The Elder Scrolls Online - Tales of Tamriel advertisement

Pixiepumpkin · June 8

Not quite getting this.

The music is off (modern music/anything outside of orchestral, does not work for the franchise).
The video is well crafted, but the message does not communicate the feel of the game and feels misleading.

The ad just does not make sense, at least not to me. I'd love to know the target audience/goal of this ad. Wife said it felt like a Sims ad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKy2FnaAkSU&ab_channel=BethesdaSoftworks

Syldras · June 8

There's another (official) thread about this in the "official announcements" subforum:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/678861/official-discussion-thread-for-eso-summer-games-fest-trailer-tales-of-tamriel
I'm not sure whether our feedback gets more attention there, but I thought I should just let you know.

So, yes, my first impression was the same. It's all so cheerful and... not like the game. A strange choice for a game that takes place in a world where we have to fight most of the time and the stories most often involve some kind of danger, often even a world-destroying one. Especially a strange choice for a year where the main topic is the Worm Cult and the continuation of the original main story, which was definitely dark.

I didn't dislike the first of these new cheerful trailers that had 1980's rock music, by the way; it was something different for once. But now we've seen several trailers that all go into that direction. Happy, colorful, safe. Makes me wonder about what they plan to make of this game in the next few years.

You know, I love to analyse these ads in terms of the probable target group, and considering the music is from the mid-60's and people often tend to like music they listened to when they were teens, the people who this should appeal to most must have been probably born around 1950. And it's fine to market to specific demographies, in my opinion. But does this video appeal to them? I don't know.

Who knows, maybe we'll get even more of these within the next few ones, trying to appeal to other age groups.

Pixiepumpkin · June 8

Syldras wrote: »

There's another (official) thread about this in the "official announcements" subforum:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/678861/official-discussion-thread-for-eso-summer-games-fest-trailer-tales-of-tamriel
I'm not sure whether our feedback gets more attention there, but I thought I should just let you know.

So, yes, my first impression was the same. It's all so cheerful and... not like the game. A strange choice for a game that takes place in a world where we have to fight most of the time and the stories most often involve some kind of danger, often even a world-destroying one. Especially a strange choice for a year where the main topic is the Worm Cult and the continuation of the original main story, which was definitely dark.

I didn't dislike the first of these new cheerful trailers that had 1980's rock music, by the way; it was something different for once. But now we've seen several trailers that all go into that direction. Happy, colorful, safe. Makes me wonder about what they plan to make of this game in the next few years.

You know, I love to analyse these ads in terms of the probable target group, and considering the music is from the mid-60's and people often tend to like music they listened to when they were teens, the people who this should appeal to most must have been probably born around 1950. And it's fine to market to specific demographies, in my opinion. But does this video appeal to them? I don't know.

Who knows, maybe we'll get even more of these within the next few ones, trying to appeal to other age groups.

You expressed much if not all of the same thoughts I had. Makes me wonder if their goal going forward is to make a social game, like the Sims or something. I dunna. But odd choice in direction.

I thought the same thing about the music. I love to watch Clarksons Farm and I find it interestring that the music played is stuff he enjoyed in his youth, feels similar here.

I'll personally never understand why ZOS is not capitalizing on the Call of Magic/Nerevar Rising (imo the defining musical score of the Elder Scrolls Franchise).

Gadamlub14_ESO · June 8

the trailer itself is fine. but is about as accurate as those crazy mobile game ads you get on youtube. the actual game and especially the new zone doesnt feel even a tenth as alive as this trailer does. and that just makes me angry to be so familiar with the game, and seeing them present the game this way in the trailer. Because i'd actually love it if the game was like what was in the trailer here.

Alaztor91 · June 8

If I was a new player I would wonder if there is even combat present in this game. Sure, you see the character running towards the Ruinarch and at the end the group preparing to fight the Worm Cult/Daedra, but there is not a single scene where the character is actually fighting something.

Was it really that hard to put a few seconds of a Trial or a WB/Incursion fight?

