255 réponses à ce sujet

[CulturalGeekGirl]

BS Veyron wrote...

designing and producing an alternate cover = $$$. Its an unnecessary cost and Bioware is a business.

Go to any anime or gaming convention, and you'll see hundreds or thousands of girls who spend thousands of dollars each year on games and comics. A lot of these girls haven't heard of Mass Effect, and won't buy it, because they don't know what it's like. Marketing doesn't distinguish it in any way from Gears of War or Crysis - you just see a grim future with a crew-cutted bro tearing his way through it with an assault rifle. Boring.

If marketing did a little more to get the attention of these RPG-loving girls, they could make more money. The big question is... is would the investment earn out? Can they do it in such a way that it attracts females who are unaware of the series but still engages the main, dude-based audience? 

Because female gamers are ludicrously underserved, and will often devour any game that shows them an ounce of respect, once they're aware of it.

[MidnightRaith]

^Like Halo Reach with its new female Spartan model. Seriously, I and many of my FPS loving girl gaming friends were ecstatic when Bungee released that info.

[Apocalypse89]

It's not something impossible, IIRC Half-Life 2 had various different covers with the faces of Gordon, the G-man, and Alyx on them. Something similar could be done with ME3, although I think it's unlikely given Bioware's past history where marketing focused on the male character. Shame.

LadyJaneGrey wrote...

I hope the cover doesn't feature the player character at all, guy or gal. ME2's collector edition looks much less generic than the regular edition.

After seeing many recent games' collector/premium/limited/etc. editions, I think they intentionally make the standard one ugly and generic and make the good boxart part of the reason to buy the more expensive version lol.

[Aggie Punbot]

Am I the only one who doesn't give a crap about what the cover design is? The game itself is all I want and to hell with what the cover looks like.

Modifié par TS2Aggie, 26 avril 2011 - 09:20 .

[Hathur]

Kronner wrote...

Cover is irrelevant to me, I will likely get the digital version anyway.

But it would make no sense to display anything else but the default male Shepard, considering this is the last game of the trilogy, and he's been the face since the very beginning.

As a near-exclusively femshep player (have like 14 shepards.. 12 are femshep).. Even I have to agree with Kronner... first, I'll be getting digital version as I do with all games for the past 3 years or so (Steam, direct2drive, etc) so a cover is meaningless to me... secondly, I accept the fact that the average consumer is woefully ignorant... even, dare I say, stupid. An alternate cover with a female Shepard would only confuse those average consumers who recognize the default male Shepard from past games.

From a business standpoint, I see no benefit for Bioware to go to the trouble of making an alternate female Shepard box cover.

As a devout fan of Mass Effect, I don't care either since default femshep is not my Shepard... I've been using the same femshep face since 2008 for all my characters and that's the person I associate as Shepard.... any other, be it default male shep or default femshep, is meaningless to me.

Frankly, if I actually had to choose, I'd prefer no Shepard on the cover at all. Make it either just the logo, the Normandy, or N7 logo. Not that it actually matters 

Modifié par Hathur, 26 avril 2011 - 09:22 .

[VioletSparks]

they used to do DVD covers where (when they couldn't decide on the artwork) the sheet that slips beneath the plastic on the front of the case could be turned over for the alternate cover. I don't think bioware will want to rebrand or anything, and I'm no femshep supporter, but something like that (if only on the special editions or whatevs, would please a lot of femshep fans and be a nice testament to how important Hale has been in all this. =)

[Loup Blanc]

The ME2 cover (standard edition) is so lame and Sheploo is really ugly. I too would love a cover without his ugly mug all over.

[MidnightRaith]

Hathur wrote...

Kronner wrote...

Cover is irrelevant to me, I will likely get the digital version anyway.

But it would make no sense to display anything else but the default male Shepard, considering this is the last game of the trilogy, and he's been the face since the very beginning.

As a near-exclusively femshep player (have like 14 shepards.. 12 are femshep).. Even I have to agree with Kronner... first, I'll be getting digital version as I do with all games for the past 3 years or so (Steam, direct2drive, etc) so a cover is meaningless to me... secondly, I accept the fact that the average consumer is woefully ignorant... even, dare I say, stupid. An alternate cover with a female Shepard would only confuse those average consumers who recognize the default male Shepard from past games.

