Word of Mouth Marketing: Don’t Piss People Off
Right now, Jamie is playing a PlayStation game called Black. Judging by the cover — and honey, when it comes to video games, you can ALWAYS judge by the cover — I’m going to assume it has to do with shooting stuff.
Black is rated M-17, which means it’s only for adults. Since it involves shooting stuff, we can also assume males would be the primary players of this game. Therefore, on paper anyway, Black’s rough target demographic is adult men who own video game consoles. My husband is an adult. He is a man. He owns a video game console. Cool, huh?
(To be fair, their target demographic is a lot more detailed than that and Jamie is probably about ten years older than Black’s perfect customer, but three out of four ain’t bad. )
Black, like many combat style video games, is arranged by mission. A mission is similar to a level. When you get to the end of the mission — as in, you got through it and didn’t die — you save. Then you can either continue playing or quit until next time.
Unlike many video games, though, in Black, you can ONLY save when you’re done your mission. Not a moment before. And the missions are an hour and a half long. Let me tell you how much I love this.
My husband, like most adult males, has a life. He has a spouse. He has a toddler. He has two cats. He runs a small business. He does not often have an hour and a half of uninterrupted time, and when he does, he doesn’t always want to spend the entire time playing video games.
So when he has only half an hour and wants to play Black, he finds something else to do.
If I were the nice people who created Black, I wouldn’t be happy with this information.
I know, like I said earlier, he’s not the target. He’s a Daddy Type and they’re not trying for Daddy Types. But what about the people they were trying for? High school and college students are busy, too. Drinking and going out on the pull take time, people.
If you haven’t read Identifying Your Target Market or Why I Don’t Want A Monster In My Pants and Target Demographics, The Sequel, you probably should.
What we learned in the target demographics articles was that you should laser target your marketing to the exact person you want to buy your shit.
But, and there’s always a but, that’s your marketing. It’s not your product development. And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times, marketing begins in product development.
(Aside: Actually, it was Seth Godin, author of a new post about ignoring the n00bs, who said this. While we’re on the topic of Mr. Godin, I have it on good authority that he or one of his minions has a Google alert for his name. Hi Seth! Would you please provide a blurb for my book jacket? I didn’t want to ask by email because that’s not exactly a Purple Cow thing to do, now, is it?)
Your TV campaigns and your magazine ads and your signs in bus shelters are not your entire marketing campaign. In an industry like video games, a large part of your marketing campaign is word of mouth. And Black has screwed this one up royally.
When considering elements to include in your product or service, think of your target first. That part’s easy. Then think of everybody else. Not so easy.
If you’re thinking of adding a feature that would not negatively impact your target demographic but would POSITIVELY impact your secondary and tertiary demographics, add it.
Secondary and tertiary demographics can tell two friends, too, you know.
In this example, adding the option to save mid-mission would not impact the experience of the target user even a teensy bit. It would have zero impact on their game. On the other hand, it would make game play a whole lot better for people like my husband.
Then he would tell all his friends that Black is awesome and at least ten of them would buy it.
This is not rocket science, people.
Next Post: Wherein I Get Really, Really Excited
Right now, a spiky-haired emo with a penchant for piercings is turning to his mates in the bus stop and speaking the words:
“I bought that Black game last night. That bloke in OctoGamer Monthly who gave it 3/10 was having a laugh! Bloody masterpiece it is — hardly any save points. Bit of a challenge, like, but I did some dope, pulled a late one, and nailed it in 4 hours straight. You should buy it, lads. Like I say — a masterpiece.”
The decision to favour ‘die everywhere’ over ’save anywhere’ in game design used to make good commercial sense. The idea came from coin-operated arcade machines, where the Game Over screen and the horror of restarting levels from the beginning meant more money in the slots.
These days, it’s just a vehicle for young developers to let everyone over 25 know that they’re getting on a bit. I consider myself a bit of a game geek, but last week — for the first time ever — I sold a game on Amazon’s Marketplace just 20 minutes after starting it. I hadn’t completed it; I’d completely given up.
Funnily enough, it was in the same week that I turned 26.
I hear ya. The first Resident Evil was like that - very limited save points. As someone who (at the time) only had time to play for about 30 minutes at a time after all the baby went to sleep, I never finished it. Not worth it.
(Um … I was … 26.)
@ Nick — 1. You’re right, of course, as usual. 2. God, you’re old.
@ Dave — What is with these guys? They seem to think it’ll make you play more, when in fact it just makes you give up in a huff.
