Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: nubbles526 on June 30, 2008, 09:17:27 am
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Ok, it's like this. I want you all to think like businessmen/women: If you were the President of Interplay, and you wish to release a new space-themed game (e.g. A sequel to FreeSpace), what marketing strategies would you use? What strategy are you going to use to make sure that the sales go through the roof rather than the poor sales that happened in FreeSpace 2?
Heres mine:
1. A very important subject inside the FS2 UELA. On of the UELA terms states that "It is possible to duplicate a copy of FS2 and give it to a friend". A lot of HLPers find that a rather contrived UELA, but beneficial to the community. However, this will mean sales will drop badly; since everybody just downloads them through somerthing like Tureys installer. Note that Turey's installer does inclue FS1 VPs and core files, the actual full game is not available to us (Otherwise Turey would be offending the law - badly.) This must be changed; eliminate this UELA term.
2. More advertisement. One of the main reason why FS2 sold so badly is because of it's poor advertising. A lot of us who lived through 1998-2000 barely knew that there actualy was a sequel to FS1. Interplay refused to spend ad budget on major gaming magazines or website (E.g. Filefront, Gamespot).
3. Somethng that makes FS2 more interesting than other games on the market. AFAIK, FPS is currently the most beloved themed of all. So, perhaps Interplay should co-operate with other companies which make FPSers, and combine two engines (The Space-sim engine and FPS engine) into one. However, also make sure that the company IS good enough, otherwise the money you pay the with is simply flushed down the toilet
4. Genuine copy of the new game extras. Like the Windows thing, you may only benefit from upgrades, extras, goodies etc. if you buy the game through a valid retailer.
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I think most people would do the same... I would try to put advertising on TV though, something I don't see at all. :P
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:rolleyes:
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More advertisement would've help out FS2 kindy hard to sale a game without advertisement for it. I founded it because i used to go to computer game store once week and look around that's how i found FS1 just looking around say the box it look interesting and i got it. Most people don't walk around stores for hours looking at everything in the store.
i would have More advertisement In magazines TV commercials Trailers of the game play. make a demo
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I would've got a stand at E3. But seeing as there won't be any more i'd hire a blimp and get topless cheerleaders to distribute demo cd's from the skies over major population centres.
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Two Three words: Vasudan wardrobe malfunction.
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I'd hire the SCP coders.
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Promotion on mainstream web magazines is also a must. The medium's much larger than the old days.
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I'd hire the SCP coders.
Oh yeah, forgot that. I mean, after all, the great geniuses of FSO are the SCP coders themselves.
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Also, rick roll people, but instead of rick roll, put trailers for FS2.
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A dedicated 20-30 sec trailer for insertion into movie reels... it would certainly be more entertaining than yet another Car or Coke commercial... :P
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Surely there's a way to combine the three. With gratuitous nudity and / or bad language. If only to appeal to the less educated and hoody inclined demographic.
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We could always use the HUMAN pin up poster.
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Surely there's a way to combine the three. With gratuitous nudity and / or bad language. If only to appeal to the less educated and hoody inclined demographic.
Some guy drinking a coke while he drives a car accidentally cuts off another driver. The driver that got cut off vaporizes the coke guy with a beam cannon.
EDIT: Or better yet, the guy that gets cut off vaporizes the car in front of him with a beam cannon, and then opens up a cold coke and takes a sip.
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Or, we could do it Batman-ish. The millionaire drives his supercar, some one says, "Nice machine." and then the millionaire says, "You should see my other one." And it cuts to footage of a fighter in combat.
... I'm pretty certain I saw a bumper sticker in S'pore with the outline of a Colossus and the words "You should see my other machine."
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Or, we could do it Batman-ish. The millionaire drives his supercar, some one says, "Nice machine." and then the millionaire says, "You should see my other one." And it cuts to footage of a fighter in combat.
... I'm pretty certain I saw a bumper sticker in S'pore with the outline of a Colossus and the words "You should see my other machine."
"I'm sorry about that. But tailgating is one thing I cannot tolerate."
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"Tailgaters will be introduced to Ms. Sathy"
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If I was the president of interplay, I wouldn't be looking for innovative new game ideas on an internet forum.
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If I was the president of interplay, I wouldn't be looking for innovative new game ideas on an internet forum.
.... Goddamnit. One line to ruin them all.
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Any marketing strategy would have been better than what was used (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Freespace_2_-_In_Need_of_Support_From_Its_Publisher) when FS2 was released.
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If I was the president of interplay, I wouldn't be looking for innovative new game ideas on an internet forum.
Sad :(
Why?
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Because developing another WWII FPS will sell alot better than something original the masses are unfamiliar with.
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Thats why space-themed games would die out.... :ick:
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Because developing another WWII FPS will sell alot better than something original the masses are unfamiliar with.
You know, this is one of the comments that is so true that it makes me sick.
