Friday, August 18, 2006

Truth is stretchy II

Back in April, I posted about a Splinter Cell ad that included a blantant lie. The moral of that story: Quotes in ads are not to be trusted.

Today I ran into this ad banner from D&D Online Stormreach.So of course, I had to take a closer look. Here are some screens from the ad unit.
And here's the copy from the ad (in case you don't want to click):

  • Play It Free! 7 Day Free Trial
  • New Solo Play!
  • Quests are "better even than World of Warcraft or Guildwars" - Computer Gaming World
For full disclosure, I played D&D Online. I didn't like it. That's why I was a little skeptical of (the grammatical trainwreck) "better even than" statement. Aren't you curious what CGW actually said? Let's go find out!

CGW online has 4 review/previews of D&D Online.
Four articles and not a single one has that quote. I concede that perhaps they got the quote from another CGW article unavailable online. Or maybe they stretched the truth...

From the most recent article:
"But let's assume the planets more or less align, and you find yourself with a (more or less) decent, responsible, well-rounded group. In that case, you'll probably enjoy the quests. And you better, because there is no free-roaming game world like there is in EverQuest II or World of WarCraft."
That's the only quote that compares DDO quests to those in other games. Even if this isn't the exact quote, it's not a ringing endorsement of the quests. Granted, the article does go on to say something good about the quests:

"Working your way through a quest for the first time is almost always entertaining as you confront its unique challenges and obstacles."

Not so fast...

"The second time, not so much. Same with the third and then the fourth time. And that's unfortunate, because not only can you replay D&D Online's quests, you pretty much have to."

Now everything is clear: "Quests are 'better even than World of Warcraft or Guildwars" if you find a perfect group, do the run only once and never intend to get anywhere in the game. But of course, they wouldn't say all that. It would never fit in the ad unit.

1 comment:

Karl Castaneda said...

What's the lesson here, children?

Ken's industry has no shame! NO SHAME!

What's next, Ken? Are you going to kill a baby and say that BOTS was so awesome, this infant exploded?