Just curious - how the heck does ESO get its own entire HUNK of the forum like wow,?

[automationarmy]

and FFXIV gets shoehorned into the "MMO" section w/ about a dozen other games? Obviously not based off of critical acclaim as id venture to say ffxiv is the highest rated game we've seen in the past 10 years.

Certainly not based off population because I dont think any AAA title out currrently has a higher pop except wow...

So what it is? Not a fanboy - will likely be moving on from FFXIV very soon. Its taking the wow path with continual dumbing down as well. Will hop over to wildstar, milk it dry.. all while waiting on Pantheon. Still - much OT and besides the point.

Legimately curious how these things are chosen and by what guidelines? Woulda thought ffxiv if anything merited its own section.

The end

[JD]

Hey klepp,

Generally how we choose these sections is based on a few things:

1. Instinct
We have a general feeling about which games will have the most interesting content that will bring more users to our website and keep them there longer. A boring exploit for a game with 100,000 people is not as useful to us as an incredibly interesting exploit for a game with 10,000 people. It will simply draw more attention to the site. We have to go on our gut and experience when it comes to this subject and we generally have people tell us about exploits and hacks in early (alpha or beta) versions of games which allows for a more clear judgement.

2. Hype
A game can be good but it doesn't mean that it's going to have a large fanbase. A lot of people can play a game but if the game doesn't create a community it's kind of hard to create that community around it. ESO had such an insane community already rooting for it when it was announced that it made it clear that the community would pick that up quite easily. A lot of current members were talking about the game from the start and ESO had a pretty large marketing campaign whereas FFXIV was less 'out there' with their marketing. That means that some of us (I'll just speak for myself) didn't get very interested in the game and saw it as less interesting.

3. Initial response
When the initial response of a game is large (we kind of had this with a game as small and unimportant as Neverwinter) we are more likely to give it its own spot on the site than when that response is smaller. For FF that response was less noticable on the site and therefore we cared less. Neverwinter and POE had, for how small the games were, very big initial responses from our community and were marketed a bit more. This doesn't make us right but it's all we have to go by.

4. SEO
This is my part of the story. Whichever section we can rank for the easiest is also the one that will gain the most traction and therefore the most importance. I do the SEO for OwnedCore and I was very big on WoW, D3 and ESO. Not as much on Final Fantasy because I didn't see the hype come up. Because of that we weren't able to get a big enough market share in that game to really care about it.

What it comes down to is really just guessing. Whichever one you guess, people will always tell you you're wrong. When Final Fantasy becomes too big for us to ignore we might give it its own section but for now we still believe ESO is going to grow and become more important for our community.

Hope I've answered your question.

[Bippy]

It is up to the admins and webdevs as to what goes where. They also have to take into mind the popularity of the games to both the general community and the OC community. ESO was a much anticipated release, much more so than ffxiv. It is not meant to undermine other games in the mmo section, but to emphasize the most popular.

[automationarmy]

Hey klepp,

Generally how we choose these sections is based on a few things:

1. Instinct
We have a general feeling about which games will have the most interesting content that will bring more users to our website and keep them there longer. A boring exploit for a game with 100,000 people is not as useful to us as an incredibly interesting exploit for a game with 10,000 people. It will simply draw more attention to the site. We have to go on our gut and experience when it comes to this subject and we generally have people tell us about exploits and hacks in early (alpha or beta) versions of games which allows for a more clear judgement.

2. Hype
A game can be good but it doesn't mean that it's going to have a large fanbase. A lot of people can play a game but if the game doesn't create a community it's kind of hard to create that community around it. ESO had such an insane community already rooting for it when it was announced that it made it clear that the community would pick that up quite easily. A lot of current members were talking about the game from the start and ESO had a pretty large marketing campaign whereas FFXIV was less 'out there' with their marketing. That means that some of us (I'll just speak for myself) didn't get very interested in the game and saw it as less interesting.

3. Initial response
When the initial response of a game is large (we kind of had this with a game as small and unimportant as Neverwinter) we are more likely to give it its own spot on the site than when that response is smaller. For FF that response was less noticable on the site and therefore we cared less. Neverwinter and POE had, for how small the games were, very big initial responses from our community and were marketed a bit more. This doesn't make us right but it's all we have to go by.

4. SEO
This is my part of the story. Whichever section we can rank for the easiest is also the one that will gain the most traction and therefore the most importance. I do the SEO for OwnedCore and I was very big on WoW, D3 and ESO. Not as much on Final Fantasy because I didn't see the hype come up. Because of that we weren't able to get a big enough market share in that game to really care about it.

What it comes down to is really just guessing. Whichever one you guess, people will always tell you you're wrong. When Final Fantasy becomes too big for us to ignore we might give it its own section but for now we still believe ESO is going to grow and become more important for our community.

Hope I've answered your question.

You sure did! Thank you very much for the well written response. I'll admit, I didnt even consider it from a business standpoint. While I may not agree with some of your accessions, many I do. In the end that is irrelevent as well :P

Also didnt consider things like viable exploits/hacks/etc which many would argue ARE the bread and butter of the site :P

Once again, I very much appreciate the response. Posted purely out of curiosity after seeing ESO which many would argue is a train wreck, and FFXIV just kinda hiding out :P

(to that end: heresay is just that. I havent played ESO and would love for it to be another awesome game to vie for marketshare.. however it seems to be getting some really awful press lol)

tyty!

[automationarmy]

It is up to the admins and webdevs as to what goes where. They also have to take into mind the popularity of the games to both the general community and the OC community. ESO was a much anticipated release, much more so than ffxiv. It is not meant to undermine other games in the mmo section, but to emphasize the most popular.

People OBVIOUSLY have very different definitions of what merits popular :P Gotta go devils advocate on that one bud. However, anticipation... I'll concede there FFXIV was highly highly anticipated, id argue MUCH more so than ESO... ........ back in 2010 lol. After they miffed it the first time they kinda burned that opportunity.

To be honest, my opinion and this entire post could be partially bias'd based on the fact that ive read so much bad about ESO and so much of the oppostite about FFXIV. Much is subjective, but much isnt as well.

Either way, not sure why I care. Much more interested in the how's and whys and from someone with 0 experience running a website, it opened my eyes a bit :P