Ok Black Pebble...


Anti_Proton

 

Posted

...seriously, how expensive would a CGI trailer for the game be? And i'm sure everyone knows why I ask.


"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

 

Posted

If this hypothetical CGI trailer isn't already in the can it'll never be done in time for PAX East


There is no such thing as an "innocent bystander"

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by BigFish View Post
If this hypothetical CGI trailer isn't already in the can it'll never be done in time for PAX East
Oddly enough, CGI trailers seem to be proliferating everywhere.


"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anti_Proton View Post
...seriously, how expensive would a CGI trailer for the game be? And i'm sure everyone knows why I ask.
Actually, no, I don't know why you ask.

And why CGI? It doesn't accurately represent the game, unfortunately, no matter how awesome it looks (and this from someone whose favorite official video is the City of Villains E3 trailer). A well-done ad shot in-game can be almost as cool (like my second favorite official video).

But yeah - vid of SOME kind by PAX East, Pebble. Get the Creative Services team on it ASAP.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite


Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Respite View Post
Actually, no, I don't know why you ask.

And why CGI? It doesn't accurately represent the game, unfortunately, no matter how awesome it looks (and this from someone whose favorite official video is the City of Villains E3 trailer). A well-done ad shot in-game can be almost as cool (like my second favorite official video).

But yeah - vid of SOME kind by PAX East, Pebble. Get the Creative Services team on it ASAP.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I say CGI, because to the layman, it sells the idea. I had a guy in my office see one and he immediately wanted to buy the game (not ours btw). Even after he was told it wasn't actual game play, he was still willing to give the game a try. Once that $30 - $40 bucks is spent, it's spent.


"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anti_Proton View Post
I say CGI, because to the layman, it sells the idea. I had a guy in my office see one and he immediately wanted to buy the game (not ours btw). Even after he was told it wasn't actual game play, he was still willing to give the game a try. Once that $30 - $40 bucks is spent, it's spent.
It's also false advertising, however. I may not be a layman, but the reason I'm not is because I was foolish enough to buy games based on ads, trailers and FMVs, whereas these days I specifically look for direct unedited in-game footage. Once you see that that high-flying, adventure-filled fantasy MMO that feels like an action movie come to life consists of stiff combat and hours of staring at large interface windows, you can make a much more informed decision.

I say it's false advertising, because an MMO survives on subscriptions, not box sales, and getting people to buy a box of what is ostensibly a completely different game isn't always a good idea for player retention. I know something about that from personal experience.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
It's also false advertising, however. I may not be a layman, but the reason I'm not is because I was foolish enough to buy games based on ads, trailers and FMVs, whereas these days I specifically look for direct unedited in-game footage. Once you see that that high-flying, adventure-filled fantasy MMO that feels like an action movie come to life consists of stiff combat and hours of staring at large interface windows, you can make a much more informed decision.

I say it's false advertising, because an MMO survives on subscriptions, not box sales, and getting people to buy a box of what is ostensibly a completely different game isn't always a good idea for player retention. I know something about that from personal experience.
Well if your selling a good product, it is a way to get that "foot-in-the-door" leverage.


"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

 

Posted

So we need both! TWO ads! One CGI, one in-game!

Hell, this game needs more ads, period.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite


Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anti_Proton View Post
Well if your selling a good product, it is a way to get that "foot-in-the-door" leverage.
A good product it is, I still believe, but you also have to remember that it is a niche product, as well. Granted, MMOs in general are no longer niche these days, nor are indeed super hero MMOs, but ours still kind of is. I guess the drive to add raids is in an effort to make it ever so slightly less niche, but its target audience is still fairly limited.

Remember, an MMO needs not just customers, but satisfied customers, and having them find out they had completely the wrong idea about what it is that they were buying doesn't seem like the best way to achieve that. I know for certain that I had nothing like the right idea of what the game was going on the original intro, or indeed even by the old "Paragon City! Where YOU are the hero!" trailer. I came from a background of Diablo 2, so I thought this would be something completely different. I'm glad about what it turned out to be, granted, but I wouldn't count on that for most people.

*edit*
That's not to say I don't want a CGI trailer. Far from it. I just find it to be really misleading to use that as advertisement for the game.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark_Respite View Post
So we need both! TWO ads! One CGI, one in-game!

Hell, this game needs more ads, period.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite
Agreed! I have an office full of soldiers and I have a hard time selling our game by word of mouth, especially with recent "new products" out.


"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anti_Proton View Post
Agreed! I have an office full of soldiers and I have a hard time selling our game by word of mouth, especially with recent "new products" out.
*smirks* You could always point them to my YouTube channel, in the meantime. (Assuming my ads can actually 'sell' the game, rather than just keep current players enthused. Or whatever.)

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite


Dark_Respite's Farewell Video: "One Last Day"
THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE CONTINUES!
Book I: A Tale of Nerd Flirting! ~*~ Book II: Courtship and Crime Fighting - Chap Nine live!
MA Arcs - 3430: Hell Hath No Fury / 3515: Positron Gets Some / 6600: Dyne of the Times / 351572: For All the Wrong Reasons
378944: Too Clever by Half / 459581: Kill or Cure / 551680: Clerical Errors (NEW!)

 

Posted

The trailers for that other superhero game are actually better than the game itself. The new one certainly adds a new wrinkle to the story, and I hope they keep doing them. As to cost, to get a top-notch studio like Blur to do it is upwards of a couple million dollars for a 5- or 6-minute video. You can cheat it a little bit by setting a lot of scenes at night and in the dark (shadows are your friend) and by doing new-fangled versions of old-fashioned tricks like relying on matte paintings instead of rendered backgrounds and tweaking depth of field so those flat backgrounds are even more indistinct, but it's still going to cost a few hundred grand.

That said, a small group doing it as a hobby in their spare time could make a pretty cheap one using things like Blender, but it would take months to complete. Rendering time alone is a huge bottleneck. Even using a powerful G4 at work, it still takes me 20 minutes or so to render a regular 58-minute TV show with minimal titles and non-fancy edits. Creating every single object in the frame? A half-hour per frame, maybe, for simple shots. That means it would take 15 hours to make 1 second of film. A 3-minute film at that rate would take someone more than 2,700 hours just to render. The average 40-hour work week gives you 2,080 hours a year.

As the old saying goes: "You can have the work done cheap, fast or right. Pick any two."


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