Hello from Paragon Marketing

Lots of great stuff has been mentioned already. I'm going to talk about merch I want to be able to order.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Pebble Don't you like getting neat things for showing up to cons? We like giving out neat things. They wouldn't be as neat if they were easy to get.

Just because there's neat stuff given away at cons doesn't mean there can't be other neat stuff we can buy.

I'm going to repeat a request that was first brought up ages ago (before the game was even one year old, I believe; I know CuppaJo was involved in a thread mentioning this): Rikti monkey plushies? Please? Plushies or figures of other characters or enemies would be nice too, but people have been asking for Rikti monkey plushies since forever.

Archetype shirts and hats would be great. I made this with my mom's embroidery machine; it'd be neat to be able to get an official one.

We also need some other miscellaneous items: mousepads, bumper stickers, more posters, and so on.

Finally, being able to order 3D printed versions of our characters would be awesome. Yes, I know they'd be expensive, but I'm pretty sure they'd be popular anyway.

Oh, and one more thing - you guys need to hire Dark_Respite.

Black Pebble, I hope that you're really paying attention to this thread. There are a few things that are jumping out at me.

We, the players of the game, want to be more than just consumers slopping up what goodies are being thrown at us. One thing I've noticed that's kind of funny is that a lot of your posts have been geared towards the Old Way™ of thinking, where you (Marketing) dole out information and we (players) consume it. You commented yourself that people weren't asking you questions about upcoming game features. Rather, most of us are actually interested in having a conversation with you about how we can work together to promote this game.

In other words, we want our experience with Paragon City to be an interactive one. We want to be involved, not just spectators to what you and the crew have in store for us. The problem is, a lot of people don't know how. For those of us who do, we don't want to be sued for doing something without permission, so we sit and we wait for some kind of sign that it's okay to do our thing. What Paragon Marketing ought to be doing is finding these people and saying, "Yes!" or "Let's figure out how to make this work." (Notice that there's not a "No" in there.)

I'm not just talking out of my *** here. I created the Paragon Wiki over five years ago. When I did, I spent a lot of time and effort updating it myself. I did it partly as a personal reference, but I knew that as one person, I'd never be able to keep the thing up-to-date like I'd want to. So I started publicizing it to the community. When people asked questions in the Player Questions forum, I'd write an article and post the answer with a link. Eventually, I got it big enough to reach critical mass and snagged the attention of some really good (and prolific!) editors to help me out.

At that point, I had leveraged my singular efforts to get several times more work out of it than I had put into it. That is the key to Marketing, and if I can do it with a fan-run side project, I know you can do it as an employee of the company with official backing. Imagine if you had an eager staff of ten people to do your job for you. For every ten hours you spent doing your job, you got a hundred hours of effort in return. All you have to do is tell them how its done. Well, my friend, I have great news. You have a staff of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. When you think about it, that's mind-blowingly awesome.

But--and here's the catch--as long as you avoid giving us the direction we require ("We need presence at this convention." "We need you to visit your local comic store.") and the resources we require ("Here is some swag to give away." "Here are some free game discs." "Here is our official backing and approval."), you're going to have a massive, unpaid workforce champing at the bit but effectively doing nothing, and one hour's worth of effort will always equal only one measly hour's worth of work.

If I were you, I'd be excited as hell right now. Again, read this thread very carefully. Don't look at it from the perspective of what you have to offer us, but from the perspective of what we have to offer you. As much as you've tried to steer it towards getting us to beg for information, others have steered it back to, "Let us help you!" With a player base like this, there's no reason in the world why CoH shouldn't be kicking WoW's gluteus. You have a golden opportunity laid before you, and you really don't have to do very much to come off to your bosses as a Marketing god. You had a really good opener with this thread. Now finish the job and rally the forces!

I really do hope that you'll re-read this thread and find it eye-opening. Again (in case you haven't see it ten times already), tonyv@cohtitan.com. Seriously, let's talk.

Greetings Black Pebble. Thought I think it be better to have a Shady name like from the black market. Glad to hear from the Marketing department as well.

One I'm also pro Ingame ads. Again mix and match them so you don't see the same ad all over the place. Mix in some joke/fake ads like for Crey Cola.

Another ingame ad you could do is ad Emotes. Say /e Pepsi and the character would be drinking pepsi. Then /e BurgerKing and the character appears as the KING or the King appears holding out a burger. could even eat a /e Whopper. This would be another way to have in game ads that are both not intrusive but also fun for us players.

