Peter2k, on 09 December 2016 - 02:42 AM, said:
Thanks for linking this.
Bud Crue, on 09 December 2016 - 04:22 AM, said:
Case in point, the article from PCGamer cited above. It ought to be plastered all over this place, and then all over every gaming blog/vlog they can find. The CM ought to be sending emails to every community member who has such a blog/vlog, every member with a unit page, etc. asking nicely if they would post that article, as well as the recently published interview that Russ gave just before mechcon, etc.
It is *bizarre* that they don't make more of this. I mean that sort of coverage ought to be in the image rotation on the homepage but at the very least, you make a news post saying "Check out this fascinating article about the MWOWC from PC Gamer".
Appogee, on 09 December 2016 - 04:32 AM, said:
Posting an article about the finals on the web page would require effort. Interviewing the players and posting bios would require effort. Post-match media engagement would require effort. PGI doesn't do "effort".
That sounds cynical, but it's true. It pervades their whole approach to developing, patching, road maps, balance changes, server issues. It's all slow, it's most often reactive, and if it happens in the evening or on the weekend ... well it can just wait til Monday morning.
After Mech Con, I think they all went home and caught up on all the naps they missed during the week leading up to the event. Or gave themselves a week off. Either way, it's just one squandered opportunity after another. As a passionate Mechwarrior and hugely-invested customer, it just breaks my heart. (edited for space)
Every year I manage the AV for at least one internal corporate event for the company I'm a full-time employee of where I spend 9-12 days onsite in a fancy hotel. For those 9-12 days I typically start work between 4am and 6am, and finish anywhere between 8pm (during the early setup days) to 1am (during the event proper).
The day *after* the event finishes, before I head off I package up the final versions of the presentation materials and the audio recordings of the sessions and send them to our corporate team for transcription and minuting; I collate any video shot of the events, make backups and fedex them home, and send a handful of thank-you notes to the meeting team. I normally do this in the restaurant or bar, with food and a drink or two. That's just admin for an internal meeting but I still do it before I go exploring or catch a flight home.
Unless the day was a total disaster (and as far as I can tell, despite some of the misses on the presentation front, the matches were good, people had fun and MWO got some press attention for the first time in ages) it's crazy to think that the day after the "flagship public event" the team wasn't spending at least the morning posting photos, 1min promo vids cut from the stream footage/event recordings and each and every positive news mention to *every* outlet at their disposal -- facebook, twitter and yes, their own damn website.
Appogee, on 09 December 2016 - 06:10 AM, said:
The thing is: there are a LOT of mature people playing this game, who DO have the experience and knowledge to help and guide PGI in matters where they are clearly out of the depth. But they can't even be bothered hearing our advice. We're here in the forums sharing one good idea after another, but they never visit.
To be fair, you know what the forums are like. Sifting through the vitriol, the unworkable ideas and the one-note-flutes is a huge amount of work to *possibly* mine a gem of an idea. Equally, just because someone says they're experienced in X discipline and can give them advice, whether X is event management, community relations or whatever doesn't mean their experience is relevant in context (or even validly claimed), and it doesn't mean that advice wouldn't be at least a little self-serving.
Big Tin Man, on 09 December 2016 - 12:33 PM, said:
Two people from my unit went to the event, and they said it was actually pretty well organized, catering and drinks were on par (the tickets weren't that expensive, so adjust your expectations). It seems like PGI had the IRL side of the event handled, they just didn't have a team to take care of internet.
(edited -- this next bit is re: the stream)
Could it have been better done with more events specifically designed for the stream, i.e. dev and team interviews, Q&A from twitch, Paul avoiding every question and camera, etc? Definitely.
It's a *huge* amount of work to make a live event *broadcast* interesting. HUGE. We have the expectation that "TV content" is a continuous feed of interesting items, and live events aren't. If you're attending, in between stuff-that-happens you're getting drinks and food, looking at merch, looking at stands, chatting with friends, making new friends, planning dinner etc. You have to fill all of that dead time on a stream with multiple hosts, interviews, content content content. And that's just for a couple of hours.
While they could have done more for sure, I must say I think PGI were always up against it re: the stream. If they hadn't done a stream, people would have complained mightily, but to produce a live event stream at the sort of level we'd like, for the full duration of the stream, would probably have cost more than combined budget for every other aspect of the event combined.
EDIT: and if they'd spent that money, we'd be splitting our time between complaining about how terrible the host was (bad jokes, didn't know the game etc etc) and wondering why they blew so much money on the stream when it could have been spent on (maps/engine upgrade/ponies)
Edited by Ano, 09 December 2016 - 06:23 PM.
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