Effect of Media Coverage on Civilization

[Sowy]

Anyone stop to think about the effect that all this free advertising regarding the 10 year war Civ2 round? There are people finding out about this series for the first time because of it. It makes me wonder if it will give us the extra players to motivate future updates to come quicker.

What do you think?

 

[AfterShafter]

Well, more interest in the series in the long term will factor into faster updates... But I doubt it would be an instant thing. What's more, I doubt this will cause a massive sales spike or anything, but it will cause a few more people to trickle in.

The immediate effect? A few more people will show up on the forum. Let's aim to be nice to them. Unless they're jerks, then we can be mean.

 

[thadian]

more likely they will ask a friend who they know has it - ive had a few friends ask if they should play Civ - and i told them "no."

I couldn't endorse my "name" as telling someone to buy this game because there are too many elements i find shameful - my friend would be disappointed and i would be the guy who suggested him to buy a bad game.

However, i have told MANY MANY people to get FFH. They ask what it is, so i explain Civ4 can be modded, and FFH is a fantasy mod for that game. A few of my friends bought Civ4 complete and ONLY play FFH and Colonization 2071, with no interest in the actual game.

what i was really hoping for by now was an FFH type of game for Civ 5, however there is a Faerun scenario and a magic mod - not "full" enough yet but im keeping my eyes open.

I dont think anyone will pay attention to the media any more than they already do - sheeple will continue to "buy this" every time and wiser people would likely look up some forums to determine if the game is right for them. Once G+K has a few fix patches in, i will think about getting it on a steam sale.

Maybe it's just me but Civ is the type of game that primarily appeals to a specialized audience and not "general gamers". the closer Civ has come to appealing to "general gamers" the less it has appealed to "hardcore civers" and the question remains will the "unloyal" conventional gamers become "loyal civvers" or will it be for naught?

Anything that rebukes its base to try to be "more popular" can become flavor of the week but the week WILL end, and when it does there will be less hardcore loyalists than there were to begin with and "general gamers" will move on.

I was always hoping for more media surrounding Civ in general, highlighting how moddable the games in the series are - any of my friends who "enjoy" civ, play it for the mods and not the vanilla.

Edit: It reminds me of burger marketing. What do you want, a burger - or a burger however you want it? yup, thought so.

 

[BobDole]

Don't think it makes much of an impact, really. Just some cool little story, that's about it.

 

[Camikaze]

I don't really think the impact will be that big. If you haven't heard of the game before, I can't imagine the headline would grab you. There might be a few more people who pick up the game, and perhaps a number of civ fans who've never visited CFC before who'll come because of the GOTM, but I wouldn't imagine it would have any massive impact on sales.

 

[Sowy]

Quote: what i was really hoping for by now was an FFH type of game for Civ 5, however there is a Faerun scenario and a magic mod - not "full" enough yet but im keeping my eyes open.

FFH made Civ4 for my wife and I. I sometimes want to go back to civ4 just for that alone.

I frequent reddit.com and I've noticed that 10 year story get reposted from various news outlets so far.

 

[thadian]

now, just because Civ5 came out doesn't mean civ 4 isn't worth playing, its refreshing to load up erebus and the Faerun scenario, if it builds up has the same potential. needs a LOT of work, but its there.

Most people tend to know what games their friends are playing or have played so a commercial like this might cause someone to ask said friend if its worth it, which means the "selling" is up to the friend and not the media.

 

[Esoteric Arcane]

I'll recommend civilization to almost anyone, I know most people well enough to know if they are interested in turn based or not, Civ 4 I recommend with a mod (usually just for the bombard ability) and definitly the full pack with bts. Civ 5, I have a harder time to recommend as it is more streamlined than any of the previous versions, any of the shorter rts games like it is pretty much more viable than this one (time spent vs enjoyment of the game). I do play Civ 5 but it does not have that old Civilization feeling to it.

People might be interested after the plublicity, but I doubt it will reach many more peoples likes. I love risk but not many people are gonna go try it because one played a game of it over ten years.