publicizing your mod?

[TheTuna]

I make it myself, no worries! All people do is PM me links to mods, I check it out, DL 'em, and film them in the episode if I like them. I've already got DwR downloaded, and it's a good quest mod, so I'll probably feature it this week. :) Like I said, I'm about due for some quest mods.

 

You don't have to worry about spoilers, all I do is simply say a bit about it and show a bit of how it works, so all I'd be doing is showing off the area, the start of the quest and the (really good) voice acting.

 

Sorry for the confusion with my sig, I've edited it so as to make it a bit clearer what I do.

Edited February 24, 2011 by TheTuna

[davidlallen]

Please let me know when the video is up!

[davidlallen]

Thanks for the suggestions and commentary. I'm still digesting the long post from Lanceor, I am sure I will have more comments about that later.

 

Clearly different people want different things from their mods. Personally, I'm not too interested in a retextured weapon, or one which does a little more damage, or which has a high value. That isn't very different for me. I like a mod which forces me to pick between two things, either of which might be good, and then live with the consequences. (Of course if it's good I will usually go through it the other way too; that's why I finished FNV four times once for each major faction.)

 

In terms of advertising, I got a big bump from being included in nvamp. I think having a few hundred posts here with good kudos, and then including a link into my sig, has to help. I'm delighted to find one video walkthrough, and maybe Tuna will make a second. If I can find other active communities to join and announce there, I will. I have a release thread at bethsoft and I've joined that other forum we can't name here, even though I haven't met their stringent "accepted member" requirements yet. Any suggestions of other sites?

 

I'm pretty sure that another key thing is the two or three word title; you have to "grab" people. In retrospect my first title doesn't "grab" your attention. I think it does a good job of telling you what to expect, but it doesn't make you go, "I want that!". OTOH "New Vegas Bounties" gets the point. "War Never Changes", another recent mod, uses the famous quote that is repeated at the end of the game. "The Institute", a FO3 mod, names a splinter group which is in one of the more interesting FO3 quests. My second mod is almost done and I'll try a catchier name. In case I continue on to a third mod, I have the basic idea and it has a killer title. We'll see.

[someguynamedjoe]

I come here to these forums to look for advertisements, personally. This one in particular, since it seems all the major mods are posted here for publicity.

[davidlallen]

Do you mean here, specifically in the talk forum? I don't see any mod *announcements* in the talk forum. If people have a problem or need help with a mod, they may mention the mod; which is good publicity. But I don't think these are "announcements". Which specific place do you look?

[Pelinor]

Although I've never done so, the best way that I've seen to get publicity is to have a group that advertises each member's mods. You could start a sort of Coalition of Questers (don't call it "COQ") and place icons/banners in each description page that link to other mods from the group--a "Plays well with these mods:" section works well, too.

[JCP768]

Create a ModDB page?

 

I forget, did I ever offer you my advertising services? Anyway, my advertising for Integration is pretty big, and obvious but that's mostly due to two things:

 

1: I absolutely love Integration more than even most games.

and 2: The elder scrolls forums seem to be a lot more active...especially in terms of the "any good mods?" topics

 

Regardless, I have been recommending your mod whenever the opportunity presents itself.

 

EDIT: I remember an old topic about trying to mess with the description for integration, add a subtitle, and other advertising stuff to do. I'll see if I can still find it somewhere, it might have some info for you.

 

Speaking of subtitles... Integration added ":The Stranded Light" to its name to make it sound less like a technical thing. Personally with your mod, when I first saw the topic I was thinking that it was a completely different kind of mod.

 

You see, earlier when I was in game I was in the medical facility where you buy implants, and I stealth killed the two guards so I could sell their stuff, and I was just thinking about how awesome it would be if I was all like "so what, I killed two stupid generic NPCs, nothings going to happen." and then later I'd come back to find the place ransacked and the doctor brutally raped and murdered all because I killed the place's only guards.....

So when I saw your release topic I thought the mod might be something that does stuff like that.... I wasn't disappointed when I actually saw what the mod was, or when I played it, but my first reaction was thinking it was something else.

Edited February 25, 2011 by JCP768

[davidlallen]

Er, advertising services? Tell me more.

