it's his problem alone. On top of it the "fan translation" doesn't need to be proofread and even more so, doesn't need to be greenlighted for release by the marketing team.

May want not to talk about things you don't know. Oh, wait, you have been for the whole thread.

@Elexia: just lol. Please, let us not fall in the ludicrous. Comparing the information available about an unreleased game with those of a game released ten years ago and currently going on is ridiculous.

You are totally talking out of impatience. There's absolutely nothing logical about your standpoint, let alone anything to do with marketing or any knowledge of how the gaming industry works.

PS: You know SO much about Halo 4 that you don't even know that Bungie is completely uninvolved with the game. It's being developed by 343 Industries. Go figure.

Let's not compare apples to oranges. The development process of a stand alone console game is completely different from that of a MMORPG. Halo 4 releases in a month. Micorosft is already contacting websites about the shipping of release copies, meaning that the game is pretty much completely finished. It's obvious that you know more about it than a game just heading into alpha.

[Soukyuu]

Drought? funny since this "drought" lasted exactly two day by now.

Which 2 days? Since the release of the translation (= info we got 2 weeks ago in Japanese)?

Then maybe you need to refresh your English. Lemme help. "Constant" doesn't specify a strict frequency. A piece of information a month can be defined "constant" as much as a piece of information a day, depending on circumstances, field of application and a lot of other factors.

Exactly. The thing you are not mentioning is, like the word "constant" implies, once the constant is set, it stays constant. Following me so far? A period of a month followed by a day, followed by a few weeks is not constant, but a variable. Splitting hairs? You started it.

If you think translating and subtitling 90 minutes of video that features continuous talk with any degree of quality is easy or fast, you're delusional. The little difference is that the "fan translation" doesn't have any quality requirement. If the translator screws up, it's his problem alone.

Have you ever translated an episode of a series? Including editing the translation and typesetting the subs so that not only what is spoken, but also what is shown on the screen is translated? All in one video? Followed by encoding said episode? All in half a day? I don't think so.

Fan translations not having a requirement of quality? That's BS. Yes, they won't get fired if they mess up, but that doesn't mean the translator will get sloppy, simply because they're doing it out of passion, which is a better motivator than money. Also, good translators usually take pride in their work, so whether they get paid or are just fans doing it for free, the quality will be the same.

On top of it the "fan translation" doesn't need to be proofread and even more so, doesn't need to be greenlighted for release by the marketing team.

Yes it does. It's called QC. If the translator and the editor are good, then QC is as fast as watching said 90 minute video once. So compared to a 25min episode, the amount of work would be about 4 days. But certainly not two weeks.

What you are saying is that green-lighting by the marketing team takes one and a half weeks. I don't see why the marketing team has to do anything with this, since what was being translated is a live letter that any Japanese speaking person has seen and got the info. The content of that live letter was already approved by the marketing team. If the translation is correct (checking which doesn't involve the marketing team), then we will be getting exactly the same info the others did.

The only explanation why the translation took so long is the translators being busy translating material for ARR. How much is going on behind the scenes is hidden from us, so something like "guys, the translation is going to be late, we're busy with other things" would be nice.

The whole issue and the original topic of the thread is not "we're not getting info" but "info was promised at day x, no information on why it was delayed." And that's a world of difference

May want not to talk about things you don't know. Oh, wait, you have been for the whole thread.

Rrrrright... I'm expecting a decent tone in your next reply, otherwise, don't expect a reply from me.

[Abriael]

Which 2 days? Since the release of the translation (= info we got 2 weeks ago in Japanese)?

And? Not everyone knows Japanese you know? It doesn't make it less relevant information.

Exactly. The thing you are not mentioning is, like the word "constant" implies, once the constant is set, it stays constant. Following me so far? A period of a month followed by a day, followed by a few weeks is not constant, but a variable. Splitting hairs? You started it.

Yes, you're splitting hairs, and you've started it even before I joined this trainwreck of a thread. As long as the period is roughly similar (and if you take a month in consideration as a framework it is), it can easily be defined constant.

Have you ever translated an episode of a series? Including editing the translation and typesetting the subs so that not only what is spoken, but also what is shown on the screen is translated? All in one video? Followed by encoding said episode? All in half a day? I don't think so.

As a matter of fact, I did. The difference is that I did it professionally, as I worked for an anime localization company for six years. Mind you, I took up the episode after the translation, from adaptation to subtitling and voice acting supervision, so the process had already been going for a while before it got to me.

So yeah, I know quite well the difference between fan translation and subtitling and the professional equivalent. They're nothing alike, and the fact that you compare them is honestly a tad ridiculous.

I have all the respect of the world for fansubbers and the effort they put in for free, but comparing their work to the procedures necessary for a professional translation is honestly out of the world.

What you are saying is that green-lighting by the marketing team takes one and a half weeks. I don't see why the marketing team has to do anything with this, since what was being translated is a live letter that any Japanese speaking person has seen and got the info. The content of that live letter was already approved by the marketing team. If the translation is correct (checking which doesn't involve the marketing team), then we will be getting exactly the same info the others did.

When you translate any marketing-related material to a different language (or three), it needs to be greenlighted again from scratch, because even a good translator can easily change the wording of a concept that, especially when talking about unreleased game mechanics, can make a whole lot of difference. Which means that it has to be double-checked by someone involved in development and then by marketing.

*Every* piece of promotional material released by a company will have to be greenlighted by marketing. No company with any bit of sanity would skip that passage. That's what marketing is for.

When you submit finished promotional material to marketing, they won't suddenly drop whatever they're doing and get to your stuff. It'll be put in queue and addressed as soon as possible. And then if something doesn't add up, marketing doesn't simply correct it and then greenlights it. It has to go back to the translator and then be greenlighted again.

Two weeks for a 90 minutes video is an entirely realistic timeframe.

Do apply your knowledge of fansubbing to fansubbing if you wish, because honestly that's all it applies to. We're talking about professional work here. It's a tad different.

The whole issue and the original topic of the thread is not "we're not getting info" but "info was promised at day x, no information on why it was delayed." And that's a world of difference

The whole issue of the topic is that there are people that know nothing about marketing thinking that they know better on what SE should do with their marketing. Which is honestly laughable at best.

[Ricky]

I always found funny to see people coming here (or in other gaming forums) trying to dictate when a developer should release information, hiding behind faux-marketing justifications the fact that they simply want to know and see more as a personal agenda.

As a matter of fact, marketing-wise, witholding information is just as effective (or sometimes more) than spamming it in creating hype and expectation, especially when all the assets aren't ready for the best showing. That is why most serious betas have a strict NDA in place.

They'll release more information when they'll feel ready to. Between the letter from the prioducer live and the 25th anniversary event they already gave quite a lot condensed in a small amount of time.

If you think you know better then them about what they should disclose and when, then I'm sorry to burst a bubble, but here comes the surprise: You don't.

Even if you were right, and you aren't, this is a unique situation as they already failed with the game once and gave us a timeline for a lot of things since then that they haven't kept