Marketing Insights

[Osvir]

So! I've always wanted to hype Pillars of Eternity a lot, and I've been bringing it to attention slightly on various "No Comments" articles across the year and been adressing it in YouTube videos, talked about it on twitter sneakily. Nagging the world about it haha been talking with my friends about it a lot and although they don't hang around here, whenever I bring it up they are almost on level with me xD nah, that would be an exaggeration, but they know what it is when I mention it and their first reaction has been "Say whaaaat??" in a positive and excited way.

Now, I worked with marketing a short while and got a couple of "no-brainer" insights from it and I wanted to simply make a post/thread here and give some of those insights in plain text to the forumers, lurkers, backers, passer-by's and whoever else is here~

- Talking about anything on the internet will expose it to thousands of people. Maybe 1 out of 10'000 who sees "Pillars of Eternity" in a comment on a YouTube video or a media article, and that 1 person talks with his friends, who then talk to their friends, etc. etc. or they talk about it in their own forum somewhere "Have you guys heard about this?" that's a bit rarer though.

That 1 person is still a potential prospect and customer.

So what I'm trying to say is, try to talk about Pillars of Eternity wherever you usually go to the net. Maybe you don't hang around Obsidian forums only. Maybe you hang around elsewhere as well, or you're interested in something specific like... I don't know... golf. And in that golf forum there might be a "way off topic" forum like here as well. Or in a sports forum or whatever.

Talking about it = Exposing it.

But only talking about it here is mostly going to expose it to visitors who come here. We can call this a "Café" in a way, and we are mostly regulars who hang around in this "Café". But if we aren't telling anyone outside who pass by it everyday ignorantly, they won't know about it.

So... do with this what you will, but I'm not going to lie, I'm hoping it influences some people to "invite" people in
 
Here are some pro-tips:

- Find news articles that talk about RPG's or new games. If you can comment, make an account and mention Pillars of Eternity.
- Find RPG or game forums, Game News Websites (IGN, Gamespot, Gamesradar, Joystiq, Kotaku, N4G etc. etc.), Game Websites (BioWare, CD Projekt Red, inXile, Square-Enix, Capcom etc. etc.), make an account, start a discussion about Pillars of Eternity or comment in relevant threads.
- Start a fan-twitter and hype Pillars of Eternity specifically. You can also just have a twitter account and nag/comment various internet personalities and media personalities about it~ retweet stuff.
- Talk on Facebook & Google+
- Simplest is probably to just "Search" for Pillars of Eternity in Google with various variations. "Pillars of Eternity Upcoming RPG" and then hit F5 or refresh a couple of thousand of times and it should become a more relevant search~ people who search only for "Upcoming RPGs" in Google would get hits on Pillars of Eternity.
- Writing on Reddit as well, finding relevant posts and threads~ voting Pillars of Eternity relevant posts "up"

source

 

Happy hunting! 

Edited June 16, 2014 by Osvir

[Darji]

I will do that as soon they show video material. Because my friends and many other people just do not care about written previews or some non saying screens.  

[Osvir]

Of course, that is great as well, I have several friends who are the same way. But it doesn't hurt to bring it to attention regardless

I'm going to make a "how-to-record games" tutorial thread as well (it's super easy)~ which programs to use, how to set up etc. etc., but that's further down the line when the beta is closing in.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Osvir

[Messier-31]

I will do that as soon they show video material. Because my friends and many other people just do not care about written previews or some non saying screens.  

 

Yeah, reading is bad for eyes.

 

It's a good thing that in-game you will not have to, um... oh, wait.

 

 

Acutally this is really true, as I heard numerous times: "just show the damn gameplay already".

Edited June 16, 2014 by Messier-31

[Nonek]

Just don't talk about it on the BSN what. Don't need those kind of "customers" eh? Ha.

[NWN_babaYaga]

...

 

i dont understand... to the dude with his obsession about videos... how many faked videos have i seen that promised so many things and delivered nothing of it later on. If you trust only videos then I dont understand why you want to play a oldschool RPG. These games are more then fancy moving things etc. And If your "friends" only care about baboom and splatosh kawutze then good for you and bad for gamers who needs a little bit more then that. 75 % of the trailers i have seen were just marceting tools for the mass that eat FX like their daily food. Not thinking about where it comes from, just give me that illusion of coolness but dont tell me how Shi+++ it realy is... because i cant stand anything deeper then how to press button and be in awe how awesome it looks...

 

And marceting is very easy today. The better the lie the better the result in the end because people now a days forget very quick how they were robbed of their money. They trust the same companys again and again with their nonstop nonsense that they use like magick to trick you over and over with their BS. Thats marceting, just lie and show fancy things because gamers will buy it anyway... most of the money comes from their parents anyway so why should they care...

 

And uh... the BSN... the "fanboys"  they are like a sect!

 

AND I DONT CARE about ingame footage from POE. I want that they work on the game so hard that it makes me hard later once it is READY!

Edited June 16, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[Lephys]

I remember after Mass Effect 2 came out, seeing someone walk into Gamestop the day after i released to trade-in the game, outraged, because they thought it was just going to be a shooter.

 

That's where just basing everything on video footage leads. I think it's a little beyond just a preference. If you can't be bothered to find out about the mechanics and design of a game, and must only see some moving pixels that represent it, then simply decide to get it/like it, etc., then you're guaranteeing yourself some issues.

 

I'm not going to judge anyone for liking video footage. It's great. But it's not like it's the complete package. And I don't think a flawed process for determining what games to like/try should really be encouraged or accommodated. That's one of the main things wrong with mainstream game development today. There's a higher priority placed on conveying excitement about the game than there is on the actual quality/innovation of the game's design.

 

This is why we get "THE ALL NEW DEATHREAPER 12 ENGINE, WITH REALER THAN REALITY PHYSICS!", then gameplay mechanics that take about 2% advantage of that level of physics. Why? It's more important that buildings collapsed realistically than it is that that actually affected the gameplay. Old games with terrible physics still have mechanics that take loads better advantage of physics-based mechanics, etc.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Lephys

[AGX-17]

You're just making yourself look asinine, acting like you're the guardian angel upon whom Obsidian depends for their sales and marketing.

[Osvir]

AGX-17, not one bit at all. I'm doing it because I want to see Pillars of Eternity to succeed as much as possible and yes, I'm a fool, but I don't care

[Bryy]

You're just making yourself look asinine, acting like you're the guardian angel upon whom Obsidian depends for their sales and marketing.

That's a friendly first post in this thread.

[Osvir]

Bryy, AGX has a point regarding what it probably looks like but in all honesty, this whole project since the beginning has meant a lot to me on a personal level. So people can believe what they want, but I assure you the reasons are something else.