Northwold · June 8

I'm actually going to disagree here. I don't think most people see a videogame ad and immediately buy the game. They'll look it up, see what it involves beforehand.

And I see the ad as trying to broaden the appeal of ESO beyond the traditional hardcore MMO audience, who already know it exists and how to examine it if they have any interest, to more casual / less stereotypical gamers who would avoid a pure-play MMO and have a kneejerk assumption that any such game is likely to be some sort of intense, hostile environment.

If that is what they're trying to do, I think the ad works very well. It puts ESO on the radar of people who would not otherwise consider an MMO by presenting it very differently as a more relaxed environment in which you can do as you please. It is mythbusting what MMOs are seen as by those who don't usually play them.

Aylish · June 8

I have the impression that it‘s the community rather than the game itself that is advertised.

What does such a commercial tell then?
We don‘t have a good game but our community is awesome?

Syldras · June 9

The thing I'm wondering about is whether this appeals to the random person who might know nothing about TES. So the trailer has cute animals and people playing volleyball and celebrations of some kind (let's just ignore for now that this is far away from how playing the game actually feels like most or the time, or what is even technically possible in ESO; but that's another problem - people being disappointed when they see the game is not like the ad at all), and okay, there's also a bit of fighting and some story-element with that dog waiting at a grave that we see for a few moments (although the darker aspect are very very sparse in that trailer compared to the rest), but... Does that appeal to people? I'd say there are a lot of games with pets of some kind, and a lot of colorful and fun games - so what makes ESO unique? Why should people look into ESO and not in the many other games that present similarly in ads?

Like, where's the actual content? You see a bit of scenery from the game, but other than that you see people more or less celebrating or doing whatever leisure activities - where's the selling point? Where's the uniqueness?

From my point of view, a thing that might grasp people's attention would be presenting the beginning of an interesting story. Something that makes them wonder "What's this about? What will happen?". Of course you need an interesting mysterious story for that, and I'm not sure whether the typical "evil cultists", "world-ending threat", etc, stuff is interesting enough, as that's a story told in all kinds of different games more than often.

Other than that, scenery might also work to get people interested (makes me wonder how many people would have found interest in Elsweyr, if there had been such ads for it, just because "cat people in an exotic South Asian looking environment" looked interesting to them), but there's hardly anything fascinating in this trailer, and especially since they focus so much on the small pets here, you really don't see much of the environment at all. The fanciest thing in that regard is really the short view of Morrowind somewhere near the end because that does look unusual.

Also one might need to keep in mind that, if this shows up as a Youtube ad, if the first few seconds aren't interesting enough, people will click it away.

XSTRONG · June 9

I was watching it on Playstation and it dont look bad but it shows devs have no clue what players are doing in their game.

Cats and stand in a city and do an emote that you got from CrownStore thats whats the game is about apperntly.

Syldras · June 9

There's another trailer for the new content, released a few days ago, that I find much more appealing - not sure whether that one was announced somewhere on this forum or in the news part of this website? If so, I must have missed it.

Anyway, it basically already shows what I assume is the end of the new story, so if you don't want spoilers (although it was rather predictable anyway, so from my point of view not an actual surprise), you might not want to watch it (yet).

If you want to, here it is:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=DvdEWHAIxpE

Thysbe · June 9

Seeing this reminds me so much of my intial gut-churning reaction to the Veilguard trailer.

It´s cute and sweet and emotional - but it´s not the IP I am playing for more than 10 years.

whitecrow · June 9

Perhaps "Time of the Season" would have been more appropriate.

Elvenheart · June 9

Maybe Disney should buy Bethesda and then they can set the video to Star Wars music for a burst of nostalgia, and add a whole bunch of new Disney princesses to their roster.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · June 9

That commercial was so bad, I couldn't even make it half-way through it.

Syldras · June 9

Elvenheart wrote: »

Maybe Disney should buy Bethesda and then they can set the video to Star Wars music for a burst of nostalgia, and add a whole bunch of new Disney princesses to their roster.

Why not the other way round? I'm certain that Mannimarco makes a very cute necromancer princess.

