Silvernite Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 [quote name='H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enoch Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 People really care what the box looks like? I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oner Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 People really care what the box looks like? I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing. If everyone on the forum would call it ugly, you'd get a pretty clear picture how "inspiring" it will be for casual buyers. Giveaway list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgyQFpOJvyNASt8A12ipyV_iwpLXg_yltGG5mffvSwo/edit?usp=sharing What is glass but tortured sand?Never forget! '12.01.13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath of Dagon Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 People really care what the box looks like? I mean, I could understand it affecting casual players browsing through the aisles at Best Buy, but we're all here participating in the developer's online forums. I say let Sega/Obsidz do whatever they want on the cover, if they think it'll help the game sell. I'd rather discuss the game than the marketing. We want the game to sell well, and I don't see how the cover will help that. Remember that for a lot of people, the cover will be all they know about the game. And Morgoth's version is better, at least it would catch someone's eye while the official one wouldn't, plus boobs! "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oner Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 And Morgoth's version is better, at least it would catch someone's eye while the official one wouldn't, plus boobs! I find it too cheesy. Giveaway list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgyQFpOJvyNASt8A12ipyV_iwpLXg_yltGG5mffvSwo/edit?usp=sharing What is glass but tortured sand?Never forget! '12.01.13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath of Dagon Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 I'm not suggesting they go with that one specifically, but at least it's an improvement. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oner Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Imo it screams 'spy parody', and I wouldn't call that an improvement. Giveaway list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgyQFpOJvyNASt8A12ipyV_iwpLXg_yltGG5mffvSwo/edit?usp=sharing What is glass but tortured sand?Never forget! '12.01.13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgoth Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 I thought Alpha Protocol is a spy parody! Matthew! Josh! Say it is so! Rain makes everything better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrath of Dagon Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 It's certainly turned into one. The cover needs to be cool, like the Kotor 2 cover, that one really stood out. This one will get drowned in a sea of 100 other generic box covers. "Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoma Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 My fanmade Boxart. Forget to add a line: MICHAEL BAY PRESENTS: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oner Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 On a side note, how about pepping up the marketing with Marilyn Manson's The Death Song? It has two lines in particular that would greatly reflect the moral ambiguity of Alpha Protocol. Namely: I saw a cop beat a priest on the TV, and they know they killed our heroes too and I saw priest kill a cop on the TV, and i know now they're our heroes too Don't you agree? I think it's a really good idea. just kidding of course Giveaway list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgyQFpOJvyNASt8A12ipyV_iwpLXg_yltGG5mffvSwo/edit?usp=sharing What is glass but tortured sand?Never forget! '12.01.13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirPetrakus Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 [quote name='H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjc Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think I was five years old the first and only time I bought a game based on what the box looked like. I honestly doubt that anyone who thinks box art is a deal breaker in a purchase would even know what the acronym "RPG" means in this context. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purkake Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I actually like it. It looks like a spy game and isn't all plastered with explosions and chicks. Just you against the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigranes Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Pretty average. Nobody on this forum will really care, yeah, but is this cover really going to have random people pick it up in the store? Well... I guess the phrase 'espionage RPG' might. It's not bad enough to drive away sales, though - you can't beat Torment for that. Let's Play: Icewind Dale Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Icewind Dale II Ironman (Complete) Let's Play: Divinity II (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG1 (Complete) Let's Play: Baldur's Gate Trilogy Ironman - BG2 (In Progress) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowtrain Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 [Forget to add a line: MICHAEL BAY PRESENTS: lol. ZOma wins. Needs more explosions though. Notice how I can belittle your beliefs without calling you names. It's a useful skill to have particularly where you aren't allowed to call people names. It's a mistake to get too drawn in/worked up. I mean it's not life or death, it's just two guys posting their thoughts on a message board. If it were personal or face to face all the usual restraints would be in place, and we would never have reached this place in the first place. Try to remember that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 (edited) It speaks to the average forumite intelligence on this forum that people are assuming from the outset that the person on the cover is Thorton. Are you all retarded? It says The Espionage RPG on the cover and you're assuming the guy in shadow with a scar on his face is the ****ing protagonist? Really? Jesus Christ. I was expecting people to at least have knowledge of basic James Bond conventions. This is just embarrassing. That having been said, the art is very reminiscent of the Bourne film posters in their color scheme, with a little more Bond-esque "mystery" thrown in, which is just as well. Edited July 3, 2009 by Pop Join me, and we shall make Production Beards a reality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deraldin Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think I was five years old the first and only time I bought a game based on what the box looked like. I honestly doubt that anyone who thinks box art is a deal breaker in a purchase would even know what the acronym "RPG" means in this context. I know that it's what kept me from picking up Torment. I remember walking into the store wanting to try something other than my usual RTS games and looked over the wall of RPGs. Fallout, Torment, Baldur's Gate and various other games. Fallout ended up being a no go because it was on the top shelf and I could reach it. Torment was put back because the box art really turned me off the game. I think you'd be surprised how big an effect the box art can have on sales. It won't stop people that know what the game is about, but it could kill impulse buys among the uninformed, which let's face it are a much large section of the game buying public than we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think the cover art is intriguing enough to rope in impulse buyers. Genre games have to display certain elements to grab undiscriminating potential consumers - for action games and action-RPGs, it's people (the protagonist or an enemy) brandishing weapons threateningly. For strategy games, it's military units, probably of different types, portrayed working in tandem. The use of shadow in the cover hints at a stealth component and/or a mystery. Join me, and we shall make Production Beards a reality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WILL THE ALMIGHTY Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I don't see the problem. The cover art is pretty intriguing, actually. "Alright, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade - make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager. Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons. Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons. I'm going to to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkreku Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 Someone in the art department has a fetish for huge, manly chins, that's for sure. Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjc Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 I think you'd be surprised how big an effect the box art can have on sales. It won't stop people that know what the game is about, but it could kill impulse buys among the uninformed, which let's face it are a much large section of the game buying public than we are. It used to take magazine subscriptions to keep informed on upcoming game releases. Now you're a couple seconds on Google away from a release calendar for the next several months and profiles on the games, developers, and publishers therein. I'm not denying that there are people who'll pass over a game because they don't like the box, I'm saying that trying to predict and manipulate what those people will actually respond to will drag you into profoundly weird territory: high-level Cola Wars sorcery. The AP cover here looks informative enough in that it evokes Bourne or any of the other spy stuff from this decade. Someone might see it and think "I like this genre of fiction, I did not know there would be an RPG of this kind. I MUST INVESTIGATE THIS." If anything stands out, it's the glowing text in the middle with the title and the "RPG" description. I don't know how you would visually depict the idea that it's an RPG, apart from pinning a character sheet to Thornton's back and showing him machine gunning a group of thugs who are bleeding negative red HP floats. Going with a subdued image in the hopes that people will focus on the words seems like a reasonable decision. There was clearly a thought process behind this. This isn't the Planescape: Torment cover, which communicates that "the blue man is angry." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
213374U Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 [quote name='H - When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgoth Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 What Agent uses two guns in a sneaking mission anyway? John Woo style does not apply to undercover operative. Rain makes everything better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oner Posted July 3, 2009 Share Posted July 3, 2009 What Agent uses two guns in a sneaking mission anyway? John Woo style does not apply to undercover operative. In Hollywood, everything applies to everything. Giveaway list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DgyQFpOJvyNASt8A12ipyV_iwpLXg_yltGG5mffvSwo/edit?usp=sharing What is glass but tortured sand?Never forget! '12.01.13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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