Is it just me, or has the way info about this game has been released been haphazard at best? With the advent of all these different magazines coming out in different countries, a massive [censored]storm of misinformation has happened. In every thread someone will assert something that has been apparently written in one of these articles, and someone else will reply not knowing about the information, and asking where it came from.
Seems to me loads of people now have ideas about the games limitations and so forth, that might not actually exist. Call me stupid, but if I was in control of releasing information about my upcoming masterpiece, I sure as hell would not syphon of random bits of info to so many different far-reaching publications - it is just asking for trouble. Personally, I would have let them keep their money (as I presume this was the sole motivating factor in this decision), and have an official website which was gradually updated with official information.

Anyone else think it's been a bit of a mess?

Initially by the title I thought you meant the gradual trickle of information, which merely wets our appetites. But after reading your post, I agree. Seems odd to me to have various magazines that contradict one another on small points. Unless it is done intentionally but I doubt it. I'd rather have the official website updated now and again.

It markets the game to people that the website wouldn't. Plus, when it's review time I doubt those publications will be burying the game they hyped. (unless it's immensely terrible which I doubt Skyrim will be)

I hate all this information and we still got like ten months before release.

Ah, true. Maybe they could at least update the official website with info that has been released in these magazines, to put to rest any blatent contradictions.

I'd like them to do that. Hopefully they will maybe after GI's exclusive ends? (which is about now really hehe)

Rumour provokes interest debate and comment more than hard facts. Its more effective for marketing but much more frustrating for us!

Yeah I agree.
It also seems that a lot of people are ASSUMING negative things from the little info these magasines give, but that's another story altogether

Yep. I'm just ready for the official site to go normal again so we all have a definitive source.

Whenever a journalists visits Bethesda for information about Skyrim Todd puts on his troll face.

"Making your own magic spells? Nah, that was stoopid, got removed" *troll face* -> :disguise: (best face i could find :s)

They're just bringing their lore approach to the real world. The Ashlanders say Vivec killed Nerevar. The Temple says he didn't. The Italians say he can't make his own spells. The Temple says that's nonsense, since you can't just buy a water breathing spell with a radius of 20 kilometers. Who knows who's right? Maybe the answer's hidden in a coded message in a book somewhere.

100% agreed. Bioware does things like this the right way. I think we know less about Dragon Age II than Skyrim right now... and Dragon Age II comes out in a month.

December-

"We have a massive amount of content to share with you guys!

February-

"Enjoy your 3 screenshots that you don't have to pay for"

Its reasons like this, that I should have applied for the Bethesda P.R./Marketing job that was available a year or two ago.

My guess is trial balloons. See how the gamers react

As for interpreting missing pieces of information, see my sig. I'm tired of people sometimes.

Who ever is charge of PR is a financial genius. We are flocking like birds and coming up with our own theories on this game and it's been only about 2 months since they told us about Skyrim. Everything about how they are doing this is a HUGE Hype and lets face it.. Hype = Money. Activision knows this as well as any AAA game making company.

Random bloke that doesn't know about TES picks up magazine, do you think he'll tear his hair off over spellmaking ? Nah, he's going to look at the pics, take stock of the combat, and go yeah, this looks amazing. And prolly buy it.

... You forget one small detail : [censored]storm of misinformation among us. Forumgoers make for a infinitesly minor part of their sales, and who are we kidding ? We're going to buy it no matter what. They know it, we know it.

Outcry in the loonybin is a very minor collateral damage. Sound doesn't carry that much behind the padded walls. :lmao:

I don't know, if they want to keep the hype they might need to keep releasing a steady amount of info to keep momentum.

OR it will slow down halfway through the next couple months, and be rather slow.

But it doesn't matter everyone on this forum is buiying the game. Except those guys who hate steam, if its steam required.

I don't like the way Bethesda is releasing information about Skyrim either, to be honest, from the standpoint of a player, it's simply extremely inconvenient that all the available information comes from magazines published in so many different countries. There's no way I could read them all first hand, so I can only get the information from these forums, and in the proccess of being translated into English, some details may have been lost or gotten misinterpreted, which isn't helped by the fact that some of the information in the magazines already seems to be vague and sometimes even contradictory. People can't even seem to agree whether or not spell making is in. And then because they're only released in the magazines, those who didn't buy them can't see the screenshots, and of the screenshots actually legally available on the internet, only one is actually in high resolution. I just wish Bethesda would give us some information on their own website already.

Still, there's not much I can do about it, really, the topic starter already stated the likely reason for this counter intuitive approach to releasing information, because I'm sure Bethesda has made deals with those magazines, so I guess those of us who aren't into getting magazines from other countries in foreign languages will have to wait before we can get ready access to all currently available information on the game.



That's probably true, I'd imagine all this hype is going to translate into profit when the game is released, but to fans like myself, it's very annoying when I can't get 90% of the information on the game first hand.

massive [censored]storm = busy forum

busy forum = lots of people talking, off forum as well as on

lots of people talking = happy marketing department



As all you people out there who stayed awake during maths will know, the three formula above may be reduced by simple algebraic substation. I'll leave it up the reader to expand the intermediate steps, but basically



marketing department = [censored]

It's chaos, the information, but that is just a marketing technique to make the public more and more wanting the game.

Would you prefer to know evey thing about it then be completely bored with it a week after release... i for one hate spoilers, the ending and how the game play out is key for me to figure out on my own. the only info i would like is pretty much just the game play and the stuff that changed. :shifty:

I have to hugely disagree here. You have to remember, we read it in our native language : and our coming to this forums shows that 1. we know more than enough of the game to make sense of what we read 2. we *do* also speak passable English, so we can translate, and explain if necessary. I can vouch myself that the info contained in the French magazine was transmitted correctly ; I have no doubt the info from the Spanish, German and Italian magazine have been also.

The crux of the matter lies elsewhere :


That's your problem. I mean, come on. The French magazine writes that athletics is gone because it was too easy boosting it by jumping on the spot. No amount of good translation from ca.tchoup's part or mine can make sense of that. And if the journalist can write that, how can I trust that he has correctly transcribed the info he's been given ?

That would be my one criticism on the PR campaign. Control of end product in the magazines.

No, it's a perfect PR campaign so far.

I agree. If the official website isn't updated soon though then I will start to disagree. Games been announced for almost two months. Its time to update the website.