How to kick the retail habit
So let’s say your addicted to crack….
Not the sort of article you were expecting huh? Well it’s a valid comparison. When your addicted to drugs you normally have to stay away from them permanently so that the old cravings don’t kick in. This can be said for retail in many ways. If you don’t kick the habit your going to let it dictate your life as a developer/publisher.
When a developer/publisher puts their game in retail they are growing the reputation and the profits of the dealers we know as traditional retail. You can become so dependent on them for sales and audience reach that you will start to do anything they ask for just for a little fix. If they want you to buy shelf space, you do it. If they want you to only get paid post 6 months or greater, and accept all returns, you do it. If they remove your titles, because they aren’t the hot drug of the moment, to the bargain bins and eventually out of the stores, you do it. And in the process you grow their clientele and prestige so that all of your customers go looking for their gaming fix in retail and look at anything else as 2nd rate.
So when you take one game and put into retail, because your trying to steal customers from them, you are again allowing the drug dealer to dictate terms to you and in the long run teach your audience that the only game in town for important games is in retail. Also you are dimishing the value of your spot in the marketplace and killing the chance for your product to develop a long term community.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t steal from them, but if your looking to grow audience wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until the product life cycle is through and put it in a shovelware pack and get folks that way. You will probably find lots of folks you would never see in your audience buying the game because it’s cheap, and when they get addicted for the next hit you can ask them to order it from your website exclusively. This way you control the terms and steal back from those who stole the industry from true gamers to begin with.
But just like kicking a habit it takes commitment to do this, a long term commitment that will be painful and full of withdrawal. But in the end you will have your life and industry back.
And as gamers isn’t that what we all want?
Nice analogy Richard. And oh so true!
Comment by Tim Brooks — 3/21/2005 @ 10:10 am
It’s not only developers who are addicted to the mainstream, it’s consumers and website operators too.
For example, I can go to Warfare HQ and find a review of Aliens vs. Predator. At Wargamer, I find a review of Ubi Soft’s latest first person shooter. In their forums, I can talk to others about my passion for Talonsoft and Close Combat (Some mainstream junkies are beyond help. The best we can do is to just make them comfortable in their last moments with their mainstream titles), or I can discuss the latest former mainstream developer to test the quasi-indie waters. When questions appear on the forums such as “What turn based wargame should I buy?” the answer comes back “Conflict Middle East.” Yes, sports fans, Conflict Middle East, circa 1991. So utterly addicted are we to the crack of the mainstream that we feel we must dig out old DOS and Windows 3.1 games, despite the multitude of great indie wargames released over the past 5 years or so. V for Victory, anyone?
No wonder indie developers are tempted by mainstream dope. What these poor souls need is an intervention, a halfway house, a world where their wares are seen as more than just obscure games with bad graphics.
What is needed is the promotion of an indie community, a website, say, devoted exclusively to indie wargames, by indie wargamers, for indie wargamers. I would like one day to be able to go to a site and find a preview of Salvo (What’s a Salvo?), an objective review of Campaign on the Danube (Say what?), and a strategy analysis of the Stolberg Corridor scenario from CC2: Danger Forward (Now you’re just making stuff up!). Then we can go to the forum and discuss the next installment of the Horse & Musket 2 series or how the upcoming Defend the Alamo 2 might differ from the original. (Hint: I bet it has better graphics.)
Seriously, I don’t think there’s a developer in the world who wants to be associated with junk basket shovelware. Credibility is hard enough to come by as it is. Instead, why not get out there and promote the coming together of a real indie community of gamers, developers, and writers? Then we’ll really have something of value.
Comment by Dave Erickson — 3/27/2005 @ 6:14 pm