Originally posted by eagle4x4
I smell a new level of desperation coming from the direction of SOE

sounds about right to me!

The real news item here is that, evidently, staff are now free to use the front page as a platform for trolling. Advertising for this film appears on the sites for multiple SOE titles, so singling out Vanguard for it is either a case of blatant trolling or evidence of a total disregard for the most basic responsibilities of a journalist. Either way, the individual responsible for this should be relieved of any duties related to delivering legitimate news and left to write opinion pieces only, a position for which I am sure he is equally talented, if insights such as "Your guess is as good as mine" are any indication.

That aside, I cannot see why so much is being made of this. If Sony Pictures were having a charity drive for survivors of a hurricane, for instance, surely there would be no outcry over promoting that on SOE websites, yet such a thing is no more related to Vanguard or Everquest than the release of a film. I have seen their online card games advertised on the websites for their other games, but I saw no news item about the advertising of those unrelated products. For that matter, I believe there was an announcement of Starcraft 2 on the official site for WoW, but MMORPG.com did not see fit to chastise Blizzard for that. Perhaps these latter examples are acceptable because they are all games, but if that is the case, then I have to wonder if this is simply a question of presentation; I can only conclude that SOE would not have been criticized had they placed announcements of the Surf's Up game, rather than the film, on their sites, possibly ending with a brief mention of the film's release.

At least this offense was confined to a website, though. I can only imagine the fury at developers who incorporate real world holidays, which certainly have nothing to do with the worlds of these games, into their worlds. I say I can only imagine this because I have seen no official MMORPG.com statement against such encroachments, although the majority of games are now observing one or more holidays in-game, through fairly transparent analogues. Perhaps this was merely an oversight, and in the future we can look forward to front-page headlines like "Gods and Heroes: Merry Christmas?" or "Age of Conan: Happy Valentine's Day?"

Or, perhaps we can look forward to more actual news appearing on the front page, and less ax-grinding.

Originally posted by Celestian

 

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Originally posted by Suvroc

Well, I don't know what it's like in EQ but I find it tough to be immersed in a Star Wars game while SOE is shoving pirates in my face.

 

 

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They don't show those anywhere in the game, they show them on the website which is not remotely immersing to the game. It's forums, support, account management.

 

If I recall correctly there was an ingame system message.

I dunno. To me, this isn't any better or worse than the announcement of Starcraft 2 on the World of Warcraft site. I come to http://www.worldofwarcraft.com to see the latest news on that game... not other Blizzard offerings. Heck, I don't even like RTS games. It's just marketing though and SOE isn't doing anything any worse than what most companies do.

hooray for irrelevance!!!!

Originally posted by Hunnenkoenig
There was already a Penguin Animation film... do they have no own ideas?

I am waiting for the time, when animation movies for adults come into theaters. I want to see 90 minutes "game intros". Like the Final Fantasy movie, just not as boring as that.

A WoW, a Diablo, or any other setting and/or genre... a Vanguard Movie, I don't mind.

Roger that. Maybe we should start a Petition on Big Gaming Sites, where everyone can vote if he'd at least go to cinema once for a fully Rendered, full Length Hellgate: London, Warcraft, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Diablo Movie.

Honestly, I don't know why the Companies haven't even touched the Movies yet.
OK, earlier Game-based Movies were downright HORRIBLE, but they all included real actors, and that simply does not work.

A fully rendered, dark, mature Movie would surely attract whole masses of Game Fans and Movie Fans alike.

Think about it:
Even if everyone who played any of the Warcraft games only visits the Cinema ONCE for a Warcraft Movie, that'd already be tens of millions of paying customers all over the world. AND Movie Fans might watch it and think "Hm, maybe I'll test that Game out, too".

And Warcraft already has a pretty good base to build upon, the WoW, and WC3 Cinematics were great, they already told Stories, you already could identify with Thrall, or Arthas. Just build upon that, and a great Movie will emerge.

