Game Marketing Cornerstones: The Game Website

#1 Well, what I think makes people excited about a gamesite (which leads to them likeing the game), is probably the content, graphics, and activity.

If you were to compare GG, it would probably do pretty well in all of those catagories, because it is certainly full of lots of content, has exceptional graphics, and it is extremely active.

Lots of 'modules'(thinking of postnuke here) is sort of important, yet not the whole point. If you put too many of those, people get confused and leave. But what I think is the most important is the ease of use.

Also, what really gets people motivated, is support, and knowing that the company is always behind the game. Things like live chat, and large (searchable) FAQ pages, along with money back guarantees, will keep the consumer happy.

Having a page on the background of the company is also really important for people to know that they are real, and not some fake company in a third world country.

Fan sites tend to lack professionalism( Dont take it literally), and cannot be considered the 'official' page for the game. Developer driven can be considered the main page for the game, and maybe more helpful for the game. Yet, consumers, finding out that there are fan sites for the game, must mean that it must be a pretty good game.

I would continue my soapbox, but I'm pretty tired, so continue what I said.

EDIT: Spaced it out...

#2 My own 2 cents on this:

1) Content. I think people want to be made aware of the progress of the game, as well as some kind of way to get a response to their questions/concerns. www.thematrixonline.com has a nice way of providing feedback, and does it very directly, for example.

2) I like them both for different reasons. The Think Tanks site is great because it's a community driven game and it allows you to get into the community. The Lore page gives you great information on the product, but it's not quite as community driven as Think Tanks, so it doesn't need as much "linkage" to the community.

3) That's a tough one. I don't really check out game sites except every once in a blue moon, so I don't know.

To me, no matter which track is taken with a website, content should be foremost, so that there's always something to see when the user comes back to the site. Of course, that brings up the problem of managing a site like that with the limited resources you already have dedicated to the game.

#3 1) This really depends on the focus, and where the developers want the game to go. So this really needs to be a topic on its own. The following questions kind of go deeper into this.

2) Both sites look great, and seem to drive their purpose.

ThinkTanks is a fast-paced game that doesn't take itself too seriously. Its also heavily community driven, with skins, mods and maps available. Events, Leagues and Rankings are all a big part of the game. Although ThinkTanks does contain somewhat of a storyline, that isn't the key focus. The REAL stars are the exaggerated and brilliantly rendered cartoon tanks. With Brains. And Eyeballs.

I'd like to see larger images of those tanks on the site, as I think they are great characters. The REAL story of ThinkTanks are the War Stories that members share. This game just kind of evolves on its own.

Lore contains some great looking mechs and vehicles. The Storyline seems to be the key element they are pushing here, creating a mini-universe. Made-up high-tech sounding names, complex weaponry and descriptions make help propel this story to be much bigger, as if it really exists. Somewhat like the Star Trek and Star Wars Universes.

These kinds of strict storylines and complex details don't lend themselves well to community-driven control.

3) I really don't know much about PC indies. But we sell very well on the mobile platform (PDAs and Phones). We have a huge community following hosted by PocketMatrix. We supply the news, the fans take over everything else, including troubleshooting. We only take care of the severe problems (sorting out purchase problems, unique bugs). There are several other games hosted on the PocketMatrix server as well, so this is a one-stop-shop for most of the top selling games. Stop by the forums to see a full list.

PocketMatrix was also kind enough to give a dedicated fan some space to create a fansite, where all the custom levels can be found. snails.pocketmatrix.com contains about 50 unique levels, and the original game contains 16 levels.

Snails contains a storyline that is completely driven by nonesense. In order to tie the FARM level to the SPACESTATION level, I inserted a segment into the storyline that explained how the Snails created a spaceship from "a styrofoam coffee cup and a bag of bean burritos". However, they crash landed on an asteroid, and had to take the BUS the rest of the way.

So pretty much anything goes. The community is fairly free to take these guys wherever they want.

#4 @kühles,Ted & Randall - I agree Content is King for websites. Having well written, useful and if approapriate game extending content is extremely critical.

