So, what's okay to talk about here?

[kingtonyx]

I see that the lid's coming off on a lot of songs that are in playtest and what not. I've been guilty myself.

However, I think about it a bit and down the road say a big name band wants to release their upcoming album to RBN on the same day. Yet to heard/known about/etc tracks will be flying around in playtesting. I'd imagine these sort of things would NOT be okay to talk about.

So, what's the word on what's okay to become public knowledge and what's not?

[thirdmortal]

frankly I'm not sure why a band would be concerned that someone announced that they were bringing songs to rock band network. Anyone with an account can login and see what songs are being playtested. Those songs are clearly public knowledge. Also the whole point of advertising is to generate buzz before the release of the product. The earlier the buzz the more successful the advertising so I don't see why anyone would have a problem announcing their stuff as early as possible.

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

We've been having this discussion over on the RBN creators forums.

Here's what I was told from a HMX employee on the day I signed up :

Here was the official HMX response as of sept 22:

"We know that the songs in playtest are going to be talked about, so anyone who submits a song for playtest or peer review understands that that information is going to get out to the public. It’s fine to talk about what you see on the site."


Some of the creators on the site don't think we should talk about them outside of the site, BUT we're not allowed to talk about them ON the site(just do the reviews and that's it).

So I asked them where SHOULD we get together to talk about them, and I've gotten no response yet.

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

frankly I'm not sure why a band would be concerned that someone announced that they were bringing songs to rock band network. Anyone with an account can login and see what songs are being playtested. Those songs are clearly public knowledge. Also the whole point of advertising is to generate buzz before the release of the product. The earlier the buzz the more successful the advertising so I don't see why anyone would have a problem announcing their stuff as early as possible.

Another point I brought up, but was told it wasn't anyone's place but the artist or charter to announce what was coming.

I think they'd want that word of mouth.

I mean look at how many people are now hyped up and wanting to purchase tracks/sign up for XNA to playtest because of the 'leak' thread.

I just don't get the need for secrecy at this point I guess.

[kingtonyx]

yeah, I agree it seems to be a good thing to let people know in most cases

I'm just thinking with the upcoming album example, the track names/etc could pop up before they're known to the general public or whatever. Not that it's a huge deal, but some artists/labels may want to keep it a surprise.

[ZhaneBX]

I'm really glad about the songs that got "leaked". It hyped me even more, you can't imagine how my jaw dropped.

There should be more leaks!

[moomandww]

I 100% agree with noble on this. Its stupid how some members are trying to shush up everybody about whats in the pipeline. Why on earth would anyone want to kill hype they could have by announceing there songs early?

[ImaCarrot]

How is your enthusiasm for a song doing a month after it was first announced and it has still not shown up in the store? How about 2 months? 6? There is a reason why Harmonix themselves try to hold off on announcing tracks until close to release date, the tracks are still fresh in everybody's mind and none of the excitement has been diminished. Timing is everything when trying to maximize sales.

Good example; remember when Harmonix announced the sort by stars patch? Remember how excited everyone was about that patch for the weeks to follow? Remember how excitement slowly turned to disdain and sometimes hatred in the months to follow? People are still complaining about the announced Pantera DLC that has yet to be released.

[BStu78]

As has been pointed out to noble, the biggest reason not to go off blabbing about unannounced songs in public forums is because there is no guarantee they will ever be released. At least one song noble himself leaked has already been abandoned by its developer. The problem with leaking this information is it sets up expectations. When they don't come to pass, you get people "demanding answers". I don't think its really fair to take it upon yourself to set up those expectations. If a developer wants to announce something, they are also going to be the one who answers for it if it falls through. You won't be if you take it on to leak information. The developer or Harmonix will be the one subjected to the disappointment.

Look, Harmonix is being upfront that this isn't something they can stop. They don't want to set up expectations from developers that would be too difficult for Harmonix to enforce. That isn't, however, an encouragement to leak songs that are in playtesting. Harmonix was managing expectations from Creators. That doesn't mean creators should be happy about it or shouldn't discourage it, as it sounds like they reasonably ARE doing so.

You can try to justify it as giving a song exposure all you like, but that's really not your decision to make. Its the developer's. Many are obviously keen to get exposure and have announced a ton of songs. Those who don't have their own reasons. While they know that they can't prevent someone from leaking those songs, there is nothing saying YOU should be that person.

And another thing, the fact that people want to find out this information is NO justification for leaking it either. I want to find out the songs Harmonix has in their pipeline, too. We all want to know things that we can't know. So what. We deal.

There is no real value in leaking songs that are in playtesting. When the songs have been approved, go nuts. They get publicly listed then. Until then, I'd respect the developers. Its just the right thing to do.

[ethicalpaul]

Well said, but so far similar arguments have fallen on deaf ears.