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[Column] Landmark: Why Did Omeed Go?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
What did Omeed Dariani mean when he referred to a community-first marketing approach? What was SOE doing with its marketing that made him want to try to steer the marketing direction in a different way and eventually leave? Today, we’ll try and see if we can better understand that thought process.
Read more of Victor Barreiro Jr.'s Landmark: Why Did Omeed Go?
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Comments
I really hope the game does well. It never hooked me but the last thing we need is more failed games. It is bad for the entire genre.
I really enjoyed Landmark until they added combat and fall damage. It's becoming just another mmo and that makes me sad.
I do agree with Keen re the exclusionary flavor of SOE Insiders; it's always difficult to feel left out and when it is perceived as a matter of money garnering influence, that reeks of the kind of politics most people hate. For those folks who have lots of time to play and experiment and get really good at voxelmancy, more power to them I guess.
It's not hard to imagine what the reasons may be.
I personally would be turned off by things like these if I was him:
- mmo catering to whales instead of providing value for a reasonable price.
- Deliberately adding bad design to capitalze on people bypassing it via the cash shop.
- Strip features down to the core, make most of the worthwhile stuff unavailable to be earned in game. Instead you have to buy it from the store (Some mmo companies do this with housing for instance)
- Exclusive mounts/pets/ costumes only available in gamble boxes from the cash shop to capitalize on addiction and casino behaviour.
- Mounts, pets, achievements, dyes being character bound instead of account ( eqnext might not have that problem though, because every character can become every class)
- Item prices, reputation gains, xp being tuned around 150% boosts from the store, instead of providing the maximum amount of boosts for subscribers.
- General attempt to double dip and tune the game around the cash shop and not the other way around.
I totally agree. The worst thing they could do is create a round table. Is it REALLY the community at that point? I think that what they were, probably, trying to do is something like what EVE Online does. There is like a MASSIVE difference, though. I mean in EVE we're talking about people representing the community, but as Owners or Representatives of massive "Corporations" in the game. This is a massively different paradigm than a round table. For one, these corporations have thousands of members, representing a very accurate cross-section of the active community. Secondly, it brings balance to the game. Finally, it is rarely self-serving.
With a round table, you are focused on a group that is very niche and you're not really representing the needs of the larger community. Basically, it's like the "Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" proverb. There's PLENTY of people who have paid money to access the game. I'm sure there are plenty more who would have given even more if they could afford to. That doesn't mean that the people who invested heavily up front or the "whales" are the ones who will drive your economy. Actually, they could be the ones to tank the economy. Especially if you're looking for sustained revenue and growth over time.
Crazkanuk
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youre right...i think after the cancelation of titan, if everquest next fails as well, it will be the end of aaa mmo's as we know them...
My wife and I got the "Founders" pack to this game, being avid EQ'ers
I learned two things(speaking only for myself) NEVER fall for a "Founder" offer again,
And I won't touch EQ next as it will be a free to play milk your wallet cash shop as the other gamers stated above...it's all a/b getting that $$$ now.
Personally I despise how they are marketing the EQ:N stuff. Merely cause they are marketing Landmark to ALL hell while most of us, from my perspective, just want to know more about EQ:N. Landmark is cool and all but I think most folks are more interested in the real MMO they are creating, not the test game they are using to help create the game, as they say.
As for the round table and all that, I truly hate this as well. It's not really a community when all your doing is giving the folks that stream the most information. I understand the reasoning I just don't think it's ethical.
If you want community then allow the community everything not just the folks that are going to give you advertising if you let them get a bit more. Not to mention that this isn't an all new idea, I've been seeing a lot of games do this recently.
Albion Online for one did this. They removed their key giveaway for the community and only gave free keys to streamers. It's like, "Ok, you don't care about your community, you care about your advertising/marketing campaign." which is disconcerting to your actual community if they even notice it.
The biggest issue with all of this is when they start taking feedback and hold the streamers feedback as better feedback than the regular community. Whether they are folks that paid for founders packs, stream, youtube or just follow your game all of them should have equally loud voices, not just the folks your gonna get stuff from.
However, if that's how you wanna do it, then just say:
"Join <whatever games> marketing campaign and receive these gifts!"
and then you'd actually not be giving misinformation rather then:
"Everyone join the roundtable and share your thoughts!.... ........disclaimer: Only people we get stuff out of will have their feedback read and considered"
which is basically what they do now. You can argue that the streamers actually do something for them so they deserve to get something extra, but IMO, just cause someone streams doesn't mean they have the best ideas/issues/feedback/etc.
Exactly why they are already trying to sell stuff from LANDMARK, A.K.A. EQ:N TEST.....
I agree that it stinks of bull shit, when they overly promote an individuals package from the Gallery, or showcase a users PvP arena, but then ignore all the other amazing ones.
