Four individual covers would be a bit impractical (printing), but two reversible covers with different male+female combinations (a la ME3's cover) wouldn't be so unreasonable. I dig the idea.
Comic books print variant covers all the time. The cover is just a piece of paper you slip into the box. It's the cheapest part of the manufacturing process.
Comic books print variant covers all the time. The cover is just a piece of paper you slip into the box. It's the cheapest part of the manufacturing process.
People pride comic books and their covers for being pieces of art. The same can't really be said for the status of videogame covers.
You have to do separate runs for the different cover artworks, which means two (or four) different printing processes. It's an added variable that indeed costs extra money.
You know what would be cool (although probably highly impractical in reality ).
Having a bunch of covers in which only the protag changed. Imagine these side by side in the shop :Spoiler
To an extent WoW has done this since the game's initial release and it didn't hurt sales, as far as i've ever read.
People pride comic books and their covers for being pieces of art. The same can't really be said for the status of videogame covers.
You have to do separate runs for the different cover artworks, which means two (or four) different printing processes. It's an added variable that indeed costs extra money.
It might be extra money but if it's something marketing supports, it falls under their umbrella of expenses i imagine and if they're willing to support it, you'll know it's worth it in the long run.
People pride comic books and their covers for being pieces of art. The same can't really be said for the status of videogame covers.
You have to do separate runs for the different cover artworks, which means two (or four) different printing processes. It's an added variable that indeed costs extra money.
Not as much as you're making it out to be. I do professional printing work, and the biggest investment in printing is the quality of the paper being used and the sheer quantity being created. Comic book paper (for the standard monthly releases, not counting trade collections or similar items) is not particularly high quality, and variant covers are meant for collectors, which means supply is fairly low in comparison to the normal covers. The bulk of the added cost would be labor (for artists to physically pencil and ink the cover concepts and proofs, people to maintain the printing equipment, etc), and while I don't know how Marvel does their image formatting, but 99% of the time it is as simple as opening the image file in some kind of image processing software and reformatting it to make it fit the page (or pages) and printing out however many copies of said pages you need.
Running numerous variant covers would cost more money than just having 1 standard cover, but not by any substantial amount unless the artist who is painting or drawing the variant cover is taking a ton of money, or if Marvel decided to print the variants on fancier and higher-quality stock. There wouldn't be a new process for each variant cover unless Marvel were REALLY inefficient at making their books, and I can't believe they would be that incompetent.
I don't know. As far as my experience goes nowadays one can't produce anything with a female lead without angry internet nerds proclaming "Oh my god they are pandering to the SJW crowd." "F*cking Political Correctness is ruining gaming/cinema/whatever." or "This game/movie/whatever is third wave feminism garbage".
The problem is when women do make it to the front cover they get accused of being sexually objectified. You cant win. Two things the average male video gamer will be drawn to...Guns and a womans cleavage.
Let's print a lot of covers just to please all kind of human beings.
Why just please one kind?
Why people from another countries want to see an american human in all covers?
I don't want a "cheesy white man or woman".
Let's print a lot of covers just to please all kind of human beings.
Why just please one kind?
Why people from another countries want to see an american human in all covers?
I don't want a "cheesy white man or woman".
*raises hand*
I'm from another country. Shepard (either version) doesn't look anything like me. In fact, I've always found it somewhat difficult to get my skin tone in the CC.
I've never really cared that much to be honest 
Not as much as you're making it out to be. I do professional printing work, and the biggest investment in printing is the quality of the paper being used and the sheer quantity being created. Comic book paper (for the standard monthly releases, not counting trade collections or similar items) is not particularly high quality, and variant covers are meant for collectors, which means supply is fairly low in comparison to the normal covers. The bulk of the added cost would be labor, and while I don't know how Marvel does their image formatting, but 99% of the time it is as simple as opening the image file in some kind of image processing software and reformatting it to make it fit the page (or pages) and printing out however many copies of said pages you need.
Running numerous variant covers would cost more money than just having 1 standard cover, but not by any substantial amount unless the artist who is painting or drawing the variant cover is taking a ton of money. There wouldn't be a new process for each variant cover unless Marvel were REALLY inefficient at making their books, and I can't believe they would be that incompetent.
Bold for emphasis. On top of doubling the work for verifying two (or four) sets of covers for textual/ratings accuracy, you'll have to calibrate the image files, printers, and ink for two different color runs. It's an added cost for something that often gets trashed as soon as the game's open and doesn't even change the trade-in value at most gaming stores. Terribly expensive? No, but it's still spending money on a non-premium version of a product.
