CA PR: Still spinning it. Just posted to 300k Facebook Fans ... an impressive 17k unit battle ... except it isn't

[AlyssaFaden]

I recently saw this on Facebook and I'm really not sure what to think. CA's official Totalwar page with 300k likes: https://www.facebook.com/TotalWar

Announces:

Patch 3 is out and work on Patch 4 beta continues here at castle CA. In the meantime, an amazing video came across our dashboard: PHALANX.

http://youtu.be/Q_vY9X3c_GA

This massive 17,000 man battle shows the beard-sporting barbarian tribes take on the stone cold might of the Macedonian Phalanx formation in this immense Total War: Rome II Machinima.

Sounds awesome, right? The sort of rhetoric that had us buying the game in the first place, right? Had us slapping down our pre-orders!

Except this video (created by a fan) had an awesome EIGHT FRAMES PER SECOND. *EIGHT*.

Quoting the author of the video, emphasis mine:

funnydude415 3 weeks ago

GT 650m i7 3610qm 2.3ghz 6gb RAM 120gb SSD. Held a steady 8fps and massive CPU lag during the battle.

But why, Puppytron, does it look like 30fps? Well I record in slow motion which gets rid of CPU lag and speed it up effectively more than doubling the fps of the final product, allowing me to use nicer settings then I would ever use when personally playing a battle.

So here's where I come in, because I'm trying to figure out for the life of me why CA would make a social announcement to 300k people pimping out a video that has 17k soldiers fighting in it - clearly pointing out how awesome this is - without actually revealing that it was completely unplayable at the time and had to be video edited to make it visually cohesive.

One month one, everything that has happened, all of the outcry against the PR machine ... and they are STILL spinning it.

[archone]

Why is that surprising? His setup's not great and recording reduces performance.

[Causeless]

They aren't spinning anything. They don't claim anything about how their engine can run it, or advertising that these battles are even possible usually.

They are showing that an awesome user video is awesome.

Which it is.

[IlluminatiRex]

But it is a video showing a 17000 man battle. So they weren't spinning anything. "Just the Fact Ma'am" is what they did.

Yes it's Rhetoric, but any form of PR, Speeches, or anything is a form of Rhetoric.

Rhetoric: the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, esp. the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

[YoungGrognard]

But it is a video showing a 17000 man battle. So they weren't spinning anything. "Just the Fact Ma'am" is what they did.

It's not rhetoric, it's a fabrication.

[IlluminatiRex]

It's not rhetoric, it's a fabrication.

I want you to explain to me what CA fabricated in what they said about that battle (and even then that's still a use of Rhetoric!).

[leemyster]

I want you to explain to me what CA fabricated in what they said about that battle (and even then that's still a use of Rhetoric!).

I'll explain to you then with my post again (as well as there being multiple other posts explaining it). I think the CA defenders purposefully ignore reasoned posts and only responded to those who express opinion as they know they can't suppress facts so they move the issue onto attacking peoples' opinions. It's a trend...

It is false advertising (sorry fanboys). They are claiming that it is pure gameplay footage when in reality the footage has been modified by a video editing program to appear in a fashion that it was not in game.

It is like posting an advert for a damaged car, but Photoshopping the damage out of it and claiming the car is fine.

With Rome 2 you cant test drive it before hand...

[IlluminatiRex]

It is false advertising (sorry fanboys). They are claiming that it is pure gameplay footage

Please point out where CA said "It's pure gameplay footage". Please, I'm curious to know.

Because CA said this.

In the meantime, an amazing video came across our dashboard: PHALANX.

http://youtu.be/Q_vY9X3c_GA

This massive 17,000 man battle shows the beard-sporting barbarian tribes take on the stone cold might of the Macedonian Phalanx formation in this immense Total War: Rome II Machinima.

Massive 17,000 man battle. Check.
Macedonian Phalanxes. Check.
Rome II Machinima. Check.
Beard Sporting Barbarians. Check.

Not

Guys! We found this really awesome video of Rome II! It's got 17000 men in one battle! You can get this through NORMAL GAMEPLAY MEANS! This video isn't edited in anyway, shape, or form!

when in reality the footage has been modified by a video editing program to appear in a fashion that it was not in game.

I don't think anyone is denying that.

It is like posting an advert for a damaged car, but Photoshopping the damage out of it and claiming the car is fine.

.
All car related analogies are stupid (when applied to anything, not just Rome II. Even if it was a Pro-Rome II car analogy, it would still be stupid).

With Rome 2 you cant test drive it before hand...

Youtube's a thing. Reviews found there, gameplay, let's plays (by youtubers, not CA), etc... all of that is "test driving" the game. You may not be 100% sure how well something is going to run, but if you know what parts are part of your system, you should be able to easily deduce how easily a game is going to run (Yes Rome II has terrible optimization. I myself have not experienced too much in the bad performance area, but some people I know have. It's hit or miss really).

