Originally posted by bobfish
It's a horrible trend in the MMO industry, and gaming industry as a whole i guess, to not talk to your customers or potential customers.

Well, I know very little about TCOS, there is little info on the website and forums, and little info in the various journalist websites out there. I don't think I've seen a "hands-on" preview of the game anywhere or anyone really trying to sell this product as a good thing.

Okay, too much hype is bad, but no one is going to play without knowing something before hand. Is this going to be like Ryzom, where it slips out and gets a handful of players? Or is it going to be like WoW where it's bursts onto the stage and makes an impact (of any size)?

While I completely agree and understand what you're saying, I don't think this is the case here.

I believe the folks over at TCoS have always been a little guardered against saying to much for a few reasons, some of which has to do with features and options being in beta phase and some of which has to do with marketing campaignes. The development team is in hardline working mode now, putting in crazy hours, racing to work on the last phases of beta and release product within the next quarter. It's a massive job.

I also believe there is a certain amount of marketing control going on right now, the PR people keeping a tight fist on what is and what is not released about the game and its upcoming release. Although I would also like to think we're starting to see a change in that, with the new web page being put up, some news in the pipeline, we might start to see a little more marketing and advertising on their part.

ALL that being said, I'm a little dissapointed with the community leaders at this point. Contact and communication with your community is immensly important, most importantly when your not a huge development company like NCSoft or SOE. They do a fine enough job at staying in contact on the official forums but we're not seeing alot of reaching out by anyone of substance within the company, a little more would certainly be nice to see IMHO.

Originally posted by shae

ALL that being said, I'm a little dissapointed with the community leaders at this point. Contact and communication with your community is immensly important, most importantly when your not a huge development company like NCSoft or SOE. They do a fine enough job at staying in contact on the official forums but we're not seeing alot of reaching out by anyone of substance within the company, a little more would certainly be nice to see IMHO.

That is an understatement, but perhaps justified by the fact that they are a small company (and understaffed). Keeping the fans happy was not a priority the last couple of months. Let's hope that will turn around again soon, because it used to be different.

My fear is, however, that marketeers have taken over and have placed a stopper on any source of information since the original planned release date for this game (november 2006).

Being a small company, maybe they dont want a zerg of customers and that is the reason for not marketing the hell out of this game.  Sure they plan on expanding their business after they release the game, but I am sure, they dont want to experience the growing pains that other gaming companies have experience in the past.  Having a slow ramp up on their customer base will give them time to put in the right infrastructure.  Right now, I think they are doing a hell of a job for their size.  Gaming communities and groups  will do most of the marketing work for this company.   Just my two cents.

Does anyone know if this company is going public with stock? 

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Originally posted by Sinns
Being a small company, maybe they dont want a zerg of customers and that is the reason for not marketing the hell out of this game.  Sure they plan on expanding their business after they release the game, but I am sure, they dont want to experience the growing pains that other gaming companies have experience in the past.  Having a slow ramp up on their customer base will give them time to put in the right infrastructure.  Right now, I think they are doing a hell of a job for their size.  Gaming communities and groups  will do most of the marketing work for this company.   Just my two cents.
Does anyone know if this company is going public with stock? 

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Considering the typical size of mmos they have pretty large ambitions. From their latest interview with a supported french fansite they are hoping for 500k in Europe and 2 million in Asia after a year.

Originally posted by SynxVII
They are probably still experimenting with game features that may or may not be in the final game. So they dont want to say they will have 'said feature then have it not in game on release.

Originally posted by Juntahh
this game is better than WOW