Crafty marketing and how to see through it

Started by W8taminute, June 28, 2022, 03:33:23 PM

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Gusington

^Definitely, good one.

And now vastly improved...so kind of a feel-good story.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

SirAndrewD

Yeah, No Man's Sky is actually a good game now. 

It was definitely marketed "dishonestly" but that was the fault of the Devs ineptitude as PR people rather than malice.  They were too small of a company to have a dedicated marketing branch.  Their publishers just kept shoving them akwardly in front of the media and they answered every question with "Yes".

Their best play was what they did, shut up in the press and just develop their game.
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback

Silent Disapproval Robot

A fair number over the years. 

Most recently, I'd say Hearts of Iron IV stands out.  I found HoI III quite daunting when I first picked it up and it sat on my HDD for years before I finally forced myself to learn how to play it.  It ended up providing me with some of the most engrossing gaming sessions I've ever had.  I jumped on HoI IV when it first came out, spent time going through the tutorials and familiarizing myself with the new system and, after 10+ hours, I deleted it.  Nearly all of the changes that Paradox made between III and IV went in the wrong direction as far as I was concerned.  I absolutely hated the way they abstracted air combat, found the naval combat to be anemic, and swore in frustration with the battle planner system (it's uncanny how the AI will go out of its way to pull your alpine troops out of mountains and stick them on a coastline and send the armor you had there up into the just-vacated hills).  I am not a fan of the current Paradox business model of shipping a game with most of the content stripped out so that they can parcel it out as DLC but as they often throw DLC bundles up on steep discounts, I can live with it.    I recently bought a DLC package that had most of the HOI IV stuff in it so I thought I'd give it another whirl in hopes that they'd fleshed things out and improved the battle planner AI.  After 30+ hours of play, I can say I strongly dislike HoI IV and vastly prefer III.  IV just feels like a generic sandbox game that strips way too much control away from the player.  It's also a chore to find detailed information from unit stats to battle reports.  III does suffer from some bad naval AI and micromanaging divisions can be tedious, but it outshines IV in every other aspect as far as I'm concerned.


al_infierno

^ The name of the Paradox game these days is "generic sandbox" with a bunch of flavor pack DLCs that you can pick and choose based on the costumes you want your marionettes to dance around in.

A lot of what you described is similarly why I prefer Crusader Kings 2 over Crusader Kings 3, and do not have high hopes at all for Vicky 3.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao