What you see now as far as players is what’s left, only the diehards. As far as any new players of L2 is pretty much word of mouth. IMO I do not expect any new players coming into L2 anytime soon. But this is not nothing new.
Even since I started playing this game over 16months I always managed to find lineage2 game titles on venders shelves. They were always a section where all ncsoft games could be found. But over the pass 6 months these shelves have been slowly disappearing.
More and more vendors such as best buys, Wal-Mart, eb game have stopped caring lineage2 full retail titles. If you do happened to find one it was probably miss shelved for months. You can still find other ncsoft titles such as hero/villains and guild wars. Those still seem to fully stock.
Of course if u look next to the single loosely fitted ncsoft shelf u cannot stop to notice the full WoW display. Notice I didn’t say single shelf. Full Display of WoW full game retail titles. Not to mention collectible binders with maps and useful information. A WoW board game. Several WoW timecards flood these full displays.
Now I am going ask a few questions and honestly what would you do? Now if you are totally new to MMORPG and you wanted to buy a retail game title from a game shop. Which would you buy?
A. Lineage 2 retail. Which has been absent in every major game shop, (least in the major Los Angeles Metro area).
B. One of ncsoft other hero/villains or guild war titles.
C. WoW retail game. Hard to miss the boxes overflowing from its huge game displays.
D. Or one of other several game times with their full retail game titles shelved.
If you picked C its a no brainer.
But I cannot honestly say ncsoft has abounded its gamers. Recently ncsoft threw us a bone and provided us with some timecards. Those timecards are still very hard to find in these stores. Most of the time they are out of stock or they simply don’t carry them anymore.
I went to a local huge major electronic superstore called frys. I always manage to find everything there including games titles that normal smaller game stores don’t carry. To my amazement I found 4 ncsoft timecards. Two 30-day time cards, one 15-day time card, and a 60-day. Not surprised, I didn’t find any Lineage 2 full game retails box title or even an epic collection box. There where simply all gone. Other ncsoft titles found one full row of hero/villains. One full row of guild wars. 4 full shelves filled with timecards of WoW. As I was walking to the CD section of this superstore, I couldn’t stop to notice what seemed to be the biggest WoW full display with over 200 WoW full retail game boxes stacked over 5 feet tall.
I could only imagine what an ncsoft employee who distributes the game to stores could see this huge display. His jaw would simply drop to the ground. I know if I were his supervisor I probably fire him and hire who ever runs WoW game distributers or marketers. OMG this display was huge.
I wonder if it was a fluke?
Is this in ever-major superstore across the US?
Why aren’t there any Ncsoft game titles in the shelves?
And the time cards don’t really count, because they are empty and don’t carry the game.
The only way to get the full retail game is from either a friend or ordering it online. How do ncsoft expect to get new players in this game?
Has Lineage 2 become a game solely played by word of mouth?
I live in North texas and i have seen at least 1 copy of lineage 2 in all gamestops and eb games. Never really checked Best Buy or Frys.
Even though ther are only 1-2 copies out on display the same is true of other games such as GW and COH & COV or even RF online and Archlord. I DO think more should b done to advertise this game. But many times people will go looking for other mmo's to play and will probaly stumble across L2 as well
*dodges falling sky*
Yeah, I see Lineage 2 at most major retailers I visit, as well. And I sought out L2 originally and discovered it on my own, choosing it over other games.
Well exactly the same scenario over here in England.
We have Woolworths, WH Smiths and mamny record shops selling games too. All the usual console games etc and a few week PC games and then a whole line of WoW sets. Different versions but all enough to get someone online and playing.
WoW has also had two free cover disks on PC Magazines over the last year.
In all this time, I have not once seen anything relating to any retail expose of Lineage 2 in England. No promotion, no free coverdisk, no coverage whatsoever. We all know the game is superior to just about everything else out there yet NCSoft seem unable or unwilling to promote the game in the retail sector. If this applies to both sides of the Atlantic, just think how many possible new players are just waiting to pay their monthly subscriptions.
Anothe game I play is failing. My guilds (clan) on this game have dozens of members. If I had some way of getting the game to them easily, then I'm sure most would play.
Come on NCSoft, you're missing out on tons of business.
regarding what you said about england Fiery, i've seen a fair few trial cards for WOW in HMV
I have actually seen Lineage 2 available in the Game store, but just in with the regular games etc and there was a review of Lineage 2 in one of the London papers (albeit a free paper and a brief review)
When i got Lineage 2 originally in C3 i ordered it off the Play website by accident but when i bought a copy for my gf i didn't bother buying it from England as the Epic set wasn't available so imported it from the US.
