Marketing SE V

[Atrocities]

I was just reading through a few older reviews of Space Empires IV and noticed that many of those reviewing the game noted that previous Version of Space Empires were a little known secret because of poor marketing and publicity.

Now we all know that Shrapnel has done a great job marketing SE IV, as has word of mouth and PG Gamers favorable review of both SEIV and SEIV Gold. However, I for one feel that a lot more could have been done in the way of marketing and hope that with the success of SE IV, both Shrapnel and MM will seriously and aggressively market SE V.

What struck me as very aggervating was when I was in the EB Game store at the mall the other day and some guys were talking about how much they wanted a true 4 x game. They talked about how bad MOO3 was and how the genra has just fallen flat. I listened for a bit while reading up on some of the game magazines when I felt the time was right, I asked one of them if they had tried SEIV.

"SE IV? What the hell is SE IV?"

So I told him. I could see he thought I was insane, but I told him to run up to the library and see for himself. (They have computers there).

The guy behind the counter, when asked if he could get them a copy of SEIV, replied no, that game is a dos game and most PC's won't even run it.

This floored me and prompted me to point out that he was misinformed. The point being, if a guy who sells games doesn't even KNOW about a game that many people wish they could play, but don't even know that the very game they are wishing for has been out for nearly four years now, then what hope is there for Space Empires V.

Granted, these guys probably live in a cave, and the store clerk looked more like a Mortal Combat PS2 player than a real PC gamer.

I am no marketing guy, I know nothing about the industry or even profess to understand on line marketing or business plans, but I do know one thing, if people don't know about your game, they won't buy it.

Hell 90% of the people at the MOO3 forums didn't even know SE IV exsisted until after MOO3 was released and they came to the forum to ***** about how bad the game was. I did a lot of posting there promoting, with profession courtesy to MOO3 of course, about the wonders of Space Empires IV.

Taking into account my complete lack of skill in marketing, would it be a plausable concept to send out flyers to all the stores that sell PC games telling them that you have a product, that they can buy at a discount in bulk from shrapnel, that people are interested in buying? Do all the sales have to be On Line sales?

Again, I know nothing about marketing and I am not critizing shrapnel at all. I just love the game and want other to discover it.