It might be extra money but if it's something marketing supports, it falls under their umbrella of expenses i imagine and if they're willing to support it, you'll know it's worth it in the long run.
Speaking honestly I really think that it won't determine anything in the quality of the game, so it's silly to over-emphasize it, but to have a kind of strong female presence on the cover or in other things would be a cool thing IMO as long as it doesn't feel cheesy or forced.
Diversity would be having both, not just one.
There's pretty much no way this thread is going to go to a good place, so I figure I'd just point that out.
Jeez well played Cyo!
Bold for emphasis. On top of doubling the work for verifying two (or four) sets of covers for textual/ratings accuracy, you'll have to calibrate the image files, printers, and ink for two different color runs. It's an added cost for something that often gets trashed as soon as the game's open and doesn't even change the trade-in value at most gaming stores. Terribly expensive? No, but it's still spending money on a non-premium version of a product.
The added labor costs shouldn't be much higher since not all that much extra work is being done, other than the actual drawing of the covers. Proofing them all takes literally a matter of minutes and barely qualifies as work. Fiddling with the image files generally doesn't take much more than a few minutes, maybe longer, depending on how intricate the image is and if it has a specially designed layout. Any half-decent modern printer or copy machine can apply multiple colors in a single run, you shouldn't have to do multiple runs to apply each color. You can get an insane amount of mileage from the standard CMYK setup. And unless Marvel has some unique method of printing that I'm not aware of, there shouldn't be any "calibrating" done to the ink (mostly because you wouldn't use actual ink, you would use toner), you literally just stick the toner colors in the appropriate slots and let it do its thing. Any plain office copier can auto-calibrate the colors to match the image file from the computer sending the file, I have a hard time believing that this would be a cost issue for a company like Marvel that can afford top-of-the-line gear.
Is it worth it, though? People can scan, upload, and print their own DVD/game covers easily nowadays.
Perhaps if they did something not-so-easily replicated, like the nifty foil material on the Jade Empire limited edition cover, but that's even more $$$.
If you wanna go the scan and print route, could always make (number of faces) + 1 covers. The individual-face covers could be PDFs of the original files from Photoshop for people to print out and the other cover, which comes with the box, is a composition containing all the faces, which would be nice if it had approximately 50% females. And for kicks, maybe have the game capable of saving a PDF cover with your own CC-created face.
I have a rather elegant solution...
http://youtu.be/cEX3c7mxu0s&start=01:10
(This'd better work)
You mean…
https://youtu.be/cEX3c7mxu0s?t=1m10s
It's 't' for the time to start and, usually, you just enter the total seconds, or as their share function showed above. Normally, you just post the shared link and the forum does the rest.
You mean…
https://youtu.be/cEX3c7mxu0s?t=1m10s
It's 't' for the time to start and, usually, you just enter the total seconds, or as their share function showed above. Normally, you just post the shared link and the forum does the rest.
Andy McNamara @GI_AndyMc
Since I've been asked a couple times, cover reveal is delayed a bit due to E3 but it's coming.
The problem is when women do make it to the front cover they get accused of being sexually objectified. You cant win. Two things the average male video gamer will be drawn to...Guns and a womans cleavage.
Both these game have sold shed loads (an AAA and an indie game), although it does help they are both very good.
Both these game have sold shed loads (an AAA and an indie game), although it does help they are both very good.
It helps that neither character is glaring at the camera like it had sex with both their parents.
It helps that neither character is glaring at the camera like it had sex with both their parents.
At the same time.
Let's print a lot of covers just to please all kind of human beings.
Why just please one kind?
Why people from another countries want to see an american human in all covers?
I don't want a "cheesy white man or woman".
Calling all white people "american human"?
Triggered.
but as a Canadian I still have to apologize if this is inconvenient for you.
Both these game have sold shed loads (an AAA and an indie game), although it does help they are both very good.
I honestly don't care if a game has a male or female protagonist. Depends on how the character is handled in the game itself. And yes both of those were great.
Mass Effect however, you can play as either, and I think both should have the cover because while some people prefer the male, others prefer the female or some even actually play both. It shouldn't have a female on the cover, neither a male, just have them both be there. It's not hard.
Giving the female priority in the cover, in a game where you can be both female and male, is not a 2016 thing, it's just as bad as when the male is the front of the cover alone.
Oh i agree it should be equal, as should the marketing. That would be a step forward in itself.
Adding another good cover
I don't know how good financially it will fare, but I liked the first one, and I'll definitely pick up this one.
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