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"Halo 5's Ads Lied to You" - Mitch Dyer, IGN

Brilliant marketing campaign I say. "Lied" - so what? Welcome to marketing 101.

ellie-pointing-a-gun-the-last-of-us-naughty-dog.jpg


This is an example of misleading advertising, tbh I didn't really care that much in the end as most story trailers I tend to take with a grain of salt.

That actually happened in game. We're discussing marketing for stuff that doesn't happen in games as in, the level above slightly misleading to outright omission - if there is such a thing.
 
I don't think 343 ever intended for those things to be taken literally. It would be pretty stupid to give away spoilers like those trailers were implying.

What they were implying was more of a theme.
 
I don't think 343 ever intended for those things to be taken literally. It would be pretty stupid to give away spoilers like those trailers were implying.

What they were implying was more of a theme.

The problem is, that theme was pretty damn good. I was hoping things would get heavy with those two.
 
Marketers: "what's your story hook for Halo 5?"

"Oh that?... Nah that's predictable and lame."

"How about this infinitely more interesting hunt plot line that isn't actually in the game"
 
I'm just looking forward to Mitch Dyer's next article about how "insert game here" ad's lied to you, the day the game releases.

Surely he'll be writing one of these for each and every AAA game that does this going forward right? Because this doesn't happen all the fucking time already, and hasn't been happening for years and years.

I usually don't mind IGN, I go there all the time, but this is fucking embarrassing.
 
Today I learned that people actually believed the marketing for a Halo title when that marketing has never reflected the actual game since...well, ever.
 
I know this ridicule. Throw reading quests into it as well.

Holy fuck people hate it when I do that.

I just want to be a loremaster man :(


The other day I got a new TV and started to play Uncharted TNDC. I was watching the opening cinematic from UC2 and my 23 YO cousin tells me "what are you doing?" I say to him "what do you mean," to which he responded "who the fuck watches those story things? What a waste of time to watch those videos"

So yeah, I'm a weirdo because I watch fucking game cinematics ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
The other day I got a new TV and started to play Uncharted TNDC. I was watching the opening cinematic from UC2 and my 23 YO cousin tells me "what are you doing?" I say to him "what do you mean," to which he responded "who the fuck watches those story things? What a waste of time to watch those videos"

So yeah, I'm a weirdo because I watch fucking game cinematics ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-1 friend pls.
 
You make some good arguments. I can't imagine why you've held onto that junior tag despite thousands of posts and being here for almost two years. Weird.

My junior status is actually a peculiar story but there is nothing sweeter than some junior shaming to put someone on their rightful place.

I mean it's not like the poster that replied to me elaborated on his "shaming" claim. "Uncreative" is a matter of perspective really - doesn't take a genius to figure out the alternative counter arguments which are simple not worth discussion at the end of the day. So I say it's par for the course.
 
I mean it's not like the poster that replied to me elaborated on his "shaming" claim. "Uncreative" is a matter of perspective really - doesn't take a genius to figure out the alternative counter arguments which are simple not worth discussion. So I say it's par for the course.
You know, I would've if your response wasn't lol + cry-money.gif, being that we're on a discussion forum and all. But hey, what can you do?

It doesn't showcase a product well when you can't sell it on any of its actual merits. Nothing specific about Halo here, just advertising in general. I'm sure its effective though.
 
You know, I would've if your response wasn't lol + cry-money.gif, being that we're on a discussion forum and all. But hey, what can you do?

I does get the point across if one's open to interpretation. Principal job of marketing is to create interest, and inform so that a product is bought. Pretty sure this marketing campaign achieved that with flying colors. Was it a creative marketing campaign? Absolutely.
 
Every release ad has had ridiculous aspects/lies and what not. Since its an ad, its purpose is to grab your interest. Like the halo 3 ad MS was 'captured' or 'sacrificed himself' for humanity. I think all of this negativity associated with a launch is ridiculous.

Or even PS4s battlefront trailer/ad where they showed gameplay that was cgi'ed which some people may think is representative of actual gameplay. It happens everywhere.

343i took a lot of feed back and input from the fan base, which makes men frustrated about consumer negativity.

These are my thoughts on this matter =/
 
Wow. Destiny, MGSV, now Halo 5. What the hell is happening.

Pretty upsetting tbh. I mean, I know I'll still love the game and play it for what it is, but why are companies doing this with these huge titles? Spending millions on promotions that are blatantly misleading customers? Why would anyone think this practice is ok
 
He's right and it's one of the reasons I think Halo 5 has the worst story of all Halo games (despite having one of the best campaigns design wise). None of what was marketed was actually in the game. Mild spoilers for what's NOT in the game:

-No hunt for the truth. It's clear why the Chief is deserting from the beginning.
- No Locke/Chief-rivalry, let alone hate. Locke follows orders, never loses respect for John
- Not one mention of Chief dying anywhere
- No connection to the Hunt The Truth audio play at all

It's very disappointing. It really seems like the marketing team got told what the GENERAL themes are (Locke hunts Chief) and then just went ahead and wrote their own story around it, going way overboard and promising far more than the game ever even tried to accomplish. Not to put this on the marketing team, they did an amazing job. It was on 343 to actually follow up on that stuff.

