59 replies to this topic

[DAYLEET]

MechCon is hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertisement. The HBS game will come out with these awesome model and you can bet your *** MWO will get mentioned somewhere in there. They keep referencing each others on twitter already.

[Dimento Graven]

DAYLEET, on 19 March 2017 - 08:48 PM, said:

MechCon is hundreds of thousands of dollars of advertisement. The HBS game will come out with these awesome model and you can bet your *** MWO will get mentioned somewhere in there. They keep referencing each others on twitter already.

MechCon was targeted marketing towards their existing customer base.

While something like that could interest other people who happen to learn of it, given that I saw NO advertising for MechCon anywhere but on mwomercs.com, as a conduit to interest a significant number of NEW players, I have to say, they malf'd it.

Again, everyone who knows about MWO and is currently playing it would learn of MechCon. How is a person who likes video games, loves BattleTech, but CURRENTLY HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF MWO or interaction with PGI, supposed to learn about MWO or MechCon?

That's the point. It really seemed like MechCon wasn't targeting "new" players, but instead a really nice 'pep rally' for the existing players.

Edited by Dimento Graven, 19 March 2017 - 08:55 PM.

[slide]

Dimento Graven, on 19 March 2017 - 08:47 PM, said:

What's that famous quote? "Even bad press is good press."

Even if you've got ONE person out there who yells, "Haysoos marimba MWO, that stupid BattleTech is a flaming piece of garbage, keep it away from me...", every time he sees, hears, or watches an ad for MWO, there's probably going to be TEN people who yell, "WAIT A MINUTE!?!?!?! THERE'S AN ACTIVELY DEVELOPED BATTLETECH (or GIANT ROBOT) SIM OUT THERE??? HOW DO I GET IT?!?!?"

And of those 10 people there may be... TWO who say, "Oh wait, I better check the reviews first..."

Yeah but having 8 more players who spend no money or only last a week or two aren't really worth the cost of the advertising. It's one of those things that could be good for the game or it could be bad.

Personally I think anyone who has ever had an interest in BT/MW would have already tried MWO out. Not sure you would find to many undiscovered fans.

I waited patiently for 10+ years doing google searches about once a month for any news, I got lucky and came across this website the day it went live, signed up straight away. True fans would have found their way here by now. It's new people we have to convert.

As for Mech Con and the MWOWC. At best it was a dry run to see what kind of response it would get (it didn't sell out) perhaps they will push it harder next time, but again they will be mostly preaching to the choir.

The WC was supposed to push MWO into the world of E-Sport. Is their one confirmed case of a known esport player or team even signing up for it? All the names I remember are long established MWO players/teams. E-sport was a flop for everybody except those directly involved.

[Dimento Graven]

slide, on 19 March 2017 - 09:25 PM, said:

Yeah but having 8 more players who spend no money or only last a week or two aren't really worth the cost of the advertising. It's one of those things that could be good for the game or it could be bad.

You missed my point. Just for the USA alone, you may take my numbers and multiply them by about 30 million...

Then extrapolate 1% of that as a net gain on customers that actually 'pay' for something...

BTW: It's the same way how purveyors of SPAM not only survive but have become incredibly profitable.

Quote

Personally I think anyone who has ever had an interest in BT/MW would have already tried MWO out. Not sure you would find to many undiscovered fans.

Yeah... EXCEPT how is a BT/MW fan supposed to LEARN about MWO when it isn't advertised?

I'd be willing to bet real money that MOST people playing the game today learned of it, not through advertising, but 'word of mouth'. But 'word of mouth' only gets you so much exposure because 'word of mouth' only travels in specific circles of interest. To get beyond those circles you have an entire trillion dollar industry built up to help you.

Quote

I waited patiently for 10+ years doing google searches about once a month for any news, I got lucky and came across this website the day it went live, signed up straight away. True fans would have found their way here by now. It's new people we have to convert.

What about all the people who used to play BT with their friends, but since then has moved away lost contact with those friends and likes to play video games but doesn't think to search?

