Viral Marketing for RPGs...Where is it?

[zen_hydra]

I have been listening to some older Fear the Boot podcasts, and Episode 37 got me thinking the about the marketing tactics used to create new interest in role playing games.

Why don't we see viral marketing campaigns from the RPG market leaders (I am looking at you WOTC and White Wolf) to help spread new interest in tabletop RPGs in general?

 

[Nifft]

When viral marketing is done well, you don't see it at all.

D&D's "value system" has already been imposed on a huge swath of the gaming meme-o-sphere. Everyone knows it's good to kill things and take their stuff (for which you gain experience).

What aspect of D&D is not hiding in plain sight in common culture?

Cheers, -- N

 

[zen_hydra]

D&D's "value system" has already been imposed on a huge swath of the gaming meme-o-sphere. Everyone knows it's good to kill things and take their stuff (for which you gain experience).

That sentiment sells people on MMORPGs. It doesn't really promote growth in the tabletop rpg hobby.

I think making tabletop games more like MMORPGs is a death sentence to the hobby.

New players need to be sold on the things that pen and paper games can do better than video games can.

 

[bento]

I have been listening to some older Fear the Boot podcasts, and Episode 37 got me thinking the about the marketing tactics used to create new interest in role playing games.

Why don't we see viral marketing campaigns from the RPG market leaders (I am looking at you WOTC and White Wolf) to help spread new interest in tabletop RPGs in general?

Is this the one where I'm at a trendy bar and the beautiful blond slides up to me and cooly asks the bartender for a d20?

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

The RPG equivalent for viral marketing would be sock accounts constantly evangelizing certain systems on internet forums.

It would probably work much better if the companies hired models to go from town to town, starting new gaming groups at the biggest gamestores, then vanishing into the night.

 

[conanb]

I'd like to posit the idea that RPG's have always had viral marketing. Think about how you were first introduced to the game? Didn't a friend, relative, or someone close to you introduce you to the game? I know that I first discovered RPG's from my father. I myself have introduced RPG's to many friends who had never heard of the hobby. I would almost say that the number one way into the hobby today is through someone who's already doing it. This is the essence of Viral marketing. I Would think that the modern gaming industry is built on viral marketing.

 

[bento]

Wow - I've gone from a rule set supporter to marketing whore in a single post!

I'd still prefer the blond in the bar. Too bad I don't go to bars no more.

 

[jdrakeh]

Why don't we see viral marketing campaigns from the RPG market leaders (I am looking at you WOTC and White Wolf) to help spread new interest in tabletop RPGs in general?

You do. You just don't know it. See Nifft's comment.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Word of mouth has always been huge in the RPG world, whether it's the current enthusiasm for Dread here on ENWorld, spreading the word about C&C and Gygax's magnum opus or the hype about Paizo's magazines.

Viral marketing? As the old commercial says: You're soaking in it.

 

[trancejeremy]

Word of mouth has always been huge in the RPG world, whether it's the current enthusiasm for Dread here on ENWorld, spreading the word about C&C and Gygax's magnum opus or the hype about Paizo's magazines.

Viral marketing? As the old commercial says: You're soaking in it.

That's really evangelizing, more than viral marketing, and it probably turns off as many as it helps. Look how just about every C&C thread turns into something of a flame war.