IMO, we can have truly great Movies:
Warcraft - Story of Heroes venturing to fight a big evil. First on their own, then they meet, and fight each other (Orc Hero vs. Night Elven Hero and so on), but during the Fight's Dialogues, their common goal becomes clear, so they ally to fight the big mutual enemy.

Warhammer - Basically a War documentation. The Story focuses on one Human Hero, who prepares to defend his Homeland against the many enemies. He dies in the final battle. (Hey, Warhammer is dark and gritty, Heroes die there... not so in Warcraft ;)  )

Hellgate: London - Basically an Action-Horror Movie, in the Style of the Full Introduction Cinematic. Obviously focussing on Jessica.

Diablo - Well, rather tough to make it into an actually interesting full length movie... I suggest a pack of ~3 Heroes, who slaughter through masses of enemies, fight mindless Zombies all the way up to Demonlords and whatnot, and finally bash Diablo, Mephisto, Baal or all three

Heck, I even have a almost complete script in my mind for an epic Warhammer Movie. I would just need to write it down, if someone would bother to make a great, rendered Movie out of it :-)

@Drakon911:

There was an advertisement for a newspaper in austrian cinemas.

A fucked up pizzeria with an ugly waitress and a dirty looking mexican type guy, who was playing a guitar and singing terrible wrong.

Then another fucked up guy came into the picture and told: Come to the pizzeria Lambrusco...... please!

I was laughing so hard. That is the scene, which comes into my mind with this announcement

They sit at SOE and say: Hey, come and play Vanguard!.... please!

Maybe they plan to make A next generation MMO out of surfs up?      

Originally posted by mundus01

Maybe they plan to make A next generation MMO out of surfs up?      

Maybe someday they'll make one out of Vanguard.

Remember, not so long ago, when you would not get two negatives words printed in a thread about VG without 20 flaming fanbois telling you "VG is the greatest game ever, n00b!"?

I think it was a bit disrespectful.

They have this as news to, The Masters of Fantasy Art – a Tribute to Keith Parkinson, but instead MMORPG.com choosed to highlight a regular advertisment... Is everything they do (at VG) wrongly done, regardless.

As long as the ad isn't in game or REALLY in my face, ie pop ups or even worse, malware (which Safari will just about stop anyway) then I don't really mind who shows adds for what.

It's all explained in the test patch notes:

* To bridge the gap to the tier 3 boat, a new tier 2 vehicle has been introduced. Each of the continental styles of surfboard are different - the Kojan twin-fin, the Thestran big kahuna and the Qalian sandboard. A new rare material 'wax' must be obtained from crushed turtles to complete a working surfboard.

what i dont understand is," why does anyone care about whether or not SONY online posts things about SONY movies?" its there website they can do what they want. besides, SOE is a smaller part of the Sony empire, as Sony Pictures is a large part of it, ill bet the SOE team didnt have a choice in the matter of posting about the movie. the movie looks like crap, imo. 3 penguin movies within a year and a half is too much.

Well, MMORPG.com's neutrality (or lack thereof) has become very clear to me now.

I thought it was weird enough that this website frequently sends me updates for upcoming bug fixes from the Vanguard site, but now this?

This was posted on all of Sony's sites.

It's quite clear at this point that whoever is posting these "news" articles has a grudge against Vanguard and SOE.

What's despicable is not that Sony would advertise for their own products on their own webiste (How dare they?!), but that MMORPG.com would come and report it in this clearly sarcastic fashion, while neglecting report any updates of real significance (such as the tribute to Keith Parkinson).

Originally posted by Shroom_Mage

Well, MMORPG.com's neutrality (or lack thereof) has become very clear to me now.

I thought it was weird enough that this website frequently sends me updates for upcoming bug fixes from the Vanguard site, but now this?

This was posted on all of Sony's sites.

It's quite clear at this point that whoever is posting these "news" articles has a grudge against Vanguard and SOE.

What's despicable is not that Sony would advertise for their own products on their own webiste (How dare they?!), but that MMORPG.com would come and report it in this clearly sarcastic fashion, while neglecting report any updates of real significance (such as the tribute to Keith Parkinson).

s'fair point.