Naomi,
I don’t play video games, but my daughter does, on her little mobile thing. Nintendo something-or-other. She has several games that can’t be saved until you finish a… thingy… which tends to mean that meals get cold or I choose hollering, which isn’t my style.
I have thought about it from the psychology/ target-market p.o.v., wondering if there is a benefit to this that I don’t get. Does it maybe hook people more to refuse to let them save? I mean, Jamie was playing the game when he could have been doing anything else in the world, right?
What I’m saying is that maybe, maybe, it does negatively impact things in a way we don’t quite see, and that’s why they don’t allow more frequent saves.
Hmm…
Regards,
Kelly
This makes me think of the winter holidays, where you’re trying to appeal to the person who is buying the gifts, not receiving them.
Smart lesson to add a feature for a secondary market if it doesn’t negatively impact the target market — you got me thinking.
And another smart lesson in-action was your aside that references Seth Godin’s new post by title (which some won’t have read and it drives traffic to him), rather than a book title everyone’s heard of (and won’t need to click to.) I too use google alerts on most clients and colleagues — it’s a great tool — but using it in reverse, to reach a person who is using it — is something I thought only I was devious enough to do. Now it feels legit, thanks.
@ Kelly — Somebody from gaming should come and talk to us about this, because I can see no benefit. But you’re right, it’s so damn commonplace now that there HAS to be a reason. Although if it’s the reason that Nick stated, colour me pissed.
@ GirlPie — Totally legit, baby. I once commented with Mr. G when Sonia Simone of RemarCom did a feature on the new book. I fervently believe — and Mr. G, if you’re listening, please do not disavow me of this — that he got it through Google Alerts.
Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about the game or the people who make them other than what I’ve read in this blog post.
Being able to save mid-level makes the game a lot easier, and I have to think that was intentional. If you can save at any time, you can “rest” and recollect yourself without the pressure of playing and thinking in real-time. Plus, there’s a lot more tension knowing that a mistake will really cost you (your time, when you start the level over).
Is it possible that the company that made Black *was* marketing to their audience; the audience that wanted a challenging game that was worth bragging about the more missions you completed?
Bottom line: I agree with your point that marketing to your audience is critical, just wondering if your husband is truly in their target demographic.
Common sense is great isn’t it — why do many ignore it. The situation you describe sounds like the classic mistake of inexperienced developers. They design for themselves which guarantees that most users needs aren’t met.
It’s my understanding that the target demographic for M-17 video games are male, age 35. (35 year olds typically have more $$$ than 20 year olds…. and are more likely to be able to afford the cost of the console new.) I would venture to guess that puts your hubby squarely in the cross hairs of their target audience.
So his “displeasure” with the game should be of PARAMOUNT concern to the nice folks who want to feed, clothe and shelter their children based on sales of the game.
The fact that you’re complaining on such a popular blog which also reaches their target audience should also be of concern.
However, I haven’t seen them here to defend their work which means they don’t have a Google Alert set to let them know when people are talking about them… which means they really don’t give a sh*t what people are saying about their product.
It’s one thing when a tanning salon doesn’t know enough about Web 2.0 to stay informed… its quite another when a video game company isn’t doing anything to manage its reputation online!
Actually, if the game is M-17 then their target audience is more likely 15-25. That bracket has plenty of time to spend on games, and they probably can find the pause button if they need to do something else in the middle of the level.
[...] contact me via e-mail: stephen @ hdbizblog dot com Thanks for visiting!Naomi has a new post at IttyBiz , where she is making a point about target demographics and marketing. I see it as a good lesson in [...]
Hmmm… He could play the game for 20-30 minutes, pause it & turn off the t.v. and come back to it in the morning to finish the 2nd half of the mission and save it then!? [Probably not a good idea though to over-heat the counsel by keeping it on all day & night though I know people who've done that]
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Shooters and puzzles where you just can’t save everywhere tend to be more challenging, more immersive and more satisfying, since it dampens the “save and reload, reload, reload until you get what you want” effect. One tends to do it, even if one doesn’t do - Elderscrolls IV Oblivion for example: Oh, you got caught stealing? Ooops? Just reload! (On the other hand, Oblivion gives many opptertunities for sudden death, so saving where you want is good.)
It’s a design decision that, if used well, makes alot of sense and enhances the experience.
Of course you’ve gotta be clever at placing the save points. One and a half hour seems to be rather long.