latest TotalWar.com newsletter

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Welcome to your latest TotalWar.com newsletter. In this issue we’re going to be looking at what it takes to roll out a marketing campaign for a game as massive as Medieval II: Total War. Keep scrolling to see some concept work for Med II’s latest adverts and get an insight into how the ads are created.

But before you do...

EXCLUSIVE WAR PHILOSOPHER COMPETITION!
Ever wondered if you could find the right words to rouse your battle-weary troops to a final push for glory? Well TotalWar.com is giving you the chance to do just that and reap the rewards.

Take a look at this movie and listen to the speech. You need to come up with something brilliant to finish what our brave leader is saying. The best suggestion will find a copy of Total War Eras amongst their victory booty.

Send your responses to our feedback email address. We’ll let you know the winner's rousing response in a month’s time, as well as reveal what our knight was really saying.



WORK FOR THE MEDIEVAL MASTERS Do you enjoy the stuff you read on www.totalwar.com? Do you think we get it right, or could we do it better?

We are currently looking for a full-time permanent employee to join our Horsham team and you might be the trooper we're looking for. This role will incorporate administering and updating www.totalwar.com and supporting the official forums and fan-based online communities. This position may well suit someone already involved in running a successful fansite or online community. If you think you've got what it takes, get yourself over to The Creative Assembly's website and check it out!



EXCLUSIVE SCREENS
Once again we indulge our privileged newsletter readers with an invogorating dose of screenshot exclusiveness.

Click the thumbnails to open larger images in your browser.

http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med01.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med02.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med03.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med04.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med05.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/med06.jpg



NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE

Discover the New World of Podcasts!

As many of you know, Total War Center and Totalwar.com have joined forces to bring you some awesome Developer Diary Podacsts. This week sees the fifth installment, focusing on Medieval II's battlefields. Get yourself over there and check it out.

It's Total Wallpapers Over at The Org!

The bastion of Total War fansites, Totalwar.org, has just closed its doors for entries to the Medieval II wallpaper competition. Visitors to the site were presented with a bunch of useful files and asked to get their artistic juices flowing. TotalWar.com has even promised a copy of the Eras pack for the winner. Not only that, but some of the best entries may even find themselves on the official website for download! With millions of visitors a month, it's a great chance for fans to get their own work published on desktops all over the world.

Forum Focus

Some great threads are running over on the Total War forums at the moment. We’ve picked out a couple that have been creating a bit of a buzz, so mosey on over and get involved.

New units have been revealed! Click here to take a look what people think of the newest additions to the Medieval II aresenal.

See what everyone is saying about the latest podcasts that TotalWar.com and Total War Center have been conjuring up. Click here.




Be the first to get your hands on Medieval II! Pre-order now and save £££s.





BRINGING MEDIEVAL II TO THE MASSES
Darren Williams, Senior Brand Manager for Medieval II, takes you through the ins and outs of creating an ad campaign that does justice to such a hotly anticipated game.

With a title as stunning as Medieval II it would seem an easy job to create advertising for the game. After all, we could just place a big screenshot on a page and put a release date next to it – job done, surely? Well, actually there is a lot more to Medieval II than merely talking about the stunning graphics, or that we learned from listening to your feedback.

For years people have known that nobody other than Creative Assembly can create the big, epic battles that you see in a Total War game. However, what people forget is that there is another huge part to the game – the turn-based strategy side where you can really tinker with your kingdom. Assassination, diplomacy, managing your economy, establishing trade, spreading religion – all this and more plays an integral role in your ultimate success in the campaign game.

Throughout the development of Medieval II we’ve actually learned a huge amount about you guys – the all important Total War fans - as well as strategy game fans as a whole. We’ve only had to look at the Total War forums to see just how much interest was stirred up when we revealed information about the campaign game. Showing the map and the event movies really did provoke a lot of comments, so we immediately thought we were onto something.

When we spoke with other RTS gamers who – believe it or not – were not necessarily huge Total War fans, we were stunned to hear that they never knew that Total War had a turn-based management game. They honestly felt that Total War was a game purely about big battles. Therefore we had a specific job to do with our advertising. We obviously had to show how great the game looks, but we also wanted to tell people that the battles are only part of the Total War experience.

Some of you may have already seen the first round of adverts we’ve run for Medieval II and to refresh your memory we’ve included them in this newsletter. Internally we called these the "teasers", as we suggest there's more to come. And now we’re happy to show you the next round of advertising. As valued Total War fans it’s our pleasure to give you an exclusive look at the next round of Total War advertising ahead of anyone else, which you can see below!


http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/ad03.jpg
http://downloads.sega-europe.com/downloads/totalwar/newsltr_screens/20060830/ad01.jpg

What we’ve tried to do is balance the battles alongside other elements of the game. A beautiful battle screen is shown at the top and beneath that you can see a poor old princess about to be married off to a rival – a clear message that swords and cannons are not the only means to gain influence. At the bottom of the ad is a glorious cityscape – it looks lovely but with a burgeoning population and the need to improve infrastructure you had better make sure you manage your cities as well as you command your armies.

Throughout the following months we’ll be sharing some information about what it takes to sell a game as great as Total War when we start to publish our exclusive marketing blogs. Until that time enjoy the ads and please let us know what you think!
 
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