What is the story with those dominion ads??

[DonCorazon]

Hot woman who wants the quintessential geek product is what makes this ad funny and not just gratuitous.

[Renojustin]

It's not funny. It's not effective. It's just plain stupid.

As Turn Based Strategy players in general, and Dominions 3 players in particular, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we prefer substance over graphics.

[vfb]

According to the Shrapnel Blog, it was (is?) very effective, at least in terms of click-through rates. Sorry, lost the link to Scott's blog post. In marketing, the ends justify the means, and besides, no bog beasts were harmed in the making of the ads.

It's funny to me because it's completely blatant. There is no attempt at all to even try linking the sexual exploitation to the game.

Anything that contributes to additional sales and the success of Illwinter and Shrapnel is good IMO. I have sufficient faith in the developers to believe that this marketing campaign is going to have no influence on the game itself.

[Wokeye]

I think they are quite ironic?, playful and bloody funny. The bog beast versions are even better.

Yes they are stupid, dont at all relate to Dom3, and are potentially offensive, but the fact that we have a 7 page post plus this post about them means they get attention and hold attention. Bingo!

[S.R. Krol]

vfb said:
According to the Shrapnel Blog, it was (is?) very effective, at least in terms of click-through rates. Sorry, lost the link to Scott's blog post.

Here it is.

[lch]

S.R. Krol said:

Here it is.

I *did* mention that I've been clicking on the ads 25 times whenever I saw them, and I usually never click on them at all. When I was still under the impression that it was supposed to be some kinda april's fools joke, that is.

P.S.: Plus, those new ads are the only thing that I see. This sweet Firefox extension named AdBlock+ filters out all the other stuff by default, and that extension is extremely popular, if not mandatory. So other people might just not see any of the other ads, too, and thus no clickey.

P.P.S.: Oh and regarding this piece from the blog: "Reaction to the ads have been extremely positive [...] there’s a nice forum thread currently at five pages [...] You even have one community member who changed his avatar to the ad for a while and is now using it as his sig, currently slightly modified." - the word you are looking for is "sarcasm".

[S.R. Krol]

lch said:
P.P.S.: Oh and regarding this piece from the blog: "Reaction to the ads have been extremely positive [...] there’s a nice forum thread currently at five pages [...] You even have one community member who changed his avatar to the ad for a while and is now using it as his sig, currently slightly modified." - the word you are looking for is "sarcasm".

That's the thing though Ich, ultimately it doesn't matter what the reason is/was--love it, hate it, feel it's clever, feel it's the dumbest thing you've ever seen--when the final result is that it's sparking a reaction. I mean Hell, we've already had one thread go on for seven pages and now we're in a second thread at three pages on the ads. So hey, it works.

***

A general comment to some other posts (not by you Ich, just want to make a catch-all posting here) concerning whether we advertise elsewhere. We do. Obviously on our site we're going to be pimping our products, hence nothing but Shrap banner ads, but we hit a number of sites with varying types of ads so there are plenty of "normal" Dom 3 ads out there. In fact, we have had some "normal" Dom 3 ads rotating on BoardGameGeek.

[DonCorazon]

How are those BGG ads doing? I tried to refer some people to Dom 3 on a thread over there dedicated to the upcoming Conan fantasy war board game but got jumped on by a some serious geeks who only wanted to discuss Conan even though there is little to discuss since the game has yet to be released.

[Ironhawk]

S.R. Krol said:
I mean Hell, we've already had one thread go on for seven pages and now we're in a second thread at three pages on the ads. So hey, it works.

This statement is a total trivialization of the point tho, Krol. You are making the grand assumption that since the ad has provoked debate that it will be insured to also bring higher Dominions/other Shrapnel Game sales. How can you just assume this when at least myself and several others have said we were offended by it and have lost respect for Shrapnel?? You'd think our opinion would actually count for something, given that we have proven we are loyal repeat customers...

[lch]

vfb said:
I have sufficient faith in the developers to believe that this marketing campaign is going to have no influence on the game itself.

A few changes that are going to happen during the next patches so the game becomes more appealing to the target audience: Seduction and Corruption will be played out in some kinda dating sim fashion. Blood hunting will be played out in some other kind of mini-game as well (no details) (especially not about how the Sanguine Dowsing Rod is going to be involved). Users can pay for optional extra content which upgrades their boring plain units with cool stuff to impress their unsuspecting MP enemies, like steam-powered chainsaws, nail guns and dragon-based airstrikes. The game will be shipped with a Dorito XL bag and a cool Bud light.