Guerilla Marketing -- MySpace style...

[Curiosoft]

Hey folks,

Inspired by the VGSmart podcast (check out www.indiegamepod.com), I'm thinking of new ways to gain exposure.

I've set up an account on Myspace to promote my games. In fact, I also tell my customers to add me to the page of their MySpace account (I just started yesterday...so we'll see what happens)...and vice versa.

I also tell them that if they become a friend of my page...they are entered into drawings to win free games every week.

In any case, consider setting up a MySpace account with your game stuff. Your customers can be added as friends to your page :)

I think a decent amount of folks on MySpace are potential customers.

In any case, feel free to add me to your friends section...I'll do the same :)

http://www.myspace.com/curiosoft

Come to think of it, MySpace took off because of indie music bands. It's time for indie game companies to benefit too :)

Later,
Curiosoft

[Genimo]

Have you checked MySpace terms of use? Are you in compliance with:

"Non-commercial Use by Members. The Services are for the personal use of Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors except those that are specifically endorsed or approved by MySpace.com. Illegal and/or unauthorized use of the Services, including collecting usernames and/or email addresses of Members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited email or unauthorized framing of or linking to the Website is prohibited. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, and other forms of solicitation may be removed from Member profiles without notice and may result in termination of Membership privileges. Appropriate legal action will be taken for any illegal or unauthorized use of the Services."

Edit: I'm not implying that you are going to have a problem, I'm just curious myself because I had similar idea but discarded it due to above term...

[arcadetown]

Now there's someone using their noodle and adjusting to today's environment instead of the typical complaining about how things aren't as easy as they were 5 years ago.

[soniCron]

http://www.scottandrew.com/blog/archives/2005/11/overexposed.html

[arcadetown]

http://www.scottandrew.com/blog/archives/2005/11/overexposed.html
Love what one guy said...

"It's very hard to make money from this group, whether because they don't have credit cards or are just more skeptical. The only people who seem to make money from that group are collegehumor.com (mostly selling T-shirts)."

Bah exposure is exposure. If targeting with the right game bet will sell. Adventure Quest seems to do very well targeting that user type and bet games like Age of Castles or World Domination would also sell. Whereas bet typical hits like Cake Mania or MCF would probably be duds. Perhaps why myspace games section, even though on absolutely huge site, not given much recognition by this industry.

[Chris Evans]

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned using MySpace among other things:
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=93203&postcount=51

If you actually sitdown and dedicate some real time for marketing ideas, you'll find there's tons of opportunities out there. It's hit or miss obviously but it's far from hopeless. I like how one of the Reflexive guys today posted that when they first started selling downloadable games, he hounded every editor he could get a hold of to write a review for their games. He didn't know how it would pay off but he had determination. He didn't have a defeatist attitude.

Anyway Curiousoft, I say go for it. When I get my new game out, I'll be there right along with you. It may not generate tons of sales, but getting more exposure can't hurt either. Especially since the only real cost is time in setting it up.

[Savant]

Yep, a big whopping zero, null, nada, none. No CD sales! They're still waiting on a report from iTunes, though. The band didn't seem so much upset as curious — you'd think after 20K spins, someone would pony up for a CD.
The cynic in me has to say ... well, maybe the band sucks. :)

[Fabio]

The cynic in me has to say ... well, maybe the band sucks. :)
Yep, but out of 20000 there really must be somebody whose tastes suck as well. ;)

[Davaris]

Kids expect everything on the net to be free. I'd try and find a place that has grown up customers with less time on their hands and more income. :)

[SquareDanceSteve]

Myspace is far more personal then google ad words. People are looking for and expecting a personal experience. Playing up the indie starving game creator could be a boon for business. It doesn’t take any money to have a myspace, but when you have a website that accepts credit cards it’s a very different web presence and becomes much harder to stress the independent starving nature of your business. First impressions are important.
http://www.myspace.com/squaredancesteve

[princec]

MySpace is an extended playground for kids who think they're grown-ups playing a massive game of social engineering, usually unwittingly. It's a terrible, terrible place to actually sell games. Or anything much that isn't fashionable or cool. Everything in MySpace revolves around la mode: who's who, who's cool, etc. It's all about being part of a gang, trading your individuality for the security of peer acceptance, on a massive scale. With that in mind, you'd have to have developed a game which would fit well with the site.

cliffski's probably on to a winner.

Cas :)

[tc_bobo]

Actually, you'd be surprised. As we start the process to rebuild and relaunch MySpace Games and Grab.com (the latter which ended up with feature bloat), the numbers that I rounded up last week say otherwise about MySpace.

Some tidbits:

Diner Dash is HUGELY popular on MySpace Games. In the last year, it's outsold the #2 game 3:1 for the top spot.

The MCF series are the best converting games, well over 4% with the MySpace audience. (You were wrong on that one, Brian ;) )

Food related games do well with that audience - Cake Mania, Diner Dash, Pizza Frenzy, et al.

At the same time, web/online sports games do very well.

I guess I'd say, "A good game is a good game is a good game," and it will sell anywhere.

55 million uniques to MySpace.com in April is pretty good too. We have to work to improve MySpace Games and keep those users from going to other sites to get their gaming fix. ;)

And if you follow the site, you're slowly seeing the demo creep older. Yeah, it couldn't get any younger since the teens and college kids found it, yet I see more and more 30 somethings and older on MySpace each day.

To quote Ben Fon Torres... "Crazy!"

Thanks,

Malcolm

[Davaris]

So is MySpace Games affiliated with MySpace in any way?

[tc_bobo]

Yes. games.myspace.com

It's actually one of the few parts of MySpace that isn't run out of the MySpace offices. It's run out of the Intermix offices. GameRival.com powers games.myspace.com, yet that will change to be more specific to MySpace.

History: Intermix funds MySpace. MySpace takes off. NewsCorp buys Intermix (including MySpace). Intermix & MySpace now part of the newly created Fox Interactive Media, the online division of NewsCorp.