Creating a marketingplan for OpenRA

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Discussion about the game and its default mods.
dzine
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 2:13 am

Post by dzine »

@ ShadowAssassin

its all about the polish

redalert has existed in some form or other for 20 odd years

Its not like its new or unheard of , it was a cult game for several years

So that part of the marketing is allready done

People know or can easily find out what an RTS game is, this wasnt the case in 1995

So that part of the marketing is allready done




Agreed bad software drives people away ( not quite the same as good (but hidden/backwater ) software attracting new users.



I could write a million words on good design, specifics and in general


Ive shared some of my ideas here and in the openra lobby/game room (map design)

A couple of detailed posts ive written
http://www.sleipnirstuff.com/forum/view ... 82&t=19085
http://www.sleipnirstuff.com/forum/view ... 82&t=19104

Right now we do have a workable, playable game...not perfect but playable

Endless development hell is an issues with open source software in particular and openRA is no different.

Ref OP marketing

IF openRA was finished, aka polished to a high sheen then it would go viral...only takes a couple of youtube game critics to highlight it and wham...x milllion people discover openRA exists


Q what could you market?

1) Its red alert , at high screen resoultion (not the old 640,480 etc)

2) Its doesnt crash all over the place

3) The installer (windows) works pretty good

4) Its free

5) Its a living game...ie people are playing it and it is getting a few updates and tweaks



Q who would you send that info too ?

The top 10 Youtube game critics

TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit, 400k views of this openRA vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1-VwE1byrY


and Pewdiepie who has
41.2 million Subscribers
10.8 billion Total views



Climbing back up the long tail ( due attention in a world drowning in information and over choice )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail









People tend to prefer comfortable lies over inconvenient truths, thats why its so hard to get the right things done in this world
People prefer to do there own thing in their own little way & that seldom aligns with wider realities.
People prefer not to be reminded of such things...great designers are their own harshest critic

A great designer goes out of there way to uncover and compensate for thier own biases as well as the internal biases of others....very few people are comfortable with 'that process' but its 'that process' which is the foundation of all great designs mankind has produced.




If you cant think global your probably not going to go global

alexa.com openra.net ranking
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2 ... openra.net

noobmapmaker
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:59 am

Post by noobmapmaker »

While I think you guys make some good points, they are out of scope of the marketingplan. They're about enhancing OpenRA and making users stick to the game.

Please let's focus on how to reach people :)
Playlist with ALL games of the Dark Tournament Youtube.com/CorrodeCasts
Consider supporting OpenRA by setting a bounty or by donating for a server

ShadowAssassin
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:12 pm

Post by ShadowAssassin »

noobmapmaker wrote: While I think you guys make some good points, they are out of scope of the marketingplan. They're about enhancing OpenRA and making users stick to the game.

Please let's focus on how to reach people :)
True. Maybe needs a new Github issue, or a new post here.

However, you were talking about timing in your first post. Maybe we should have a marketing plan, but not deploying it immediately (or at least not completely), till we get some important features (maybe not all the polishing stuff, but at least the features to keep the new players)

Keep in mind that a lost "customer" is lost forever :D

ShadowAssassin
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:12 pm

Post by ShadowAssassin »

FiveAces wrote: Give it a newsfeed, maybe in a theatre-of-war style (I would totally get behind helping out with writing bulletins for the feed if you'd need a hand)
I vote for Comrade FiveAces as the Reporting-Commander-in-Chief :D
You have good writing / casting skills.
(this one was fun ^_^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwWphjCEGjo )

dzine
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 2:13 am

Post by dzine »

Another obvious method is uploading to you tube etc games with quality comentaries

If its fun to watch...its prolly fun to play


futher still 'Advanced video tutorials, tactics and strategies. This is not so easy as the game balance is constantly changing (endless development hell)





Ultimately openRA is far from finished
, map editing and sharing and unit editing is clunky, time consuming and much harder to do than with the original....as i keep saying, its best to finish first, advertise after.....nail it and scale




VERY IMPORTANT

Overmarketing an underfinished game is often counter productive





Im currently involved in designing a commercial RTS which will be the natural successor to the 1995 version of Redalert. My job is to 'fix all that needs fixing' & expand the game to its full potential. The graphical feel and general vibe drawing very strongly from the original. $$$ or manhours doesnt make a great game, the desire to solve 1000 UI issues for a million players does. openRA is one of many games i use for playtesting so i dont mind giving out a few pointers.
Last edited by dzine on Sun Jan 10, 2016 1:18 am, edited 6 times in total.