From a business standpoint, I see no benefit for Bioware to go to the trouble of making an alternate female Shepard box cover.

As a devout fan of Mass Effect, I don't care either since default femshep is not my Shepard... I've been using the same femshep face since 2008 for all my characters and that's the person I associate as Shepard.... any other, be it default male shep or default femshep, is meaningless to me.

Frankly, if I actually had to choose, I'd prefer no Shepard on the cover at all. Make it either just the logo, the Normandy, or N7 logo. Not that it actually matters 

I don't understand the bolded argument. Yes, one can say that many consumers are stupid, but if the box has Mass Effect 3 on it, one would probably assume that it is Mass Effect 3. Covers have changed before, but titles don't. For instance, KotOR and KotOR II have nearly entirely different characters on the box, but the title art is the same. Just do the same thing with ME3, people will get it. Besides, it's not like they can't ask or something if it's truly that confusing.

[Hathur]

MidnightRaith wrote...

Hathur wrote...

Kronner wrote...

Cover is irrelevant to me, I will likely get the digital version anyway.

But it would make no sense to display anything else but the default male Shepard, considering this is the last game of the trilogy, and he's been the face since the very beginning.

As a near-exclusively femshep player (have like 14 shepards.. 12 are femshep).. Even I have to agree with Kronner... first, I'll be getting digital version as I do with all games for the past 3 years or so (Steam, direct2drive, etc) so a cover is meaningless to me... secondly, I accept the fact that the average consumer is woefully ignorant... even, dare I say, stupid. An alternate cover with a female Shepard would only confuse those average consumers who recognize the default male Shepard from past games.

From a business standpoint, I see no benefit for Bioware to go to the trouble of making an alternate female Shepard box cover.

As a devout fan of Mass Effect, I don't care either since default femshep is not my Shepard... I've been using the same femshep face since 2008 for all my characters and that's the person I associate as Shepard.... any other, be it default male shep or default femshep, is meaningless to me.

Frankly, if I actually had to choose, I'd prefer no Shepard on the cover at all. Make it either just the logo, the Normandy, or N7 logo. Not that it actually matters 

I don't understand the bolded argument. Yes, one can say that many consumers are stupid, but if the box has Mass Effect 3 on it, one would probably assume that it is Mass Effect 3. Covers have changed before, but titles don't. For instance, KotOR and KotOR II have nearly entirely different characters on the box, but the title art is the same. Just do the same thing with ME3, people will get it. Besides, it's not like they can't ask or something if it's truly that confusing.

Having worked in retail, I'm well versed in how utterly goddamned stupid my fellow human beings are. From my personal experience, there's a high likelihood that the average consumer who saw female Shepard on the cover rather than Sheploo would say to themselves: "What the hell? They got rid of Commander Shepard and replaced him with a chick? That's stupid, forget this game".

That is not an exagerration by any stretch.. I've seen and heard customers say infinitely more stupid / ignorant things than that.... Bioware marketing undoubtedly understands this as well and they see no benefit in confusing the dumdums who would buy their game otherwise (if you argue against this than you underestimate the sheer volume of people who buy a game that know almost nothing about a game in the first place... hundreds of thousands of purchases are made of a game by incredibly ignorant people... Bioware has no desire to lose those numbers by confusing their already confused little minds).

Modifié par Hathur, 26 avril 2011 - 10:17 .

[MidnightRaith]

^ I suppose that's true, but if Bioware implemented the reversible cover idea, then they could completely bypass any confusion. That and if they produced completely separate boxes for the same idea, then I'd think it may relieve the confusion as well. There have been different covers for the same game in many instances.

[CulturalGeekGirl]

I would also like to see them do a small, online only, female-focused marketing campaign. Get someone to make a few banners based on Femsheps, buy adspace on some gaming and webcomic sites where the fanbase leans female. It wouldn't cost much, a few thousand bucks at most, and it would at least make people aware of the possibilities, without muddying their main marketing message.

There could be some reason why this wouldn't work, but I can't think of it right now.

