Streamers/Influencers

[SkyShadowing]

This isn't a criticism of the marketing structure: streamers, YouTubers, and other influencers are a really good system for cheap marketing. I quite enjoy watching several. Your perfidous tricks have worked on me and convinced me to buy several games, including Surviving Mars.

I could sit there and make a point about something 'feeling wrong' about influencers getting access to the game before the Backers who helped finance it. That something fundamentally bothers me about certain people getting access to a game I helped make happen, usually for free. Paradox and HBS's teams are not included in this: they're not just influencers, they're team members. That even though I played beta, we should be among the first members of the 'public' to play the full game.

But fundamentally that would be more than a bit of a lie. I do feel that there's an argument to be made there, but the truth of the matter is I want to be able to watch streamers I enjoy play the game and discover it without fear of getting spoiled myself, since given the high standard set by Dragonfall I expect the main story will be pretty good. This game sparked a stupidly crazy amount of lore-reading for me and I want to be able to sit in that chat and make cracks about the lore and help educate them, to some degree. But I don't want to be spoiled!

Alternatively, as I know XCOM 2 did this, would it be possible to make it so that the influencers are limited in how far in the main story they can go? XCOM 2 forbid streamers from showing off certain cutscenes and I think playing too far in the main story on stream.

 

[Exemplar Voss]

They could do a press build with just skirmish mode, I suppose. An up-to-date version of the backer beta, basically.

Not something I'd particularly recommend though. Yubtubbers move units, so not taking advantage of that is a bit silly, and is often taken as a sign of low confidence in the product, which pushes against sales. (thank Bethesda/Zenimax for contributing heavily to that).

And paradox, as the publisher, really likes handing out codes to people, pre-release. The hype becomes very real, and the excitement around a release is often a heck of a lot of fun in its own right. In fact, I hope Susie and Nikki are getting a lot of sleep right now, as they've got a quite the marathon set for tomorrow's events (Surviving Mars 12 hour release stream).

 

[Packrat]

I'd rather they do what will make the game successful instead of trying to placate our egos.

 

[Galaga Galaxian]

It would be a big waste of time, IMO, for HBS to take the time needed creating a special "limited" version of the game for youtubers to play. They're in Max Crunchtime, remember. Pretty sure the Kickstarter never said Backers would get first access to the game earlier than anyone else, except for the beta.

 

[Insaniac99]

While I understand the reasoning, I will agree I hate seeing others have access to a game I helped make weeks before I can.

They can't sell to me, I already put hundreds of dollars into making sure the game happens.

 

[Havamal]

IMHO,


I don't want to be taken as speaking dismissively because I do respect the feeling of others- feelings being something that are natural but that we dont control, but this seems a non-productive direction to spend mental energy. As well as something we really are not going to be in the loop on to ever really know about anyway.

My personal advice as a friend to anyone here actually is to not let such occupy one second on the mind. It can't help either way that it could go.



That's all I've got to say about that.

 

[Chaon]

Probably not.

Some copies have already been given to Steam curators and I guess social media influencers but we won't see their posts until a couple weeks before release I guess.

Sure I would love to get my hands on the game a few days before release but I am not holding out hope for that. Of course if Mitch/Jordan decided that would be a nice reward for the backers......

 

[Prussian Havoc]

We've done our part.
HBS has done their's.
Now it is up to Influencers to do their's.
I have zero problem with this.

Given what we know of HBS, I have no doubt the influencers will be suitably impressed. And when the time come's I'll be looking forward to catching just as many of their Streams as I possibly can. : )

 

[Bubbasan]

Agreed, PH. Normally I try to avoid spoilers but if I’m going for a pseudo Ironman right out the gate, I want to be prepared.

 

[Prussian Havoc]

Agreed, PH. Normally I try to avoid spoilers but if I’m going for a pseudo Ironman right out the gate, I want to be prepared.

