Is it possible to do a CPU vs CPU battle?

[Apocal]

Wow, my first internet stalker.  Which forum did you dig that out of, CMRT?

 

Literally your post in the thread I got the quote from.

[Kieme(ITA)]

I belive this community already is decent.

 

It could be larger, but the quality is not under discussion.

[sburke]

I belive this community already is decent.

 

It could be larger, but the quality is not under discussion.

Questionable since they let me in.

[Stagler]

I belive this community already is decent.

 

It could be larger, but the quality is not under discussion.

 

How would we endevour to expand the community then?

 

By decent I mean diverse. It is not very diverse - it is mostly old school wargamers and grogs.

[sburke]

Program an AI bot to go spread the word, you can do that in your spare time.

[agusto]

To be frank, the attitudes of some of the CM community to strangers and newcomers that ask questions like "why cant we do x y z", or "why isn't there x" is downright toxic.

 

The problem probably arent the newcomers themselves, it is that some questions get asked over and over and over again and you always have to tell them "no, that wont happen". Some people here have been a part of this community for over 16 years, i can understand why they might feel a bit enerved by the 7234 iteration of the "can we get a better AI" or "the graphics suck" discussion.

 

By decent I mean diverse. It is not very diverse - it is mostly old school wargamers and grogs.

 

Hmm - yes and no. What would you expect? Any game community probably consists mostly if not only of people that actually like the game they are playing.

[Baneman]

How would we endevour to expand the community then?

 

By decent I mean diverse. It is not very diverse - it is mostly old school wargamers and grogs.

 

Comes back to the "niche product" argument. It's just not likely to become diverse beyond the above since they/we are the ones who find the game interesting/absorbing/etc.

 

An analogy is me talking about the Cricket World Cup to the rest of my office. No matter how I extol it, explain it, sell it, talk it up, etc. those fools just don't appreciate it.

[Stagler]

Think of this example.

 

Talking about the cricket world cup in your office. Your office is only what, say 10 people, so lets play 1 of 10 people in the average office like cricket.

However, if you went out into the next office which has 20 people working in it, using our model that means you would find another two people who like cricket.

Its all about numbers and audience in advertisement. If you dont show them what you have then nobody will want it.

 

Using our basic model here, lets imagine a basic first step for advertisement. Lets say 1 of 10 people like wargames. Battlefront's PR is almost none existant. It takes research to get here to this forum.

It is how I got here. It is how most people got here, through either word of mouth or reading about it on another forum. Eugen Systems/BI Forum/SimHQ/UnitedOperations the list goes on.

 

Now imagine that Battlefront had aggressive advertising. Taking Burke's facetious idea for now, imagine a banner advert that would appear on some of these forums front pages to get the word out. Theres a good starting idea. There are already banner adverts on BF main page, proliferate them more.

So by proliferating the banner to say, SimHQ, which has a forum user number of say 1000 people, so theres another 100 potential combat mission players on the forum itself, but also anyone who stumbles across the SimHQ front page also and can be linked straight to the BF store.

 

Now lets imagine utilising a platform with an even large user base, imagine a Combat Mission reddit page.

Or imagine using an online distribution system such as, god forbid, steam to reach out to an even larger audience. Reddit and Steam have huge user bases, say at least in the hundreds of thousands, so at least that is 10,000 more wargamers if we are to look at our basic metrics again. At this time advantage is not taken of modern advertisement and proliferation methods is basically what I am saying here. At RHS, we have Reddit pages, a wiki page, a facebook group, a facebook fanpage, a twitter, steam threads, a thread on all of the websites i mentioned before - including here, and it has all cost us nothing - as we are non-profit. Wargame has its own reddit page moderated by its community manager, an employee of the company and on their pay role granted, but it is something that costs nothing to create.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Stagler

[Kieme(ITA)]

So you compare the PR activity of a non-profit organization with that of a profit-driven company.

Disregarding all kinds of differences, all kinds of copyright issues, platform and organization rules of all kinds.

Even, I, with no knowledge of the game industry find this funny at least.

 

I'd suggest you to become a professional game developer, then you might share something useful as battlefronts, in my opinion, when it comes to deeply detailed commercialization and development methods, until then yours is just an opinion from a customer.

And any other comment on the "decency" of this community could be really avoided in the future, as it's not a good start for any conversation (a bad generalization that tends to cover all members following this Group/forum since a while). If you mean another thing ("decent" and "diverse" are different words, not synonyms, and I am not an english native Language speaker) next time think twice.

 

Anyway, this is just the nth thread which some people want to turn into a steam debate (advertisement), and I find this boring.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Kieme(ITA)

[Baneman]

Stagler, my point was not about reaching more people, but that people who are not interested in cricket cannot be made to be.

 

CM is niche because it is a niche interest. You may be able to find more people who are interested, but you wont find a lot more.

[Stagler]

So you compare the PR activity of a non-profit organization with that of a profit-driven company.

Disregarding all kinds of differences, all kinds of copyright issues, platform and organization rules of all kinds.

Even, I, with no knowledge of the game industry find this funny at least.

 

I'd suggest you to become a professional game developer, then you might share something useful as battlefronts, in my opinion, when it comes to deeply detailed commercialization and development methods, until then yours is just an opinion from a customer.

And any other comment on the "decency" of this community could be really avoided in the future, as it's not a good start for any conversation (a bad generalization that tends to cover all members following this Group/forum since a while). If you mean another thing ("decent" and "diverse" are different words, not synonyms, and I am not an english native Language speaker) next time think twice.

