Viral Marketing for RPGs...Where is it?

[bento]

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.

Viral marketing isn't so much my sig line (or Treebore's) but it's you having a weekend party, inviting your friends and someone comes over with a basic set of D&D with the intention of introducing you to the game. As conanb mentioned, it's friends recommending products to friends. Using a "social network" is key to viral marketing. Viral marketing has as much to do with to marketing Proctor & Gamble's Prilosec at women's Bunco night as it does raving about hair care products on MySpace.

Maybe what the OP is asking about, is why don't WoTC/WW do more to turn gamers into RPG "evangelists?" There was a similar movement in comic books interest groups around 2000. In order for really good comics to get better public exposure, web sites and comic mavens told fans they needed to do everything they could to get comics into the hands of friends and tastemakers. Following this advice, one Christmas I gave non-Superhero comic trade paperbacks to friends and loved ones. Unfortunately none of them asked me for further recommendations, because years ago they decided they enjoyed other forms of entertainment more than comics. No good, no bad, just life and decisions we make every day on how we spend our time and money.

Same can be said about RPGs. Those that love them, for the most part, still play them. Those that have scheduling or availablility problems have gone over to MMORPGs. I don't think a planned viral marketing campaign by one company or another is ever going to be a sustainable strategy for bringing in new gaming prospects. By appealing though to concepts or style, games will continue to succeed as long as they have attractive memes that can easily be distributed amongst interest groups of like-minded individuals.

 

[trancejeremy]

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?

I would guess because RPG companies are well, cheap, and viral marketing would cost money.

 

[zen_hydra]

In what ways are the market leaders actively growing the tabletop rpg market?

With its focus on hack-and-slash style play, and a move towards a more web-centric gamespace, WOTC seems to be going in the wrong direction by making D&D more like a MMORPG.

Ever since its World of Darkness reboot, White Wolf seems to be making a smaller and smaller market footprint.

I think it is clear that tabletop rpgs badly need an injection of new energy, innovation, and market relevance.

There seems to be a real lack of interest/effort in selling the strengths of the tabletop role playing games to people that aren't already in the hobby in a way that appeals to non-gamers. Almost all of the advertisements that I see for pen and paper rpgs are in hobby-related magazines and websites.

No one seems to be promoting the game play aspects of tabletop rpgs, which MMORPGs can't successfully emulate, to a group of new potential players/customers in a way that allows them to feel that they have discovered something innovative and interesting to them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Viral marketing isn't so much my sig line (or Treebore's) but it's you having a weekend party, inviting your friends and someone comes over with a basic set of D&D with the intention of introducing you to the game.

Which is more of what I was talking about. I don't know that anyone has ever run out and bought something because of a sig line.

Maybe what the OP is asking about, is why don't WoTC/WW do more to turn gamers into RPG "evangelists?"

I'd argue that Game Days are exactly that -- in part -- and do serve to promote and expand the hobby. White Wolf giving out fast play rulesets and mini-campaigns also serves this purpose. WotC isn't currently doing anything like this that I'm aware of, but they have in the past and should certainly do so again.

If nothing else, I think gamers ought to make it a personal goal to bring in one new gamer every X period of time. One a year seems like a minimum goal everyone can accomplish, and one a month is a pretty impressive (and useful) number in terms of expanding the hobby.

Several of the folks in my Midwood campaign are new to gaming, but I don't think I've brought anyone in since 2006, so I'm overdue.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

With its focus on hack-and-slash style play, and a move towards a more web-centric gamespace, WOTC seems to be going in the wrong direction by making D&D more like a MMORPG.

From a financial standpoint, going to where the customers are -- 8.5 million people playing the market leader MMORPG alone -- sounds like the right direction to me.

Your personal tastes -- and I'm not sure I'd say that Sharn or many other WotC products are particularly hack and slash -- may differ, but it's hard to say that trying to appeal to what the customers have demonstrated is what they want is "the wrong direction."

Ever since its World of Darkness reboot, White Wolf seems to be making a smaller and smaller market footprint.

YMMV. I see all the WWGS products in my local book store and in the MMORPG communities I frequent, every move they make is commented on and people scoop up new products that appeal to them.

No one seems to be promoting the game play aspects of tabletop rpgs, which MMORPGs can't successfully emulate, to a group of new potential players/customers in a way that allows them to feel that they have discovered something innovative and interesting to them.

I haven't looked recently, but sci-fi and fantasy fiction magazines had RPG ads as of only a few years ago. I suspect they still do, since they're not particularly expensive to advertise in.

 

[Vigilance]

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?

You lost me as soon as you said "Fear the Boot". I've listened to this podcast, and they know nothing about the current games environment.

They haven't even PLAYED most of the big RPGs today and are willfully ignorant of them.

Also, they have never been in the business of RPGs.

Yet, they continue to give advice like they know what they're talking about, saying a lot of things I personally know are flat wrong.

Listen to the Ryan Dancey interview and the number of times they begin to expound about the business, only to be corrected and told "no, it doesn't work that way".

I have nothing against them personally, I'm just saying I wouldn't take their word on what RPG companies should do to market themselves. If you pay close attention to the marketing practices they recommend, most of them were employed by companies that went out of business.

 

[zen_hydra]

There are any number of viral marketing campaigns right now that would work wonderfully to sell a pen and paper rpg like D&D.

The campaigns that I am thinking of use the internet to leave puzzles and clues which slowly reveal the nature of what is being advertised. They are like a strip-tease in the way that new information is revealed to you in a deliberate and titillating manner.

It seems (to me) that it should be relatively easy, and inexpensive, for a company like WOTC/Hasbro to use video clips (via youtube), and enigmatic websites to create all sorts of internet buzz. Once you have people interested in your bait, you start introducing enticing elements of the product.

By allowing the potential customer to arrive at the desire for your product on their own, the customer feels rewarded, having come through an ordeal. By exciting people with certain elements of the game before they realize what they are excited about, you can overcome some of the stigma that the D&D brand and tabletop rpgs still holds.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

yah yah blond, bar....

the bar tender gives a guy a d20. he rolls it. rolls a 20. Hot babe sits down besides him, hands him a key, "room 20" smiles, winks and sexely walks away. The guys mouth drops dumb founded. Bar tender slaps his the guys back and says. "Wow, lucky night eh?" or "critical *hit*, not bad" or something like that.

 

[zen_hydra]

You lost me as soon as you said "Fear the Boot". I've listened to this podcast, and they know nothing about the current games environment.

Perhaps this was not clear in my original post, but the podcast that I mentioned just happened to make me think of the viral marketing trend and how it could benefit the RPG industry. The podcast didn't mention anything of the sort.

 

[Drowbane]

...With its focus on hack-and-slash style play...

D&D is no more (or less) "hack'n'slash" now than in the past 30+ years...
Considering it started as a Minis Wargame.

Where the hell do you think MMORPGs got the idea?