The hopelessness of skyrim journalist's coverage

[WizardOfAtlantis]

Exactly, I'd take everything the Toddler says with a shovel full of salt.

Ha! The Toddler...that's a good one! http://www.thenexusforums.com/public/style_emoticons/dark/biggrin.gif

[hector530]

They're not really journalists, their "Interviews" are just a series of statements from the developers. A proper journalist would ask follow up questions and dig deeper, these drones just move on to the next pre-arranged question.

 

Why do you care about what Bethesda says about their game before its release? Everyone knows what happened with Oblivion. Half the stuff they said was a complete lie.

 

Exactly, I'd take everything the Toddler says with a shovel full of salt.

 

man i wish all toddlers could make great games like him

[Iv000]

I think that they weren't really removed (Attributes), but moved.

Remember when Todd said when in the beginning you only choose a race and character? I think that you will be able build up strength by working out, or by doing lots of blacksmithing etc, endurance by how long you have been sprinting etc etc.

A very good example for this is GTA San Andreas.

You could work out to get stronger, sprint to get more stamina, even eat too much to get fat. Maybe they did the same thing with Skyrim, maybe.

Why I think so? Because removing attributes would mean that every character in the begginning is exactly same strong, agile etc. And that would remove the Role playing aspect of the game. Perks are nice, but I don't think that they can replace attributes.

[Zeazer]

I think that they weren't really removed (Attributes), but moved.

Remember when Todd said when in the beginning you only choose a race and character? I think that you will be able build up strength by working out, or by doing lots of blacksmithing etc, endurance by how long you have been sprinting etc etc.

A very good example for this is GTA San Andreas.

You could work out to get stronger, sprint to get more stamina, even eat too much to get fat. Maybe they did the same thing with Skyrim, maybe.

Why I think so? Because removing attributes would mean that every character in the begginning is exactly same strong, agile etc. And that would remove the Role playing aspect of the game. Perks are nice, but I don't think that they can replace attributes.

 

Man now I want this. More interactive than attributes thats for sure

[OpalEyedFan]

The press did a good job conveying the info Beth wanted to put out for the general public.

They were shown a brief demo mission, and given a short presentation.

Then however, they were allowed 45 minutes of asking questions which I take it is a golden opportunity to dig for more info that would actually be of more interest to the fans rather than the general gamer.

 

Needless to say everyone failed miserably at that.

 

Asking about stuff, that beth intends to dish out in proportions later, is a waste of time.

 

Asking about stuff that Beth is willing to talk about but that they know is of little interest to the general public, now that would be the way to go.

For example : Asking about the thought behind this possible exclusion of mounts, and the philosophy behind that new fast travel feature,

and - in what way will this carriage be different to how it was implemented in Morrowind (Silt strider)?,

That' stuff s more of interest to fans I think.

 

and I think I'd like to know did the mod NPCs with jobs inspire them at all, seeing the much mentioned bow mod inspired them somewhat. And if it did, will we get a fishing rod :)

 

So many interesting questions they could have posed rather than the stupid questiones such as, how big is it, can we kill children....

Edited April 24, 2011 by Opal-Eyed Fan

[ub3rman123]

Still, I doubt there would be a better way for BethSoft to handle the release preparation. They could remain tight-lipped up to 10/11/11 or just show everyone demos of exactly what they have going on. However, as their recent podcast explains, they're being careful of what they say. Suppose you found out that they had fully functional driveable siege machines working but had to cut them, or that they're planning to make all NPCs essential but decide to change that later? You'd be upset a bit. I bet that the journalists are asking such questions, but BethSoft is saying, "We're not ready to talk about that just yet." as Pete Hines says. I doubt the journalists would bother to include questions like that in their final article because it's not interesting to read about.