There are a few fairly prominent webomic artists who have talked about playing femsheps, and even done comics about them. Making a few femshep-based web advertising snippets and putting them on those websites couldn't hoit.

And I agree that a reversable cover, with an alt cover on the other side, is a great idea.

[Black Raptor]

How about having a femshep version on the other side of the cover? As in you'd have to take the paper out from behind the plastic and put it back in back to front.

Red Alert 3 did it with allied and soviet sides to the cover.

Reversible cover ftw

[MidnightRaith]

Black Raptor wrote...

How about having a femshep version on the other side of the cover? As in you'd have to take the paper out from behind the plastic and put it back in back to front.

Red Alert 3 did it with allied and soviet sides to the cover.

Reversible cover ftw

Yep, that's what we're nerdgasming over right now.

[Zimary]

Black Raptor wrote...

How about having a femshep version on the other side of the cover? As in you'd have to take the paper out from behind the plastic and put it back in back to front.

Red Alert 3 did it with allied and soviet sides to the cover.

Reversible cover ftw

Yup, reversible cover ftw!

Not only Red Alert 3, but White Knight Chronicles as well.

[RinpocheSchnozberry]

Even better: Print on demand. You upload you face code to BioWare, they print you out a box with your FemShep on it. I'd pay $80. for that.

[MidnightRaith]

RinpocheSchnozberry wrote...

Even better: Print on demand. You upload you face code to BioWare, they print you out a box with your FemShep on it. I'd pay $80. for that.

What happens if your Shep is ugly?

Modifié par MidnightRaith, 26 avril 2011 - 11:12 .

[Saphara]

MidnightRaith wrote...

RinpocheSchnozberry wrote...

Even better: Print on demand. You upload you face code to BioWare, they print you out a box with your FemShep on it. I'd pay $80. for that.

What happens if the consumer's ugly?

Face code: the code at the top of the screen when you create your Shepard in ME2.

So dont need to worry about it ebing ugly unless it was on purpose

[MidnightRaith]

^ Lol, yeah I skimmed the post, so that's what I get. At any rate, I do accidently make some of my Sheps ugly. For instance, any MShep that I've tried to make has come out hideously ugly. That's part of the reason why I don't play him. That and Meer, I don't like him.....

[Saphara]

MidnightRaith wrote...

^ Lol, yeah I skimmed the post, so that's what I get. At any rate, I do accidently make some of my Sheps ugly. For instance, any MShep that I've tried to make has come out hideously ugly. That's part of the reason why I don't play him. That and Meer, I don't like him.....

Yeah, i cant play men if i have the option to play a woman. Just feels weird, and i cant make them look as nice.

OT: What if they had MShep and FemShep back to back on the cover?

[FireEye]

FWIW: I didn't play Mass Effect until last year, and only then because I found an article about people's awesome Shepards. And all of them were female. And I was all, "Who is that badass female space marine, there?" and "You can make your own character? Really, now?"

So yes, properly marketing a female Shepard or customization options would bring people like me to the table faster and with more certainty. (Whether you want people like me and our money at your table is a whole 'nother question.)

[shinobi602]

For the 100th time, Sheploo is their default Shep.

Damn mang.

[MidnightRaith]

I didn't get into the ME crowd till late as well. It just didn't interest me because I thought that MShep was your only option, but then some friends told me about FemShep and I was went out to get both games as soon as I could.

[Destroy Raiden_]

No it works for comics but I don't think it'll work for games if they want do mshep on the outer shell then when you open it up do her image on the inside portion but really I'm not crushed she's never featured on anything fshep is the second shep not the main face of the brand.

[Saphara]

MidnightRaith wrote...

I didn't get into the ME crowd till late as well. It just didn't interest me because I thought that MShep was your only option, but then some friends told me about FemShep and I was went out to get both games as soon as I could.

Same actually. Learning I can create a female hero actualy got me to buy it and games like Divinity II faster than I would have.

[Manic Sheep]

Na. Sheploo is the iconic ME face and I’m cool with that. Not opposed to the idea but I really don’t care. Whether its a man or a woman on the cover is not important. Shep dose not even need to be on it.

Modifié par Manic Sheep, 26 avril 2011 - 11:31 .