So that FaceBook ad SotA is running

Thanks for noticing! We're looking into it.

 

lol, the devil is indeed in the details.

Agree with much of the OP....frankly... as it's us that's been funding it, idk why they don't roll out their concept art to us first. One rarely gets the opportunity for a 2nd chance to make a first impression.

 

if only the community could create better ads....
hint... hint...

 

I would not use Shroud of the Avatar in keywords, because you're going to get so many of us who already play it, and that is wasted ad money.

Also if you don't want to waste their ad money I would suggest telling Facebook not to show you their ad anymore.

@Berek, if you guys are interested in the (great) feedback like this, but don't want us to have to waste your ad money to see the ads, how about posting a thread? That way we can hide them in Facebook and all your clicks/impressions are from new people, instead of us.

@Derium what is your YouTube channel?

 

Well lets hope round two is better.

 

I absolutely agree with this.

Portalarium's marketing department needs a lot of polish. Every ad I've seen, the trailer, the website, ALL of it feels low budget and not-that-professional.

(And to those who would jump on this and say well they don't have the budget of bla bla... just because its low budget, doesn't mean it has to LOOK low budget.)

 

A community created ad?

Maybe have a contest who can create the best ad. And if it's good enough to use commercially ...

 

I would participate in that

 

That is an awful advertisement for all the reasons people have pointed out here, and more. I doubt this is a test advert, as that makes zero sense right now. You wasted money on an ad that wouldn't get a passing grade in a 100-level college advertising/marketing course? Why would you do that? What were you testing - how fast the community would point out the disappointment in it?

At a quick glance (which is all people will see scrolling down) you're relying on this to stop them:

- A character that looks like one from assassin's creed.
- A moon that is easily mistakable for the one in EQ2's marketing campaigns a few years back. It's the same color in the same location.
- Cut and paste World of Warcraft Human town architecture from launch in the background.
- A Green PLAY NOW button with a gold border, basically identical to ones you see on the garbage mobile games we all ignore tons of, almost instantly, out of habit at this point.
- It's blurry. Not just in the picture here, but in the actual ad I was bored enough to go find. I'd bet the aspect ratio is incorrect and the overall resolution is low and had to be scaled, likely leading to the AR problem, but who knows at this point.

How did this advert get made, reviewed, and accepted for anything beyond a VERY basic proof of concept? There's no reason a game with this much clout should ever put out something of this low quality. Even as a test.

Explain to me the methodology of a test advert of this low quality on a platform like Facebook. What made anyone think doing this had value? What possible information have you gathered - aside from scathing feedback someone who's taken a basic advertising class could've given you?

I'm not just trying to nitpick and be a jerk here. This is some seriously unacceptable work, and I'm far from the only one pointing it out on these forums and beyond.

By the way, the URL doesn't even work. So it couldn't have given you any useful data if people engaged with it, anyway.

 

With this community I would have thought you would tap into the hive mind BEFORE launching ads for feedback, not the other way around. The community does want to be part of the reason for a successful game and can offer helpful, constructive feedback.

I would think as ideas roll through the Port staff, occasionally you should consider incorporating our feedback as the end user prior to doing things, the ones that it ultimately affects.

 

I took a few min to find a submission. https://www.facebook.com/Shroudofth...1145387047683/931145237047698/?type=3&theater I bet you can't guess where I found it. lol =)

 

I think a couple screenshots in the ad would work wonders to side step the facebook game look.

 

The gigantic marketing campaign has begun!

http://metatrone.fr/39714-shroud-of...-spirituel-de-la-sage-ultima-sortira-en-mars/

 

You would think that over the period of 5 years we could get a professional 2nd marketing image. Fingers crossed.

 

Hey we are up over two percent in population over the last 30 days so maybe it is working. 139 average players now via Steam.

 

What is going on with these advertisements/posts/general publicity?
https://imgur.com/a/JSUS8 (screen grab from interacting with the advert)

Are you trying to actively sabotage your own launch? Who selected this picture, approved it, and posted it? This picture has jagged textures all over it (check the plants and surroundings). The scaling of the person in it is laughably off, they're gonna be the size of a mouse when they finally get to the entrance of that building - or does depth work differently in the universe the folks responsible for these decisions operate in?

Best part? Ready? When you click on that picture, the caption is empty. "All the details here: [link]" is absent from every image attached to that post. If those posts are promoting newsletter 265, why isn't each of them bearing a caption also directing those interacting with it to where you want them to go?

Again, I'm forced to provide basic marketing knowledge and expectations. There's something called engagement - a term I feel I need to inform you of because your social media "campaign" has effectively zero of it.

When customers engage with things, they're supposed to provide information, and/or make it as easy as possible to get potential customers wherever you want them to go. Cool, right? Right.

So when you engage with these pictures to enlarge them, you're penalized. You now need to close the images and interact directly with the link in the original post instead of being able to do so directly from the picture (via the caption). Why put extra clicks between the customer and your newsletter? You're actively adding steps to get them where you want them. How hard is it to cut and paste a sentence w/a link you've already written?

This kind of stuff matters.

Please, do better.

 

Sometimes it worries me that Port is trying to market it this way intentionally. But you're right that the average person tends to ignore these kinds of ads and it doesn't create a favorable impression for the game.

 

This thread just shows this "ad" should have been posted here first.

2 months to go. Vets of the industry should know better.

 

Think you hit on something. Keep the average people away, because they are too dumb to appreciate the glory that is happening here. After all, the average person just wants to play their *gasp* theme-park MMOs.