Most of the marketing in role-playing publishing is a play on the expectations game. But because of the long cycle of development, that can mean it can be months (or years!) before that initial announcement of a game coming out, and the actuality of its release. You can see it in the "Most Anticipated Games" articles that come out here, around this time of year. How many times do we see games pop up on these lists while they go through their cycles of development and design?
This article isn't a slam on those games that take a long time to get released. I applaud long development and design cycles for role-playing games. In fact I think that there are already too many games that are released without enough development behind them, at all levels in this industry. What I am talking about is the marketing cycle in tabletop role-playing games that seem to be "press release about game announcement" … [passage of months or years] … "press release about game being out." I've been laying the groundwork in these Media 101 articles about how game publishers can work better with the gaming press and bloggers to get out information about their games, and the various things that they can do.
Here's the thing, two announcements isn't enough, no matter what level you might be in the industry. Look for example at some of the things that Paizo did leading up to the release of Starfinder (which sold out at Gen Con by the way). People were surprised that Starfinder sold out in record numbers (I told James Sutter when I interviewed him that the game would sell out, before it did), but Paizo did a lot before the release to sell that game to gamers, from previews run on a multitude of "nerdy" sites (including E.N. World) to interviews and other marketing tools. These sorts of things don't happen by accident. Yes, they are Paizo, so there is already a bias towards them in the marketplace because of their leadership, but there were other market leaders selling big new releases at Gen Con this past summer that didn't have the sales numbers of Starfinder. Interestingly, Starfinder wasn't in the top half of last year's most anticipated games results, and yet it ended up becoming one of the games to define 2017 in tabletop role-playing games.
There is a marked difference between the top tier of RPG publishers and the rest of the industry, regardless of how you define that top tier, and of course that should figure into things. But, as I have shown in these previous Media 101 articles, there are ways to level the playing field and get your game greater attention from a wider market.
So, the expectations game. Every day there are more blogs dedicated to tabletop gaming, more podcasts, YouTube channels and more livestreams. There are people with thousands of followers on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook who are looking for content for their social media streams. There are more outlets than ever to talk about RPGs, but so many of them are never utilized by game publishers or designers. This isn't always on purpose, mostly because of the fact that there are so many outlets that it is pretty easy to not find some of them.
However, managing marketing, while it isn't rocket surgery, isn't as easy as it looks, either. Writing press releases isn't easy, but it is an important part of marketing your game. I can count on one hand the number of press releases that I get in a Quarter from gaming publishers, which means that the people who do send them stand out. Well, you might ask, if they are so important why don't you get more of them? That's a good question. It is something that I ask myself a lot. Some publishers think that their information gets picked up from Facebook posts, or tweets, but here is a little secret about social media (particularly Facebook): unless you pay the site, the posts from your Facebook page are throttled by them. That means that no matter how many people like your page, or are set up to follow it, they aren't all going to see every post. And when someone is writing news for sites like E.N. World, or any of the other sites and blogs out there, is one of those people who doesn't see you post how many more won't hear about it because they aren't sharing the information? Redundancy is your friend.
So, what does this mean, content-wise? It means a lot of things. Any sorts of previews are good, from images from the books to screengrabs of sample pages from the upcoming book, to reviewable materials like ashcans that can prime the pump of discussion by giving websites and blogs something immediate to talk about. I have the ashcan for Magpie Games' upcoming game Pasión de las Pasiones on my list of things to read (which never seems to shrink). This is how you play the expectations game: you give the game buyer the things that will make them excited about your game.
How did Paizo turn Starfinder from the sixth most anticipated game of the year into a game that sold unprecedented numbers at Gen Con this past summer? They played the expectations game, and won.
Now, this isn't something that costs money to do. Yes, time is money and all of that, but is your time so valuable when it comes to marketing your game that it trumps all of the time and money that you spent on developing your game in the first place? The effort spent on marketing can mean the difference between can mean the difference between your game being seen by literally tens of people, to it being seen by hundreds of people. Or to it being the best seller at Gen Con.
Make a media contact list, start with Googling "RPG blog" and going up from there. Follow the #RPG hashtag on Twitter and Facebooks. Reach out to these people and ask the best ways to contact them. Never rely on instant messengers or private message functions on site, because you can never archive or search those functions. It helps both you and the media person to be able to find your contact information again.
Once you have this information, periodically send some of the things I listed above to them. We always need images to spice up posts, so having some to draw up is helpful to us, and to you. We always have blank days in our schedules, and previews are a good way to fill them. Besides images, development journals are good too. Talking about the process of your game's design is interesting to people. Gamers like to know about the why's and how's of how you made your game, and it can mean the difference between enthusiasm and indifference as how gamers receive your game.
Reviews are always helpful too, but I think that is a topic that deserves to be unpacked as a standalone article in this series. But, in the short term, don't underestimate the importance of a well-placed review. And it doesn't even have to be a full-throated review at a place like this site, it can be a series of tweets with someone talking about a new game they picked up, and their enthusiasm for it.
I know that some people will probably discount my using Paizo as the example for a lot of the reasons why playing the expectations game is important to selling your game. It could be a fair cop, because they are one of the big dogs of tabletop RPG publishing. However, it is important to remember that they weren't always big. Not every RPG publisher starts out as a business with employees and staff and accountants, and all that fun stuff, but I think that it should be the goal for a lot of publishers. There is nothing wrong with being a hobby publisher in gaming, and a lot of the interesting stuff being done in RPGs is coming from small press, hobby publishers, but there's nothing wrong with wanting more people to see your games. Yeah, it is cool to see friends, and your local store, with a copy of your game, but isn't it even cooler to hear people talking about it on the floor of the dealer hall at Gen Con? The difference between those two things all depends on how you play the expectations game.
