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Promotional Stuff

Oct 27, 2004 roguelazer link
Umm... devs? This game goes live in a week and there's no official screenshots of the new universe. And no official ingame video? Do you guys have something coming or is it gonna be a on-the-fly kinda thing?
Oct 27, 2004 Durgia link
I think they are more worried about the game right now. Hopefully they can get enough people buying it as is to give them more time and money for promotional stuff and/or advertising.
Oct 27, 2004 mr_spuck link
What happened to the video alienb wanted to do?
Oct 27, 2004 danielky link
alienb got hit by a bus and broke his eye...

but he mysteriously disappeared from the thread about his project and then posted saying that real life was in the way I think...
Oct 28, 2004 mr_spuck link
owww...
Oct 28, 2004 Suricata link
Aye, there really needs to be some promo stuff now, Novembers PCgamer has a special news section on upcoming MMORPG's in it, and VO wasn't mentioned at all, albiet Matrix online and the shiva patch for Eve wern't mentioned either, but most other games were. Maybe some emails to a few PC magizines would help? Afterall, people will find it hard to buy VO if they don't even know it exists...

Oh, the only reason so many EnB players came over was from a post on ebportal, that and the huge hype campaign myself and a few others did in game before it went down, i know the devs are busy (busy been an understatement), but I think a few news articles here and there should get put out into the public eye soon :-)
Oct 28, 2004 sarahanne link
Yes it would be awesome if there could be massive media coverage for November 1st. I've seen recent coverage at http://pc.ign.com/objects/688/688139.html
Having a slight delay in media coverage may not be a bad thing; as the universe adds new players it gets better and better so Vendetta might get higher ratings in December or January.

I have mixed feelings, it would be a great rush to the guys if there was a big spike the 1st week of Nov due to a flurry of publicity. However if it were followed with a cliff-like drop-off due to over-hyping it wouldn't be good.
A smaller promotion campaign might lead to the gradual build-up of a stable subscription base over the course of 6 months. While it would draw out the financial situation it could result in long-term benefits

Also could it be that many places are focused on the new Star Wars release and a few other "big names" at the moment and aren't able to divert staff to check out VO? I'm not surprised because this game isn't for as large a market as other games.

I do have some ideas for in-game promotions

1) Get in game and maintain the community. Set up guilds. Have groups ready to entice new players to join and stay. Continue helping, encouraging and accepting new players. I think this game will persist because the community will be hard to leave. Once I started feeling included I was hooked. I've been checking in daily even if it means checking the forums at 5:00am when I get up for work. :)

2) Start role playing. I've seen the pirates in action and the pirate hunting squads. I find it entertaining to listen in on chan 100 as they taunt each other. Start a boarder skirmish. Open a combat training academy for mid level pilots. Offer to be a coyote to take people to the "promised land" of Odia for black market weapons. Join the cartography guild, Start a trade guild that maintains its own station cargo database.
Talk like your nation. LOL I always laugh at the “real pirates don’t say YARR!” discussions. Maybe we can come up with some standard greetings to use in game? (like “live long a prosper”, “today is a good day to die” but original and relevant to the story line)

3) Set up events. I've seen postings for universe rally races and dueling tournaments and I think these are awesome. This universe is supposed to be for you to RPG so take advantage of the freedom to create your own story line. I get the impression that players are supposed to “make the 1st move” to see which way the story line heads.
Oct 28, 2004 KixKizzle link
Games intice me the most when there's <1. A story line. <2. An introductory movie. I really think that a short clip of the history that lead to today would be awesome. That would really get people into this game and draw them into the storyline. Plus players would stick with the game if they knew where it was coming from and if they were all hyped up about what "might" happen. This pretty much means that if you join a game and you feel like your part of something big.... then you stick with it and try to recruit all your friends to the game.

Well that's what i'd do anyway :P
Oct 28, 2004 andreas link
<whining>Sarahanne, we would love to restart the old pirates/traders conflict, but right now the game is optimized in every regard to avoid any kind of PvP conflict. There is no point in chasing somebody in the current game, its just not possible to kill anything but a noob who doesn't know how to run and sector hop. If Icarus and I agree on something (first time in 3 years), it must be very very broken.</whining>
Nov 03, 2004 roguelazer link
We need advertising.
Nov 08, 2004 roguelazer link
Nov 09, 2004 incarnate link
Strategy First is posting advertising on GameSpot, IGN and Inside Mac Games. Hopefully next year we'll get on Penny-Arcade.

We pretty much are.. very thankful for whatever Strategy First wants to do, because we have no money to advertise. At all.

I am still trying to do interviews and such, when I can. But juggling "marketing" with "making the game better" is a continual struggle.