The Art of a Non-Press Release - Waiting and Baiting

If a person was to read SOE's recent press release on EQII Players without ever having heard of a little game called World of Warcraft they might find it a tad confusing. There's not much in the way of actual news.

"350,000 Players Strong" it proclaims. "No Waiting." What? Is the fact a product functions as it is supposed to now worthy of a news item? Do we see press-releases like, "Pepsi - Now with NO Poision!!!" or "Toyota - Our Cars Don't Blow Up Often!" or "Vioxx - Our Medicine Doesn't Kill You!" Oh wait. Forget about that last one, okay?

But of course, we know what this about. The WOW queue is reportedly longer than that in the picture above and SOE is going on the offensive. Further perusal will uncover a description of how much EQII has changed since launch - a veiled reference to the dearth of major patches in WOW land.

This (somewhat ridiculous) animated ad spells it out more directly.

It's rare for Established Companies to so directly needle their rivals like this. For one, it draws attention to your competitor and any attention drawn to your competitior is a potential lost customer. But, hey, I kind of like the scrappy attitude SOE has lately. And if it inspires them to keep firing off major patches I'm all for it.