Catching the Eye
If you are reading this article, the chances are you are an EarthBound or Mother fan. How was it that you were first introduced to the game? Did a friend tell you about it? Did you see it in a store and say, "Hey, why not try it?" Or was it a birthday present that you at first thought of as lame, but then realized the greatness of the game in your possession? Well for me the answer is my brother. I used to just watch him play video games for hours. I particularly remember watching him play this one, mainly because of the strategy guide. He refused to beat the game with the strategy guide, so he gave it to me. So while he'd be playing, I'd be laughing to myself, knowing all he has to do is talk to the one guy in the one place, etc. He tried for an hour to figure out how to beat Giygas, and at the same time I'd be reminding him that I know how to beat him (at this point he hits me and calls me names). And then there were the scratch and sniff card-things in the back. I used to love sniffing them (give me a break, I was only 6 or 7).
Okay, so far all I've done is ramble, so I'll try to get to my point. Every game you play ends up getting in your possession somehow, whether by choice (buy it) or by force (get it as a gift). To get the game popular, you have to make it a game that can easily be seen, heard, wanted, and talked about, which can be done multiple ways. The most important of these is to make it a great game. EarthBound has that part covered. Everyone who has played it knows that it is a great game.
Next is advertising. There are many ways to advertise this game. EarthBound character cameos in popular games. Everyone who owns or has played SSB and SSBM knows Ness. They might not know who the heck he is or where he comes from, but at least it's a start. TV advertisements are another helpful, yet not absolutely necessary, step. I think that for EB commercials to work, they'd need to be very strange, much like the game itself. Humor is the best way to win. Ads in magazines never hurt either. Once again, humor is probably the best way to go.
This another advertising step, but I feel it deserves its own paragraph. FREE STUFF!!! The free strategy guide was a great idea, but I think it can be made even better (if at all possible). Why not a free EarthBound T-shirt? It's FREE, it looks good, and it spreads the word on the game. I wear my EB shirt that I got from cafepress.com, and it helps spread the word. Okay, so three people now know what the heck I'm talking about, but imagine if 500,000 people buy the game and get the FREE (free is the key word. It makes people feel happy) T-shirt. The chances are the game will get more popular as people see the shirt more often. While this might seem like a minor step, it'll help at least a little bit and won't cost much more than giving out FREE strategy guides. It can go even than T-shirts. They can raffle out EB products to people who register their game online. That means FREE bumper stickers (people stuck in traffic can now see a game. Imagine if the person was Mrs. Smith who's going to the store to buy her son's birthday present. After being stuck behind an EB bumper sticker for half an hour, she'll be more likely to remember that game while shopping), FREE car air refreshers (like the pine tree ones you hang from your mirror. This would work like the bumper sticker except less effective), FREE stickers and other misc. junk (good for pawning off to little children), and more FREE junk that is cheap to make yet still advertises for EB.
I think you get the picture with advertising, so I'll go back to my "To get the game popular, you have to make it a game that can easily be seen, heard, wanted, and talked about, which can be done multiple ways" ramble. So far we have great game and advertising. Next is "catching the eye of last minute present shoppers". Many parents like to rush out to the store and buy a game for their child, as most of you have probably been the victim of. They skim the racks of games looking for some they think their child will like, buy it, and then wonder why their child is crying when he/she opens the present. If the game has a cool looking box, cool name, cool description on the back, and last-minute-shopper-eye-catcher properties, the game will have a better chance of being picked up and shoved into a child's fingers.
I'd rather avoid any lawsuits and/or death threats from people who have read through this, so I think I'll stop. Yes I realize I ramble incoherently and shift around in my thinking a lot, but if you manage to sort through the mayhem above you will see some of my ideas really aren't that bad. For all I know I was in the middle of a paragraph and then stopped suddenly. I hope to see the EarthBound series become a must-get game for every GCN or Revolution owner. Maybe we can even get some FREE stuff out of it.
Note: I am not liable for anything that I say, write, type, or photograph. Please refrain from killing me.
