Streamers/Influencers

[Gronk311]

Honestly if the game is as good as advertised, it should sell itself, not rely on what some YouTube person says...

Unfortunately, the major hurdle to success is not the quality of the game (which I expect to be excellent) but the general gaming community not knowing about it. Hopefully Paradox will really ramp up their marketing after the final release date announcement.

 

[Felixforever]

Unfortunately, the major hurdle to success is not the quality of the game (which I expect to be excellent) but the general gaming community not knowing about it. Hopefully Paradox will really ramp up their marketing after the final release date announcement.

That being the case let the YouTube people gave there copys at launch like everyone else and I'm sure it will get plenty of exposure.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Honestly I'm dubious about the value of 'influencers' for promoting a product. If someone is interested in watching someone else play a game, they were probably already interested in buying it.

That said I put more stock in "lets plays" than reviews for evaluating if I should make the leap and buy a game I'm interested in. Pre-release the gaming "journalists" released glowing reviews and gushing articles about MoO3, the second worst game I ever played (as a kid we had a copy of Atari's legendary ET. Every bit as bad as you've heard.) Had I actually been able to see someone attempt to 'play' that mess I wouldn't have wasted my money.

So to me a sponsored Let's Play is not as good as an unsponsered one but better than an 'unbiased' review or article on a game site. None of those are as good as the consensus opinion of people I know who have similar tastes to mine.

 

[hewhoispale]

That being the case let the YouTube people gave there copys at launch like everyone else and I'm sure it will get plenty of exposure.

A massive factor in game sales for any not-AAA developer is getting on Steam's "top sellers" list. The best way to do that is building up pre-release hype so that there's a big spike of sales on release to get on that chart. Once you're on that chart, more people will see it and you'll get more sales, which keeps you on the chart which means more exposure and more sales.

Non-streamer influencers are going to have some degree of "lead time" between getting their key for the game, getting it setup, getting the content recorded that the want, rendering that content for their platform, and releasing it. If the developer wants people on YouTube to release content for the game in a timely fashion they *have* to give keys to them early.

 

[Exemplar Voss]

That being the case let the YouTube people gave there copys at launch like everyone else and I'm sure it will get plenty of exposure.

That actually is the exact opposite of how YouTube marketing works. If the coverage isn't up before release, it largely gets ignored in favor of whatever is next.

There are a lot of analytical tools available, and this sort of things gets studied by the companies and the youtubers themselves. Waiting til release day hurts numbers immensely and measurably.

Even if you don't like it, this is the main advertising vector for video games, and anyone who wants 'in success' needs to recognize that pre-release videos are going to happen, because they are vital to the health and success of the game launch and overall sales.

 

[Rabid]

Paradox are usually very good about this kind of thing - I'm actually surprised that they haven't done anything recently since release is supposed to be within the next 6 weeks tops.

 

[Felixforever]

That actually is the exact opposite of how YouTube marketing works. If the coverage isn't up before release, it largely gets ignored in favor of whatever is next.

There are a lot of analytical tools available, and this sort of things gets studied by the companies and the youtubers themselves. Waiting til release day hurts numbers immensely and measurably.

Even if you don't like it, this is the main advertising vector for video games, and anyone who wants 'in success' needs to recognize that pre-release videos are going to happen, because they are vital to the health and success of the game launch and overall sales.

I must be old, I don't look to random YouTube people for reviews, recommndations, or play through videos. What I would go for is a paradox/hbs released videos or a random mission video.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Honestly I dont see why you wouldnt give the game to backers (if not the full game, the multiplayer skirmish) at the same time as "Influencers." More people posting screenshots and Let's Plays, more people tweeting about the game and all that other buzz building stuff. Hell maybe one of your backers uses that as a launching pad to build followers and become an influencer themselves.

Honestly who decides when a person has graduated to influencer-hood? I mean I first bought EU1 way back in the day after reading Ariel's England AAR, and have bought lots of Paradox products since. Is Ariel therefore an unrecognized influencer? Are the authors of popular AARs and Lets Plays for paradox games thus legitimate candidates for early copies?

 

[Felixforever]

Honestly I dont see why you wouldnt give the game to backers (if not the full game, the multiplayer skirmish) at the same time as "Influencers." More people posting screenshots and Let's Plays, more people tweeting about the game and all that other buzz building stuff. Hell maybe one of your backers uses that as a launching pad to build followers and become an influencer themselves.

