Proposal Discussion Combat missions for free, as a marketing effort?

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

Great minds here at forums have come to suppose we could offer single player combat missions for free, as a marketing/publicity stunt and to hook/educate new players.

What do you think? And should this offer of free combat missions be limited only for some time (before game releases), or later too, and for how long for each player? I would suggest free month.


EDIT: Lets add, obviously, clear reclaimers that these free combat missions consist only from small parts of the full game (giving FD also opportunity to explain and tell more about ED)

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

The problem i see (as i mentioned in the other thread) is that it would give the impression that the game was ONLY about combat, it would need a much more rounded demo to give a fair representation of the whole game.

EDIT: and even if FDev added a note about it, what you play has a bigger impact than what you read - people would still think of it in terms of combat and nothing else.

 

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

Original thread where these ideas were collected:

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=41625

 

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

The problem i see (as i mentioned in the other thread) is that it would give the impression that the game was ONLY about combat, it would need a much more rounded demo to give a fair representation of the whole game.

Yeah added it

"EDIT: Lets add, obviously, clear reclaimers that these free combat missions consist only from small parts of the full game (giving FD also opportunity to explain and tell more about ED)"

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

Yeah added it

"EDIT: Lets add, obviously, clear reclaimers that these free combat missions consist only from small parts of the full game (giving FD also opportunity to explain and tell more about ED)"

spooted that, also added:

EDIT: and even if FDev added a note about it, what you play has a bigger impact than what you read - people would still think of it in terms of combat and nothing else.

 

[Komemiute]

Now, this OP, is a great idea!

 

[Mucka]

Firstly a month is far too long for any kind of open demo, a week max. (enough time to learn and get into is all that is needed)

But really it would need to be single player mode as demo players should not be allowed to affect the gameworld or players who have paid for the game.

And rather than it being an open demo I would make it very limited, structured and mission only based.
One mission trading, one pirating, one bounty hunter, one explorer and so on just touching the boundaries of each role.
This would allow them to get a real feel of the games depth and potential and of course it would be explained that the full game is a go anywhere do anything sandbox world.

 

[Iain M Norman]

Maybe it'll come when there's a released game to market heavily?

 

[Kulin]

A strange proposal! Why do so many people think the only relevant part of the game is combat?

I think this would give a pretty one-sided view of the game.

I would prefer a real demo. Lets say with the content of the premium beta, with 5 star systems, 3 ship types, a few weapons and basic equipment, but with all other features(exploration, mining, factions, missions and so on) enabled.

 

[fourty6to3]

I'd say that the SP Combat missions would make a perfect demo that FD can use for their marketing and would be missing out on a great opportunity if they ignore it.

 

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

I would prefer a real demo. Lets say with the content of the premium beta, with 5 star systems, 3 ship types, a few weapons and basic equipment, but with all other features(exploration, mining, factions, missions and so on) enabled.

+1

And maybe + combat scenarios on top of that, as a cherry for a cake :smilie:

This way we would not need to remind them with trial/demo (what real game is like) each time before combat scenario starts.

 

[Zephyriel]

It seems like a great idea, but like some mentioned, people will feel like it's just a dogfighting game (albeit a good one at that!).

I'd rather they make a free weekend with acces to the full game, like EA did with Titanfall (there are probably many other examples). People would really see what the game is about without FD having to waste resources on creating a demo.

 

[Myspace Kaitsu80]

It seems like a great idea, but like some mentioned, people will feel like it's just a dogfighting game (albeit a good one at that!).

I'd rather they make a free weekend with acces to the full game, like EA did with Titanfall (there are probably many other examples). People would really see what the game is about without FD having to waste resources on creating a demo.

Well people thinking it´s just a dogfighting game could be shown (as mentioned above) to be something much more with very limited area to play and with limited amount of same things to do as we do.

Another option could be showing trials/demos when combat scenarios load (instead of spinning Sidewinter).

EDIT: About your suggestion, as mentioned before, people joining multiplayer for free with little interest would most likely just cause chaos. Think of all SC fanboys ruining our games...

 

[StuartGT]

I would prefer a real demo. Lets say with the content of the premium beta, with 5 star systems, 3 ship types, a few weapons and basic equipment, but with all other features(exploration, mining, factions, missions and so on) enabled.

That gets my vote too, but only when ED is out of Gamma and fully released, perhaps a week or so afterwards to allow the initial server chaos to settle down

 

[DeepFried]

The trouble is Elite is much much more than just the combat mechanics, serving combat scenarios up as a demo would be underselling the game. Honestly, I don't think you can demo a game like Elite peroperly without damaging sales. I think its best to just not put out any demo at all and let press / youtube coverage sell the game.

 

[Phaedra]

Wouldn't it be better to conduct a poll once the expanded tutorials are available in Beta 2? They will cover a bit more than just combat and may give a better flavour of the game.

Otherwise I would tend to agree that just releasing the combat scenarios would both undersell the game and might give a misleading impression that ED is likely to be combat focussed.

 

[Vasious]

Wouldn't it be better to conduct a poll once the expanded tutorials are available in Beta 2? They will cover a bit more than just combat and may give a better flavour of the game.

Otherwise I would tend to agree that just releasing the combat scenarios would both undersell the game and might give a misleading impression that ED is likely to be combat focussed.

Well said

 

[oomwat]

Create a single-player only demo that allowed users to select a difficult level - this would tune the NPC's from mild to obnoxious (way beyond what they would experience in the game) ... let the pvp players try it, and encourage them to become bounty fodder for real players