The Internet has given us a communication mechanism which allows developers to better understand their audience. You can use community sites to market your content and your brand but you can also use them to better understand your market and bring your strageties and progress to your fans.
Valve Software has taken their latest successful franchise title Team Fortress 2 and followed it up with a website or “blog” which can keep their fans “in the loop.” Teamfortress.com will, no doubt, be the launch pad for much hype, community offerings and up-to-date news about the TF2 game and any updates.
“Now that we’ve settled into regular releases of content, we’ve found ourselves wanting a better way to talk directly to the TF2 community about the state of the game and some of the reasoning behind the choices we’re making. Our hope is that this blog will accomplish that, and give everyone some better insight into our development process as well.” (teamfortress.com)
Now, there is a great chance Valve will use their new launch pad to talk about upcoming games and lead you to demo’s and downloads to the TF2 title; they already link to the valve store to purchase the game. But, blogs bring in users searching for fresh content about the game and give official word to kill any bad rumors.
Call it marketing, call it journalism or developers notes, there is nothing wrong with having one more resource which represents the voice of Valves TF2 development team. Congradulations guys!
First I’d like to offer sincere condolences on the passing of Andrew, that was very sad to hear, just proof that life is very short.
@LoL; I read this story as well before it was on here and I couldn’t fathom why or how any LGBT would have any kind of advantage. More over how anyone would know or why they would even care? The whole story is completely baffling.
As for any slight advantage due to genders, there was a Mythbusters episode where they tested gender biases; like “throwing like a girl”. First they had untrained kids pitch balls, they had a pattern of boys throwing harder/faster and girls being more accurate. Then when they brought in the professional players they found the differences very negligible. With training and practice any weakness or disadvantage can be overcome.
@Nintendo lower prices: Yes please, I’m all for cheaper games. Also being able to get the back log on DS that was on Wii!
@EA games too hard to learn: I agree Jonah read the manual, read forums, wiki guides, etc. There’s a ton of resources, I have several GoG and Steam games that actually do have their manuals. As for EA games I have never found them hard to learn, their games seemed to have been focusing on being as streamlined as possible.
I also find it very odd if as Jonah says that Grim Fandango isn’t that much different, aside from the sound cues, that it doesn’t work for Paul. There has got to be a way to get that game to work.
@QotW: The list is so long I’ll start with a yes there are games I get emotional with. When ever I hear the sad songs from Final Fantasy 4, 6, or 7; the music of Suikoden I and II. They bring back so many fond memories.
My condolences to family and friends of Andrew Yoon. It is a terrible misfortune to die so young. Especially following completion of a project. He sounded like a real fun guy.
@Too much kohones
I will now clean my eyes and read that again. Nope. It’s still there. What part of human logic created that idea. It’s f**king LoL, not Olympics. If they are so afraid of superior mouse clicking ability, they should also ban Michael J Fox (Parkinson’s). To be honest I was always against e-sports. We are starting to forget that video games are primarily a source of fun, not funding. But some people take it too seriously, resulting in those exiting propositions. If we could instead concentrate on banning antisocial twats from the gaming industry that would be better. Oh no wait. Then there would be no one to run the tournaments…
@Ninendo’s peasant strategy
As much as I love Nintendo games, I hate paying for them. As opposed to Xbox/PS titles which gradually fall in price, good Nintendo games stay at release price for years in UK. I am yet to find a copy of Lego City Undercover that won’t bankrupt me. However, when they re-released the Metroid Prime Trilogy for cheap, I snapped it up without a second thought. I would gladly pay for cheaper Nintendo software.
@QOTW
Mirror’s Edge Still Alive ending. Beautiful.