Devil worship as a brand

[tuxgeo]

< snip > . . .
Ok, the title's a bit silly. I'm not literally suggesting devil worship as a brand. What I mean is that you can get the attention of teenagers by marketing for adults.

Discuss! How would you market D&D?

I have only taken at most four marketing classes ever, so I'm hardly one to talk about this. However:

I would market it by committee. It needs to go transmedia in order to spread the awareness of the brand as widely and deeply as possible, and I currently believe that the experts in making plastic figures are not the same people who are experts in making motion pictures. Therefore, group discussions are called for, but vary the groups: include the comics people with the story writers; then leave out the story writers but include the makers of plastic figures; keep changing which group of experts talks with which other group(s) of experts. That way you get as much cross-pollinization as you can, without having any one point of view dominate the discussions.

In general, I think the previously-quoted "For adults, ages 10 and higher" would be a good starting point.

I would preferentially leave out the devil-worship bits from the Basic and Standard versions of the game, and make them something that any particular DM can include on a per-campaign basis.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I wonder if Morrus is bringing this up because Satan made him rich and famous* through this website... and now the Devil wants more. Hmmm...?











*In a "not really rich/known only by gamer nerds" sort of way.

 

[Henry]

I'll say one thing - if there ever was a time to market the FATAL game system, having a Game of Thrones market tie-in would be it.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

How I'd market D&D:

1) Get a couple of successful authors to write books in the D&D genre, people with an established following that will read the books just because of the author.

2) Create a rules-set that can be used to create the experience found in the books.

3) Make a couple of movies based on the books. Key point: make sure they don't suck. (The folks making the movie back in 2000 somehow forgot to follow this strategy)

4) License the D&D brand to a successful video game studio. Make sure that play follows the rules found in step 2.

I think the key point is that the tabletop game has to deliver an experience similar to the books, games, and movies. If not, then people will be disappointed when they try the game and not stick with it.

I just saw a year-old news story saying that warner brothers is pursuing a D&D movie. Does anyone know if this is current?

 

[Remus Lupin]

I'll cop to being cynical. It's not that I don't see your point -- I don't think the LotR, The Hobbit, or Star Wars films would have been as successful as they were if there wasn't a strong adult audience for fantasy. Adults have even more reason to want to escape from reality than children, for the most part.

But I just don't think it's relevant that GoT is based on A Song of Ice and Fire, in a Nielsen ratings sense. I think it is relevant that it is another mass-market HBO offering with a token plot jammed between people stabbing each other with blades and penises.

I live in /terror/ that some CEO somewhere is going to make the mistake of thinking that GoT is what fantasy is about.

Clearly I'm coming late to this party, but if you think GoT has a "token plot" stuck between long bouts of sex and violence, you either don't watch the show or haven't been paying attention. Also GoT involves more than the TV series. I hear there's a series of novels that the show is based on.

 

[DMZ2112]

Make a couple of movies based on the books. Key point: make sure they don't suck. (The folks making the movie back in 2000 somehow forgot to follow this strategy)

I would argue that they can suck as much as they want so long as the budget is large enough. The Transformers movies are pretty damn awful and they still get serious attention for the brand. The trick here is money and a director willing to spend it, not an Oscar-winning screenplay.

Either way, though, Liam Neeson.

I just saw a year-old news story saying that warner brothers is pursuing a D&D movie. Does anyone know if this is current?

Wizbro is in litigation with the current holder of the D&D movie rights. Both companies are pitching movies, but I'm not sure which one is in talks with Warner Brothers or which one will end up getting made. Sweetpea has a strong legal case based on TSR's laughable '90s business practices and Wizbro has crack legal ninjas, tons of money, and a probable willingness to buy Sweetpea outright if they don't win the court case.

Clearly I'm coming late to this party, but if you think GoT has a "token plot" stuck between long bouts of sex and violence, you either don't watch the show or haven't been paying attention. Also GoT involves more than the TV series. I hear there's a series of novels that the show is based on.

I don't deny that there are people watching GoT for the plot or specifically for its connection to A Song of Ice and Fire. My wife is one of those people. I deny that those people make up anything resembling a majority of the audience. I'm also very specifically not talking about the novels.

 

[gamerprinter]

Please no. I've only started D&D recently, but the whole satanic vibe is what put me off of it for the longest time, and even today I still have idiots who assume I'm slipping into satan worship because I'm playing a freakin roleplaying game. My first experience with D&D was playing as a Cleric for crying out loud.

I know many Christian ministers that play D&D/PF. Jonathan McAnulty, one of the writer/designers for the Rite Publishing Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG) is a Christian minister. I know a non-minister, that created a non-published RPG and setting called Old Testament Roleplaying, essentially playing the stories of the Old Testament Bible. So while some idiots professing untruths about the game still exist, the majority knows its just a game for fun.

 

[tuxgeo]

I know many Christian ministers that play D&D/PF. Jonathan McAnulty, one of the writer/designers for the Rite Publishing Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG) is a Christian minister. I know a non-minister, that created a non-published RPG and setting called Old Testament Roleplaying, essentially playing the stories of the Old Testament Bible. So while some idiots professing untruths about the game still exist, the majority knows its just a game for fun.

Also, James Wyatt at Wizards of the Coast is a former United Methodist minister. It would be difficult to get more religious than that. (Edit to remove religious reference.)

James plays D&D with his children (further Edit to remove religious reference).

 

[Mallus]

I don't deny that there are people watching GoT for the plot or specifically for its connection to A Song of Ice and Fire. My wife is one of those people. I deny that those people make up anything resembling a majority of the audience.

You think the majority of GoT's audience is just in it for the salacious bits?

That doesn't seem reasonable to me. Why not just watch pornography? Or violent programming that doesn't come wrapped in talky, complicated, fantasy historical costume drama? Anyone with an Internet connection, i.e. everyone, has much more graphic content at their fingertips, 24/7.

GoT is a terribly inefficient delivery mechanism for sex & violence. For the Seven's sake, the vast majority of it is clothed people talking.

(also, if you're going to insult a whole bunch of TV viewers you don't actually know, it's helpful to find a way to do it that doesn't make you sound ignorant of the contemporary media landscape)

 

[DMZ2112]

That doesn't seem reasonable to me.

It seems more reasonable to you that they are fans of medieval court drama?

Why not just watch pornography? Or violent programming that doesn't come wrapped in talky, complicated, fantasy historical costume drama? Anyone with an Internet connection, i.e. everyone, has much more graphic content at their fingertips, 24/7.

...I tend to think that it is likely they do all of these things; GoT is only on once a week.

(also, if you're going to insult a whole bunch of TV viewers you don't actually know, it's helpful to find a way to do it that doesn't make you sound ignorant of the contemporary media landscape)

I wasn't aware I was insulting anybody. You're doing a pretty good job, though.