This article isn't a slam on those games that take a long time to get released. I applaud long development and design cycles for role-playing games. In fact I think that there are already too many games that are released without enough development behind them, at all levels in this industry. What I am talking about is the marketing cycle in tabletop role-playing games that seem to be "press release about game announcement" … [passage of months or years] … "press release about game being out." I've been laying the groundwork in these Media 101 articles about how game publishers can work better with the gaming press and bloggers to get out information about their games, and the various things that they can do.
Here's the thing, two announcements isn't enough, no matter what level you might be in the industry. Look for example at some of the things that Paizo did leading up to the release of Starfinder (which sold out at Gen Con by the way). People were surprised that Starfinder sold out in record numbers (I told James Sutter when I interviewed him that the game would sell out, before it did), but Paizo did a lot before the release to sell that game to gamers, from previews run on a multitude of "nerdy" sites (including E.N. World) to interviews and other marketing tools. These sorts of things don't happen by accident. Yes, they are Paizo, so there is already a bias towards them in the marketplace because of their leadership, but there were other market leaders selling big new releases at Gen Con this past summer that didn't have the sales numbers of Starfinder. Interestingly, Starfinder wasn't in the top half of last year's most anticipated games results, and yet it ended up becoming one of the games to define 2017 in tabletop role-playing games.
There is a marked difference between the top tier of RPG publishers and the rest of the industry, regardless of how you define that top tier, and of course that should figure into things. But, as I have shown in these previous Media 101 articles, there are ways to level the playing field and get your game greater attention from a wider market.
So, the expectations game. Every day there are more blogs dedicated to tabletop gaming, more podcasts, YouTube channels and more livestreams. There are people with thousands of followers on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook who are looking for content for their social media streams. There are more outlets than ever to talk about RPGs, but so many of them are never utilized by game publishers or designers. This isn't always on purpose, mostly because of the fact that there are so many outlets that it is pretty easy to not find some of them.
However, managing marketing, while it isn't rocket surgery, isn't as easy as it looks, either. Writing press releases isn't easy, but it is an important part of marketing your game. I can count on one hand the number of press releases that I get in a Quarter from gaming publishers, which means that the people who do send them stand out. Well, you might ask, if they are so important why don't you get more of them? That's a good question. It is something that I ask myself a lot. Some publishers think that their information gets picked up from Facebook posts, or tweets, but here is a little secret about social media (particularly Facebook): unless you pay the site, the posts from your Facebook page are throttled by them. That means that no matter how many people like your page, or are set up to follow it, they aren't all going to see every post. And when someone is writing news for sites like E.N. World, or any of the other sites and blogs out there, is one of those people who doesn't see you post how many more won't hear about it because they aren't sharing the information? Redundancy is your friend.
So, what does this mean, content-wise? It means a lot of things. Any sorts of previews are good, from images from the books to screengrabs of sample pages from the upcoming book, to reviewable materials like ashcans that can prime the pump of discussion by giving websites and blogs something immediate to talk about. I have the ashcan for Magpie Games' upcoming game Pasión de las Pasiones on my list of things to read (which never seems to shrink). This is how you play the expectations game: you give the game buyer the things that will make them excited about your game.
How did Paizo turn Starfinder from the sixth most anticipated game of the year into a game that sold unprecedented numbers at Gen Con this past summer? They played the expectations game, and won.
Now, this isn't something that costs money to do. Yes, time is money and all of that, but is your time so valuable when it comes to marketing your game that it trumps all of the time and money that you spent on developing your game in the first place? The effort spent on marketing can mean the difference between can mean the difference between your game being seen by literally tens of people, to it being seen by hundreds of people. Or to it being the best seller at Gen Con.
Make a media contact list, start with Googling "RPG blog" and going up from there. Follow the #RPG hashtag on Twitter and Facebooks. Reach out to these people and ask the best ways to contact them. Never rely on instant messengers or private message functions on site, because you can never archive or search those functions. It helps both you and the media person to be able to find your contact information again.
Once you have this information, periodically send some of the things I listed above to them. We always need images to spice up posts, so having some to draw up is helpful to us, and to you. We always have blank days in our schedules, and previews are a good way to fill them. Besides images, development journals are good too. Talking about the process of your game's design is interesting to people. Gamers like to know about the why's and how's of how you made your game, and it can mean the difference between enthusiasm and indifference as how gamers receive your game.
Reviews are always helpful too, but I think that is a topic that deserves to be unpacked as a standalone article in this series. But, in the short term, don't underestimate the importance of a well-placed review. And it doesn't even have to be a full-throated review at a place like this site, it can be a series of tweets with someone talking about a new game they picked up, and their enthusiasm for it.
I know that some people will probably discount my using Paizo as the example for a lot of the reasons why playing the expectations game is important to selling your game. It could be a fair cop, because they are one of the big dogs of tabletop RPG publishing. However, it is important to remember that they weren't always big. Not every RPG publisher starts out as a business with employees and staff and accountants, and all that fun stuff, but I think that it should be the goal for a lot of publishers. There is nothing wrong with being a hobby publisher in gaming, and a lot of the interesting stuff being done in RPGs is coming from small press, hobby publishers, but there's nothing wrong with wanting more people to see your games. Yeah, it is cool to see friends, and your local store, with a copy of your game, but isn't it even cooler to hear people talking about it on the floor of the dealer hall at Gen Con? The difference between those two things all depends on how you play the expectations game.