Content should be engaging or even better immersive actually pulling you into the game both in look and feel as well as story and player driven information. For very simple exectution I really think the look and feel of FroGames is very nicely executed.

kühles you mentioned support for player motivation - I think of this in terms of credibility. I've seen a few checklists for things that websites should concern themselves with in building a credible site - One key part I think is: Keeping a Game Site Current takes a plan with your day to day process, that covers creating, writing and posting news, a site architecture that allows for a team to have easy admin access to making changes, content and places for the community submit new content is also key.

I look for dates (so many sites look abandoned and static). I look for press releases (in addition to news items) to see how sophisticated the marketing and PR of a company is (note to self: update GG's latest releases for posting).

Ease of navigation to find info on the team, the game and dev. progress pre-launch, screenshots, backstory, interviews, previews, user quotes (even alpha testers or beta feedback), links/partnerships with others as well as FAQs and forums. Good quality content builds credibility and connection to the game for prospective players.

When working with the press all of these areas provide the information they need to write interview questions, do reviews and decide if the game is significant as an Indie game to give it coverage.

EDIT: Typos

#5 Jay, you're right about keeping the site current. If the dev seems to have lost interest, why should anyone else care about it.

This doesn't necessarily mean you need to keep a daily blog, with a .plan or even daily news. As long as its up to date and looks like you are trying to IMPROVE the game.

There is nothing worse than a site with broken screenshot or DL links. That makes me think the site/game is dead, unless I see evidence otherwise. But don't make me look for signs of life.

Our forums serve many purposes, and people are even allowed to bitch and complain about the shortcomings of the game (although those are fairly rare). Another purpose of the Forums are to "unnoficially" announce news, like a new port, new features, or what we are doing. This allows the fans to respond or ask questions.

Another point Jay makes is the PR/Marketing. If your game has won awards, MAKE THIS PROMINENT. Even if its a nomination. Even if nobody has even heard of the award. "Happy Joe's Best Game of the Month Award" may not sound too important to you as a Dev, and it may not impress Publishers or Magazines, but I'll accept any award proudly. Possibly the WORST mistake you could make would be to snub Happy Joe because his award isn't important enough.

Provide links to reviews- good bad or in-between. NO REVIEWS are worse than BAD REVIEWS. If one person reads a bad review, but finds something mentioned therein that they find interesting, they may DL the game just to see that feature. I've done it myself on many occasions and found some VERY interesting games in the process.

Basically, don't be afraid to toot your own horn. The fans won't see it as a bloated ego-trip, as long as its truthful and not over the top. In fact, many of them take pride in helping your game rise to the top.

#6 @Randall - I can't agree more. Self-promotion done well is what gets all of us excited about new games. You need to be willing to create some personality for your team members, put out some wall paper, be connecting with your testers and players.

Building expectations that you can meet and exceed is what marketing is all about - expectation management creating and fulfilling it. Take a risk, if your team is up to the challenge and have a count down to when you'll launch your site, your beta, etc. (of course then you have to hit the target date), but keep building momentum prelaunch.

#7 Hello,

The postings here are very interesting. I wonder, however, if any of you think that a mailing list would improve the website. A mailing list is generally used to keep your visitors/players up to date about company/game progress and might be useful to keep your visitors return to your site.

On the other hand, there are so many websites out there that exploit a mailing list that I can imagine people get a bit withholding with signing up for mailing lists. The goal of a mailing list is of course NOT to make your site scare people away.

What are your thoughts on this?

#8 Thijs, make it clear what people will recieve from such a newsletter. There has to be some motivation: whether newsletter delivers info about rebates day or two sooner than such info is posted on web, or you recieve info on new interesting releases.

And always tell how often you plan sending out a newsletter. and dont lie here. I would gladly subscribe to a bi-weekly or once per month newsletter if I knew that it wouldnt bombard me with irrevelant news any other day.

also, make some kind of guarantee that subscribers private info is not sold to third parties.

add some entertainment value. same rules as for website apply here: content is the king.

#9 Thanks for the tips!