[AlyssaFaden]

I dunno man, if I sell you a car "because it's like new and will go 200mph!" but fail to mention that actually it has four flat tires, I suspect that you'd be a slight miffed that I never mention that small detail.

Here the PR guy announces a great video showing 17,000 soldiers going at it. That's great, that's true, there's no lie here.

But he did fail to omit that this is not something anyone - including the video creator - can actually run. He didn't say "results may vary," he didn't say "not supported by the TW engine," he didn't say "just for fun. speed up from its original 8FPS" ... he slid it across the table as an example of what Total War is and the huge battle sizes that it can handle.

He just failed to mention that it can't handle it.

It's shady at best and a rinse-repeat of the PR leading up to the game release: showing us things that actually the game can't do.

[IlluminatiRex]

showing us things that actually the game can't do.

Just because it does something at a low framerate (especially when recording) doesn't mean the game can't do it, considering there is the video proof of it. A battle with 17k men.

[War lord]

I dunno man, if I sell you a car "because it's like new and will go 200mph!" but fail to mention that actually it has four flat tires, I suspect that you'd be a slight miffed that I never mention that small detail.

Here the PR guy announces a great video showing 17,000 soldiers going at it. That's great, that's true, there's no lie here.

But he did fail to omit that this is not something anyone - including the video creator - can actually run. He didn't say "results may vary," he didn't say "not supported by the TW engine," he didn't say "just for fun. speed up from its original 8FPS" ... he slid it across the table as an example of what Total War is and the huge battle sizes that it can handle.

He just failed to mention that it can't handle it.

It's shady at best and a rinse-repeat of the PR leading up to the game release: showing us things that actually the game can't do.

To be fair, CA has advertised "up to thousands of men" per battle without mentioning how unlikely such an occurrence is in normal play and how badly the engine handles it since Rome I.

[PointOfViewGun]

Is there any way to check fps while playing?

To be fair, CA has advertised "up to thousands of men" per battle without mentioning how unlikely such an occurrence is in normal play and how badly the engine handles it since Rome I.

Most of my campaign battles actually do involve thousands of soldiers. Often between 2k to 4k. When large sieges or offenses are involved the number can go up to 4k to 8k or more. So, I'd complain the opposite. In the previous games I could start a game and expand to a few more provinces without using many soldiers, often just 5 units would suffice.

[War lord]

Most of my campaign battles actually do involve thousands of soldiers. Often between 2k to 4k. When large sieges or offenses are involved the number can go up to 4k to 8k or more. So, I'd complain the opposite. In the previous games I could start a game and expand to a few more provinces without using many soldiers, often just 5 units would suffice.

Yeah, but when you advertise with the term "Thousands of men" and release a battle video with 17k and all of your screenshots are framed in such a way to create a sense of massive scale, you're making people think they're actually going to be fighting on that scale consistently. Have you seen the intro video for Rome I?

[IlluminatiRex]

Yeah, but when you advertise with the term "Thousands of men" and release a battle video with 17k and all of your screenshots are framed in such a way to create a sense of massive scale, you're making people think they're actually going to be fighting on that scale consistently. Have you seen the intro video for Rome I?

Or this Rome 1 trailer.

[PointOfViewGun]

Yeah, but when you advertise with the term "Thousands of men" and release a battle video with 17k and all of your screenshots are framed in such a way to create a sense of massive scale, you're making people think they're actually going to be fighting on that scale consistently. Have you seen the intro video for Rome I?

The video mentioned in the OP is a user made one. It's not one that CA made and published. Most games if not all games utilize photoshoped screenshots for their promotional material. I don't see why it's an abomination when only CA does it. "Thousands of men" claim is a completely true one. We're better than falling for such tactics at face value. Come on.

[PointOfViewGun]

You say they claimed that it was an impressive 17k unit battle and you say that it wasn't. Was it not 17k unit battle? Was it now impressive to watch?

[babydoc]

They want to show that a 17k battle is no problem.
All is good with Rome 2


NOT

[ParanoiD84]

Nice battle.

[Holger Danske]

Gotta love the apologist on this board that even though the OP so openly puts it either don't comprehends or purpusely ignores the part where CA still blatanly conducting dishonest PR... Love It...

A battle with 17k men.

At 8fps... My setup isn't that much better than his and I achieved significantly higher fps in ETW (and NTW) in battles nearly 3 times that size with maxed-out settings!
So not only is it underwhelming it's also misleading given that Rome II most likely can't run 17k battles at any acceptable framerate without having a NASA computer...

[IlluminatiRex]

Gotta love the apologist and tools on this board that even though the OP so openly puts it either don't comprehends or purpusely ignores the part where CA still blatanly conducting dishonest PR... Love It...

Or use context clues and reading comprehension skills to realize that there was no PR spin here.

They said they saw a neat Rome II video with 17k men. And that's what they linked to. A neat Rome II video with 17k men.