If you are reading this article, the chances are you are an EarthBound or Mother fan. How was it that you were first introduced to the game? Did a friend tell you about it? Did you see it in a store and say, "Hey, why not try it?" Or was it a birthday present that you at first thought of as lame, but then realized the greatness of the game in your possession? Well for me the answer is my brother. I used to just watch him play video games for hours. I particularly remember watching him play this one, mainly because of the strategy guide. He refused to beat the game with the strategy guide, so he gave it to me. So while he'd be playing, I'd be laughing to myself, knowing all he has to do is talk to the one guy in the one place, etc. He tried for an hour to figure out how to beat Giygas, and at the same time I'd be reminding him that I know how to beat him (at this point he hits me and calls me names). And then there were the scratch and sniff card-things in the back. I used to love sniffing them (give me a break, I was only 6 or 7).
Okay, so far all I've done is ramble, so I'll try to get to my point. Every game you play ends up getting in your possession somehow, whether by choice (buy it) or by force (get it as a gift). To get the game popular, you have to make it a game that can easily be seen, heard, wanted, and talked about, which can be done multiple ways. The most important of these is to make it a great game. EarthBound has that part covered. Everyone who has played it knows that it is a great game.
Next is advertising. There are many ways to advertise this game. EarthBound character cameos in popular games. Everyone who owns or has played SSB and SSBM knows Ness. They might not know who the heck he is or where he comes from, but at least it's a start. TV advertisements are another helpful, yet not absolutely necessary, step. I think that for EB commercials to work, they'd need to be very strange, much like the game itself. Humor is the best way to win. Ads in magazines never hurt either. Once again, humor is probably the best way to go.
This another advertising step, but I feel it deserves its own paragraph. FREE STUFF!!! The free strategy guide was a great idea, but I think it can be made even better (if at all possible). Why not a free EarthBound T-shirt? It's FREE, it looks good, and it spreads the word on the game. I wear my EB shirt that I got from cafepress.com, and it helps spread the word. Okay, so three people now know what the heck I'm talking about, but imagine if 500,000 people buy the game and get the FREE (free is the key word. It makes people feel happy) T-shirt. The chances are the game will get more popular as people see the shirt more often. While this might seem like a minor step, it'll help at least a little bit and won't cost much more than giving out FREE strategy guides. It can go even than T-shirts. They can raffle out EB products to people who register their game online. That means FREE bumper stickers (people stuck in traffic can now see a game. Imagine if the person was Mrs. Smith who's going to the store to buy her son's birthday present. After being stuck behind an EB bumper sticker for half an hour, she'll be more likely to remember that game while shopping), FREE car air refreshers (like the pine tree ones you hang from your mirror. This would work like the bumper sticker except less effective), FREE stickers and other misc. junk (good for pawning off to little children), and more FREE junk that is cheap to make yet still advertises for EB.
I think you get the picture with advertising, so I'll go back to my "To get the game popular, you have to make it a game that can easily be seen, heard, wanted, and talked about, which can be done multiple ways" ramble. So far we have great game and advertising. Next is "catching the eye of last minute present shoppers". Many parents like to rush out to the store and buy a game for their child, as most of you have probably been the victim of. They skim the racks of games looking for some they think their child will like, buy it, and then wonder why their child is crying when he/she opens the present. If the game has a cool looking box, cool name, cool description on the back, and last-minute-shopper-eye-catcher properties, the game will have a better chance of being picked up and shoved into a child's fingers.
I'd rather avoid any lawsuits and/or death threats from people who have read through this, so I think I'll stop. Yes I realize I ramble incoherently and shift around in my thinking a lot, but if you manage to sort through the mayhem above you will see some of my ideas really aren't that bad. For all I know I was in the middle of a paragraph and then stopped suddenly. I hope to see the EarthBound series become a must-get game for every GCN or Revolution owner. Maybe we can even get some FREE stuff out of it.
Note: I am not liable for anything that I say, write, type, or photograph. Please refrain from killing me.
