MrVicchio
2003-04-07, 01:41 PM
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum2/HTML/005160.html
Author Topic: Piss poor public relations.
Dangerchicken
Station Member
Registered: Feb 2001
posted 04-07-2003 03:56 AM user search report post
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While I have followed planetside for a long time, and have indeed loved the game, and all aspects of it, I must conclude that the public relations is utterly pathetic.
Come on guys, what gives?
The list of PR failures, even disasters, is far too long to post, only a few can be summarised below.
Firstly - No apparent monthly news letter, almost every game I know of -especially MMORPGS - issues a monthly news letter in some shape or form, a letter which keeps fans up to date on the progress - and ESPECIALLY should have been used to inform of the first beta sign ups.
On that note - the beta signups, the first ones, were pathetically handled, no email notification, a note in the Sony newsletter, which was sent out AFTER the signups had finished - therefore only aggrivating people. The website was almost never updated - so almost no one bothered to check it.
On that note, again, the website is, and always has been poor, if not pathetic. There is little information, much of which is not complete or accurate, take the vehicles page for example... The released information is NEVER summarised, take the questions recently answered about the beta - not a single Dev sticky about it, nor a post on the website, instead it was left up to me to summarise all the answers and provide a comprehensive beta FAQ - pathetic. Once we got weekly screenshots - these kept many, including myself, interested, then they stopped... Why? No time? So if there isn't time then WHAT THE HELL is the PR manager doing? Having a cup of cofee? Surely his job entails taking five minutes every week to procure a selection of screenshots and upload them to the website. The offical screenshots are pathetically few - instead they seem to rely on fan sites to do all the work for them - come on Dev's, what's the PR manager for?
While questions are sometimes answered on the forums, it is rare and infrequent, there are still many unanswered questions and, again, we are often left feeling put out. Indeed - the "abilities" of the PR team was shown by the deletion of a post I made a few days ago, which included ONLY publicly released information - yet somehow, through pathetic lack of communication and forum attention, the unnamed Dev deleted my post believing it to contain Beta specific information... How much attention does that person pay to the forums then?
The adverts in PC gamer are, amazingly, PATHETIC. Not only is it an old, and grainy screenshot, which is exactly the same in every advert, but the information is simply wrong! The VS are NOT the TR, anyone who has seen this advert will understand this appalling mistake...
All in all I cannot believe how poor the pr has been over the years, it is definately the hardworking efforts of the dev team in regards to producing the game which attracts customers - but I am sure no one would be attracted by the frankly pathetic PR.
So, basically, PR team get your ideas together, produce an acceptable facade for planetside because at the moment I have seen B movies with more, and better, publicity than planetside.
Sorry, bored, thought you guys would like this for its humor value and get you fired up for a monday
Author Topic: Piss poor public relations.
Dangerchicken
Station Member
Registered: Feb 2001
posted 04-07-2003 03:56 AM user search report post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While I have followed planetside for a long time, and have indeed loved the game, and all aspects of it, I must conclude that the public relations is utterly pathetic.
Come on guys, what gives?
The list of PR failures, even disasters, is far too long to post, only a few can be summarised below.
Firstly - No apparent monthly news letter, almost every game I know of -especially MMORPGS - issues a monthly news letter in some shape or form, a letter which keeps fans up to date on the progress - and ESPECIALLY should have been used to inform of the first beta sign ups.
On that note - the beta signups, the first ones, were pathetically handled, no email notification, a note in the Sony newsletter, which was sent out AFTER the signups had finished - therefore only aggrivating people. The website was almost never updated - so almost no one bothered to check it.
On that note, again, the website is, and always has been poor, if not pathetic. There is little information, much of which is not complete or accurate, take the vehicles page for example... The released information is NEVER summarised, take the questions recently answered about the beta - not a single Dev sticky about it, nor a post on the website, instead it was left up to me to summarise all the answers and provide a comprehensive beta FAQ - pathetic. Once we got weekly screenshots - these kept many, including myself, interested, then they stopped... Why? No time? So if there isn't time then WHAT THE HELL is the PR manager doing? Having a cup of cofee? Surely his job entails taking five minutes every week to procure a selection of screenshots and upload them to the website. The offical screenshots are pathetically few - instead they seem to rely on fan sites to do all the work for them - come on Dev's, what's the PR manager for?
While questions are sometimes answered on the forums, it is rare and infrequent, there are still many unanswered questions and, again, we are often left feeling put out. Indeed - the "abilities" of the PR team was shown by the deletion of a post I made a few days ago, which included ONLY publicly released information - yet somehow, through pathetic lack of communication and forum attention, the unnamed Dev deleted my post believing it to contain Beta specific information... How much attention does that person pay to the forums then?
The adverts in PC gamer are, amazingly, PATHETIC. Not only is it an old, and grainy screenshot, which is exactly the same in every advert, but the information is simply wrong! The VS are NOT the TR, anyone who has seen this advert will understand this appalling mistake...
All in all I cannot believe how poor the pr has been over the years, it is definately the hardworking efforts of the dev team in regards to producing the game which attracts customers - but I am sure no one would be attracted by the frankly pathetic PR.
So, basically, PR team get your ideas together, produce an acceptable facade for planetside because at the moment I have seen B movies with more, and better, publicity than planetside.
Sorry, bored, thought you guys would like this for its humor value and get you fired up for a monday