NS2 high-level features...and Pyro Marketing
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
in NS2 E-Team
Comments
But to be completely honest with you, out of all the media releases and podcasts that we've seen (and heard), I think the one that's spread the most PR is the Dynamic Infestation. That short little video blew people away and they immediately passed it on. If you ask me, I'd say releasing a series of similar videos would be your best bet at this point.
I have to say that I agree with ZeroFate. I was shown the video from 3 different people who thought it was cool and I hadn't seen it yet. The updates, information, and progress has to be made to get people interested. The worst thing we can do is to get people here and have nothing for them and then just leave them out to dry for them to get bored and tired of waiting on the game.
So we really need to get the name out there and established with all the gaming sites as a foundation and not as a campaign. Just get our foot in the door, and into their sights. When the content comes in then we can use our established platforms to shout it out.
I like the podcasts and blogging but do you have any sort of way to schedule technology updates and information? You have to feed the fire so to speak. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
I think this is far better the www.projectoffset.com which is another game I have been watching for a long time. I beta tested Savage which some of the Dev's made and I love the game and concept but the lack of information has been very demoralizing. A number of people who used to post in the forums a great deal have been dormant a long time. The current community does have an undercurrent of concern that due to the lack of recent information of any kind the game will fail or so many will leave that the launch will be weak. I think this approach and the level of communication we recieve if far improved from none at all. I do hope we can make suggestions on what to release for the E-team as well.
Personally any possible demo would be perfect since we could allow people we hype to try the game that way, even if it was only 1 map but they could really try it out. I don't know if it would be perfect but I think it would generate a lot more attention if there was something like that we could show people. Even if it's only a decent length gameplay video.
Give me something to work with Flay!
I need easy access to pictures, concept art, screen shots, movies - anything. Give me MEDIA. People don't read text, they look at pretty pictures and then read whatever is below it to help identify what they're looking at. That's where most people's mind's stop.
I need a link I can hand someone that will lead to a splash page flash intro that is just totally ######ing <i>wicked</i>.
I need a link that has a grid of screen shots a potential can mouse over and see larger images of.
I need a link to an FAQ section that is updated and marketing-oriented.
If you want to go commercial, then let's go commercial. Give me corporate-worthy candy to hand out.
--Locane
This is a good idea for three reasons:
1. There is already a vast amount of content available for marketing use (website, screen shots, movies, community and servers etc)
2. It's something substantial that I can put in a person's hands and tell them "Play this".
3. Promoting NS2 when it's well over a year away from completion, and has limited content available for distribution is an uphill battle. Promoting normal NS NOW, is going to pay off in spades when NS2 actually gets released.
This idea, like all ideas, does have drawbacks though:
1. Most people are turned off when they hear it's a Half-Life 1 mod. My answer to this would be screen shots. NS does NOT look like a Half-Life 1 mod.
2. NS does not have any kind of user friendly easy-to-get-into tutorial. NS's biggest hurdle is the learning curve. We need to write a tutorial map for both races, really, really, really badly.
3. NS's major strong points aren't made readily apparent - we need to SPAM people with the fact that this is an RTS on CRACK. When someone shows up at the website, they see news and text. If I'm trying to sell or promote a game, the LAST thing I would put on my splash page is paragraphs and paragraphs of text. We need single, decisive words that drive home the strong points of NS clearly and quickly:
Tactical
Fast-paced
Demanding
Adaptive
Intense
RTS ON CRACK!
Ok, maybe the last one isn't so serious, but it would get a lot of attention.
In my opinion, OVERALL, NS suffers from a serious lack of lube.
We need to make it <b>so</b> easy to get whatever it is the potential player / customer is looking for, that they could metaphorically fall over and find themselves immersed in it.
The trailer on the splash page is an EXCELLENT example - that thing is fan-######ing-tastic. We need a huge "WATCH TRAILER" button with a huge "DOWNLOAD" button right next to it, where clicking through it starts the download and brings you to the installation instructions page.
The web page looks awesome - let's take Natural Selection out of the dark ages and into the realm of professionally developed and implemented gaming! That means breaking down the small barriers that are in place everywhere in the current system - things like the server select for the download. Just START IT, don't make your potential do anything more than is absolutely necessary to acquire what they want as quickly as possible. Maybe we should have an NS torrent file. P2P software works great for WoW patches, it should be good for us too.
I realize there are a lot of cost elements in the changes I'm suggesting, but we're going to have to step up to the plate at some point. Paying for dedicated hosting of the NS installer would be more than worth it if it meant 10 more newbies a month logged in and tried it out.
The splash page should be designed around distributing and promoting the game - not huge blocks of news text. If you're going to put news on the front page, fine, just give it it's own section and keep it out of the way of the promotion stuff. Let people click through to see it.
If we're going to promote and sell and MARKET, we need to do it full-tilt.
--Locane
He has good ideas.
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.hu" target="_blank">www.natural-selection.hu</a>
And some tutorials writen by me. (next to "HÃrek" [news] natural-selection button.)
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.hu/?l=YToyOntzOjQ6Im1lbnUiO3M6NDoibmV3cyI7czoyOiJpZCI7czo0OiI2MDUyIjt9" target="_blank">Kharra</a>
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.hu/?l=YToyOntzOjQ6Im1lbnUiO3M6NDoibmV3cyI7czoyOiJpZCI7czo0OiI2MDgyIjt9" target="_blank">Marines</a>
<a href="http://www.natural-selection.hu/?l=YToyOntzOjQ6Im1lbnUiO3M6NDoibmV3cyI7czoyOiJpZCI7czo0OiI2MjQyIjt9" target="_blank">Combat mode</a>
Another official NS movie could be on the cards, and with various other things like the Official NS Community Map pack could be integrated into an all-in-one release, a bit like they did with UT2004 when they released the 3369 final update and all the community bonus packs. This would no doubt increase the current awareness of the game, and thus improving the numbers of people already awaiting NS2.
LOL true
noone listens to a story without dramatic spikes. even if 500 people died in that. ###### needs to sound big and awful and totaly blatant and everyone will listen to a story where a bee is having sex with a flower