The rant continues

Continued from the following blog posts:

My rant on the availability, or lack thereof, of GVCs
Blacksword's rant about how MMO companies are treating their players
Stiles's almost-quitting speech

Additional, related posts
Southernsky's Top 5 reasons why seaGE is the No. 1 MMORPG...
Winterlake and having to do math for GVCs

Normally, when I get pissed off over something, the fit of pique goes away as quickly as it has begun. However, Blacksword's, Stiles's, and my blog posts have now let several cats out of the too-small bag. Let's talk about some of the biggest issues plaguing the PH community of Granado Espada players.

1. As mentioned by Sigrid in her comment to Blacksword's post: where the heck are the seaGE installers?

Why aren't IP e-Games giving away installers at events, or via the online gaming magazines, or even at more standard outlets such as convenience stores? Where are the seaGE installers in the thousands of Internet cafes scattered all over the Philippines?

Giving away samples of a game you would like people to try out, and eventually play: that's chapter one page one for promoting games! And what are the samples for MMOs? You guessed it: installers! If you want to grow your player base, you need to let people try out the game!

Telling people to download the game instead of giving them an installer? That's called giving them the cold shoulder. You want them to immediately start playing, NOT wait several days for a huge download to finish!

2. Corollary to the installers question above: where the heck are the promotional materials?

Why aren't people going round distributing seaGE posters? There are almost never enough to go around at the events. Are these posters supposed to be extra-speshul limited editions or something?

Okay, posters require the expenses of design and layout and printing and shit, but they more than pay for themselves once they're up in Internet cafes, because even if you just give them away, they make people curious to try out the game! So - where are they?

Plus, printing tarps is becoming cheaper. If other online games could spend lots on tarpaulins, why hasn't IP e-Games done the same for seaGE?

3. The over-arching theme of questions 1 and 2 is: where the heck are the sales personnel? Where are the IP e-Games people who go around to Internet cafes specifically for the purpose of promoting seaGE? Where are the personnel who will promote the game by installing it and then asking people to try it out? Isn't this a marketing strategy?

And hasn't it worked well for the other games being handled by IP e-Games? So why isn't seaGE getting the same treatment?

4. Speaking of promoting seaGE versus the other IP e-Games titles: truth is, they're NOT.

Sure, I see the marketing staff for Ran Online, for Dance Battle Audition, for O2 Jam, for Supreme Destiny, and now for Cabal Online. In fact, just yesterday I found out that the marketing people for Cabal had already come around to the Internet shop where I'm a regular - they received an installer yesterday afternoon!

Is there a similar group for seaGE? I don't know. I've never seen them.

I used to patronize a shop in Bulacan. Guess who brought the posters and installers to that shop? I did. I occasionally go to one of the big Internet shops on Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City. Do they have posters? Heck no. No one's going to play seaGE there if they don't know it IS there!

And I already know full well that I am not alone in having to do IP e-Games's promo work for it. Players from various corners of the National Capital Region, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, and cities all over the Philippines have shared similar experiences!

Last year IP e-Games was talking up seaGE as the first Triple-A MMO to be launched in the Philippines. Oh, the irony! How will people be able to see if seaGE really IS a Triple-A game if its local publisher treats it so badly?

IP e-Games is actually promoting its other titles vigorously - with the sole exception of seaGE. Now, can someone PLEASE explain why you're treating this title as though it were the bastard child of the family?

5. Going back to the GVCs issue: it's a slap in the face to see the standard IP e-Games game load cards EVERYWHERE, because the same company that issues the e-Cards is the same company that's supposed to be looking after GVC distribution.

Is it TOO MUCH to ask to use the same distribution network as the e-Cards for the GVCs?

6. Can someone at IP e-Games talk about why the community is so neglected? Every day in every server, Pinoy players talk about how hard it is to get other people to play seaGE. All-Pinoy factions complain about never having been visited by the Philippine Community Manager. Pinoy players of seaGE make heroic efforts EVERY DAY to make more people aware of this game, to answer questions from interested people - and never a word of thanks from the local management.

It was through RCM Hrin's efforts that the GE PH Community Heroes were acknowledged. Take note: the RCM started the ball rolling. We actually HAVE a Philippine Community Manager, but she couldn't be bothered with the initiative to prepare the list of heroes, or to add any more noteworthy names to the list!

Where is she while players are complaining about the lack of GVCs? Twittering about going to their office in Makati. Yeah, GREAT answer, when half of the player community isn't even in Luzon. Or she talks about going to the so-called list she keeps on her blog. Wonderful suggestion, when the list has never been kept up to date.

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Look, here's the painful thing. The one-year anniversary of seaGE in the Philippines will be coming soon, and the same problems that plagued the PH players at the start of the Open Beta period are the EXACT SAME ISSUES bothering us now. One year is a LONG time to be ironing out the start-up difficulties, to be having problems with GVC distribution, to be caught flat-footed on marketing and promotions.

What the HECK are they DOING?