Dino-Jr · June 9

what motif is it that the main guy here has?

Rungar · June 9

i didnt think it was was bad. at least they used ingame graphics.. looks like 8 or 16k lol. Pretty much everything they showed you could do so seems ok to me. Perhaps they are looking for new audience.

Elvenheart · June 10

Syldras wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

Maybe Disney should buy Bethesda and then they can set the video to Star Wars music for a burst of nostalgia, and add a whole bunch of new Disney princesses to their roster.

Why not the other way round? I'm certain that Mannimarco makes a very cute necromancer princess.

I want a Mannimarco action figure! He would go on my shelf right beside Aladdin!

🎼 “I can show you the world…!” 🎶

Syldras · June 10

Elvenheart wrote: »

I want a Mannimarco action figure! He would go on my shelf right beside Aladdin!
🎼 “I can show you the world…!” 🎶

Not a prince, a princess (so Aladdin might not be a fitting comparison)! Just like with the Daedric Princes who can also manifest as female, a Disney Princess is more akin to a specific concept (or so I've been told) and as such Mannimarco could of course become one. Let alone he's Nirn's most powerful necromancer and if he wants to become a princess, who might ever stop him?!

Also, I want to hear him sing a kitchy song now.

Danikat · June 10

I think they're trying to market the game more to casual players instead of or as well as more hardcore, combat focused players. I think they realised they already have a lot of players who use ESO as a space to do their own thing (not just role players) and aren't concerned with things like dungeon achievements and leader boards, but a lot of people not currently playing won't know that, because it's not how the game gets talked about, it's usually all about the combat mechanics, so they're trying to change the conversation.

My main concern with this trailer is that a lot of the things characters are shown doing are mementos and emotes, not actual activities. It's the pretense of doing a thing, not actually doing it. You can toss a ball as if you're playing volleyball, but you can't have a game with another person. You can juggle, or bob for apples, but only as a pre-scripted animation where you push 1 button then wait for it to end.

Its also mixed in with things that can't happen like pets interacting with each other, or someone picking up and stroking the khajiiit cub.

Anyone who buys the game expecting the kind of immersive, interactive world shown is going to be disappointed.

sarahthes · June 10

Danikat wrote: »

Its also mixed in with things that can't happen like pets interacting with each other, or someone picking up and stroking the khajiiit cub.

Anyone who buys the game expecting the kind of immersive, interactive world shown is going to be disappointed.

Can't happen *yet*.

johnbonne · June 10

This is the coolest Sims trailer there's ever been and ever will be. I don't mean that as an insult, my partner and I enjoy those games, but... this has all the mannerisms of a Sims expansion pack advert or warm up cutscene. OP, your wife hit the nail on the head.

If Sims players and co. look at this, they might go 'that's neat', look up all of these things do, and then not buy (or get a refund) because these aren't activities that make them build networks, boost moodlets, help bolster professions and so on. Most of what we saw were cosmetic emotes, and there's a lot there you can't do (yet?)

I think ZOS or whoever does the marketing now missed a trick appealing to the absolute most casual players by not showing off the housing, crafting and mini-games in more detail, rather than emotes. Show me the things I can find, make and sell, as well as levelling up and the rewards that may come of it. Why not sell players on the fact that combat, questing and so forth isn't a requirement to enjoy the game and get a fulfilling experience from it, by showing off its features, not its emotes?

The thing is, TESO's trailers are usually awesome. Like, the Argonians having a day trip in Oblivion and refusing to leave after chucking out time is awesome, but it's not nearly as awesome as Nigel, Marmalade and Victoria (I don't know their actual names) fighting that sword bloke on that rooftop. Or 'Your World, Your Way' where normal people are abducted from their day jobs and placed into situations of near certain death. Well, I did say usually...