 

I looked at the moddb area for FNV, and it seems pretty empty. There are dozens of what appear to be abandoned "WIP" posts, and only five actual mods, none of which have any significant download count. I had used moddb for another game, Civilization IV, and it seemed to work pretty well. If I can find places that already have a lot of traffic, it will definitely be worthwhile. I'll keep an eye on moddb for FNV and see if it picks up.

 

Regarding integration, if I understand correctly, you mean to get my mod put into other peoples' combo mods. This is like "nvamp", which definitely had an impact on my download count. I'll look for other such projects.

 

(Each of us is simultaneously editing, it's like a mini-conversation!) I agree about the importance of choosing a good name, and "Decisions With Regrets" probably isn't it. I think my next two are better, we'll see.)

Edited February 25, 2011 by davidlallen

[urbex]

Releasing your mod in the first few weeks of the game's release is usually a surefire way to the Top 100, and once you're on it it's great promotion.

 

Kinda late for that though, heh.

[JCP768]

Well Integration is just the name of the mod, it's actually a very large quest mod, and isn't any kind of compilation or anything. See the name even made you think it was something else. lol (Integration was the name much for the same reason that your mod is named what it was. Integration is a mod that integrates your characters stats, your actions your rankings, etc. into how you can go about solving its quests)

 

My "services" aren't anything special. Besides creating a ModDB for Integration, and doing a video walkthrough I mostly just browse the usual sites (gamefaqs, planet fallout, falloput nexus, bethsoft, etc.) and recommend the mod whenever I see an opportunity to. It's sort of a "whether you like it or not" type offer. Except when it comes to extra stuff that I'd ask permission for first.

 

EDIT 1:

One good thing about ModDB, youtube, facebook, gamefaqs, etc. is that they reach beyond the usual suspects. A lot of people who use mods for New Vegas probably go to both the nexus site, and bethsoft so posting at those two places you mostly end up hitting the same people, but with getting publicity in other sites you can make people who normally aren't into the New Vegas modding scene, go "hey look! This looks nice... Oh it's a New Vegas mod, I should try it out."

 

EDIT 2:

Another thing is gimmicks, and community projects. One thing Integration did was allow people to contribute their faces to be guest/visitor characters in the mod's locations... and another mod I've been wanting to see succeed, and get expanded on is Hitman I've been making a lot of suggestions for it, and some ofthem involve tying it into the much more popular "New Vegas:Bounties mod. posts like these in particular:

1

2 (mostly just the 1a part)

If I could get the Hitman mod maker to do it, and convince the New Vegas Bounties one to do something similar that could lead to some shared traffic between the two mods.)

 

EDIT 3: In regards to ModDB:

Even if the Fallout New Vegas section is crap right now, you can still use it to get some publicity. For instance, every time someone downloads your mod from there it will show up on the latest downloads section on ModDB's front page, and every time you make a news post that is well written, has some new info, and maybe a few pictures that news post will show up on the News section of ModDB's front page. I only managed to write one post worthy of getting on the front pages (mostly because the mod was already like 99% complete when I made the ModDB account, and I couldn't really write as the actual modder) and that post got the mod 662 views the first day, 317 the next, 107, then 99, and it fluctuated a bit from there. This is in comparison to a usual 10-25 hits a day. 662 views could mean at least 2-3 new players, possibly much more if it grabs people's attention.

 

Another Example is TNM which is a Deus Ex mod. ModDB's Deus Ex fan base is pretty small, but due to their high quality mod, and very good PR skills they managed to get a 9.7/10 average, single player mod of the year from the staff, and 8th place in mod of the year for players. That's pretty good considering how silly the concept is.

 

Granted your mod is good, but it's pretty small and short at the moment so listing these big huge mods that had some success might be a bit much, but it's just an example of what can be achieved by broadening your horizons, and reaching new, mostly untapped markets.

 

EDIT 4: Did I kill the topic?

 

I found the topic I was talking about, but it's on a private forum, and it's mixed in with a bunch of bug testing stuff. I'll try and get the basic points:

 

Dev_AKM

1. Rename it or expand the name. The title "Integration" by itself is painfully vague and does not sound at all exciting. "Integration" is really just the kicker anyway (that's an obscure journalism term for a brief introductory phrase that goes above or before the main headline).