Today I learned that people actually believed the marketing for a Halo title when that marketing has never reflected the actual game since...well, ever.

Remember that live action trailer for Halo 4 that fluidly cut to an in game cutscene and was directly tied to the game's narrative? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-CRrP9xjQ
 
They've always had misleading story trailers, in terms of emotion.

But THIS..... Holy fucking shit. The story apparently isn't even about the story. Just fabricating scenes to try and drum up some sort of audience reaction? Did the advertisers even know what Halo 5 was about? Does it even matter? Apparently not. Haven't even played the game yet and between this and the small number of reviews I read I'm already pissed at 343.
 
They've always had misleading story trailers, in terms of emotion.

But THIS..... Holy fucking shit. Haven't even played the game yet and between this and the small number of reviews I read I'm already pissed at 343.

Were those "small number of reviews" all the negative ones? ;)
 
An Ad lied to me. Oh no. How will I ever get over this.

In all honesty Halo 3 had some pretty epic marketing and as did Halo 2. None of that came true at all. I didnt read the article for fear of spoilers. Did Mitch sound upset?
 
Were those "small number of reviews" all the negative ones? ;)

I've ready 8/10 and above, if that helps?

The negatives they brought out, like the ending and "narrower than we've seen" environments really make me wonder what the fuck they were thinking.

Why read positive ones when you can read the negative ones to confirm your pre-established beliefs?

pfft, nice. I'm staying up to play this game at midnight, but you've clearly got me pegged.
 
What specific merits are we talking about here? A pretty loaded word....
The actual premise of the game would be my first thought, or new elements to the universe that take prominence in this new game. Seems strange to have to go the effort of making something separate up out of whole cloth.

I don't know though, as I haven't played it. For all I know this article is completely full of crap, but its aligning with other people's experiences too, so I guess there's something to it.

How about a TV series?
TV is better than movies these days.

But it can't be about the Chief if so. He's a pretty big budget kinda spartan. Lots of spectacle and suicidal tactics and huge explosions.

I'm totally fine with something that fleshes out the non-Chief aspects of the universe.
 
I've ready 8/10 and above, if that helps?

The negatives they brought out, like the ending and "narrower than we've seen" environments really make me wonder what the fuck they were thinking.

Don't take too much stock in reviews.

I have long-time hardcore Halo fans telling me it's the best Halo campaign to date.

I'm very anxious to get my hands on it as a longtime Halo fan to find out for myself.

Reviewers, especially with Halo, tend to not know what Halo fans truly want.
 
Don't take too much stock in reviews.

I have long-time hardcore Halo fans telling me it's the best Halo campaign to date.

I'm very anxious to get my hands on it as a longtime Halo fan to find out for myself.

Reviewers, especially with Halo, tend to not know what Halo fans truly want.

It's one of those franchises that, honestly, I think every fan looks for something different. I'm a single player/fiction/level replayability player. One of the biggest complaints I had with Halo 4, honestly, was having to pause and watch Master Chief's hand push every single button in the game. (there's a lot, and Bungie's games just automatically"activated" the button) Is that a big deal? Surely not to most. Lack of split screen co-op was like a motherfucking dagger in my heart.
 
They've always had misleading story trailers, in terms of emotion.

But THIS..... Holy fucking shit. The story apparently isn't even about the story. Just fabricating scenes to try and drum up some sort of audience reaction? Did the advertisers even know what Halo 5 was about? Does it even matter? Apparently not. Haven't even played the game yet and between this and the small number of reviews I read I'm already pissed at 343.

The marking campaign as far as I know dealt with themes that are actually in the game. The marketing firm/team took liberties in enhancing those themes for maximum appeal - at least that's the clear goal. Notwithstanding the fact that they're NOT going to SPOIL the story verbatim on TV Ads just to please some weird sense of correctness - it's ludicrous.

Is there a hunt involving Locke and Chief? Yes.
Is there betrayal or presumed betrayal? Yes.
Is there a confrontation between Chief and Locke? Yes
Are there Guardians? Well Yes.

The marketing team was able to drum up major interest in the game without running game trailers that spoiled the story. They simply played with the themes in the game at a clip otherwise not allowed by the game itself (without again, spoiling verbatim how the game plays out). It's really not that hard to get.

