Thrax Panda said:
I think its important that when we get to the beta that we have the tools needed to make tribes movies available so the the community can start doing their thing. I can't buy the rights to the next Linkin Park song (for less than $50K) to put it into a video, but the community doesn't seem to have an issue with "borrowing" their favorite music, and that kind of press/marketing is fantastic if we can get links out to other sites.
That is great news. I couldn't believe how stoopid QIX and Co. were in this regard (not providing demos for forever).
The best way to advertise T3 is to:
1) Have official releases of big and small avi's of good players doing really cool stuff (say for CTF - capping and elite ld, TR and maybe a BIG Hunters yardsale).
2) Let the community release amazing videos - post them on the official site, on gaming sites, wherever - just get them out there.
The most important thing these movies should convey is that an individual gamer can positively OWN in T3 (frenetic/high energy environment). The fact that they can also be the bomb in a team context is secondary and will become obvious as soon as they play the game. The "team context" thing is a selling point, but a secondary one.
QIX's fatal mistake was his belief that the world was screaming for a massive team-oriented game. Given this belief, cowboying becomes bad. The result was that tons and tons of players gave up on the game when they realized they couldn't really affect the outcome of a game (pub and competitive players alike). The only reason I played it as long as I did was 1) my team, 2) no other games appealed, 3) love T1 but am too tired of it.
I'm confident Sierra won't make this mistake twice. Let the individual excel and the masses will follow.
Note: Pls don't waste any $$$ on a big name music group - get some no-name trance person - there are actually Tribers who do that shizzat. My guess is they would LOVE to donate their stuff for free/cheap (TW guy named Zincaito - I'm sure there are others - I dld some of his stuff and it was good. He'll need to make it "harder" tho.).
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I think a number of people crushed the CS question already. Key points (I think in order):
1. Cheap/Free
2. Runs very well on low end computers
3. Simple game with manageable learning curve
4. Good players (think cowboys) get noticed
5. No need for broadband
6. Easy to hack/cheat
7. Time-balancing - Tribes should appeal to those who want to play for 5 minutes and those who want to play for 5 hours. Mods can be an effective way to differentiate groups.
8. Relevant to today