 

The Stranded Light helps a lot, but what does it mean? It works as a title because it suggests a mystery and some drama. It makes you want to find out what's going on. I like that.

 

The other possible approach would be to use a more literal title about what you're trying to achieve here. If you want to go that route, then something less mysterious is called for. Seems to me the mod isn't just about the different races from Shivering Isles, but also other ignored, lost, or forgotten races from TES lore, right? So maybe something like "Return of the Elder Races" would work?

 

Roll it around in your mouth for a while before you answer. Say "Have you played RotER yet? No! You really have to try it ..."

 

2. Short description. The old elevator pitch. If you can't describe it in a few minutes, it'll never sell. People have short attention spans.

 

Just humor me for a sec. Let's try it...

 

Return of the Elder Races seeks to revive the idiosyncratic charm of daily life in Cyrodiil. The amazing diversity of cultures found in Elder Scrolls lore has been severely watered down of late, but this mod will cure all that in a flash! The characters you meet here will actually have some personality, some quirks. They might even be interesting! You'll actually have some choices in the way you interact with them, too.

 

 

Right. But that description doesn't do it justice either because it's way too mechanical and says really nothing at all about the mod. Like RBP/LAME, you're starting from a negative premise, which is that a.b.c... things were wrong or missing in Oblivion. You were annoyed at this. If the player is also annoyed at these things, then maybe they are interested in what you've done.

 

That's an impossible premise to sell for anything other than a tweaks mod. Here we're talking about new content. Story. Characters. Quests. Etc. We actually have to say something *shock* positive or it sounds like .... raw, dead fish.

 

 

That may be, but you're going to have to pick some aspect of the mod to talk about, regardless of whether it's representative of the whole thing. If you try to describe the whole thing accurately -- when there's no single consistent thread that you're willing to reveal -- you'll just end up with a bloated blob of text that nobody will wade through.

 

Any sort of marketing at all by necessity is a distortion of the truth because it focuses on a few positive and simple things while ignoring the negative or complex things.

 

I don't see anything written so far that would lead anyone to believe the mod is about "epic action". In fact we stated as clearly as possible that the drama lies elsewhere, i.e. it's drawn in more subtle shades of gray than a typical conflict of good-versus-evil, light-versus-dark, or holy mission to save the world.

 

I think people who are looking for something like Integration will get the hints when they read something like this. Yeah, some other folks may be drawn in expecting something a bit different, but chances are they will end up liking it anyway. Which is after all what we are trying to accomplish: finding an audience for the mod.

 

If you don't include any of the fluff, then perhaps it can be accurate, but you might as well just be listing the ingredients on a cereal box or the stats for a car battery:

 

daemondarque

Most people won't get to the technical details, wouldn't even know what to look for. They know if they enjoyed it.

 

The problem with the mechanical approach is that most people play for content. That's what they're looking for in a mod--myself included. And by content I don't mean an epic quest to save the world--been there done that, and I don't ever want to become Emperor. Action for its own sake doesn't matter; I enjoy good combat immensely, but there are times that I need a break from it--and that's when I pull out my trusty list of quest mods. I want to meander through places I've never seen before, meet characters (good or bad) who stick in my mind long after the mod is finished, and hear the 'other' side of a well-known story, to tweak my imagination. I'll go kill something later.

 

The time for appreciating the technical aspects of any artistic work comes afterward. Whether it's a book, a movie, or a mod, if I enjoyed it I'll run through it again--sometimes several/many times--and take it apart, step by step, just to see how it was done. But I would never have gotten to that point if the promise of content hadn't sold me in the first place. How do you pick out a movie to watch? A book to read? Not by listening to the director's comments on camera angles, or the author explaining how he justifies switching from third to first person in the same chapter (yuck). You read the blurb telling what the story is about. (Then if you liked it, you pick it apart so you can use the underlying techniques in your own work!--I didn't say that, did I? P.S.--you're safe, I'm not a modder. )

 

Me:

Personally, often times when I see a mod release/BETA/WIP on Bethsoft. I skim through the first post for the word "features.", to see exactly what it does, and/or what it offers me. Maybe mention the Guild Guide, spells, weapons, cool clothes, hot Chixs, etc.

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2011 by JCP768