Forked Thread: marketing 4e (was 10:1 downloads)

[Elton Robb]

Forked from: 10:1 illegal downloads

No, we know the lie that you claim exists in that statement. There's a world of difference between "what Treebore thinks is true" and "what is true."

Actually, I am a D&D player. I'm one of those "6 million." But I never bought a copy of 4e. Reasons:

1. Wizards failed to appeal to me and my buying power. I never saw any advertising of 4e. How it was better than 3.5 Edition, or what it did, or how it was designed.

2. I didn't see reports on how it was playtested.

3. All I got was a "don't buy it" by word of mouth.


Wizards never sold me on how 4e was the game I should buy. Really, advertising didn't work here. And I'm one of their core audience (a highly creative person).

 

[Intense_Interest]

And I'm one of their core audience (a highly creative person).

...Really? Even from all you state, demographically "we" don't know you from Adam.

Are you unemployed? Comfortably affluent? Struggling financially? Student in College, or in High school, or in Middle school? Do you Rent your housing, or do you have a Mortgage?

Are you a Social leader? A Social explorer? A Social follower? An Social Outcast? Are you in a stable relationship? Do you date frequently? Are you relatively celibate?

Do you enjoy your free-time in small, discrete blocks? Do you enjoy your free time in large chunks? Do you value most social interaction? Do you value solitary pursuits?

Does your employment, if any, involve heavy physical labor? Does your employment involve quick mental flexibility? Does it involve low-impact work over a broad period of time?

There are more questions, naturally, that could be asked. However in the above, there are "right" answers and "wrong" answers, as crudely stated as they can be, as to whether your cohort is the target audience for 4E, 3E, or something altogether dissimilar.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Forked from: 10:1 illegal downloads
1. Wizards failed to appeal to me and my buying power. I never saw any advertising of 4e. How it was better than 3.5 Edition, or what it did, or how it was designed.

...

3. All I got was a "don't buy it" by word of mouth.

1. I don't think anyone expects to see D&D advertised in mainstream media, or in places that focus on non-gamers. It is a big market, and D&D does not make the kind of money to buy a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl. There was tons of word-of-mouth advertising hre and on every roleplaying forum I know, and WOTC is only a mouse click away, to get lots of information there, too.

Assuming you are not a new gamer, it must have been quite a trick not to get any advertising about 4E.

3. Fair enough, but see my point above. I, personally, saw way way way too much speculation and discussion about 4E, to the point that I quit visiting this forum for a couple of months before 4E came out.

 

[Remathilis]

1. Wizards failed to appeal to me and my buying power. I never saw any advertising of 4e. How it was better than 3.5 Edition, or what it did, or how it was designed.

Didja visit Wizards.com/dnd from August 2007-June 2008? There were practically updates everyday. As a matter of fact, WotC got a lot of bashing for doing this; telling people how much better 4e WAS compared to 3.X (which led to a lot of people thinking WotC was trashing 3e to sell 4e. Duh!)

Similarly, ads ran in video-game and comic-book magazines (to demographics closely linked to gaming) and there were web-banners on different gaming internet sites.

Oh, and there were TV ads

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0CouN_qv-I&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Beholder Commercial[/ame]

And if that wasn't enough, there were those two Wizards Presents titles (World & Monsters, Classes & Races).

Seriously, you had to go out of your way to remain a gamer on the net and NOT hear about 4e!

2. I didn't see reports on how it was playtested.

Ummm... Google the phrase "ENWORLD and D&D XP Playtest 2008", or look back at some of those Design and Development articles in Wizard.com. Or, you know, find a World Wide D&D day to play it yourself at (assuming there was one near you, of course).

3. All I got was a "don't buy it" by word of mouth.

That depends on where you got your word of mouth from, of course. Enworld has plenty of pro and con people debating. Your friendly local game store or regular gaming group might have had a different reaction. Hardly WotC's fault.

Between WotC's own PR blitz and sites like ENworld (not to mention the PDF leaks) there was PLENTY of stuff to sell you. Either you chose not to buy or chose not to listen, but neither of these are WotCs fault.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't think anyone expects to see D&D advertised in mainstream media, or in places that focus on non-gamers.

3e was. I remember, when 3e came out, seeing ads for it in the most unlikely of places.

And it worked. Even if someone didn't rush out and buy 3e, they were reminded of the game and maybe got back in to an earlier edition; thus increasing the overall market.

Lanefan

 

[Maggan]

Oh, and there were TV ads

That wasn't really on TV, I hope?

/M

 

[Grazzt]

That wasn't really on TV, I hope?

/M

I never saw it. Thankfully. That was really bad.

 

[DaveMage]

The marketing of 4E that I was exposed to - the designer blogs and cartoons - were quite a turn off to me, both in content (game changes) and attitude.

 

[Jack Colby]

I never saw it. Thankfully. That was really bad.

Of course it was. That's because D&D (rightly or wrongly) has been forever branded as a nerd activity, yet WotC insists on wasting ad money trying to convince non-nerds to try it with these cutesy wannabe-mainstream ads. Most people, like it or not, hear "Dungeons & Dragons" and dismiss it immediately. Yes, it's the most recognized name in RPGs, but it is also the biggest stigma and roadblock to people giving it a fair shake. The brand is a joke and a laughing stock to most "normal" people.

Also, it was just a badly-made ad that said nothing about the product except "hey, it's D&D". Imagine if they actually captured people's imaginations and sense of adventure in a completely non-cheesy or ironic way instead of showing a floating eyeball watching a couple walk hand in hand.

 

[Drkfathr1]

yeah, that TV ad was pretty useless. I saw it a couple of times and kept wondering...if you don't already know what D&D is, how is that going to get you to check out the game?

Plus I only ever saw it on Sci Fi, during an 8 or 9 o'clock program.

Not exactly branching out to capture "new" blood.