Honestly who decides when a person has graduated to influencer-hood? I mean I first bought EU1 way back in the day after reading Ariel's England AAR, and have bought lots of Paradox products since. Is Ariel therefore an unrecognized influencer? Are the authors of popular AARs and Lets Plays for paradox games thus legitimate candidates for early copies?

My point exactly, what is the best influencer then the thousand or so if us who could all be streaming it at the same time. 1000+ seems to be more influence then a handful.

 

[Deaghaidh]

My point exactly, what is the best influencer then the thousand or so if us who could all be streaming it at the same time. 1000+ seems to be more influence then a handful.

Well like I mentioned in the other influencer thread, anyone here is already interested in the game and likely to buy it. Imho that applies to most streaming matches or lets plays and such, a person who will watch someone else play is probably well on their way to purchasing it.

But I can see how someone who follows, say, quill18 because they wanted to see his lets plays of other games might see Battletech on his channel (or however this works). So sure go ahead and give it to people who have lots of followers for videos of other strategy games, or other sci-fi stuff, etc. I just don't see a downside of letting a ton of other people who have already bought the game put out their own stuff to their circle of followers, however small.

 

[Felixforever]

I think a mod could merge the two, the same thing is getting discussed in both threads.

 

[Mojo Amok]

 

[TaurianMerc]

I think a mod could merge the two, the same thing is getting discussed in both threads.

*runs to roof to put on the modsignal*
@Havamal we need new jump coordinates please?

 

[Havamal]

Greetings Mechwarriors,

Two similar threads merged.

Left a temporary redirect.

Carry on .

 

[TaurianMerc]

Many thanks my good sir.
I hope you were wearing a T-shirt with a stylised H on and your pants were on over your trousers.

 

[Nichino]

A lot of us, myself included, want to yell "get off my lawn!" and not let YouTube and Twitch people get a copy early, but I think in this day and age it can be useful. They are just as, if not more so, the source of media and reviews that yes "influences" (sounds weird to use it as a noun though) people's decision of whether or not they buy a game than the traditional game media publishing companies. And we'd see more success, arguably, if people bought at release rather than waiting until after which could snowball into waiting for a steam/humble/etc sale.

As for spoilers, you can limit how much they can share before release, and I personally won't watch any anyway. But those that religiously watch these YouTube and Twich personalities, will eat it up.

My 2 c-bills at least.

 

[Havamal]

Many thanks my good sir.
I hope you were wearing a T-shirt with a stylised H on and your pants were on over your trousers.

Nah, I was in Adam West mode as opposed to Batman mode. Or is it Don Adams vs Maxwell Smart... Hmm.

 

[Fairborne]

My point exactly, what is the best influencer then the thousand or so if us who could all be streaming it at the same time. 1000+ seems to be more influence then a handful.

But how many actually WOULD? And how many of those have followers other than ones that they've already been talking to about it or are already also backers?

 

[Exemplar Voss]

I must be old, I don't look to random YouTube people for reviews, recommndations, or play through videos.

OK? Even assuming that your demographic of whatever you consider 'old' is a meaningful one and applies broadly, there is a huge demographic (that crosses arbitrary age and other lines) that does do exactly that.

But we're not talking about 'random YouTube people.' We're talking about established YouTubers that paradox regularly gives previews copies to, who have 200,000 to 500,000 subscribers (each, but likely with some overlap), and more who watch but don't subscribe. Advertising and selling a product is about numbers- even if only 1% of their subscribers buy the game, it is entirely worthwhile for Paradox and HBS to send a preview copy their way. A more realistic percentage of subscribers and un-subbed watchers makes the proposition even more worthwhile.

My point exactly, what is the best influencer then the thousand or so if us who could all be streaming it at the same time. 1000+ seems to be more influence then a handful.

Eh... not really. Even assuming you could get a thousand backers to successfully stream, random people who just throw things up on a stream with little experience tend to get few views and a lot of negative reaction. It's a lot of work to do it right, and even more to make it interesting.

 

[Cyttorak001]

Do you want more 'Mechs? Because this is how you get more 'Mechs.