What can SE do to make FFXIV "Noticed"?

[Starlord]

I saw a poster above who kept arguing that this was a moot discussion, because SE has professionals in their marketing department. And I wouldn't deny that. I'm sure they have career people working on this. But the most apparent thing is that no one has heard about FFXIV 2.0. Not even people who work at my gamestops, and mind you, I live in suburb of Washington DC, there are like 5+ gamestops in MD, DC, VA areas, and this is not rural. No one knew about SE's plans.
Of course they heard how FF14 failed, everyone heard about that. But not about 2.0. If SE has career professionals working on this, I would expect by August, September, many people would have been informed, and that they would know 100% that this was not an expansion. If their career professionals are anything qualified, there should be no doubt by September everyone would view this as a brand new game.

I Agree by August ( which is their Marketing Campaign) so by the time that's over everyone in the world should know, No later than September.

[Dragon]

Television advertisements that aren't 15 seconds long.

Invest in a commercial during a special event like the super bowl. Final Fantasy XIII had a commercial during a basketball game. Put a commercial in a pre-movie trailer at the theatres.

Yeah, especially if they have the money to buy the first advertisement slot in the next Super Bowl. It'd be nothing short of historical, something the media would remember for years to come regardless of FFXIV's status.

[Ramesses]

President Yoichi Wada,

Please pull all strings, connections and favours that you have at your disposal to make sure that FFXIV 2.0 gets fifteen to thirty seconds commercial time at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.

Thank you.

[Rustyhagun]

For me and other FF fans a like. I think Yoshi and his advert team need to show game play of the new 2.0 engine, first off. Show it in its fastest form, show game play showing off the new combo system being introduced and with the new FF races that aren't just simply the FFXI rehash ones.

Everything being advertized should be new so when new and old people see it, and before that commercial cuts, showing the title of the game, know one will have a clue at what they are looking at. And when the watchers realize what they are seeing is a new FF game they will think its a new IP and thats when Yoshi-san will have his new audience.

If people seeing adverts and ads for this game see the old 1.0 version of FFXIV, then sadly Yoshi-san has failed, and we don't want that.

[Ryuko]

Advertising is really all SE can do on their end to get people interested in the game. For me, I find a lot of the game's revival will be through 'word of mouth'. Plenty of people find out that I play FFXIV and ask me... "Hey, did this game get any better? It was really bad at launch." I respond, "Yes it did... and here's why!" I've already had a few personal friends come back to the game simply because they trusted my opinion and decided to give it a second try. Plenty of others have already told me, "I'm not going to come back now, but I will be back at 2.0 to see how it has improved!" I hope that FFXIV 2.0 will be READY the day of launch as this will be integral to its success. If it isn't ready, people will consider it another failure (like 1.0 which was not ready at launch) and leave the game for good. This includes current players that have sworn that the launch of 2.0 will be the deciding factor for them.

I understand that there may already be benefits to inviting a friend to play, but I believe it would be extremely beneficial to SE if they offered some sort of bonus to both the person starting the game as well as the person already playing. This would make current players more likely to tell their friends and try to get them interested in the game. "Hey, if you come play, we can get this cool exclusive item together!" The Mandragora hats in FFXI come to mind. I would think the item would have to be a bit more enticing than that.

As far as OTHER people without friends that play, I think it will be somewhat difficult to invest in a game when you don't know anyone playing and it has already been out for years. Playing the game of 'catch up' with FFXI and FFXIV has always been significantly more difficult than other MMO's. I came back to the game in December and am still playing the game of 'catch up' as far as equipping some of my less-used classes and the ones I still need to level. Many of the super-speed run dungeons in FFXIV require incredible versatility, with switching jobs inside a dungeon being a REQUIREMENT for AV/CC if you want to get the super-speed run. Some new players will be incredibly discouraged by this, assuming they are even interested in the gear that drops there. Maybe all the old dungeons will become instantly obsolete by that point.

To combat this, I would suggest that SE introduce an event that does NOT require such specialization, so that people with only one battle/magic class to 50 can still enjoy the game without needing multiple classes leveled to 50 and geared. This will give them something to do while they level their other jobs and obtain the gil to gear them well. I see skirmish as being one of the realistic options for more casual players. It is fairly simple, easy, and the weapon rewards when double-melded are at least somewhat comparable to the best weapons available right now. The promise of at least ONE weapon to your party upon completion is also enticing for those not willing to put the time/effort into other things. Skirmish should keep casuals busy at least for a short while.

[Rannie]

btw correct me if I'm wrong but I haven't seen any commercials for KH 3DS until yesterday. Granted I haven't been watching much tv because of the game and these forums and work but... were there any commercials playing in america before the game came out? (and yes this is relevant to the thread because they might not do commercials until after release of the game)

[Uveck]

They need to show that they actually care about the game. Don't get me wrong, FFXIV is beautiful and has good game-play but there are many things in the game that show that the CORE people behind FFXIV just don't care.

They don't fix lag issues, they have horrible customer service, they offer gil to people who lose accounts rather than restoring them, they don't offer partial refunds for missed gameplay, they still haven't fixed leves being cancelled if you are disconnected, the list goes on and on.

Their response is to rush out 2.0 before they fix all the bugs in 1.0. I've never had so much difficulty playing a game I want to play.

I don't blame people for thinking 2.0 will be the same as 1.0. The gameplay may very a little, but the same half-assed mentality is producing 2.0.

[AlaulaTheGreat]

Make snurble a playable race, nuff said.

[Babydoll]

They need to advertise. Lots. Commercials on TV, youtube, ads on FB etc. All the high traffic websites.

Then they need to fix up their horrendous customer service and show people they have changed and will address their issues quicker and no longer give people the run around. Start off by clearly displaying a number to call instead of "Call customer service" also provide an email or something. No more of this "Post on the forum" nonsense.

I have not played wow but from what I've heard from friends the GM's there are actually VERY useful. Heard nothing but praise about em =D

I know a lot of people who will not give XIV a shot simply because of their bad experiences with customer service.

Release lots of info and give the fans what they want. SE fans will be all over that sort of thing.

[RudyFails]

FFXIV will continue to pump out content after 2.0, they'll most likely be expansions and constant game updates for at least 5-6 years and if the playerbase remains large even longer

How do you come up with this shit