I looked around, yes, and you're right, I did notice staff members in the forums. But the forums aren't well orginized, or well populated.
The forums are busier than virtually every gaming site except for this one, WotC's boards and RPGNet. As for "organization" -- what the are you talking about? It uses the same format as virtually every other forum.
I'd check it out now to make a more concise point, but my connection timed-out every time I tried in the past hour.
Yeah, the entire company goes to the con, so when the site has problems, they don't get fixed. This seems to happen to about half the game sites out there around Gencon. Still, this is something that happens quite a bit and I wish they'd fix it.
It also means that marketing and promotion is suffering because no one is motivated into going out and selling to product proactively so that people are out there playing the game.
Not every company uses the same marketing strategy. I have a feeling that WW probably knows what it's doing, given that its last game exceeded expectations. In my experience, the company's focus is really on existing gaming groups, and spreading buzz through its word-of-mouth network.
I went to this site to check it out, but you can't view any of the content without signing up. This is terribly not-condusive to new players or people interested in getting into the game and it's community.
SNE does this to control costs and prevent spamming. The board is not an advertising medium. It's a fan-run site.
The RSS feed? You mean I had to check/subscribe to the RSS feed to find out about the product launch? It's not on the main page for the company. It's not even on the main page for the game itself!
Um, the RSS feed is *derived* from main site content. WW has said when the game was being released over and over and over again on its main site.
I have to say, that's an excellent point. But I've been to stores. I've been to three hobby shops in Northern New Jersey, two gaming stores in New York City (big place for a game to have no players in), and a few in Westchester county New York, too. I've always seen product, people always say they sell it, and that they don't know anyone who plays it. I've searched online, quite a bit. And while you may be completely correct, it just seems like (in my experience) that these games don't have any sort of strong community presence or opportunity for play if you're
You're . . . what? Looking for a game without a group? There's chat play and the existing forums, and you can post at your FLGS, same as for any other game.
Yes, and I still might! I'm just sad that I couldn't find anything on my own. I suppose that's gonna be my last ditch effort.
Why is it your "last ditch" effort? If you want to boost the game at a local convention, let them know.
Otherwise, what do you expect exactly? The game as a downloadable and free print demo, a forum for discussion and the WoD line has an active play community spread out through multiple fora. There is really only so much any company can do before it hits the point of diminishing returns. WotC has what it has because of sales volume and the fact that with DDI, it *must* get significantly higher returns. The company needs people to join, and that drives how much marketing its willing to do.
In my experience, WW traditionally has more of a hands-off approach to its player network, because that network has a facility for self-organization and recruitment that makes it distinctive. The only time it's ever taken a strong hand in it is when the former Camarilla started to show signs of blatant mismanagement and presumed upon the company's IP.
The drawback of this is that with things in the hands of fans, there's a degree of chaos and critical straight talk you won't find in other communities, but at the core, people are buying the books and playing the games, and that's what's important. In terms of play, the company has really dragged itself out of the hands of non-playing hobbyists. As someone who worked on the old Mage (where I think this almost tanked the line early), it's very refreshing to see discussion in the new game move from armchair GMs to people who actually bring up play.
The new Changeling does a better job of projecting a feel for the game than the old game. 
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