What then?

Quote

As for Mech Con and the MWOWC. At best it was a dry run to see what kind of response it would get (it didn't sell out) perhaps they will push it harder next time, but again they will be mostly preaching to the choir.

Exactly my point, it was a pep rally, not an actual marketing event attempting to reach new customers.

Quote

The WC was supposed to push MWO into the world of E-Sport. Is their one confirmed case of a known esport player or team even signing up for it? All the names I remember are long established MWO players/teams. E-sport was a flop for everybody except those directly involved.

Again, you can't really garner a survivable flow of new customers if your marketing mode is stuck in '******' (ok, wow, so you can't use the word in cest on this forum, really?!?!).

Eventually the population base degrades to a point of unsustainability.

Since there isn't even a "box" to put on a shelf in places where they sell games (GameStop, Walmart, Target), you don't even get that incidental bit of new customers.

People don't know what they don't know, that's what advertising is all about...

Edited by Dimento Graven, 19 March 2017 - 09:41 PM.

[Elizander]

SuomiWarder, on 19 March 2017 - 11:37 AM, said:

They run a Facebook campaign. For whatever that's worth.

Well, they could add a 'first purchase' pack in-game for new users to try to get some advertising costs back. Mobile games usually have some heavily discounted first purchase package based on how much the average cost for user acquisition is.

PGI could make a $5 or $10 package that has mech bays, some c-bills and a cheap medium mech with 30% c-bills a built like a champion mech as a one-time purchase option to get new people to open their wallets.

If it works out then they will be able to reinvest that into acquiring more users to keep the gravy newbie train going.

[NextGame]

SuomiWarder, on 19 March 2017 - 11:37 AM, said:

They run a Facebook campaign. For whatever that's worth.

That explains quite a bit, actually.

[slide]

Dimento Graven, on 19 March 2017 - 09:39 PM, said:

You missed my point. Just for the USA alone, you may take my numbers and multiply them by about 30 million...

Then extrapolate 1% of that as a net gain on customers that actually 'pay' for something...

BTW: It's the same way how purveyors of SPAM not only survive but have become incredibly profitable.

Yeah... EXCEPT how is a BT/MW fan supposed to LEARN about MWO when it isn't advertised?

I'd be willing to bet real money that MOST people playing the game today learned of it, not through advertising, but 'word of mouth'. But 'word of mouth' only gets you so much exposure because 'word of mouth' only travels in specific circles of interest. To get beyond those circles you have an entire trillion dollar industry built up to help you.

What about all the people who used to play BT with their friends, but since then has moved away lost contact with those friends and likes to play video games but doesn't think to search?

What then?

Exactly my point, it was a pep rally, not an actual marketing event attempting to reach new customers.

Again, you can't really garner a survivable flow of new customers if your marketing mode is stuck in '******' (ok, wow, so you can't use the word in cest on this forum, really?!?!).

Eventually the population base degrades to a point of unsustainability.

Since there isn't even a "box" to put on a shelf in places where they sell games (GameStop, Walmart, Target), you don't even get that incidental bit of new customers.

People don't know what they don't know, that's what advertising is all about...

I got your point.

Maybe before spending heaps of money they should work on their GoogleFu.

Search "Mech"
First game entry at no. 2 is Hawken

Search "BattleTech"
Lots of returns all about HBS BT game (as you would expect)

Search "Mechw" or "mechwarrior"
Lots of returns all about MWO, including a big banner promoting it on Steam

This game is not hard to find if you are interested in it. But as you say we need to spark interest in those not interested in it.

However with very little back story and an endgame (FP) that is extremely unfriendly to new players, I honestly don't know how you are going to keep anyone who is not a fan. Hell we can't even keep the fans playing (different argument as to why)

[Anjian]

Should have done a targeted Google ads campaign as many F2P games do. They can put you in mobile ads, YouTube ads, etc,.

