From: Bryan J. Maloney (jacobus@sonata.cc.purdue.edu)
Date: Thu 03 Feb 1994 - 19:34:03 EET
One thing that has bothered me about the ad copy thus far:
All of the emphasis on the "return" of Glorantha. I know that the idea of
Glorantha's triumphant return mail appeal to us Grognards, but if RQ:AiG
is meant to attract NEW people, stressing the "return" of a game world may
just prompt the mental question "What was wrong with it the first time
around?"
I say to drop the emphasis on "return to Glorantha" and just present the
game as a unit. Move the "return" stuff to a less central place in the
ad copy. The theme should not be how RuneQuest has gone back to Glorantha.
The theme of any advertisement should be how great RuneQuest and Glorantha
are to somebody who's never SEEN the game before. Why? Grognards will
pick up the game once they've noticed that it is set in Glorantha, they won't
need to be told that it's a "return" (unless they're seriously stupid).
New folks won't care that a game is "returning" to a setting they've never
even heard of in the first place (and they won't care that the "return" is
being made by a game system they've never even heard of in the first place).
Let's put it this way--Every time I have EVER stated to non RQ oldfarts
that RQIV was to return to Glorantha, I got a completely blank "So what?"
The lesson I learned from this was that it doesn't matter what something
is returning to from a marketing standpoint if people have no idea what
that point of return was in the first place.
Perhaps my experience is unique--but that may be because I purposively sought
out people who have never heard of RuneQuest, Glorantha, etc. for the Pavis
setting playtest I ran of the last draft. Remember, there are a LOT more
gamers who have never even HEARD of RuneQuest or Glorantha than there are
gamers who have heard of either.
0,,
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