NCsoft did have a full page advert in PCgamer last month on the back of the magazine, glossy and all. I almost fell over when i saw it. And it looked like a cool game with a nice layout. So they are kinda tryin.
Yea, but for the most part PCGamer and all those mags have lost their glamor with alot of gamers so then don't pay attention/have subscriptions to them. Any person who plays an MMO like EQ1 and L2 probably doesn't have the time to read PCGamer anyways, ROFL.
I dont remember where i saw it, but there was an add for interlude in a magazine i saw recently. Granted it wasnt the cover but it was in there. That being said i would like to said some ads, maybe a comercial for it would be cool
i don't see any Anarchy Online boxes, but that game hasnt died yet. new expansions are still coming for that game. since it went FreetoPlay (F2P) the population soared. suddenly not everyone was in the lvl 150-220 range.
i imagine a similar thing with lineage2. Anarchy was a BAD example of how to run a company and currency sellers were as bad (if not worse) than here. Lineage, Lineage2, and whatever other games NC might have put out that used to cost something to play may yet see population spikes. notably when it releases new content and when it offers something free. possibly not content, possibly not game time, but something.
as it stands Lineage2 offers free content upgrades provided youre still an active subscriber. should that change to free play and pay-for-next-throne updates, possibly you could boost population numbers. but who can really say; this is a thing for marketing specialists not forum trolls.
But over the pass 6 months these shelves have been slowly disappearing.
I've been playing l2 for almost a year now and the first time i EVER saw a lineage 2 box on a shelf was about a week ago, it was in a small game store and at the bottom of the stand, there was only one of them, and guess what chronical it was for? 3 :mad:
I'm currently in Japan and here I have seen in game shops, wall scrolls (none for sale though, they used to be), The Interlude release of the full game, a full release packaged along with a standard PS2 style controller and what burns me, GUIDES that are up to date to Interlude. I plan on purchasing one, even though i can't read it. One of my Japanese coworkers even recognized my wallpaper of a DE. He plays here in Japan and says they have a good population.
I previously posted in the forums photos of a release event here in Japan with girls doing cosplay and demo PCs setup on a sidewalk with a stage. In Akihabara I have even seen PCs on display with the Interlude ingame video preview. Why no efforts are taken for the NA servers is beyond me.
I plan on just start talking to some folks who play games here and see what's popular as far as MMOs.
In Portugal i only see WoW eveywhere i go...
Lineage only seen once in a big store for a week after i asked about the game and they dont have any answer, i checked in the Portugal NcSoft distributor, and nothing there too, the only NcSoft titles i found here is CoV and Guild Wars, sadly a lot of ppl don't know L2 existence everyone go to WoW, the distributor in my Country for NcSoft and Sierra/Blizzard titles is the same, and im sure if they receive promotional stuff, they put it on Stores and make a **** presentation, they have all big stores running WoW videos and Standups on every stores, im sure if NcSoft send anything to that guys to promote the game here, a lot of Portuguese ppl will join, i worked in NcSoft Portugal distributor i played Diablo since first days, did a big walk into a lot of RPG's and MMORPG's and i only got info about Lineage2 from a cowork friend, or today i still playing WoW or Guild Wars dunno...
End of a sad story
At least more so here in the Southeast. I know a lot more WoW players... I know no Lineage players, and it's rare enough that I'm finding some in the Southeast on these boards :p
Last week I became friends with someone from Georgia, on Erica.
He is a new to L2 player from FF. Seems very happy so far, signing
his toons up in our clan. Then a week or so before that I met two
players while raiding, they came from WOW, and are still happily
playing L2. They went through our academy fairly quickly, but
sadly they moved on :( Then this week I met 3 players in Orc
Village, new to L2, they are in the Academy :) They will
take more work (fun I mean). There was also a female Orc
Mystic around lvl 15 or so who buffed us, not in clan, boy I wish
I had invited her. She knew how to play, whoever gets her is
lucky, but our Academy is full again!
My point is there are new people coming to Lineage2, at least
on Erica. Yes, they probably heard of L2 through "Word of Mouth".
I found the Epic Collection of Lineage 2, and its 5 expansions at my local Gamestop for 8 dollars. Having heard of the game from friends and the net, I bought it about a month and 3 weeks ago. I haven't looked back since. :)