 

Anyway, this is just the nth thread which some people want to turn into a steam debate (advertisement), and I find this boring.

 

I already have a career, I would prefer to have development as something I can enjoy doing instead of doing for money, that way something I am proficient at and actually like spending time on to create does not become something that causes me undue stress.

Wargame is owned by Eugen systems, a company substantially more successful than Battlefront and offering a product that is lumped in the same genre/semantics as Combat Mission, whether people on here like it or not.

AFAIK reddit is user editable and a page can be created without any copyright issues.

To put banners on another website, im sure some kind of payment would be required, advertisement costs.

 

What is it Keime that you think is good for Battlefront then? You must have an opinion surely, because you so strongly condemn others?

 

And I dont particularly care what you think about my opinion on this community, it is mine to hold and be reinforced by how newcomers are treated every time.

Notice how after new threads are made about problem x, y or z by new posters, the posters seem to disappear or not post on here again after they get hammered into oblivion by reply posts. Where has Ikalugin gone to for example?

I also couldnt give two fooks about what vehicle is used for marketing, whether that be Steam or whatever, I was making a point using an abstract example of a mass software distribution system.

 

Its a fact that Battlefront does not advertise aggressively. There was no general release trailer for CMBS, however there was for CMA - I remeber it on gametrailers.com. I assume Snowball paid for this advertisement cost, not Battlefront?

 

You are right Baneman about others not being interested and there is no point in forcing them to be so.

 

The problem here is, using our cricket example again, Battlefront forums is in the position of the only guy who likes Cricket in the office.

 

Nobody likes Cricket, no matter how many times he likes to talk about it and get them interested. If the guy decides to not talk to anyone else about cricket outside the office, like Battlefront is doing now, then the poor guy will think that he is the only one in the world who likes Cricket, and nobody else likes it despite how cool he thinks it is and how dumb they are for not enjoying it.

 

But if he went out to the local sports club for example, he would meet other people who also like Cricket, and he could talk to those about Cricket all day long and they would all see how good it was. But some people at the sports club also like Football and Rugby, but they like sports in general so are also interested in talking about Cricket, and wouldnt mind going to watch it as well to get into it more and make new friends.

 

At the moment we are the guy who only talks about cricket at the office, not down at the sports club with the other sports fans. If anyone comes knocking at our house asking to come in and watch the cricket, then asks about the rules of the game, they get shouted down and thrown out the front door.

 

This going further and further wide afield anyway. Like all other threads customer feedback will get glossed over and nothing will happen about it sadly.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Stagler

[Kieme(ITA)]

I don't condemn ideas but the more or less offensive remarks and expressions towards people or groups of people.

 

I am not in the position to tell BFC what is the best for the game, because I have not enough knowledge in programming nor gaming commercialization but I am capable of recognizing real suggestions from baseless talks not to mention diversion from the original poster in threads, that's why I am not going to pursue this here anymore.

[Stagler]

Meh suit yourself, but yes it has gone off topic of CPU vs CPU battle definately, but the facts I have stated are not baseless otherwise there wouldnt be threads about this kind of stuff coming up all the time.

 

I am not going to let new forum members get hammered by these "people or groups of people", and I will call them out on their actions and views. Always.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Stagler

[Vanir Ausf B]

Now imagine that Battlefront had aggressive advertising.

 

My impression is that BFC feels that they have already tried appealing to the mainstream via advertising and retail sales and it didn't work out.

 

Advertising only works when it brings in more new customers than it costs to advertise. Our experience with advertising has shown us that we're financially better off using mostly word of mouth and alternative marketing methods.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109837-yippeeeeeeeee/?p=1449206

 

We don't advertise any more because it is a huge waste of money based on our 12 years of experience.

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/99260-what-i-think/?p=1300438

[slysniper]

Notice how after new threads are made about problem x, y or z by new posters, the posters seem to disappear or not post on here again after they get hammered into oblivion by reply posts. Where has Ikalugin gone to for example?

 

 

Its a fact that Battlefront does not advertise aggressively. There was no general release trailer for CMBS, however there was for CMA - I remeber it on gametrailers.com. I assume Snowball paid for this advertisement cost, not Battlefront?

 

 

 

 

Sorry, But I just have to comment on these two statements.

 

First, if you cannot take the heat when other Forum members inform you that your comments or thoughts are not going to be acted on by BF because they have seen and understood the path BF is taking because of the many post they have read over the years. Then who is the dumb one for not listening,  disappear then, because BF is set on the path they want, not yours.

 

(I recall my own post back when CMFI first came out and I was not liking how the Italian squads were being allowed to split, boy did I get blasted, even from BF themselves, But once both opinions have been stated and the reason whys explained. It was time to be adult enough to see their understanding and drop my viewpoint because it is not my product, it is theirs and they can do with it what they will. And imagine, with time I grew to appreciate their view point)

 

Statement two - BF still making money on their product, and Snowball, well, for some reason they disappeared, I wonder why. maybe that advertising did not help make sales for them and they did not make enough profit. Thus gone, as with so many others who try their luck at making wargames.

 

Anyway just two statements that were not helping your cause in my book

[sburke]

I am not going to let new forum members who agree with me get hammered by these "people or groups of people" who have actually paid attention to what BF said they are capable of and or willing to do in umpteen dozen threads that eventually get locked because the bullheaded stubborn folks who think they know better and risk nothing refuse to listen , and I will call them out on their actions and views. Always.

There, fixed that for you. Context is everything.

Edited March 13, 2015 by sburke