Exactly, they purposefully avoid accountability to their own customers.. which in itself is ok.. but they way they portray that idea to the community (in my opinion) comes off as arrogant and obtuse.
I would say that you are partially correct in that they don't seem to ever want to committ to anything. Which can be very frustrating as a fan, eagerly awaiting a game.
But at the same time, I have seen ALOT of stuff recently that was very pleasent and some what un-expected. The release of the Skill calulators and Item databases seemed like somthing they wouldn't want to do this early. Yet they did it. And, despite the giant disclaimer at the bottom of each page, the official forums are flooded with "OMG The items are horrible" threads. I can see why Blizzard usually doesn't show stuff that early. (even though I love it personally!)
The idea is, "Hey, if we don't tell them a release date for X, they won't get disappointed and grill us!" Thing is, it doesn't work like that! The community at large still gets really angry when Blizzard takes a long time, and they get super-pissed when *perceived* delays happen (such as DH resource re-write, rune re-writes, etc). They don't tell us it's a delay, but we assume it is.. Because SOMETHING is making this take a long time, and we don't have any useful info as to why that is..
I agree with this. But Blizzard has done exactly what you are asking for with Diablo 3.
"Hey Guys, no promisses, but we plan to release DIablo 3 in 2011."
"We still think we can make it!"
"Hey guys, the D3 Beta will start in quarter 3"
"Hey guys, sorry but D3 is gona slip to early 2012, but we are still pushing hard"
What more do you want here? Want them to give an exact release date? They obviously don't have one yet.
And on the Beta front, they have said they plan to invite ALOT of people and will as soon as the structure is there. I think if they said: "Hey guys, we hope to get the first big wave of beta invites out with in 2 weeks" that would be good, however.
I think you and think mostly the same, but, honestly, I think Diablo 3 has been pretty great so far from a PR stand. It almost feels like they are trying to go against their own usually bizare rigid standards with some of the stuff.
I don't think its quite fair to say compare D3's beta to Battlefield 3's beta. One is open and one is closed.
To say "Blizzard's PR should be like this!" and point to a Beta that is structred tottally differently (a competitive, online shooted as aposed to a coopertive RPG) just doesn't work IMHO.
Do I wish they would tell me when waves of invites are going to REALLY start going out? Yes. But if they do tell us "this Friday at 4pm" and then nothing happened they would have to explain what went wrong.
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But at the same time, I have seen ALOT of stuff recently that was very pleasent and some what un-expected. The release of the Skill calulators and Item databases seemed like somthing they wouldn't want to do this early. Yet they did it. And, despite the giant disclaimer at the bottom of each page, the official forums are flooded with "OMG The items are horrible" threads. I can see why Blizzard usually doesn't show stuff that early. (even though I love it personally!)
I agree with this. But Blizzard has done exactly what you are asking for with Diablo 3.
"Hey Guys, no promisses, but we plan to release DIablo 3 in 2011."
"We still think we can make it!"
"Hey guys, the D3 Beta will start in quarter 3"
"Hey guys, sorry but D3 is gona slip to early 2012, but we are still pushing hard"
What more do you want here? Want them to give an exact release date? They obviously don't have one yet.
And on the Beta front, they have said they plan to invite ALOT of people and will as soon as the structure is there. I think if they said: "Hey guys, we hope to get the first big wave of beta invites out with in 2 weeks" that would be good, however.
I think you and think mostly the same, but, honestly, I think Diablo 3 has been pretty great so far from a PR stand. It almost feels like they are trying to go against their own usually bizare rigid standards with some of the stuff.
To say "Blizzard's PR should be like this!" and point to a Beta that is structred tottally differently (a competitive, online shooted as aposed to a coopertive RPG) just doesn't work IMHO.
Do I wish they would tell me when waves of invites are going to REALLY start going out? Yes. But if they do tell us "this Friday at 4pm" and then nothing happened they would have to explain what went wrong.