You could say Uncharted 3 was somewhat the opposite in this regard and I and many others HATED that. Spoiled too much. It's a balancing act at the end of the day.
 
The markting campaign as far as I know dealt with themes that are actually in the game. The marketing firm/team took liberties in enhancing those themes for maximum appeal - at least that's the clear goal. Notwistanding the fact that they're NOT going to SPOIL the story verbatim on TV Ads just to please some weird sense of correctness - it's ludicrous.

Is there a hunt involving Locke and Chief? Yes.
Is there betrayal or presumed betrayal? Yes.
Is there a confrontation between Chief and Locke? Yes
Are there Guardians? Well Yes.

The marketing team without putting out game trailers that spoiled the story was able to drum up interest playing around with themes in the game at a clip otherwise not allowed by the game itself (without again, spoiling verbatim what the game is). It's really not that hard to get.

I've not played the game yet, so I can't call you an idiot for not seeing clear distinctions between this marketing campaign and what actually exists in the game. Maybe I'm the idiot. I'm drawing my conclusions based on the article.

Remember the Halo Reach campaign with live ads that featured other spartans? Those scenes never existed in the game, but at least they weren't fabricated from stardust. IThere was potential for that stuff to have happened at some point in the fiction of this universe. The shit we've been shown for Halo 5 however, doesn't even happen in extended made up fan fiction. It's just...... *PURE* fluff. At this point, is there even a remote possibility the campaign is as interesting as we've been led to believe? I've skipped all the campaign footage of late so all I've actually seen is that bullshit hallway demo from E3, which looked more boring than COD. Frankie confirmed it was just a cinematic sequence for demo/co-op/polish purposes.

I'd have rather just seen a trailer, personally. That demo killed my hype and it's not been back since. Well, it's obviously there to some extent (thanks Bungie!) Enough to have me pre-load the thing.
 
I feel this happens a lot.
not really...

i skimmed the article, and it seems very much fuckingnothing.gif

he first complains about that cg trailer from e3 2013 being wrong about chief being alone when the squadmates are always there (yes, a concept trailer from two and a half years ago is going to be exactly what the game's like. they locked down what their vision was right then and there) and then moves on to "you don't ever see a scene where chief approaches a injured locke or vice versa." were you ever scanned by an alien in halo 4 when it had live action ads showing that you were? it's an ad, it doesn't need to pull out a scene from the game so much as try to showcase the general mood of the game.

and then his last complaint is that the launch live action trailer has a different tone to it than the game, something that happens all the time in advertising for both movies and games.

so, as i said, fuckingnothing.gif

edit: reading it again, he brings up the point that master chief is never shown as a destroyer or a bad guy like some of the trailers made them out to be. i mean, the other half of that live action trailer made it clear oni wasn't villianizing him but that the cover story was that "he's dead" so that locke can get him without running into resistance. the only time he was seen to be a villian was in hunt the truth season 1 (and possibly season 2, haven't listened to it).
This posts and others honestly sounds like Defense force 101.

Last time I played Halo was on the original Xbox. For someone coming back into the series, or for just new players who were intrigued by the ad of Master Chief being the villain, and themes of betrayal and different points of view highlighted, for the game to hardly touch on those issues is disingenuous. Now, would I be mad at that? I doubt it, just trade it back in and get on with gaming as usual. Besides the click bait article though, seems like a reasonable complaint.
 
I've not played the game yet, so I can't call you an idiot for not seeing clear distinctions between this marketing campaign and what actually exists in the game. Maybe I'm the idiot. I'm drawing my conclusions based on the article.

Nobody is an idiot...it's marketing discussion about a game for god sakes :)
 
- Not one mention of Chief dying anywhere

I haven't really been following this today but even as a layman from the outside, why would this have ever been in the game? This was very obviously a commercial that is themed to appear like a propaganda report from ONI. They did a similar thing with ODST with the live-action commercial of the kid being enlisted.

This seems more like extended material used as a marketing ploy, which for a game as widespread and multimedia (both in appeal and fanbase) as Halo isn't all that surprising.
 
More that you missed my point. Skim reading?

I guarantee you, my friend, there are plenty of idiots on these boards.

Ohh I definitely got your point. Just wanted to clarify in case you felt my reply was some sort of challenge...

I think everyone at some point in time has acted like an idiot or wrote something that looks like it's written from an idiot. We've all been there. The goal is not to make a habit of that - that's all.
 
Ohh I definitely got your point. Just wanted to clarify in case you felt my reply was some sort of challenge...

I think everyone at some point in time has acted like an idiot or wrote something that looks like it's written from an idiot. We've all been there. The goal is not to make a habit of that - that's all.

It's all good dude.

For all our sakes I hope every game is better than every review written on it.
 
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