For in world Ads I also say try to get on G4tv shows. I can see an interview of War Witch being done. Already G4TV does the MMO Report Blog even get the interview on that would give more CoX exposure.

I also agree to get game reviews to UPDATE the information they have.

I can even see one Ad in my mind. "Dude isn't City of Heroes old I played that years ago I want something Fresh." "With 17 free expansions new gear new places to explore new costume parts. Dude why are you limiting yourself to something that just out of Beta testing! City of Heroes have so much now that you still be doing NEW things for years!"

Well perhaps not I'm not a writer but you get the basic idea. Advertise how many Costume combos that is possible. How many Maps and places to explore. How many Power combinations is possible.

In other words turn what some see as a weakness (The game age) into a plus by highlighting how Much was added. Show even if those other games add new content each month it still wouldn't match the overwhelming customization and Exploration that City of Heroes offers for years.

"With 5+ years experience on City of Heroes our Programmers takes Superheroes beyond the ordinary MMO!"

SO once again welcome to the forums and I stop stalking your house and digging in your trash for upcoming Going Rogue information. >.>

I just want to know more about the Mecha Powerset, or the ideas that have been thrown around for it.

Mmyes....

Oh forgot to add... Yes we know your not the Toy department so true we aren't asking about the features coming or when I17 going live. Or when we see more of Going Rogue.

Like others said we want to WORK to keep the City Of Heroes/Villains/Rogues Alive and active for as long as we can.

I started by friends having this game and getting me started/addicted over three years ago. Before that I never played any MMO and had no interest in them. I confess I tried WoW a bit back but I didn't inhale.

Before that I never seen any Ads at all and I only seen the "I'm a Hero, I'm a Villain" Ads Via the game website. SO if it wasn't for my friends I would never have known CoH's existed.

Perhaps one Idea is to ask on the Forums in another Thread "How did you hear / learn about City of Heroes and what made you decide to play?" See what worked in the past as a guide to see if a method of Advertising that was dropped was working.

Oh ps... I also Fly up as high as I can and free fall. Cordless Bungee Jumping!

Welcome!!!! Is nice to have someone from marketing in our midst!!!

Welcome BP.

I have one question. Do you even know that there are EU servers?

Sadness that Pebbles is taking a break form this thread but I'll still toss out a few ides.

1.) Having a presence at other conventions as mentioned immediately before this. It doesn't have to be a forum with Q&A but just booth to hand out stuff and show off the game, maybe even demo it. There's ICon in New York, Boston has not only PaxEast but the Boston Comic Convention wrapped up this past weekend as well.

2.) College Campus recruiting in major cities. Rather than just having a street team, target college-age students. In major cities, you can hire people for a few days at a time to canvas multiple major schools in a concentrated area (Boston, New York, Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago...)

3.) Ramping up advertising around other Superhero Events. This summer we have Kick-***, Iron Man 2, Jonah Hex.... We should be taking advantage of that raised awareness

4.) Work on an advertising exchange between other websites, electronic magazines and publisher like massively, ign, the escapist, g4tv and SyFY: Eyeballs on our billboards versus eyeballs on banners/pages.

5.) Shameless celebrity viral marketing. Send free copies of the game and and 1 year of subtime to the geekier celebrities out there: Robin Williams, Nicolas Cage, Nathan Fillion and the like.

Welcome to the Red side, Black Pebble.


Lots of good ideas already mentioned, so I'll just sum up my thoughts about future marketing thusly:


Focus 80% or more of your energies marketing/promoting/whatever you want to call it, on putting this game into people's hands that have never seen it or saw it 5 years ago and forgot it's still around. The present game (including GR in this thought) is lightyears ahead of what the game was in its inception. Do everything in your ebil marketing powers to emphasize this to all media outlets, which includes (but not limited to) updating reviews, screenshots, videos, etc. We don't have to advertise at WoW levels, but there's a place for CoH.

The rest of your time is for "the choir." All of us that already play and enjoy the game. The shineys are nice, but it's the game that keeps us around. The Dev team does the things that keep us here, but Marketing can throw us treats to show us appreciation.

And please, good sir, keep the in-game advertising out. The second you gave us the ability to turn it off and not look at it was the second you sent the message to any potential advertisers that they would be better served spending their advertising dollars elsewhere. If you can't guarantee a certain number of people will see said advertising, it's not worth doing.


Thanks for putting a stake in the hearts of all the naysayers. Hopefully this won't be the only time we hear from your side of the team. Looking forward to what's coming for Going Rogue and beyond.