Help Needed: How to Describe SR2010

Post by **George Geczy** » Apr 19 2004

Most people on the forum now have a pretty good idea of what this game is about

Now we need some help, to provide feedback to the Marketing types at Strategy First....

How would you describe Supreme Ruler 2010? What genre are we in?

- "Real Time Strategy"?
- "Turn Based Strategy"?
- "Tactical Strategy"?
- Something else?

Who is the target audience?

- Hardcore Strategy Gamer?
- Wargamer?
- Civilization-building Gamer?

What game would be similar to SR2010 - as in, "if you liked x, you'll like SR2010!"

Ideas?

Empier4552 · Post by **Empier4552** » Apr 19 2004

Heh this should be moved to the contest section best describing line or something hehe

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Apr 19 2004

On 2004-04-19 11:07, George Geczy wrote:
Most people on the forum now have a pretty good idea of what this game is about Now we need some help, to provide feedback to the Marketing types at Strategy First....

How would you describe Supreme Ruler 2010? What genre are we in?

- "Real Time Strategy"?
- "Turn Based Strategy"?
- "Tactical Strategy"?
- Something else?

ALL of the above +

Who is the target audience?

- Hardcore Strategy Gamer?
- Wargamer?
- Civilization-building Gamer?

People who dont think warcraft,AoE,etc.. are for adult minds.

What game would be similar to SR2010 - as in, "if you liked x, you'll like SR2010!"

Ideas?

If you like techno thrillers-books written by clancy,bond,brown etc...
If you thought Harpoon, great as it was, could have had more depth.
If you truly want a clue about just what that "talking head" anylsyt on the news just said.
This is the game for you.Its like a learning game on the current military age.
Similar games ? None .AND shame on games devs everywhere for that !

djtrix · Post by **djtrix** » Apr 19 2004

This game will appeal to a broad market of gamers (and non-gamers):

1. The pen & paper strategy game players who have long been ashamed by the abhorent lack of detail in other video games.

2. Military enthusiasts

3. Strategy gamers

4. Political enthusiasts

and finally the rest of us mish-mash people!

I think you should press to get blurbs about your game into every aspect of cross-media you can. For example, write into hobby associations for strategy board games. Write @Discovery Canada and explain the depth of your game. I'm sure Jay Ingrim would be interested!

In summary, I think that the best way to market such a grandious game is by being unconventional about it. Atract attention from every sector you can! If you want a list, I'd be glad to start brainstorming that!

herr neumann · Post by **herr neumann** » Apr 20 2004

"if you liked x, you'll like SR2010!"

I think both Europa Universalis and HoI would fall under this "x". Also to some extent Imperialsim 1 & 2 by SSI.
And in some sense this game reminds me of good'ol Settlers 1 but not many will see the similarities I guess.

[ This Message was edited by: herr neumann on 2004-04-19 23:40 ]

OXA · Post by **OXA** » Apr 20 2004

There is a slight problem with a game like SP2010 in that it is clearly going to attract ppl who might not be a regular gamer. How do you get in contact with these kind of ppl?? How do you direct your marketing??

The ppl in the games store checking the shelfs is proberbly going to be mostly mainstreem gamers.. the ppl regulary checking the onlinereviews and buying gaming magazines are problerbly going to be mainstreem gamers..

So the problem with niched games like this might be not that there isnÂ´t a market but instead that the regular communication channels used doesnÂ´t reach the intended market..

Using more unique channels on the other hand can get pretty expencive pretty quick and that way eat away a profit.. so that makes it a gamble... it would problery also require a fairly inovative group of marketers to direct the communication and that might not be available or affordable.

So sure if will proberbly be a challenge.. =) not impossible of cause but a challenge nether the less..

[ This Message was edited by: OXA on 2004-04-20 05:20 ]

