[MUD-Dev] Advertising Thread

[Brad McQuaid]

Said: "Russ Whiteman":

> And, conversely, having a good (or bad) game design doesn't
> necessarily mean that the game is going to do outstanding well (or
> poorly).  As much as I hate to admit it, marketing appears to be
> the king, when it comes to making a hugely successful game...

I hate to nitpick, but EQ didn't have squat for marketing early on,
especially pre-release.  There was none, and then there was an ad
run for like 3 months in like the four major mags of the time (PC
Games, PC Gamer, CGW, Computer Games Strategy Plus?).

I remember feeling a bit upset and daunted by the fact that Origin
seemed to have bought the back cover of one of the major mags for
like 12+ months straight and ran everything there, including UO.
Plus, of course, UO had a strong IP behind it.

989 Studios, at the time, was very Playstation focused, and then
also focused on PS/2, which was on the horizon.  So Smed, myself,
and a few others did the marketing, it's as simple as that.  Heck,
we even got that PC Games cover early on ourselves, and went on road
trips with a computer that would run EQ, flying all over the place
:) That and constant communication with the community... Posting on
web sites, chats, etc.  This was EQ's marketing early on.

And, looking back, given what a victim of our own success we were
(think the first two weeks of launch... The bandwidth issues, the
login issues), I'd shudder to think in what shape we'd be had we had
real marketing :) I don't think we'd have survived even quicker
sales rates.

But, in any case, I must respectfully disagree: you certainly do NOT
need marketing to make a hugely successful game.  With the Internet,
word of mouth, a very strong game, good timing, etc., you can do it
alone.

Although I will say this: I'm talking about traditional marketing:
big ads, commercials, huge launch parties, etc.  'Channel'
marketing, which means getting the project into the channel and on
the shelves, buying end-caps, etc... That we had in spades, thanks
to Don Vercelli, and I will absolutely agree that if you cannot get
product into the channel for people to buy, it doesn't matter how
bad they want it.

Anyway, obviously things changed over time... We went from almost
zero marketing support, to some, to a decent amount, and then check
out the machine at SOE now: obviously it's full steam ahead :)

BTW, regardless, I'm a huge believer in getting the word out in
addition to the posting, chats, etc. that we'll do when it's
time. It's no coincidence we've teamed up with Microsoft :)

--

---------------------------------------------
Brad McQuaid
President & CEO
Sigil Games Online, Inc.
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