This comes hot on the heels of RIFT's launch date announcement and signifies the next step up for Trion Worlds' marketing department. You can watch the new TV spot after the jump!
Them's fightin' words: RIFT commercial takes on WoW
by Justin Olivetti 
on Jan 4th 2011 7:00PM
Fantasy, Video, MMO Industry, RIFT, Trailers
130
This comes hot on the heels of RIFT's launch date announcement and signifies the next step up for Trion Worlds' marketing department. You can watch the new TV spot after the jump!
Reader Comments (130)
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:11PM Baromega said
Don't bite off more than you can chew, Trion. Blizzard probably won't even look twice at this, but you can be sure the fanboys are reaching for their pitchforks as I speak.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 6:38AM oddshrub said
@Baromega
It's not just the Blizzard fanboys, the message is completely capable of giving them bad views from anyone. I'm quite sure they're simply trying to be humorous but humor that comes at the expense of others will always backfire because not everyone is going to think it's funny.
Aside from the people you piss off, promoting your product while taking a lash at something really popular is going to make a whole other bunch of people think you're desperate for attention.
In the end it boils down to an inexperienced half incompetent marketing division that's going to have one silly joke overshine the fact that rift might actually be more of a challenge.
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It's not just the Blizzard fanboys, the message is completely capable of giving them bad views from anyone. I'm quite sure they're simply trying to be humorous but humor that comes at the expense of others will always backfire because not everyone is going to think it's funny.
Aside from the people you piss off, promoting your product while taking a lash at something really popular is going to make a whole other bunch of people think you're desperate for attention.
In the end it boils down to an inexperienced half incompetent marketing division that's going to have one silly joke overshine the fact that rift might actually be more of a challenge.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 3:57PM Daverator said
@oddshrub
I agree with shrub. If the best you can do is point to your competition, you have not done enough. A successful campaign would make them think of the item you are selling, not of a competing item.
Also theres the fun part that the inevitable launch day failures (any takers on bets it will be a smooth launch?) will lead to cries of "we aren't in azeroth all right, its still up and running right now"
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I agree with shrub. If the best you can do is point to your competition, you have not done enough. A successful campaign would make them think of the item you are selling, not of a competing item.
Also theres the fun part that the inevitable launch day failures (any takers on bets it will be a smooth launch?) will lead to cries of "we aren't in azeroth all right, its still up and running right now"
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 7:01PM Skyydragonn said
@Daverator
actually you see companies take shots at thier direct competitors all the time, look at the burger vs. McDonalds ads as a quick example. Its not an uncommon marketting tactic and one that does work.
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actually you see companies take shots at thier direct competitors all the time, look at the burger vs. McDonalds ads as a quick example. Its not an uncommon marketting tactic and one that does work.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 7:08PM Baromega said
@Skyydragonn Except Burger King and McDonald's have the breathing room to poke fun at one another. This game, which is still in BETA, is having a go at the most successful MMO in history? Yeah, that's potential for free publicity, but it's also putting your butt on the chopping block if you don't own up to it.
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Posted: Jan 6th 2011 8:16AM Crestfallen said
@Baromega Eh, let the Wow fans keep digging through the hellboar turds. I'm too busy closing rifts to notice what they say anymore.
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Posted: Jan 11th 2011 10:33AM Res said
@Baromega
I do know one thing though, if they hadn't thrown that line in the movie and the word had not spread, I probably would never have heard of this game and never watched the trailer. I'd say it worked.
You can't pull punches because you're worried your end product won't live up to the hype. If it can't stand on its own they might as well give up before they go live.
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I do know one thing though, if they hadn't thrown that line in the movie and the word had not spread, I probably would never have heard of this game and never watched the trailer. I'd say it worked.
You can't pull punches because you're worried your end product won't live up to the hype. If it can't stand on its own they might as well give up before they go live.
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:12PM End Dream said
We're not in Azeroth anymore... we are in a crappy alternate reality of Azeroth!
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:15PM alucard3000 said
Lol thats funny because my time spent in the Rift beta felt like I was in Warhammer online mixed with some azeroth.:)
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:16PM KorbenDallas said
Poking good fun. I know that myself and a huge population of others that are tired of WoW are watching Rift. Trion continues to impress.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 4:09AM (Unverified) said
@KorbenDallas
Let me guess: that huge population is you and your ego.
That's 1.
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Let me guess: that huge population is you and your ego.
That's 1.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 8:53AM dudemanjac said
@(Unverified)
Actually I'd be in that population, too. And if you've been paying attention, you'll notice many others.
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Actually I'd be in that population, too. And if you've been paying attention, you'll notice many others.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 9:56AM KorbenDallas said
@(Unverified) Sorry. Im in a guild of 100 moving to Rift. Im only one person, so since I felt it interesting that a majority of a large-base guild are tired of the shallowness of WoW after 4 years, that others would be too....and they are.
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Posted: Jan 11th 2011 12:53PM FlareSama said
@KorbenDallas I always thought the "me and a huge population" comments were silly. As if that individual and 20-100 of their friends/guildmates leaving to go somewhere else will make a rather successful product collapse into its self because they're not there to support it. I get a chuckle out of it every time. :)
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Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:17PM mmogaddict said
Welcome to Htoreza!
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:18PM Addfwyn said
I don't mind a bit of poking fun here and there, and I'm certainly more interested in Rift than wow (even after trying cata, which was quite well done).
That said, this seems to be poking the sleeping dragon. Not that Blizzard would care, but a lot of people are turned off by what they perceive as negative advertising, especially those who stick pretty closely to WoW (who just may be looking elsewhere these days).
Then again, it's hardly that offensive. It's pretty minor and all in good fun, so far.
That said, this seems to be poking the sleeping dragon. Not that Blizzard would care, but a lot of people are turned off by what they perceive as negative advertising, especially those who stick pretty closely to WoW (who just may be looking elsewhere these days).
Then again, it's hardly that offensive. It's pretty minor and all in good fun, so far.
Posted: Jan 4th 2011 7:25PM mmogaddict said
The World of Tanks ad's were much better at poking fun at the standard genre of mmorpgs, WoW included.
Posted: Jan 5th 2011 8:22AM (Unverified) said
@mmogaddict
At the same time, World of Tanks was at least a different game.
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At the same time, World of Tanks was at least a different game.
