What do you think of Valves yoyo marketing campaign?

[wonkers]

Right....sure.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

petey's opinion is pretty much spot on. The pre-September 2003 hype was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Now it's a horrible mess with no real goal or direction. I read a few other general gaming sites and when Half-Life 2 news is posted it's met with nothing but vitriolic responses and apathy. It's obviously different around here because this is a fansite, but generally i've found people to be incredibly cynical towards anything Valve says. There's a certain feeling of betrayal. Anyway, that's not a proper gauge of what the general gaming public feels, it's only what i've witnessed on other sites.

 

[Wolf]

Wrong comparison! It should have been: How do you think Duke Nukem Forever fans feel? Id never said "We are aiming for Summer" or other hypothetical release date, they always stuck with "When it is done!". On other hand 3D Realm initially gave many release dates and are now stuck with "When it is done!". Valve will learn :|

It's not a wrong comparison at all. Other people brought release dates into it which had absolutely nothing to do with my observation. All I was saying is that D3 has jack shit media...

--
FYI - There has only been one delay and since then it has been "we're aiming at summer" - ie. it is WID. id hasn't contradicted the August date and we know they are aiming for this year - so I really don't see much of a difference...

 

[lans]

I'd bet a lot of the folks here had no idea what HL was until it was a hit.

It's just as much as hyped as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Which means there were some sparse fan sites for it and a bunch following the game day by day - so for all what we know Stalker could be the next half-life? historically the sleeper hit.

That time's (1998) Doom 3 was the hyped "SiN" and unofrtunately it turned out to be crap. Half-life 2 stands in the position of the hyped Shogo which was okish.

 

[Naveed]

we know they are aiming for this year - so I really don't see much of a difference...

ID's official stance is this "When it is done!". Of course people were assuming that D3 will come out last year but it doesn't. There was no backlash because ID didn't say "We are aiming". There is a big difference between "assuming" that are aiming for 2004 than hearing it directly from the developer.

 

[Wolf]

ID's official stance is this "When it is done!". Of course people were assuming that D3 will come out last year but it doesn't. There was no backlash because ID didn't say "We are aiming". There is a big difference between "assuming" that are aiming for 2004 than hearing it directly from the developer.

Re-read what I said. There has been announcements from Activision that D3 will be out in August and id haven't contradicted it. We know they were aiming at Q3 2004. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!! Both games will be out when they're done.

 

[craig]

I'd say its very frustrating indeed.

 

[Naveed]

Re-read what I said. There has been announcements from Activision that D3 will be out in August and id haven't contradicted it.

Can you please post the link to the press release by Activision about August release? Many Thanks.

 

[wonkers]

No one has proved the fall release is a rumour yet. In all fairness doesn't that mean it has a 50% chance of being real?

Just because this is a HL fansite doesn't mean we arn't gamers. All of us own more than just Valve products. Considering we like the FPS genre why do people have such a hostility towards other games? (off-topic) but who cares.

Hype is like anything else, too much of it and it's a bad thing.

 

[jet jaguar]

To the people that say "there's no such thing as bad publicity", I give you John Romero and his claim about making people his bitches. Plainly put, if you hype a game to be the best thing since the invention of fire you better make sure it's atleast 2x better or gamers will pick it apart for every minor fault there is. Whereas a game flying under the radar won't be as harshly critiqued, a game that's being touted in magazines and websites as the next BIG thing is going to be examined with a fine-tooth comb so to speak.

Valve's PR department stinks, and it's not just because of HL2. TF2 is another blackeye for them. Again, if the games live up to expectations the bad feelings will be a distant memory, if they don't then the negative attitudes of fans will only fester and boil, thus hurting Valve's chances for success in future ventures.

 

[clarky003]

you still have to remember that you cant go looking for things that havnt been said to be included in the game. You have to look at it how it is and what it was designed to include..,I believe Some people have too higher expectations of the game, and there always going to be the ones that might be dissapointed. But im not going through it with a fine comb. so to speak.
All i would like to see is a solid game working well with its havoc physics.

theres always nit pickers. its just a game. Just one of the better ones in context.

 

[petey]

if [the game stinks] then the negative attitudes of fans will only fester and boil, thus hurting Valve's chances for success in future ventures.

Read Condition Zero.



Disclaimer: For some fans. I personally love CZ.

 

[Logic]

To the people that say "there's no such thing as bad publicity", .....

I don't neccissarily believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, and of course over-hyping will have it's consequences.. It's just a point of view the situation can be seen from. I think in Valve's case, that delays, and the source code theft and alpha-build release, while obviously unfortunate and difficult for Valve, will have ultimately given them significantly more publicity that will have helped spread the word about the game. Everything Valve has done, including the delay, has essentially been useful and good publicity. Now provided the game doesn't suck, there won't be any kind of backlash. It might seem Valve's marketing is bad, but it's going to achieve exactly what marketing is supposed to achieve - it's going to sell the game to a LOT of people.

 

[CR0M]

It's not the marketing that is causing all the ups and downs, it's the expectations of community members. Sometimes wish I could go back 5 years to a time when I didn't look at forums for game news and every new release was an unexpected and welcome surprise that just appeared on the shelves.

 

[petey]

Sometimes wish I could go back 5 years to a time when I didn't look at forums for game news and every new release was an unexpected and welcome surprise that just appeared on the shelves.

When you create your Wayback Machine, please invite me too. Thanks.

 

[lans]

My friend just upgraded his comp from a P III 800 MHz and a voodoo 3 and just showed him the videos of HL2 (he never knew the sequel was in the making) and he was like "OMG!!11!!" at every bink I showed him of 2003. He's downloading the E3 2004 vid tommorow - and can't wait for the game. It kind of hyped me up again to see someone so enthusiatic about the game and I feel now that I can wait a bit longer - even if it comes out in October. Of course he didn't know about the other drama of 30 spe and all - heh.

 

[wonkers]

I could never understand why game companies would tell you about what they are doing before they finish.

For the most part the movie industry finishes a movie then starts the add campaigne. Why can't the friggen game industry learn a thing or two. How hard is it to finish something then tell people about it? You can hype it after!

It takes such intelligent people to make games but their marketing is laughable. There is no positive reason to tell people about your game before it's finished. (unless) you are a small mod team and you need free talent.

What ever. No one pays me money to think for them so I guess I shouldn't say anything.

 

[el Chi]

For the most part the movie industry finishes a movie then starts the add campaigne.

That's not in the slightest bit true.

Yet another Valve-bashing thread. How wonderful. All this vitriol, negativity and childishness is making me nauseous.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I said no.

The only thing I would want changed, is VALVe to spread things out more to make it last! For example Halo 2. Like a few months ago the first picture was released. Only one. What was good is that then people dissected the picture, looked at everything cool and make reports about it. Instead of just taking it for what you will. If VALVe would spread things out more, unreleased things BTW, then it would make us happy.

Also, if we find links to low-quality shizzle videos, and VALVe has high-quality videos, I think they should release them. I mean heck thousands of people say them. Throw the name "Beta Videos" on there if you want. I personnely am getting tired of the fans hunting for the fans on the game. If we have seen something low-res, I don't see a reason why not to release a high-res version. Sure it may be easier to find errors, but we could get through that, without getting mad. But if we stay with this low-quality versions forever, then we start flaming valve for not releasing anything :\

Although, they are "releasing" stuff to the public I guess.... Except it isn't by picture or video officially. They show the game to people, and want them to report back to a forum and such. I find that poopish. You don't get mainstream media if it's that low-quality junk!

 

[Sandler]

Sucks

I'm so hopeless.