R0B3E · Post by **R0B3E** » Apr 20 2004

I agree with the "government simulation" concept above, but to me this seems to be more of a "Real World Conflict Simulation" game. None of the other genre's do it credit.
[By creating a new genre, you become the best game in that category.]
People will most often get into this game to create a conflict [such as taking over another country, or subversive action], and then manage the outcome of that conflict. Real World domination has a tremendous appeal as documented in the many threads asking about the scope of the game beyond the initial sceanrios. I think there are a lot of poeple who will want to follow their heritage and have Northern California, or Eastern Australia, or wherever, take over the world. Thus worldwide marketing in a variety of languages should be very successful. There should be a Korean translation due to the high level of play in that country.
So many other games have a world or level designed by a dev where you are really matching wits with the game dev, trying to figure out how clever they were in setting up the world or level. In this game you play in the real world, and knowledge of real world relationships, supply & demand, topography and issues will give you an advantage. Thus this game will appeal to a more educated clientele than to finger-twitchers. How about: "Finger-twitchers need not apply" ?
I think if you cull your Previews by Gamespot, Wargamer etal, you will find some very good tag lines. Didn't Wargamer say "The most ambitious game of all time"?
I've seen a lot of threads that have said: "The last game I'll need to buy."
How about: "If you don't think your politicians are doing a good job, see how you do running a major mid-east conflict."
I think this game will become required playing for political science majors and generals [not just arm-chair]. You should not be allowed to be president, NSA, CIA or other high-ranking official unless you can win a scenario.
I think you could have excellent luck marketing this through educational channels. For example, there's a company called "Scholastic". We buy a lot of great books for our kids through them. They also market carefully selected games, and I think Civ is one of them. They are in vertually every school I know of. This may not be the company you would work with but perhaps there is a correllary at the college and graduate school level.

How about: "Mothers/Wives, do you want to know where your Kids/Husbands are? Buy SR2010 and you'll always know where they are!

Does valuable advice earn me a beta yet? huh? huh?

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Apr 20 2004

"Real World Conflict Simulation"

I like that ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Or maybe -

"Modern Age Conflict Simualtion"

The ending "Conflict Simualtion" is a very solid definitive term for the game.
Since the "conflict" can be diplomatic,economic,or military in the game.
And most likely will be all 3 P

prime_642 · Post by **prime_642** » Apr 20 2004

The target audience could be everyone and anyone who can read and use a computer. All of the reviews emphasized SR2010's ease of use. Every button had a pop-up that told you what to do. The reviews all stated that it was easy to grasp the system. I really see no reason to limit the audience. Anyone who favor's Ghandhi's teachings can just use the game as an economic simulation. In fact, why don't you make a "economy-only" scenario where you can only win without using millitary force? (You may only win by re-unification votes) That way, those that want to can use it as a large scale economic simulater. Who knows, you might get some orders from Universities or "Strategic Think-Tanks"

Post by **George Geczy** » Apr 20 2004

Thanks for the ideas so far. I see that the Marketers are going to have a tough job with this one!

Of course, the guys that really will want to stick us into a 'category' are the Gaming magazines. As was mentioned even the online gaming sites usually have us in a genre slot of some sort, I think I've seen everything from Turnbased Strategy to Realtime Wargame.

Our own descriptions often include the line "Civilization meets Panzer General meets Sim City".

I like the "Conflict Simulation" suggestion, and we also have heard "Geo-Political Strategy" as a possibility (a bit more sexy than the "Government Simulation" that Hannibal suggested, but the same concept).

By the way, there will be Scenarios that can be (optionally) won by non-military methods, such as economic or diplomatic wins. Though it isn't usually in human nature to play that way

-- George.

PS - The original "Supreme Ruler", the 1982 edition made for the TRS-80 computer, was actually used by some high school and university classes as a teaching aid for some basic economic concepts; we received a number of letters discussing interesting uses for the software. And that was a 48K program, about 1/3000th the size of the new version

Post by **BattleGoat** » Apr 23 2004

We even have a letter somewhere from a Harvard Economics Professor saying that he used the original Supreme Ruler in his course!

OXA · Post by **OXA** » Apr 25 2004

In marketing a good product always helps

If you have a good product that the market would proberbly be iterested in then it is mostly an issue of timed and accurate communication. That is delivering the right msg at the right time in a fashion that ppl will read/listen/watch it.

IÂ´m convinced that there is a market for SR2010. Is it a good product?? The betatesters sure seem to think so. Will the communication be timed and accurate?? Well that remains to be seen

However I think this thread was mostly about trying to get input so that the product could be described in an accurate way.. that meens that IÂ´m off topic once more..

[ This Message was edited by: OXA on 2004-04-25 16:45 ]

R0B3E · Post by **R0B3E** » Apr 26 2004

Don't worry, it's a great game.
More Marketing Ideas:
1. THE MOTHER OF ALL WARGAMES. [If Saddam Hussein had played SR2010 he wouldn't have been such a pushover.]
2. Get Larry Bond, Tom Clancy & others to promote the game: "Larry Bond plays SR2102, do you?"
3. Start a contest to design the most outrageous and exciting scenario & record the key strokes. Bond/Clancy or other would write a new book based on the winning scenario.
4. Compare playing SR2010 to reading a book: "Create a conflict that other's only read about!"
Its easy to come up with ideas for such a great product.

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Apr 26 2004

I like all of these ^^^^^^^