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This is probably a stupid idea, and chances are it's not gonna happen, but what the heck.
Why don't we all HLP people put up some money and make a public TV trailer of the SCP ?
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And subsequently get shut down? Woot!
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No one is shutting no one down, except if we include the infamous "Get FreeSpace 2 FOR FREE!!!11" line.
In any case, where were you planning on airing the "trailer"?
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This is probably a stupid idea, and chances are it's not gonna happen, but what the heck.
Why don't we all HLP people put up some money and make a public TV trailer of the SCP ?
I'm pretty sure someone's suggested this before. Many times.
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- I would look at the best immersion qualities in FPS gaming.
- Design the system for fan designed content with available interfaces.
- Make a stable easy to use add on system.
- Really look at the long term fan royalties with the implementation of the systems.
- Offer the development package for the same price as the game.
- Try to get a completed simulation package for atmosphere and space transitional with sudo Newtonian physics that brings the best of realism and arcade satisfaction with the least resource impact possible.
- Assess the largest most stable multiplayer packages.
- Look at community systems that cater to adult card holders having a space of their own vs. forcing a Barney wannabe policy over the entire community. Let adults be stupid. It's entertaining :D
If systems need to be in place, let them be at most automated and spare volunteers as well as employees from domestic nonsense.
- Charge the fee's for regulated and monitored forums. If people want to scream their fascist diatribes of correctness they can pay for the enforcement. After all they are asking for a free babysitter the school systems are under budgeted to even control :p
- Dedicated people contributing to the system get free monthly membership durations according to their contributions.
- Volunteers can get factored amounts of membership based upon their time helping others.
- Use a member ticker to give and the number of members with a percentile affecting membership fees.
Economics are the best way to influence any online community. Make a worthwhile use of the fact.
- Hire the work horses building FS2 Open builds. Beats the **** out of paying lawyers.
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This is probably a stupid idea, and chances are it's not gonna happen, but what the heck.
Why don't we all HLP people put up some money and make a public TV trailer of the SCP ?
I'm pretty sure someone's suggested this before. Many times.
Actually, I haven't heard it before. Commercials don't cost all that much (http://www.gaebler.com/Television-Advertising-Costs.htm) on local cable networks either, if the articles I've found on Google can be believed. Might be something to look into for larger areas. If there were a bunch of HLPers in different cities each paying ~$10-$50 for advertising you could probably get some pretty good coverage, and if the movement was well-document, organized, and publicized, the attempt could generate media attention all by itself. I've never heard of anybody doing something like that before. I'd be willing to put down some money, just to see how much attention it would get.
I don't think there'd be any problem with engine rights, so it could largely consist of footage from Freespace 2, although I'd be less certain of whether using game art elements design by or based on designs by Volition would be permissible in such a case. Airing stuff on TV is a whole different ballgame than putting it online somewhere on the internet. One of the more esoteric projects might have to become the SCP spokesperson for the commercial.
But aside from the copyright issue, I think it's the best idea I've ever heard for publicizing Freespace 2.
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The only risk would be the failing Interplay seeing it and jumping "That's our game and our money!" and ordering a cease and desist, and making us cough up cash.
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Right. Interplay doesn't own any of the engine, though, as I understand it, and I can only see good things stemming from this for Volition/THQ. It's good publicity for them, and their name doesn't have to be associated with the engine (In fact it's probably a lot better if it isn't). More people use the engine, and if the project gets a bad rap, they can always say that they played no part in development after releasing the engine. If it does well, they can claim credit for the engine in the first place.
As Michael would say..."Win, win win." :p
Only thing is that it can't be a for-profit enterprise, since that's obviously outlawed in the code. But, hmm, come to think of it, would the license rule out the profit the TV station would be making? It'd still be possible to make a trailer without any gameplay footage, I suppose.
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Hmmm. Well. We could make a small trailer and put it somewhere as a test case, to gauge the response (like say on Gamespot or something) before putting it up on TV. I'm not sure about the ad costs for airing it on TV though.
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Big-Budget:
*TV spot w/gameplay & cutscene on G4, MTV, SciFi, Cartoon Network - emphasize both story and in-game features
*Previously suggested pre-movie 30-second spot (I remember Warcraft III did this before Revenge of the Sith, was kind of cool)
*Ads in print Media and on online gaming sites - banners, sidebars, etc.
*Flashy website with multimedia, downloads, etc.
Low-Budget
*"Official" trailer on Youtube, linking to the site
*Viral marketing - recruit a bunch of people with free time to invade other games' boards and compare/contrast with Freespace, drum up interest (in particular aim for wargames, scifi/space adventures and other flight simulators).
*Finagle some sort of spotlight, either in online gaming sites, or perhaps on G4 (one of those glorified ads where the host interviews a developer and different gameplay aspects are shown and discussed).