Hello from Paragon Marketing

In all seriousness, Pebble, are you trying to say that the next booster is not, in fact, the Mutant pack? Because all evidence so far has pointed to the Luger being a red herring. Let's have some straight talk about the new booster. No doublespeak, no marketing handwaving. Facts, man. Facts.

Suggestion: Give me some new cool Going Rogue stuff to link to on Facebook. At least every 2 weeks or so just to keep generating interest.

Have I mentioned any interest in Going Rogue?

Oh and something for the upcoming 6th anniversary and Issue 17's sweet sweet Ultra mode graphics.

The devs have handed you awesome chocolate cake to market, get to it!

Welcome Black Pebble!

If you have a free moment Mr. Pebble could you get in touch with Massively and provide them with some suitably awe-inspiring Ultra Mode-exhibiting screenshots for use in their CoX news posts? As a recent commenter there said, it's silly that they use such ancient screenshots. It hardly makes a good impression on the site's users and it's not going to make anyone want to try the game out who hasn't already played it.

Hiya!

You know, with a game as mature as CoH, I'd say the main thing to do is to get the client in as many new hands as possible. CoH is a fairly straightforward game, you find out if you like it pretty fast, so getting more people to try the game would likely create more subscribers. I don't know how hard this is to do, but have you considered hardware bundles? I just got a new graphics card and there was a full version of Assassin's Creed and a trial version of Lord of the Rings Online in that. Granted, I haven't actually installed either, but I would never have gone out of my way to get a trial version of LotRO.

With the shiny new graphics in Ultra Mode, maybe you could get nVidia or ATI to slip in a trial DVD in some of their packages? I notice you still have that "The way it's meant to be played!" nVidia logo on the splash screen and you're running a PhysX physics engine, too. Getting a DVD into an nVidia bundle doesn't seem too impossible... even if ATI pretty much has the market cornered these days.

Other than that, I think everyone else have said what I wanted about getting to comic book conventions and targeting college students and such.

Also, CoH has one really nice thing going for it marketing-wise: It's actually a good product. That makes it so much easier.

Best community in the business...
Best Fan-Made video promos (Get over yourself and watch Dark Respite's promo videos)...
Best Super Hero MMORPG hands down...

Viral marketing, for certain.
Videos, tons of videos, ad banners, CoH official comics, online CoH comics...

CoH Online Store. What Steampunkette said.
Forget special stuff just for Cons.
Sell that stuff regularly... maybe other stuff will pop up as special Con items.

With the right lead, I think there is potential for a great community effort to promote the game.
CoH has the KISS Army potential.

TV ads may be way out of the question, but print ads could be good. Internet ads, for certain.

Is the next Booster pack not the Mutant Pack?

What I would love to see is you guys show up at a con I could actually go to. Like something more in the center of the US. You guys are West Coast I know but if you can hit East Coast stuff, how about something in the middle? Something I don't need a plane ticket to get to? I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and we have all sorts of sci-fi/anime/fantasy/comic cons roll through here all the time. Heck, hit the right ones and you can hobnob with folks from Star Wars.

Fundamentally though, you guys really need to get the word out there more. Hit cons all over the place even if it's just with a small crew to raise visibility. Be loud and proud of what this game is and refuse to ever let some upstart like CO steal your thunder. Get into the comic and gaming shops more. Sceam it from the rooftops if that helps but get the word around however you can.

And frankly, if you guys were paying the fees and providing the swag and perks, I'd bet you could get plenty of volunteers to run booths at cons you can't get a big official presence at. Send out a lackey to help coordinate and keep things official and you'd be good to go I'd bet.

Hello Black Pebble.

Since you asked for suggestions, I'll throw in my two cents' worth... Operating under the premise that more revenue = benefits that can be passed along to subscribers (i.e. game upgrades & improvements, lower individual costs, etc.), here's what occurred to me:

1) Seek press coverage outside of traditional comic/gaming media. For example, the business press may be interested in hearing how CoX survived and prospered in the MMORPG field while so many others have failed. Also, you could leverage the guest authors from Mission Architect into news stories aimed at literary/writing/publishing magazines. (I know that generating news stories via press releases is more P.R. than marketing, but the two fields are closely related.)

2) License your in-game characters. If another company is willing to pay the development costs for Paragon merchandise, then you limit your own financial risk while gaining valuable exposure. Products like action figures and Halloween costumes would allow customers to pass along their love of the game to their children, nieces, nephews, etc. Just as important, their young friends would be exposed to the game. All of this lays the groundwork for expanding the customer base to the next generation of comic/gaming fans.

I don't know if Paragon is doing this already. I do know that my initial discovery of CoH/CoV was from seeing the manual in the book section of my local electronic store. In other words, it was in a real-life, non-gaming setting. I understand your need to target the gaming/comic niche; all I'm suggesting is that you not limit yourself to it.

EDIT: Just to clarify, we know that comic and gaming geeks will be receptive to marketing appeals. What I'm suggesting is getting the word to anyone who knows one of the aforementioned geeks. (i.e. "Hey Skippy, I just saw something you may be interested in...")

Oh, and welcome.

I know I'm late to the discussion but, CoH has a marketing department?