It seems like politics is playing a huge role in the live streams and it makes me ill.
Although I am looking forward to EQN, I am not a huge fan of Landmark, and I think they are taking WAY to long getting fun things to do implemented (combat, mobs, gear, etc).
I mean... how long can you watch someone dig ore, or chop wood, before you want to pour bleach in your eyes? It's been 9 MONTHS of the same old boring shit, yet they still try to promote these streamers as if they are doing something worth watching? I mean COME ON.
Maybe it's just me. I'm an adventurer and combat enthusiast, not a 'gatherer-phile'.
I like the combat in Landmark, but it's only three weapons, and not very many moves. It's been a few weeks since they were released, and it's time to release more options. People will lose interest altogether if they don't keep the ball rolling.
Omeed was fun to watch, and I am sad to see him go. In the end, they will need to step up and make Landmark interesting, or else no one is going to want to play it, no matter how many free items and streamers they shove down our throats.
+1
Completely agree with this!
Welcome to SOE. Dazzle you with bright flashy particles while simultaneously trying to slip your wallet out of you pocket.
Handing out 'insider' only items is akin to if Blizzard gave unique cards to their hand-picked Hearthstone closed-beta streamers. Lol image the uproar if that happened
What Keen is describing is what happened (a lot) with Archeage. Certain streamers got promoted, given lots of alpha keys, and other perks (including inside information) which helped their viewers get excited about the game (which was good for the game). However, there was more than a few people who felt like they were getting a big "fuck you" from Trion when these certain people got all these perks just because they were streamers, while these non streamers had been following, talking about, making (English) websites, and playing the game since KR beta and all the other region launches. (A handful of the streamers were even supposed to get flown out to Trion to meet the dev team - but I stopped playing before that was supposed to happen).
The ironic thing about what Trion did was several of the streamers would say terrible things about the game all the time on their streams and one even admitted he only kept streaming it because he was getting viewers (and he and more have quit streaming it since they stopped getting perks).
It's a tough call, but I think Omeed was on the wrong side of this one.
Let's face it: Social Media isn't going anywhere fast. I think the smart companies embrace Social Media as well as those who've become popular (or even famous) from it. Because it's people who make certain streamers popular - the streamers and their fans are a big part of your community.
I think most of the bigger companies like SOE and Blizzard are recognizing this and have begun to rely more and more on communicating to their players via Twitter/Facebook rather than their own websites and are relying on Streamers to build hype rather than their own dime and their own marketing departments.
Blizzard has had Streamers giving out Beta Keys. SOE will probably do the same.
I have my own misgivings as to the future of marketing/MMO community, but I can see both sides of the argument and while both have good points, I think SoE has chosen the proper play here. Omeed's way is the way of the past - not the future.
I think you have an over estimation of the importance of those two games. Who really knows why Titan was cancelled, but it was, and..the Earth is still spinning. I imagine much of the same will happen if EQN crashes and burns.
SOE has always played a game of favorites. They are (the upper management) a self-serving Old Guard that should have been broken up long ago to let new blood in. Their recent (last 3 years) shift to Twitter and Facebook and complete abandonment of their Official Forums as a posting medium is reflective of Dave Georgeson's machiavellian nature. Having to be a Twitter whore and listen to every nail-on-chalkboard inane banter that they engage in, simply to increase their sense of self-importance, is nauseating at best. I don't want to follow along like all the vapid sheep just to get scraps of real information. Their use of Facebook isn't quite so painful, but it's a cheesy way for them to get free advertising by having competitions that encourage their customers to link to their page and try to recruit more followers.
I agree with Omeed. I think it takes balls to stick up to Dave's regime. Unfortunately, going against the flow over there also means having to pack up your office box and vacate by the end of the business day. I hope he finds an environment that works for him.
Sort of agree, the cancellation of Titan is a blip after all we did not know what the game was until it was cancelled and expectations were low. As for EQ Not! its success will be more of a problem for "aaa mmo's as we know them" than its failure.
It is not Everquest and it is not really an RPG.
Not sure how Georgeson qualifies as one of the "old guard", he has not been with SOE that long. Same is true for a number of the managers involved with EQ Not!. But the rest is true enough.
I honestly can't blame him for leaving and think that being a creative idea man there amongst the "old guard"(as someone put it) would be a less than ideal work situation.
What you listed will probably be in EQNext in some form or other. I am sure he was really turned off by all this greed.
you guys are really milking this boring incident huh
it will still spin but aaa companies will turn their attention to making mobas instead of mmo's...
Which cannot be allowed to happen.
That got a laugh out of me, there are already far too many MOBAs out there. If you want a quick game experience there is nothing better, but a lot of us really dislike them.