Sometimes writing for TSA feels pretty weird. I mean it’s pretty weird that I can write stuff in a little box whilst watching An Evening with Kevin Smith and a few hours later all of you will be reading it. There’s enough of you that it can feel a little bit intimidating if I stop and think about it for more than a few seconds. However the part makes it all feel weirder is that the audience feels pretty huge to me, but is really a drop in the ocean when you compare it to the sales figures for a lot of games.
It’s not just us though, even though sites like IGN are big targets for publishers and developers trying to get their game out there they don’t have the audience that mirrors the sales figures of titles. It’s the same in every industry really, you get those strange beasties called ‘fans’ that sit and read everything that comes out about a game or movie or author or, well, anything really. In the internet age there’s a community for fans of everything, and that by no means is a bad thing.
So why do people target these ‘hardcore’ fans through the media if they don’t make up the majority of the people they’re going to sell it to? The thing is traditional ad campaigns are expensive. Very, very expensive in fact. The cost of a full page advert in print media or a TV spot is astronomical. The advertising cost of any product takes up a huge chunk of the budget, so any way you can get it cheaper is a good thing. The other issue with traditional ads is that even though they cost a huge amount of money to put out, people have gotten very good at ignoring them. We’re so heavily bombarded by adverts in the modern world that most of the time we tune them out or just skip past them.
What’s this got to do with fans though? Well it’s simple, fans pick up a product early and will advertise it for you. They’ll show it off to their friends, talk about how awesome it is and generally paint it in a good light (assuming the product’s any good to start with). This is, basically, how Apple market the iPhone, although they do it with all of their products to some extent. Not only are you getting new advertising, you’re getting it for less than free. Early adopters are paying you for the product so they can then tell all their friends how amazing it is. You’ve managed to flip your gigantic cost that doesn’t produce particularly good results, into a profit that is actually pretty effective at getting the word out there.
Of course there is the cost of selling it to your fans, but that’s negligible really. Really it’s a subset of selling to your fans, you sell it to sites like us. Someone convinces us that a game is awesome, which is either very easy or very hard depending on how you do it, and we tell all you guys that it’s awesome. Our readers then go buy it, confirm that is indeed awesome and then tell all of their friends that it’s awesome and they go buy it.
That isn’t the be all and end all of selling of course. There is a case for spending insane amounts of money on TV ads, it just depends on who your target audience is. In my estimation, for the vast majority of games, you can buy up a few key advertising spots to try and sell it to the general public and get a similar result to buying ten times as many. There’s a point where everyone who could be interested is now interested, and the law of diminishing returns takes hold.
However for a few games, mostly big hitters like Halo or Call of Duty, it makes sense to advertise everywhere you can. That’s because those games have a fairly different fan base to most titles. These are the franchises where people buy every iteration of the game, but those are pretty much the only games they buy in a year. I don’t have an issue with that at all, if they’re enjoying themselves then who really cares?
The fact that they’re only buying these franchises, coupled with the fact that there’s a pretty good chance they’ll buy any new game in the series, means that basically just having an advert that goes “HEY! You there! There’s a new game in that series you love! Buy it! Buy it now!” makes a lot of sense. You’re just informing them that there’s a new thing in the series they love, and letting them know they should buy it.
Now those are pretty different groups of fans that you’re advertising to, but it kinds of annoys me that the group who take an interest in things in general seem to look down on the fans who just have the series they buy every year. It’s the same as people who discuss the Xbox 360 being categorically “better” than the PS3 (or vice versa), or that the PC is “better” for gaming than consoles. Neither approach is better, they’re just different. Let people like what they like and everyone can be happy.
gazzagb
I hate fanboys so much I even hate the word ‘fanboy’. There’s a fine line between being loyal to a company/console, and then there’s fanboyism.
But there’s also the total opposite of fanboys which is just as bad where people will hate a certain thing with no real reason. Take Activision for example, everyone ‘hates’ them and believe they’re money stealing bastards, but they are just a very successful company. And simply because they own the COD franchise doesn’t mean that ‘COD’ is rubbish, imo, the games are brilliant (except for Blops).
I think it was one of the reasons I love TSA so much. It’s different to every single other gaming website in the fact that there aren’t many fanboys (or if there are, then they’re pretty restrained!) and I love TSA’s attitude towards the Community, which all together makes a fantastic site.
cc_star
Yeah, I hate the haters too. W**kers the lot of them, especially the bandwagon jumpers who are just chiming in because they think everyone else is, until they convince themselves that that’s actually what they believe.
Although does that make me a hater o_O
Foxhound_Solid
360 Fanboys are the worst – they indeed wear blinkers.
That is all.
bunimomike
No. No they are not. ALL fanboys are the worst although let’s differentiate. Fanboys can be decent and just prefer a console but when immature and confrontational idiots say how they “hate” {insert console here} why? Did that console rape and kill their family? No! The 360 is a great console. So is the PS3. So is the Wii (although not for me). It doesn’t mean I can’t be mature enough to realise that I DON’T have to “hate on” people. It’s so shockingly immature I can’t quite believe it.
DrNate86
My parents were raped and killed by a SNES.
Foxhound_Solid
Yep Bunimomike, I hear ya, I see your point.
Seemingly though in most cases you can only pass a judgement really on personal experiences, whenever I have encountered a fan boy of the green X I have always been shocked by them.
Its one of those things sadly as when someone makes a choice as to which console they prefer then they are told by someone else its kack, they take that as a personal insult in some cases. Shame really…
I have a friend who is a 360 fanboy. He is constantly saying how shite Ps3 is and how he would never ever bother with one? When GT5 dropped he did nothing but go on about Forza, only to be massively shamed when we dicovered a 320 slim with GT5 being played to death by him?
No Forza have made their announcements and are basically copying GT5 he is now saying 360 is the greatest again. hahaha.
Also I have gamed since I was about 6 [1986 onwards] and the Fanboy was never as bad as they are now and the turning point for me was the creation of the Xbox 360 Fanboy. So for me its they remain the worst.
Foxhound_Solid
Excuse the severre typos, trying to conceal my screen at work to no avail tbh hahaha
bunimomike
Ah, a very limited experience (which is a good thing, I’m sure!). I’ve seen the ugly side of fanboyism in many consumer industries and it’s always just as pathetic. People take it all too seriously and a lack of maturity erupts into something truly nasty (online more than ever).
PCs, Macs, consoles, football teams, etc. It’s all a load of crap. We should be thankful that we live in a world where we can even enjoy these things. Crazy, eh?
kevatron400
They say consumer loyalty is a disease, but anyone who buys a product of high value like a games console will feel the need to justify their purchase to others and themselves.
I only have a ps3, I bought it because I felt it looked to be the better console. I’m not going to start shouting at others for not buying it, but I would still say that it is a better console if asked, because I bought it in the first place, so I’m not going to put my hands up and say “whoops, got the wrong one.”
Sigmadead
I have all 3 consoles. I got Wii because at the time it was released the easiest to obtain and also the most affordable. Eventually I ended up with the 360 because the selection of games on the Wii was really not appealing to me, and 360 was cheaper than getting the ps3. I was pretty happy with 360 for a year or two, then Sony dropped Metal Gear Solid 4, and I had to have it. So I ended up with all 3. Over time I realized I preferred the PS3 to the other two simply because it does more for me and my family, and getting online with it is simple vs what the other two offer.
I wouldn’t say Im a sony fanboy tho. I just like the PS3 better.