Oh This Just Ticks Me Off!

[Sabin]

How I acquired my copy of Space Empires IV Gold began with a magazine called Computer Gaming World. I read the small review, and decided that it was the game I wanted to play, a replacement for Stars! I suppose.

I downloaded the demo, and it was okay. I searched the information pertaining to Space Empires IV Gold, and I discovered Captain Kwok's Star Trek Mod. Believing he would complete it, I ordered the full Version. It was not played much, and eventually abandoned in the wake of Captain Kwok's unfortunate failure to finish the mod.

At a later time I felt curious and examined the information about the game again. I discovered that the mod has been resurrected, and promptly reinstalled Space Empires IV Gold.

As you can see, the review aided in my retrieval of this product, but it was the mod(s) that carried the day thus far.

[Fyron]

I first heard of SE4 when Malfador announced the plans for it on their web site. I first heard of SE3 by finding it on a demo CD that came with Computer Games Strategy Plus (the title back then) magazine. Played it for a long while before actually ordering the game, as it worked great as its own standalone game. No silly turn limits, just tech limits and no ability to mod. Modding wasn't added in until patch 12 or 14 or whatever it was of SE3 anyways.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well, actually, i found it early se3, too. i remember being impressed with the ability to mod when that came out, but i had no money back then.

i wonder how i first found stars!?

[ March 02, 2004, 00:08: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[hicksz]

Originally posted by Combat Wombat:
PC Gamer mag just had a full page review of Starfury not to long back and I believe they did one for SE4 too. They gave Starfury a 80something% out of 100%. Which is fairy high praise. The only thing they thought was wrong with the game was some stablity issues and the long travel time between systems.

I'm so happy to have a subscription to PC Gamer because they are the reason that I discovered SEIV Gold. They showed a lot of love for SEIV becasue they review SEIV (March 2001; 80%) before it became gold and then reviewed it again (Can't find issue but I believe 88 or 89%) which is something they rarely do for a game that's not a full sequel. Plus PC Gamer, every so often, tries to get the word out about games that you can only find on the web. For example, "The Fifty Best Games on the web for free."

[geoschmo]

Shrapnel has tried the advertising route before. They found they were spending a whole lot of money and getting little or nothing in return.

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
Word of mouth is a very good supliment to advertizing, but not a substitute.

Actually, word of mouth is much better for niche games like Shrapnel sells. Your typical gamer that will respond to an add is geared towards the more flashy graphics and whatnot that Shrapnel's games tend not to have. An add for a Shrapnel game isn't likely to catch their attention, and if it did, they are more likely to be disapointed then pleased when they try the games and realize they actually have to think to play them.

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:
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.

Wow! You either are seriously overestimating the cost of bandwith, or you have no clue what it costs to place an ad in a magazine. Or maybe you are just joking? Exageration for effect?

[Sabin]

I first began playing Stars! with a demo disk my mother bought, when I was perusing the many titles available on it. Eventually, I came across it and began playing. I eventually came to like it, despite it's flaws.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by gregebowman:

quote:

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Originally posted by Atrocities:

quote:

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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.

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Maybe when I get home, AT. One of my coworkers is getting canned, mostly in part for doing personal e-mails at work. So I'm not taking that kind of chance. But feel free to do so yourself if I don't get around to doing it tonight.

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Man sounds like my old company when the belt got tightened. They would fire people for realy DUMB stuff. One guy spilled his breakfest, when we had cafiteria serivce, on the floor and it stained it. He was terminated. So people stopped buying food and they closed the cafiteria. Another guy was rifed for accepting a call from his wife on his own cell phone during a safety meeting.

I was there for both so I know. I heard that they fired people for surfing the web, emails, phone calls, sitting down when they should not have been, etc. Just uber nazi BS reasons.

[oogs]

about the cost for advertising in pc gamer...


$13K for a full page ONCE, $6k for 1/3 of a page ONCE. here's a link..


http://www.futurenetworkusa.com/pdf/...3-RateCard.pdf

i was doing this only becuase my turn was taking forever to process...

[Kamog]

Wow, those magazine ads aren't cheap... Need to sell many many copies of the game from people seeing the ad, to make it worthwhile.

[Lord_Shleepy]

Ahh....yess...many year ago...at the height of my nerdiness...I stumbled across a banner ad on some long since extinct website in some dusty corner of the internet at 3 am and was thereby introduced to the glories of SEIII. The resulting carnage was horrific...and strangely mesmerizing...and for hours...days...weeks...i continued to send my ill-conceived ships to the slaughter. The inevitable galactic dominance was eventually achieved...followed by a brief spell of boredom...until I learned of SEIV through the malfador web site and was launched into another orgy of mouse-shattering conquest and destruction.

Oh the horror...the sweet horror...