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Originally Posted by Monolith
Of course. But isn't it in their (the company) best interest to also release their game without being overshadowed by other games? Despite their shitty marketing, it will be our fault to just right it off right now as crap.
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Who's writing it off? I certainly am not. But some of us still do have a right to complain about the awful [lack of] marketing for this title, fans and non-fans alike.
And what other games would Gray Matter be overshadowed by? It's not like it would be competing in the same arena as non-adventure triple AAA titles that can afford much more lavish marketing and advertising.
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It says a lot about a person who doesn't have patience, full aware of said crappy marketing department.
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True, but it also says a lot about a company with a lousy marketing team and neglect for its loyal followers - that is, Jane Jensen's loyal followers who themselves are potential free advertisers recommending the game to their friends online and offline.
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In the end. Call me an Optimist, and not a fan boy. I'm a working citizen, and I still have tons of games to play. I don't have time to worry about one game.
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No one is questioning whatever allegiance you have, or at least I'm not. The fact is that if the publisher wants to make money they must market this title accordingly, not jerk us around for the past 2 or more years about it and go through long periods giving sites like AG and Gamespy nothing to report on its progress.
The long editorial I had written 5 years ago about it still seems to ring true today for some adventure game companies...
The Cold Hotspot: A critique of the state of adventure games (part 3) | Adventure Developers
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When I asked her about how adventure games are being marketed, Laura MacDonald, Developer Liaison for AdventureGamers.com, had this to say:
"Do you have a few weeks? [Adventure game developers and publishers not only do not] know who is buying their games[, but worse they] do not know why. Which leads to the constant 'fixing' of what may not be broken. Really to me there is little actual 'marketing' done with games....Moving into the niche market of adventure games – well there is no marketing and more importantly in a genre which is story driven – no effort to shape strategy to the game itself. What efforts in this direction have been used....have been successful in increasing sales.
And drawing on her own professional background in Marketing and Public Relations, she said:
"Learn what the market actually is. Is it really [that] 70% or even higher [are] women? Anecdotally it appears so – but [that doesn't constitute] research. Do book fans drive it? Maybe, but again who knows for sure. Why did they buy game X over game Z? Some overly vocal [adventure gamers] (generally the same ones over and over) tout puzzle...but they are just a speck. What if it turns out story is god and many gamers view complex puzzles as [an evil] they have come to expect to have to wade through to get to the story and character immersion they crave? Maybe it's the reverse. Who knows, but it would be nice to find out."
Marketing is the worst problem of the adventure genre, above outdated design and technology.
There are and have been many excellent adventure games worthy of mass attention, yet practically undetectable as microscopic blips on the commercial radar. Why does it have to be like this? You can design the best adventure game ever in the history of mankind, but it's absolutely worthless and a waste of time if nobody knows about it, and you're not gonna make any money off of it so forget about that sequel.
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