Friday, August 17, 2012

Tin Foil Hat Edition: The Inevitable Launch Trailer


A couple of days ago, I wrote about the intracies of CGI trailers and the implications of them for the industry. It seems like ArenaNet is innovating the market strategy for trailers in a very similar manner that I proposed in the article.  Instead of using it as a purely marketing ploy, they may use it as a reward to the current and future players.

But first, let's decide if there's a trailer on the horizon.   Well in my opinon, whether you like it or not, there's one coming, and you would be foolish to deny it.  What we have is more than just rumors, though the rumor of a launch trailer certainly has been circulating throughout the community for several weeks.   We have some speculative images, CGI graphics, and the potential song.

All of this seems to fit perfectly for a potential launch trailer, but let's first examine the evidence we have accumulated.

And if you agree with me, (and honestly who doesn't?), than the bigger question becomes...when?

1.  First, we have 4 pictures assembled in a Guru thread.  Two of which were seen during a convention, and two of which were featured in several photos by ArenaNet released several days ago.  Each screen shows pictures of something...something that smells of high quality, large amounts of money spending, wholesome  goodness.  It looks like CGI to me.





2.  Then there's this.  A gorgeous shot of an eye, that may be CGI.  I just can't tell if it's a real photo or computer generated.... And more importantly, of whom? Why?  And what for?  We are not sure.  However this shot has resurfaced several times over the last week, most notably on the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page.  When several users mentioned CGI and the speculation surrounding a potential trailer, Regina almost seems to taunt them by saying "what a coincidence".  Yeah, something smells fishy.

Photo: Got questions about Guild Wars 2? Be sure to visit our FAQ: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/services/faq/ and our Support Knowledge Base: http://en.support.guildwars2.com/ Lots of common questions have been answered there! ~RB2

3.  And finally, we have this song.  We first heard the piano theme in last year's Gamescom trailer.  Now we have a full title and today we were treated with the full vocal version.  "Fear Not This Night (ft. Asja) seems extremely fitting for the game, was written by Ree Soesbee, and makes perfect sense for a launch trailer.



If this evidence isn't enough for you, then I don't know what is, well other than the actual trailer.  But now the real question becomes...when will it be released?

Launch Day?  The final day of Gamescom? The first time we play the game?  The preceeding week before launch?  I just don't know, and all have valid arguments. If I took a random shot in the dark, I'd say the week of leading up to the launch.  It's their last ultimate hype weapon, and they need to use it wisely.  What do you think?

2 comments:

  1. That looks like a real eye to me, not the sort of thing that requires CGI to generate...although that would be some pretty impressive attention to detail with the clumped mascara and cracking foundation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aly, I can't be sure...but I am hesitant as well to call it CGI.

    I did want to add two speculative ideas, that was not in my original post.

    1. I've changed my mind. The trailer will be released and played the first time we as players have access to the game, aka the 25th for most of us.

    2. Second, part of the CGI trailer will be Eir swimming discovering an elder dragon exactly reminiscent of the coincidental concept art I chose for this article. I'm very certain of this.

    ReplyDelete