Just a quickie.
So my junk drawer post for December is coming up, and it’s a ridiculously busy post with a lot of little items in it. But one of them, on reconsideration, struck me as something that deserves its own post, if only a little one.
For those of you who aren’t World of Tanks players or aren’t keeping up with WoT, they’re running a very interesting little promotion. Running until 10 January, Wargaming.net (the developers of WoT) are giving away a free t-shirt to everyone in North America who:
- has a tier 10 tank in their garage at the end of the promotion period; and,
- plays five matches during the promotion period.
As someone who dallied a bit with WoT but never became a convert, I can tell you that having a tier 10 tank is a major commitment to the game and its developers. It’s unlikely, in fact, that a player would be able to do it without spending some fairly significant money. It’s not quite the level of having an EVE super-capital ship, but it’s pretty damn close.
Which is why giving the players that have hit this plateau some “free stuff” is a genius move on several levels.
At one of the past CSM summits, CCP toyed with the idea of loyalty bonuses for long-term players, and what Wargaming.net has done is a logical extension of that idea. These t-shirts aren’t free: they’ve been bought and paid for with a lot of micro-transaction money. The devs are even letting the players choose the design, though they’re quick to point out “the World of Tanks logo will appear on the shirt, even if you don’t see it in the design below.”
And come the spring and summer convention season this year, those t-shirts are going to be everywhere. Bet you anything we’ll see a not-insignificant number of them at Fanfest, for instance. So giving them away is not only a smart player loyalty move, it’s a smart marketing move. They’ll be on the backs of thousands of committed World of Tanks players and should someone ask what the story is about that t-shirt, what are these ultra-committed players going to say? That the game is terrible? Not likely. They’re immediately going to launch into a sales pitch, probably without realizing that they’re doing it.
Meanwhile, the duration of the promotion is short enough that what do you suppose all of those people who are this close to a tier 10 tank are doing? Hell, the t-shirts might get paid for with the micro-transaction money Wargaming.net makes during the promotion period alone. And what do you suppose all those lapsed players that got their tier 10s a year ago are doing? Scrambling for their WoT passwords, that’s what, bringing hundreds or thousands of players back to see what’s changed in the game since they logged in last.
Like I said: this is a genius move, on any number of levels. CCP, if you want your players to sell your game, something like this is how you go about it…
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If an "all i got is this t-shirt" design passes then WoT makes official net to RL troll.
I am currently addicted to WOT i have a Soviet Is-3 and has Nazi pzIV LOL
I have a Caldari Navy Raven with Cruise Missile Specialty to 5…..I wonder which would win?
if the is-3 can orbit at 1000m my money is on the is-3
All the EVE ships and u pick a Raven?? Nah, can ur tank tank tankety tank a doomsday?
Soon as they figure out how to mount a DD on a 1942 era panzer, i'll concede defeat.
i own an is-3 as well… money on the is-3
Implying that you have not seen the eve parody trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u5mUHIt4IE
IS-3 is by and away top VIII. Although I finally decided to finish the line to the IS-4 since having the free one without the IX below it looked bad, and I really like the armor of the KV-4. It's beastly
mhm … genius move of Wargaming.net
maybe some day they top such awesome things like the breathtaking free t-shirt with a great
party in russia where the greatest fans will come together for big celebration every year.
CCP realy can learn a lot from WoT.
They have those parties for WoT. Not only do THEY pay for your ticket, but you can also win up to $10K.
the success of WoT is based upon gold ammo
i´m okay with no T-shirt and no gold ammo
newsflash: "gold ammo" can be bought for regular credits since patch 0.8.1
nahc WoT is boring for me, tried two time over extend of some time and got bored
"Bet you anything we’ll see a not-insignificant number of them at Fanfest, for instance."
Promptly followed by Eve Online players reserving the right to beat the living shit out of retards wearing World of Tanks T-Shirts, to an EVE ONLINE FANFEST! I like Dishonored by Bethesda. Doesn't mean i'm going to wear an Eve Online t-shirt to one of their sponsored game gatherings. If CCP needs ways to make more headlines and attract new players, maybe continuing to lead the push in developing inventive concepts such as PlayStation games existing in online MMO's is a way to go. When the day comes that CCP has to rely on t-shirts as a viable recruitment tool, Eve Online will officially be fucked.
LOL… So you are one of those tards who actually thinks about what t-shirt they put on for certain events? Like somebody will fucking care? Is you gut that big that it counts as a billboard, or are you just a beacon for attention through you idle threats to 'beat' other punters?
You sicken me. You are responsible for the decline of western civilization and for the spread of malaria. You also cause cancer and 'my family' sticker proliferation. I would blame you for 9/11 but you were probably 3 years old then. GTFO…
And I will be finding a WOT t-shirt (even though I have no interest) just to wear to FF…… Any fat CCP fanboys who want to 'beat' me, feel free….. Lets see how you like a beardy chin breaking you eye socket… Dirty Judo FTW
*Goddamn R key!
Wow, you sound impotently mad. I am however quivering in fear of your L33t chin-based martial arts skills lol.
P.S. Being responsible for the decline of western civilization I must give myself a pat on the back. Considering I live in an eastern civilization I must say my civilization hammering skills rival those of hitler. Fuck you Atlantic ocean!!!
P.P.S. Yeah I post as Syn, I also post as cunty…..goddamn multiple personalities.
Thanks, you fulfilled my quota for 'read ignorant rants' for the week
Did you fulfill you quota of cocks to chugg, faggot?
“push in developing inventive concepts such as PlayStation games existing in online MMO's is a way to go” – lets just think about this for a sec. If EVE online announced today that it will move even only to PS3 (only) within 2 years you would probably argue against this move and find many counter-arguments for doing so. And yet, you seem to think that its fine for other projects that you obviously don’t care as much about.
Whatever the reason they had for putting DUST on PS has nothing to do with what they can do and rather what they cant.
I'm really starting to question the accuracy of "All the taste, none of the bullshit."
want free tshirt? go to fanfest.
Take a few days off from work=loss of money
Fly to Iceland=spend money
Stay at a hotel=spend money
Eat, drink=spend even more money
And all you get from spending and losing all that cash is a t-shirt and you get to watch a bunch of goons on stage selling you bullshit.
No thanks.
normal folks get holidays.. or free das and STIL get paid so no loss of money…
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/32760…
There's the door, take your inability to read articles before commenting on them with you.
I think calling any PR thing CCP does as second rate, is a pretty serious slam to the second rate gaming company's. I don't think anyone here has ever credited the management at CCP as having an over abundance of brains.
Important thing to remember when talking about WoT is that there are different community teams working for each region, tailoring their approach to specific audience. Russian and US server populations are vastly different in numbers, compositions and backgrounds. Promotions, special offers and other PR for them varies a lot.
EVE's multinational single-server nature makes it impossible to simply copy-paste solutions like that. And given the number of subscribers it is unlikely that mere "free t-shirts for everyone with faction battleship in hangar" promotion will result in any significant visibility.