ShadowAssassin
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:12 pm

Post by ShadowAssassin »

dzine wrote: futher still 'Advanced video tutorials, tactics and strategies.
I agree to this. Showing this from MP game replays, in real situation.

This (https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/T ... -to-OpenRA ) already helped me back in time, but yeah having specific videos focusing on particular tactics / strategy would be even better.
(Not only videos like : "A vs B on Vegetation" which are good, but not explicit enough, especially to new players. Why should I watch this specific game, what happened and what will I learn / enjoy ?)


Also maybe every once in awhile, some fun "best moments" videos (like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XBQmJ6A96A ) which could gather the most epic / wtf / crazy moments which happened in tournaments / streams / replays / ... ^_^

ShadowAssassin
Posts: 44
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:12 pm

Post by ShadowAssassin »

Hmmm actually maybe a whole tutorials series, "professional style" ^_^, which could be uploaded at the OpenRA YT channel

- Level 0a : Basics / Fundamentals
- Level 0b : Never. Do. This. Please.
(I still see people building Radar before anything else ...with only 1 harvester ... and staying on low power for a long time ...)
- Level 1 : Build orders / general strategies
- Level 2a : How to use Soviets / Allies units
- Level 2b : Factions specifics / strategies / counters
- Level 3 : Advanced / pro tactics (maybe that should stay secret :p lol )

Something like that ...

That would help :
- beginners to begin ^_^ and stay longer
- showing that "wow this community / game can do some pro stuff"
- that you can have advanced / fun gameplay in this game

dzine
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 2:13 am

Post by dzine »

ref Hmmm actually maybe a whole tutorials series, "professional style"

Agreed

The best kind of marketing isnt marketing at all

Great community tools and rescources FTW




ref Advanced / pro tactics (maybe that should stay secret :p lol )

...was just thinking that myself lol

to die by the mastercrafted sword you just handed your enemy

the-zoidberger
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 12:21 pm

Post by the-zoidberger »

Lots of good ideas so far :) Who is willing to volunteer their expertise to help expand the OpenRA community? I know there's a lot of bright folks out there because I often get demolished in games. What if we started to assemble a spreadsheet/google doc that has areas of expertise for each contributor?

Zoidberg: email marketing, online advertising, writing and blogging.
noobmapmaker: project management, coordination, etc.


and so on.....

Z

noobmapmaker
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2014 11:59 am

Post by noobmapmaker »

Yes, I think the ideas are drying up. It isn't a completely finished marketingplan yet but I think there are good leads. Tonight I'll have an edit on the OP to make it ready for a next phase (still open to ideas, though).
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scorp
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Post by scorp »

by the way, what's the best way to take openRA screenshots? thx

noobmapmaker
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Post by noobmapmaker »

the printscreen + paint? Thats what I use
Playlist with ALL games of the Dark Tournament Youtube.com/CorrodeCasts
Consider supporting OpenRA by setting a bounty or by donating for a server

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Graion Dilach
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Post by Graion Dilach »

CTRL-P. Then look for them where the maps are.
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Mo
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Post by Mo »

And here I am studying for a business management exam in day's time :P SWOT, marketing etc ahaha.

That aside, I noticed an RA2 post on 9gag, with a nuke nostalgia sort of theme and not once in the comments did I notice people talking of OpenRA, I think it's just mentioning that sort of thing in current platforms.

The only way I got introduced to it was when TotalBiscuit did a video about OpenRA on YouTube!!

Regarding free to play, I disagree that people are turned away by it, consider for example World of Tanks (Wargaming) and Armoured Warfare, WarThunder, etc. Huge games and free to play with a large player base. Armoured Warfare looks to be taking over the scene because they are seen to engage with the community.

EDIT: Another point to consider is a self updating client, WoT would be an example of this, whereby if there is a new release, you do not need to manage the files etc yourself, although granted OpenRA makes it easy with downloading over the same thing. Then again I haven't been around long to know the ins and outs of what's underneath.
Last edited by Mo on Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

dzine
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Nov 13, 2015 2:13 am

Post by dzine »

OpenRA is competing for attention with every other human activity

not just other Redalert variants, RTS game or computer games in general

Approx 2 billion people have the resources and knowledge to play a game like openRA




The Pareto principle, 80 20 rule
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle


Network effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect


There are probably 100 variants of the original redalert, only a handfull of these will attract a significant player base.

There are probably 1000 RTS games with 10,000 variants, likewise only a small percentage will gain a significant player base.

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