Good plan! I had not thought it out quite like that, but yes you are quite correct. I intend to start a Solo-Campaign right out of the gate too, and any Intel will help immeasurably! : )

 

[Gronk311]

Good plan! I had not thought it out quite like that, but yes you are quite correct. I intend to start a Solo-Campaign right out of the gate too, and any Intel will help immeasurably! : )

Intelligence is one of the cornerstones of modern warfare. And it is one we are well supplied with (vs those that buy the game from the ads).

But Intelligence is not something that you can accumulate a certain amount of and say “that’s enough”.

I am very much looking forward to any and all YouTube videos that show off the parts of the game we haven’t seen. I am less interested in skirmishes, because I played the Beta.

 

[Amechwarrior]

I'm also planning an "Ironfan" playthrough but want to hit those story missions blind in regards to things like the Miner betrayal or other scripted events. Pure procgen missions is what I'd like to see instead of the early story missions. If they did skirmishes vs the AI I'd like to see it focus on new 'Mechs and on how the abilities and combat bits have been adjusted since beta. Looks like we have one or two new abilities in the recent vid and would love to see what they do.

 

[Bomberman]

I'm personally all for the influencers doing their thing. The more HBS and Paradox can do to guarantee success the better, which curbs my jealousy of them getting it early. That said I'm all about the story and I'll be exercising discipline in not watching the streams to avoid spoilers.

Already waited this long, what's a few more weeks?

 

[Eelectrica]

Probably not.

Youtubers and all those get a pre-release version that's still getting on going bug fixes before the actual release. Which given the way software works will get more bug fixes.

I'll be avoiding youtube vids so as not to spoil the story.

 

[Zythen1975]

I am sure some will be spoiler free and just do the open ended contracts instead of any of the story missions to avoid spoilers.

 

[KhazadDhum]

Good plan! I had not thought it out quite like that, but yes you are quite correct. I intend to start a Solo-Campaign right out of the gate too, and any Intel will help immeasurably! : )

I'm hoping and fairly confident that the tutorial missions will be plenty to get us up to speed on how things will work. Plus those of us who participated in the beta already have a bit of a leg up so to speak, we know how the missions generally will work, and most of the rest of it is going to have to be learned in game anyways (new skills, different chassis, final global numbers for heat and damage etc.etc.).

 

[Chaon]

The great thing about this game is that the base controls are simple to use and understand.

Select mech, move it and then select a possible target and fire weapons. Wait for opponent to have their turn and then rinse and repeat until you win or lose.

It's after you understand all that, that you start to learn the intricacies of the game, the skills, abilities, weapons, tactics and strategies. Dealing with heat and terrain.

Minutes to learn, hours to master.

 

[ronhatch]

Eh... as far as I'm concerned let the influencers play the game all they want. They won't spoil the main thing I'm interested in regardless.

When I get my copy of the game, honestly... my top priority is going to be digging heavily into the JSON files. Sure I'll play it a bit just to check things out... and then I'll start loading every stat I can get my hands on into spreadsheets and theory-crafting my long-term mech goals and such.

 

[Benthic7]

I'm also planning an "Ironfan" playthrough but want to hit those story missions blind in regards to things like the Miner betrayal or other scripted events. Pure procgen missions is what I'd like to see instead of the early story missions. If they did skirmishes vs the AI I'd like to see it focus on new 'Mechs and on how the abilities and combat bits have been adjusted since beta. Looks like we have one or two new abilities in the recent vid and would love to see what they do.

I agree. Watching missions beforehand on Twitch or Youtube kind of defeats the purpose of doing Ironman since you will know what to do or what not to do.

 

[Chaon]

I agree. Watching missions beforehand on Twitch or Youtube kind of defeats the purpose of doing Ironman since you will know what to do or what not to do.

Nah, you may have an idea of how to do it, but there is still a lot of RNG to the game and the enemy may not move exactly the same way everytime.