Why am I still Introducing Gamers to CoH
By
Aura_Familia,
Posted on: 2009-07-09 14:02 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Super Hero games are a niche market.
Excluding WoW (and it's billion dollar ad campaign) MMOs are a niche game market.
So CoH is a niche game in a niche game market. It's not too terribly surprising that people haven't heard of it. The same is true of EvE (Sci-fi MMO).
I'm still irritated that EVE was partly the reason Earth and beyond went under. EVE isn't even similar to the gameplay syle of EB. Frankly I don't understand the pull that EVE has for the sci-fi niche. I didn't like it at all.
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We're the rabid wombat next to the 500lb gorilla that is WoW.
Easy to not see it, but once it gets it's teeth in...
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I had a Rabid Wombat card. I used it. All my friends were like... O___o the hell is that?
heheh.
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I'm still irritated that EVE was partly the reason Earth and beyond went under. EVE isn't even similar to the gameplay syle of EB. Frankly I don't understand the pull that EVE has for the sci-fi niche. I didn't like it at all.
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RIP Earth and Beyond 
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Why is it I continue to run into gamers who have never heard of CoH? Actually seems like almost every gamer I meet has never heard of it, whether they are interestested in the type of game or not.
Somehow the word just isn't getting out on this game.
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Don't give up. Keep spreading the word.
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I'm still irritated that EVE was partly the reason Earth and beyond went under. EVE isn't even similar to the gameplay syle of EB. Frankly I don't understand the pull that EVE has for the sci-fi niche. I didn't like it at all.
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RIP Earth and Beyond
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I thought Earth and Beyond went under because Electronic Arts are idiots?
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I think relating E&B's death to EVE Online is really a stretch.
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I've gotten used to just calling it City of Heroes. Nobody knows what CoH stands for. And not that many people I've talked to have even heard of the game.
You folks should advertise more.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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Why is it I continue to run into gamers who have never heard of CoH? Actually seems like almost every gamer I meet has never heard of it, whether they are interestested in the type of game or not.
Somehow the word just isn't getting out on this game.
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If you were to keep up asking, you might find many, many more games they might like and have never heard of. The point I'm trying to respectfully make is about the nature of advertising in the broader gaming industry which can be boiled down to "new is shiny". The gaming media basically covers the stuff that pays their bills, which is advertisers buying space in their media. Once they have THAT base covered, they can cover stuff they want to which may or may not be CoH.
Now that's a lot gloomier than my posts normally get, so let me get to the good part. YOU are the best advertiser of CoH. That's right you heard me. Now you've got a good 1st step going here, you just need to develop your follow through. Simplest would be to get them to the main site at www.coh.com and check out a free trial. (That's what the marketing department has pushed for.) Then show them all the cool bits that you can think of.
Another option I have been known to use is having a newbie make a costume on my badger, who has almost every costume option unlocked that I can get without shelling out extra money.
Not going to tell you that recruiting new players is always easy, but every new one helps the game.
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Everytime I use City of Heroes especially referring to my MM, who technically is in the COV era, someone tries to say COV or COX. The game exe is still city of heroes. I've always known it to be City of Heroes, and since they are both bundled at this point I don't see why a differentiation needs to be made.
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I don't think so. A lot of people were trying them both out because they were released at relatively the same time. I think EB had been out a few months before. I do think EVE had a lot of pull and I think had EVE not come around EB would have stuck around longer and perhaps EA would have stuck with it a tad longer to iron it out more.
However, I don't know the marketing and the numbers to say definitively that it did have any significant impact. Seeing as how there aren't many space MMOs and there is a desire for more to be made than has been, I don't think it is a stretch to say that EVE probably had an impact. Especially when EVE was a direct competitor in that specific mmo niche market.
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And we are about to get some competition in this niche market ourselves.. will the same thing happen?
DOOOOOOOOM..
ok , I really don't think so. Just never said that before :-D
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Why is it I continue to run into gamers who have never heard of CoH? Actually seems like almost every gamer I meet has never heard of it, whether they are interestested in the type of game or not.
Somehow the word just isn't getting out on this game.
[/ QUOTE ]well, there you are, go to it. the public knows about wow, but not much else mmo wise, if you care enough to ask, make your effort to fix the situation.
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I don't think so. A lot of people were trying them both out because they were released at relatively the same time. I think EB had been out a few months before. I do think EVE had a lot of pull and I think had EVE not come around EB would have stuck around longer and perhaps EA would have stuck with it a tad longer to iron it out more.
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And we are about to get some competition in this niche market ourselves.. will the same thing happen?
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I don't think it's really comparable to the current situation with CoH and CO. A five-year-old game has a lot more staying power compared to a less than one year old game.
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Super Hero games are a niche market.
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Unless they're a franchise licensing deal based on the lastest Batman/Spiderman/Stupidman movie - not that Paragon Studios (did I get that right?) can touch that sort of money to throw around.
Still, these days superheroes as a marketable commodity are hardly niche, unless you're talking the comics themselves.
I don't really think the niche excuse works anymore. We've used it for years. Heck, I've used it for years. But really... I don't think people really care that much about genre. If a game is good and gets lots of hype, they will play it whether it's fantasy, sci-fi, about superheroes or something else entirely.
That doesn't address the question though. Au contraire. If niche gaming isn't the cause, why havn't more people played the, IMHO, best MMO on the market? 
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Market saturation was too focused. I myself introduced someone to this game just 6 months ago that would have been all over this at launch if they knew it existed. I myself was a gamemaster of a super-hero PnP RPG, but even though two of my players were in beta, I did not even hear about it until I2 (Must have put the fear of the almighty into players with the NDA. 
). Only after I joined up did I find ads in a few comic books, and most of those were in CoH books.
No matter, I surmise that the longevity of this game will be a factor when CoH gets advertising simply by being the Competition to the New Kids despite its age. New players to the genre who leave CO for one reason or another may just give that older game that everyone keeps talking about a shot. We win when they loose, But I feel that perhaps a more Shotgun Market strategy would have been more effective. Not all those that would enjoy this game read comic books regularly. Maybe if we got Kevin Smith, Vin Diesel, or Meagan Fox to do a couple of commercials, we could get some more market play. Cross-Promotion would have been good too. Imagine getting a free trial card with your Baskin Robbins sundae, Or a free month of play For every 150 dollars spent at Hastings *available at participating locations only*.
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www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
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Dispari wrote:
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Nobody knows what CoH stands for.
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Agreed. If you Google "CoH", you'll find as many (or more) websites for Company of Heroes.
Plus, regarding the topic in general, many of my gamer friends are console-only, and don't know that much about PC games. <shrug>
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(QR)
I've gotten used to just calling it City of Heroes. Nobody knows what CoH stands for. And not that many people I've talked to have even heard of the game.
You folks should advertise more.
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This. Has anyone ever seen an ad for this game anywhere on tv?
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When it was launched I remember seeing some. They had a nice ad campaign at launch from what i remember.
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Why is it I continue to run into gamers who have never heard of CoH? Actually seems like almost every gamer I meet has never heard of it, whether they are interestested in the type of game or not.
Somehow the word just isn't getting out on this game.
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