Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning: Too much damn advertising

We can argue about the amount, the content, and the place for ads - but ultimately Advertisement is simply the way producers have to communicate with potential customers about their products. I don't see anything inherently wrong with that. In fact, if I were making a product (e.g. a game) of course I would want to advertise it, too. But we are porbably getting into P&R territorry here. As to the OP - interestingly I haven't run into a single KoA ad yet (IIRC) - so it clearly depends on where on the internet one hangs out, I guess..

I'd be more than willing to clarify my overarching issue with ads in terms of how they're being handled, as opposed to how they could ideally function.

But yeah, not here…

Eh, thread's gone off on a tangent. But, to further clarify, my issue is with how the game has 3 1/2 months until launch. I have no issue with banners in general - just stupid use of banners.

IMO, it's plain annoying to be advertised to for a product so far down the timeline. And it's there to garner hype, yes, but such hype is overkill when there's still so much work/waiting to be done. I guess it's my overall jadedness coming out - usually, such moves by a studio's PR department are only there to shore up a shallow game that needs the outlandish hype to garner its sales.

FWIW it is available for pre-order so you can buy it now, you just can't play it for a while. Not that I think anyone should be rushing out to do that for some unknown entity under the EA banner, mind you.

Yes, it would be wiser to be quiet about a new IP/game until close to release, that way no one would be excited/interested in it. That makes sense, if anything I think a lot of companies making RPG's should advertise more to get better sales.

At least we KNOW when this one is coming out. Dead State and Age of Decadence is killing me because I have no clue just how much longer it will be. Not even a hint of a clue.

Some indies used to have progress bars to show what they have completed and what needs to be done. I would buy two of each game just to have that.

I'm not really that upset about it to the point it turned me off to the games, but I would love if they just threw the masses a bone. We're dying here!

I'm sure I could sorta guess just how far along they are because of the constant updates, but those guesses have been wrong. Hell I voted for Dead State in our most anticipated game of 2011 poll. I think I might have done that for 2010 too.

I know it takes a long time to make a rpg, but a hint that it might take another year or two or three would be great.

Skavenhorde, I am helping to beta-test the demo for AoD since August. Due to the highly branching plots, its a difficult game to test, and a lot of things were missing when we started testing. It's coming together bit by bit, but I am not sure they will reach the original goal of releasing the demo in November (some game systems are still missing in the latest beta, e.g. crafting and the quest Journal). But I am pretty sure it will be out this year. Considering that the demo is probably about 15-20% of the final game, and that all game systems should be in place after the demo is released, I would expect they will need about a year after the demo to finish the final game.
However, ITS will be taking preorders when the demo comes out, and if they get enough pre-orders, they intend to reduce their day job commitments, and the game may come out a little faster.
Despite being a beta tester that's just an outsiders view, of course, but I hope it helps to adjust your expectations. I think the team itself has become very weary of their own predictions, so they are probably not going to give out anything official until very shortly before release.

You are my hero! Thank you very much for that bit of information. I knew about the demo coming, but didn't think much of it because they released the combat demo quite awhile ago. It could be another two years off the next demo as far as I knew.

Yea, they've been really tight lipped since the beginning and I can't really blame them. If they miss a release date then everyone and their mother will throw a fit. I just wanted a guesstimate and you gave that. Thank you.

I'm so jealous that you get to play the beta. Though I can't whine too much since I got to test the beta for Frayed Knights and Dungeons of Dredmor.

Thanks again. You are the man!!!

I agree that it's quite a lot of info at such an early stage. I generally don't think it's a good idea to start marketing too early - people might get bored of it all before it's actually released. It tends to be better to have a more focused, explosive campaign near the release than some drawn out, lengthy campaign.

Personally, I stopped paying attention because it's so far away. I see no reason to get caught up in every little detail at this point.