Warhawke_80 · June 10

I've got nothing against the Birds the song is just out of place is all but then again so was "We Belong"

It's just a bad campaign that isn't landing the way the devs wanted

NeuroticPixels · June 10

I watched this trailer during the live xbox showcase event on YouTube on the 8th. There were so many “L”s in chat and “next”s, I felt secondhand embarrassment. I play a lot, but my gaming style is casual. And the trailer didn’t even speak to me and I felt like I might’ve been part of its target audience (besides the fact that I’m already a player). It just felt… bad.

ragnarok6644b14_ESO · June 10

Oof, that's kinda hard to watch, as someone super into the TES lore. There's almost nothing specifically TES about it - it could be a forgettable ad for any old game.

Danikat · June 10

They seem to be running several different adverts at the moment. I've seen a more combat focused one which I think is mostly promoting the new content pass, and I've just seen a weird live action one on Youtube (as an advert, playing before another video).

My guess is they're making different adverts with different themes and focal points to try to appeal to different people. I've seen movies do that as well. I happened to see several films shortly before 2016's Passengers came out, and it seemed to have a different trailer before each one, tailored to the movie I was about to see. One made it look like an all-out action film with at least 1 sex scene, one made it look like a romance film that just happened to be set on a spaceship, one made it look like a serious sci-fi mystery and a 4th one had snippets of all 3 mixed together. All those things are in the film, but after seeing the full thing my conclusion was that anyone who saw only 1 of the trailers would probably come away disappointed - it was a very slow action film, a very sci-fi action focused romance and very light on the specifics of the science and the mystery barely came into it for the first half.

There's lots of other examples where other movies have done the same thing, but that's the one which stood out to me. I guess it's a standard advertising technique, and with a game as big as ESO it would be difficult to show everything there is to see and do in the game in one trailer, so I suppose it makes sense to split it out.

I still don't like that they're misrepresenting mementoes as activities you can do though. I also don't like the live action trailer because having grown up in the 90's if I see a game trailer that won't show you actual gameplay I assume it's because they don't think you'd buy it if you saw what it actually looked like. (Which definitely isn't a concern for ESO, making it even stranger that they'd go for live action.)

Monte_Cristo · June 10

Syldras wrote: »

Elvenheart wrote: »

Maybe Disney should buy Bethesda and then they can set the video to Star Wars music for a burst of nostalgia, and add a whole bunch of new Disney princesses to their roster.

Why not the other way round? I'm certain that Mannimarco makes a very cute necromancer princess.

"Fine. If I can't be a pretty princess, then I'll just destroy the world." Mannimarco, 2E578

Syldras · June 10

Monte_Cristo wrote: »

"Fine. If I can't be a pretty princess, then I'll just destroy the world." Mannimarco, 2E578

We know he's trying hard. He already has beautiful hair and a tiara, and I'm sure there's also some pretty robe in the back of his closet.

If he can't sing, that's a problem, of course.

katanagirl1 · June 11

The whole ad is about pets I guess. I never played the video game Stray, maybe the next Season we will be like that and we will be the Raz senche cub instead, lol.

FabresFour · June 11

For me, the worst part of this announcement is the interactions with the pet. They’re cute, don’t get me wrong—but they don’t exist in the game.

I know games that do have the level of interaction shown in the trailer—Sea of Thieves, for example, proves that this kind of technology exists, and it’s incredibly fun and well made. When I saw this trailer, I immediately thought it was fake precisely because it uses in-game footage pretending that these kinds of situations are possible, when they simply aren’t.

As for the tone of the trailer: revolting. The return of one of the most evil cults in Tamriel being treated as less important for the trailer than adopting a cat? Come on.

The number of streamers I’ve seen just skipping the ESO trailer or cringing hard while having to sit through it.

And this in the same year we stopped getting cinematics. Come on, ZOS.

metheglyn · June 11

johnbonne wrote: »

The thing is, TESO's trailers are usually awesome. Like, the Argonians having a day trip in Oblivion and refusing to leave after chucking out time is awesome, but it's not nearly as awesome as Nigel, Marmalade and Victoria (I don't know their actual names) fighting that sword bloke on that rooftop.

Lol, well, if they ever had names before, I'll never think of them as anything other than Nigel, Marmalade, and Victoria from now on.