Friday Facts #293 - New remnants 2 & 1.0 Marketing plan

[Synchrotron]

I learned about factorio when watch CGP Grey on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey -- he makes science/politics/explain videos of extremely high quality and is just an incredibly smart guy. He never promoted or endorsed Factorio, but in at least one video mentioned that he's spent over 1000 hours of his time playing a game and I think just had for one frame a Factorio image. It peeked my interest so much that I checked it out and now I'm already at 500 hours... Sponsoring one of his videos, maybe? No idea what it costs, but I think it could reach the exact right crowd and also you'd be 100% certain that his endorsement is honest, because he -- like all of us -- loves the game incredibly much.

[WarpZone]

I applaud the (surely difficult!) decision to rename player to character now, as opposed to later. This was the least bad of your three options, and the FFF post explained the situation well. Take that, Technical Debt!

[WarpZone]

I learned about factorio when watch CGP Grey on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey -- he makes science/politics/explain videos of extremely high quality and is just an incredibly smart guy. He never promoted or endorsed Factorio, but in at least one video mentioned that he's spent over 1000 hours of his time playing a game and I think just had for one frame a Factorio image. It peeked my interest so much that I checked it out and now I'm already at 500 hours... Sponsoring one of his videos, maybe? No idea what it costs, but I think it could reach the exact right crowd and also you'd be 100% certain that his endorsement is honest, because he -- like all of us -- loves the game incredibly much.

One problem with this idea is the fact that, on Youtube, authenticity is the only currency that matters. You responded to that casual offhand reference and single still image of gameplay because you perceived it as coming from CGP Grey, the person, the individual, the youtuber. If tomorrow CGP Grey broke from his usual format to bring you not a Factorio 1.0 endorsement, but an endorsement of some other game... let's say, Fortnite or Overwatch, since those seem like they'd have deep enough pockets to potentially make it worth CGP's while (you'll understand why in a minute,) ...you would rightfully accuse CGP Grey of selling out.

As Rich Evans of Redletter Media (or, more accurately, one of the fans who was posting live commentary in the livestream Rich was conducing at the time) once put it, "making fun of shills is our brand." This prevents them from ever doing a video promoting a game, unless Nintendo or somebody literally offered them enough money that they could afford to never make a profitable Redletter Media video ever again. That's the only way they could even consider taking the offer. And while that quote doesn't necessarily map 1:1 to CGP Grey (Redletter Media's brand is not CGP Grey's brand, after all,) the underlying lesson certainly does.

CGP Grey is not already in the business of making videos about video games. Therefore a video by him promoting a game, even if that game is good, even if he already plays it, would come across as shilling. And shilling is a bad look for any channel. (A gaming channel might be able to get away with it, but even then it would result in some friction if it were disclosed and a huge scandal if it were undisclosed.) For a politics/psychology/science/explanation channel, it would be a complete non-sequitur at best, and a good way to alienate a lot of CGP's fans at worst.

Even if CGP and Factorio's dev both acted in good faith, the existing culture of youtube ensures that CGP's fans wouldn't interperet it that way. It would damage CGP's reputation and alienate his fans, all without actually even driving any traffic towards Factorio. (Since, you know, people angry and offended that their favorite internet celebrities are misleading them don't tend to do what they're told.)

But take heart. The fact that you're here and presumably still a fan of CGP Grey demonstrates that no brand deal is neccessary. CGP Grey is already driving traffic towards Factorio, whether he intended to or not. He managed to say what little he did say about the game in just the right way that it painted the game in a good light without coming across as shilling.

Good, authentic word-of-mouth cannot be bought. Not even from so-called Influencers. That's what makes it so valuable.

Welcome to the community, by the way.

[Synchrotron]

[...]
Good, authentic word-of-mouth cannot be bought. Not even from so-called Influencers. That's what makes it so valuable.

Welcome to the community, by the way.

Thanks for elaborating your point and for the detailed breakdown. You make a very convincing argument and I side with you I'm sure we'll find a great way to authentically tell everyone just how. freaking. amazing. this game is and grow the community even more for 1.0.

And thanks for the warm welcome!

Cheers!

[Darthlawsuit]

What's a magazine? That from the old days of analog news?

Your probably better off paying streamers, sponsoring some factorio competitions with prizes that will get free news coverage, and tournaments. Everyone has ad blockers so they won't see your ads anyways.

Your game has news worthy appeal if you can get together a bunch of amazing factories that would give journalists/bloggers a good low effort story.