Lurker said: Metacritic isn't gonna sell a million copies for it. It needs ads. |
Maybe, but who are you advertising it to? The snobcore and late-night MTV crowd will pass it up because of its cutesy graphics, as will many adults (who would also be unlikely to play it much because of the time-demands it places on the player. And if they don't play it much, there goes your word of mouth). Aiming the ads at kids might help a bit in the short run, but let's be honest, it's not a game that's 100% geared towards that audience; it really feels like it was intended more for adults (and I'm not referring to its difficulty, but rather its themes).
The game suffers from a major problem: the number of folks who can intuitively relate to it is pretty damn small. I fervently believe that even skeptics who play it will be converted, but what's to get the vast majority of people to give it a fair shake in the first place? Shoot, the amount of misinformed people in this very thread is proof positive that tons of folks take a glance at it, say "meh," and then walk away, never knowing what they're missing.
Ads might create a bump, but they won't lift the game up by themselves in the long run. What it needs is missionaries to push to people who would be interested in a deep console RTS whose cute artstyle belies a very dark and pessimistic game.
Ask me how that's working out.