No Publisher Love For Darwinia

Next Generation has a conversation with the lead designer of the much lauded game Darwinia. From the article: "It sports astonishing graphics and original gameplay elements that weave their way around a decent story. Reviewers like it but, as is so often the case, publishers can't seem able to convince themselves it has anything other than niche market value. We spoke to Chris Delay about the frustrations and challenges of independence and originality..."

Comments

Re:Highly recommended game

[CDarklock]

Somewhere along the line, marketing stopped being about finding people who want something, and started being mostly about making people buy things they don't want.

This industry reinvention has made it very difficult for most marketers to handle a good product, because they can't find the right people who don't want it.

Re:Highly recommended game

[Flayra]

Darwinia is very impressive, but I think mostly only to game developers or afficionados. That said, I don't see why they need to get into retail in the U.S.: they are profitable already and they used raw persistence and cohones to get themselves into UK retail.

They've gotten great PR for themselves, and they are able to sell their games directly from their website at essentially 100% profit. They don't NEED retail!

If they ever go out of business, they should be able to land a sweet game job, save up some cash and do it again. They've earned quite a reputation.

If I were them, I would just keep doing what I was doing.

Re:Highly recommended game

[CDarklock]

Used car salesmen aren't so widely disliked because of what they sell, but because of how they sell it.

Same with marketers. We all know "under ten dollars" means "$9.99", because that's what it ALWAYS means. Why don't they just say "ten bucks"? Because people always round down. $9.99 looks like $9 to most people, so it seems a whole lot cheaper than $10. Look at gas stations; a gallon of gas isn't 2.87, it's 2.879, because people don't count that last 9/10 of a cent. But they still pay it. That's what marketing is all about. You manipulate the world to make people think one thing and pay another.

Nobody is complaining that the miniature blender isn't worth an extra dollar, or that the gallon of gas isn't worth the extra penny. They're complaining that someone is trying to trick them, which is precisely what is happening. We're wise to it. We don't *fall* for the trick. We just perceive that a trick is being played, and we don't like it.

So when we can't see the trick, it doesn't make the marketer look honest and forthright. It just makes us feel increasingly suspicious, because we know marketers play tricks, and if we can't see what the trick *is*... chances are we're about to get screwed.

Fool me once, and all that.