Hardly a YouTuber for MWO, besides MoltenMetal. I appreciate him doing MWO videos despite the low viewer count relative to other gaming YouTubers that do, let's say World of Tanks or War Thunder.

[Black Ivan]

Saw a Facebook post from MWO lately. Otherwise PGIs marketing of the game leaves much to be desired. They do very little, nearly nothing to advertise the game on the Internet

[C E Dwyer]

All the hero vids have an I.G.P tag at the bottom, so at least they tried to get they game out there, even if in a limited way.

Something P.G.I haven't deemed worth while for their niche game.

Russ is either a cheapskate, or to mediocre to get the word out about his product. But then if you live on an island as small as his you can shout to be heard from one side to the other.

[627]

They hosted their 100k+ Tournament in the backyard... so much money wasted and they didn't even use it for anything, outside of this page and a twitter account there is no news about this game whatsoever... and never was, to be true.

Its a wonder that we can still play this game.

[Hit the Deck]

Russ' twitter is the marketing campaign for this game.

[Bud Crue]

Anjian, on 20 March 2017 - 01:45 AM, said:

Should have done a targeted Google ads campaign as many F2P games do. They can put you in mobile ads, YouTube ads, etc,.

Just to see what the google presence looks like, I typed in just "mechwarrior" into googgle. Top hits are nothing odd. But the 5th entry caught my eye: The PC gamer article from mechcon where they interviewed Russ about MW5. Clicked on it and the first paragraph ends with this quote from Russ:

"One thing we've learned over [time] is just to be cautious with expectations with our playerbase," he says. "We want to make sure we're really certain about things before they go out."

Considering the present circumstances around this game, I can't properly express the degree of confidence and hope that that comment fills me with toward MW5. No better advertisement is needed frankly.

[Nesutizale]

Yah the Hero videos where cool. Can they still be found on Youtube?

[Elizander]

Nesutizale, on 20 March 2017 - 05:32 AM, said:

Yah the Hero videos where cool. Can they still be found on Youtube?

Still there.



Now that I look at it, PGI should at least go back and fix the thumbnails :3

Edited by Elizander, 20 March 2017 - 05:39 AM.

[Lily from animove]

I have seen some of the worst games making advertising in german TV, stuff like Aura Kingdom. If they can, it must be quite cheap and then also MWO can.

[Mister Blastman]

Mystere, on 19 March 2017 - 10:44 AM, said:

Her sister was kinda hot.

[TLBFestus]

I'm telling you guys....That tournament prize money was not all theirs. Current best bet...HBS gave it to them for using their mech models for their game, and it was earmarked for the tournament.

Advertising? Well...many years ago I did see the rare splash ad on a website, but nothing since. When it came out on STEAM, it was there for a week, but since then I have never, ever, not once seen it featured on STEAM again.

[MechaBattler]

During the Steam launch they sponsored several youtubers. Particularly those that played World of Tanks or War Thunder. A sensible strategy. Course that one old guy turned it down quite publically, claiming he would play it eventually, but never did as far as I know.

Someone gave a Clan pack to Lirik on Twitch. He averages 30k viewers. Obliterating MWO's most viewers record, probably. Credit to our nicer segment of the community there were people in the chat helping him figure things out. And I saw people saying the game looked interesting.

[DAYLEET]

Dimento Graven, on 19 March 2017 - 08:54 PM, said:

MechCon was targeted marketing towards their existing customer base.

While something like that could interest other people who happen to learn of it, given that I saw NO advertising for MechCon anywhere but on mwomercs.com, as a conduit to interest a significant number of NEW players, I have to say, they malf'd it.

Again, everyone who knows about MWO and is currently playing it would learn of MechCon. How is a person who likes video games, loves BattleTech, but CURRENTLY HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF MWO or interaction with PGI, supposed to learn about MWO or MechCon?

That's the point. It really seemed like MechCon wasn't targeting "new" players, but instead a really nice 'pep rally' for the existing players.

It's their first Con and eSport thing, things will get better. They did have a thing where someone gave a Cent away for the mechcon, thats advertisement.