[OpalEyedFan]

Still, I doubt there would be a better way for BethSoft to handle the release preparation. They could remain tight-lipped up to 10/11/11 or just show everyone demos of exactly what they have going on. However, as their recent podcast explains, they're being careful of what they say. Suppose you found out that they had fully functional driveable siege machines working but had to cut them, or that they're planning to make all NPCs essential but decide to change that later? You'd be upset a bit. I bet that the journalists are asking such questions, but BethSoft is saying, "We're not ready to talk about that just yet." as Pete Hines says. I doubt the journalists would bother to include questions like that in their final article because it's not interesting to read about.

 

 

Beth is doing a superb job at marketing.

 

1. They give away exclusive info and media in exchange for money,

which is profitable and gives them full control of how the information is presented.

 

2. Then the rest of the gaming press, have to wait until Beth has some free info that they release, however that is not how you keep the rest of the press happy.

 

3. Those that didn't get the exclusive are sitting on the fence, so to make it up to them, they get invited to a special demonstration where they get the V.I.P treatment and continue on to going home to write a positive preview of the game.

 

 

Don't know if it's the same for everyone else, but the journalists going there, from my country, got their expenses covered by Beth.

 

 

 

 

Beth has already made a list of things to reveal, and a schedule of when they're going to reveal what.

 

They got something for the time of announcement, something for spring (which we are seeing now), something for summer, something for fall, and some vids for release time.

 

 

 

I guess the time of exclusives are almost over, what serves beths marketing best now is to keep all the gaming media continuing writing about skyrim on certain intervals. They want people

to be regularly reminded of the coming game and it's release date.

 

They want everyone to know about the game, they want everybody to be wanting the game, they want everybody to be buying the game, and they simply can not afford to

let too much time go by without letting us know something new about the game, and without making sure the press keeps mentioning the game in articles every now and then.

 

 

 

So when someone asks about the guilds in the game, and they say they're not ready to comment on that, I honestly believe it's because announcing the guilds is scheduled for a later announcement.

It's not because they don't know.

 

And everything is fine about that.

Good marketing. really good.

 

 

But it also bugs me a little that a good group of game journalists couldn't ask better questions than : can we kill children? and, how big is it?

 

 

There are tons of info that is not on their list of info to release at specific future dates, that would be very interesting to fans.

 

Things that the marketing people at beth wouldn't consider valuable information they could sell to the press.

 

Things that Todd could have shared with us, if just someone had asked the questions.

 

And that is the thing I guess, no one present at the question session were truly hardcore fans, like the fans who hang around elderscrolls forums every week for year after year.

 

These journalists could have been attending any other game presentation and asked the exact same questions.

It's all coming down to,

it's their job,

they write about games.

 

A lot of games. . .

 

And Skyrim at the end of the day, is just one out of a bunch of games they have to write about.

 

So no one can really blame them for asking a lot of standard questions.

 

 

But all in all I don't care so much.

Skyrim is a game I'm hopefully going to get the pleasure of playing some day, and if I do, it will blow my mind away (like other ES games) by being totally awesome. :yes:

Edited April 24, 2011 by Opal-Eyed Fan

[Vagrant0]

Cynicism aside... Here's the bottom line. Professional journalists only get to be professional journalists because they know and play the game. The game involves some simple rules...

 

1). Prepare questions beforehand and have them approved. This is because no journalists wants to get back some worthless "I don't know" or "we havn't decided yet" or even a "You'll have to wait for the release." and also because nobody answering questions wants to waste time giving meaningless answers or worse, answering something they weren't supposed to.

 

2). Most Journalists don't do their own research or care about the project they are working on. Journalists who do tend to grumble and groan at press conferences because everything they are hearing is old news. Journalists who don't can feel more excited and keep the energy of what is otherwise a boring mess of formality from becoming unbearable.

 

3). Journalists or groups who play by these rules and are good boys and girls tend to get rewarded with exclusive information.

 

It's an establishment of mediocrity that serves primarily to just rehash what fans already know to try and get non-fans or returning fans fired up.