Oh This Just Ticks Me Off!

[Atrocities]

I have visited a few game sites and non of them have posted any news about the latest SEIV patch.

Most noteably Gamespot.com They have vertually no info on the game and did not even bother to post the news about the update. All they have is the update and nothing more.

ADDITIONALLY! Go register and give the game a quck free review. (10's all way) Space Empires IV Gold (Must say GOLD)

This angers me greatly as SEIV has proven itself to be the hands down best 4X of this century. (No crap, released in 2000 nothing has come close to knocking it off the thrown.)

So why in the hell don't the game sites honor this game and at least post news about it when there is new news to post?

[David E. Gervais]

The reason is simple,.. You'd be amazed at how many people I know that have never heard of Shrapnel Games, let alone Malfador Machinations. Virtually all their business is strictly Online and I don't recall ever seeing an ad for their games in any magazines. I have seen a few reviews of their products, but usually they are single page reviews or smaller. The review runs in for just that one month and I'm sure the sales must increase slightly when the issue comes out. But the bottom line is Shrapnel and MM have made virtually all their success due to word of mouth.

Personally I would think that shrapnel along with a few of their best selling developers could manage to scrape up enough money to place a half (or full) page ad to run for a period of a few months. Word of mouth is a very good supliment to advertizing, but not a substitute.

AT, try this test,.. next time your in a computer store ask the shopper next to you if he/she has heard of Shrapnel or Malfador Machinations.

Heck, with the savings in bandwidth since the upload forums have been down they should have saved enough money to place full page adds in 2-3 magazines.

As far as the 'other' gamming sites not having an announcement of the new SE:IV GOLD patch, write a small review and highlight the best of the new features and send it to the gamesite's admins. I'm sure they would be happy to post it for you. Cause right now it's the fans that are supporting and promoting the game the most.

I really think that Shrapnel should get more agressive in their advertizing. They have many great games, and a whold world of potential clients that don't even know they exist.

Nuf said, Cheers!

[Deathstalker]

One place I can always count on to have the SEIV patches (and starfury) almost the same day as Shrapnel is the Adrenaline Vault (avault.com), great game site with tonnes of demos. This is actually where I first heard of Se4 while looking to see if there was a new Master of Orion in the works. Saw it in the Demos section and I've never turned back

[Atrocities]

I really think that Shrapnel should get more agressive in their advertizing. They have many great games, and a whold world of potential clients that don't even know they exist.

Well said.

[Siegebreaker]

I have to agree.
Its sad, but Computer mags these days are cattering only to the cassual gamer, and occasionally to the hardcore RPGamer and FPShooter, but definitively not to Strategy or Tactical games/wargames/whatever.

I'm only interested in Strategy, and I haven't seen or heard of a mag that aims for this demographic group.
Maybe its too small to justify the investment?

The point is that people that play games like SE4 look for the latest news Online, not onpaper.

I would say that whatever the investment on ads may be, it should be Online, on gaming sites.


On the other hand, to contradict all the above, the first time I heard of this game was in Computer Game Magazine, when they sent us a demo CD with the Gold Demo for SE4, so there is not a clear cut of where the money works best for an 4X game like this one.

How about a poll in which every member of this forum can vote on where they heard first of SE4?

[ March 01, 2004, 13:08: Message edited by: SB ]

[spoon]

double post

[ March 01, 2004, 15:23: Message edited by: spoon ]

[spoon]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
I have visited a few game sites and non of them have posted any news about the latest SEIV patch.

Maybe Shrapnel didn't tell anybody??? I did notice that they have a link to the patch over at avault.com.

[ March 01, 2004, 15:23: Message edited by: spoon ]

[gregebowman]

Maybe an updated demo could be released with the 1.91 patch included, and MM or Shrapnel could get that demo out to the PC game magazines to be included on their demo discs. Just a thought.

[Atrocities]

Shrapnel is very good at getting the word out about updates and new games. The word was out, they got it, but they just don't care about the games Shrapnel offers.

Hell I will pay for an add and run it in the local computer magazine if it will help sell SE IV! Crap its not that expensive up here... But nationaly, in one magazine like PC gamer, well that is about $1200.00 per one half page color add. (Could be wrong, but that would be logical rate. Easy enought to check too.)

You run an add that is a half page that lists your top selling games. Just get the word out, let the web site and the forums do the rest. (The Demos to.)

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Maybe an updated demo could be released with the 1.91 patch included, and MM or Shrapnel could get that demo out to the PC game magazines to be included on their demo discs. Just a thought.

That is an excellent idea. You should email that to MM right now Greg.