SOWGB Promotion and Marketing
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:43 am
I have moved this topic away from the original title since it really started from an afterthought in that post.
I'm not sure I would like to see Norb Software Development become a "mega" company with a vast marketing budget. I still rejoice in being able to have from time to time a one-on-one exchange of e-mails with the "big man" himself. I would hate to find him hidden behind a vast array of CEO's and Public Relations Officers, like a latter-day Bill Gates.
OK, so Norb Software Development flies in the face of the great American Gods of Aggressive Marketing and Expansion but personally I rather like it that way. It appears more to me rather like a cosy Gentlemen's Club, which aims to give its discerning members the best possible service at the most reasonable cost, even though it struggles at times to replace the carpets and certainly makes nobody a fortune. I would happily pay a bit more for my games to keep it so.
Marketing a sensitive product like "Gettysburg", i.e. the concept not the game, will always bring conflict. There is a vast body of people who regard the hallowed ground of any battlefield as sacrosanct and see the attempts to "market for profit" a mere computer game in the vicinity as near blasphemy. Remember how we ourselves reacted in the same way on this forum to Supermarkets in the Wilderness ?
It is only to our limited circle that SOW GB is perhaps just not a "mere computer game". I will never get to Shiloh or to Gettysburg...... but I feel that I do as much homage to the memory of those brave men by playing the game thoughtfully several times a week, whereas a large number of those who will attend the anniversary most likely think about Gettysburg once every 150 years.
There will also be those in an election year who will make political capital of the event .... but did Lincoln not do the same all those years ago, moving and enduring though his speech was. The game though remains pure and unsullied as well as technically brilliant.
I came in at the very beginning when TCBR was first released. I picked up the game quite accidently from a demo on a giveaway Computer Magazine Disk, I recognised its strength and was immediately hooked and I have remained so through all the later developments. No marketing is better than a demo disc in your hand. Few can resist playing them and they are not enormously expensive. Beats all the presentations in the world.
Geoff Laver Late of Her Britannic Majesty's 57th Regiment of Foot.
I'm not sure I would like to see Norb Software Development become a "mega" company with a vast marketing budget. I still rejoice in being able to have from time to time a one-on-one exchange of e-mails with the "big man" himself. I would hate to find him hidden behind a vast array of CEO's and Public Relations Officers, like a latter-day Bill Gates.
OK, so Norb Software Development flies in the face of the great American Gods of Aggressive Marketing and Expansion but personally I rather like it that way. It appears more to me rather like a cosy Gentlemen's Club, which aims to give its discerning members the best possible service at the most reasonable cost, even though it struggles at times to replace the carpets and certainly makes nobody a fortune. I would happily pay a bit more for my games to keep it so.
Marketing a sensitive product like "Gettysburg", i.e. the concept not the game, will always bring conflict. There is a vast body of people who regard the hallowed ground of any battlefield as sacrosanct and see the attempts to "market for profit" a mere computer game in the vicinity as near blasphemy. Remember how we ourselves reacted in the same way on this forum to Supermarkets in the Wilderness ?
It is only to our limited circle that SOW GB is perhaps just not a "mere computer game". I will never get to Shiloh or to Gettysburg...... but I feel that I do as much homage to the memory of those brave men by playing the game thoughtfully several times a week, whereas a large number of those who will attend the anniversary most likely think about Gettysburg once every 150 years.
There will also be those in an election year who will make political capital of the event .... but did Lincoln not do the same all those years ago, moving and enduring though his speech was. The game though remains pure and unsullied as well as technically brilliant.
I came in at the very beginning when TCBR was first released. I picked up the game quite accidently from a demo on a giveaway Computer Magazine Disk, I recognised its strength and was immediately hooked and I have remained so through all the later developments. No marketing is better than a demo disc in your hand. Few can resist playing them and they are not enormously expensive. Beats all the presentations in the world.
Geoff Laver Late of Her Britannic Majesty's 57th Regiment of Foot.
