Immersive marketing

Though I haven't had the pleasure of actually playing the thing myself it's been great to hear all the rhetoric drummed up around 'Helldivers 2', particularly when it comes to the ways that it subverts what people expect from a game of it's ilk. A decent little follow-up to a stylish twin-stick turned into a surprise megahit beloved across the internet, and the devs- after some healthy crumbling under the weight of sudden success- have really risen to the task. Keeping the game feeling healthy and the players on their toes, but most interestingly from an outsider is the way in which the team are embarking on a very particular community strategy I rarely see employed by really anyone else these days- the good old Immersive Marketing.

Don't get me wrong, we've all lived through the age of community managers who treat their jobs like a larping session, which is... fun? I remember the awkward smile I got when I saw the first urgent Tweet on a recent Destiny debacle not that long after launch, and saw them refer to the audience as 'Guardians' and end every message with 'Pardon our dust.' (Still don't get what that second part was about, truth be told.) But what I'm talking about is a bit more, involved than that- whilst being a bit more laid back. I'm talking about the times when the developer bring the audience into the fiction of the world outside the confines of the magic box in a way that feels natural and additive to the experience. And of course I'm talking about the funny dialogue players have shared with the Helldivers developers.

When the Helldivers game started slowly introducing new enemy types into the mission roster, it was without fanfare and entirely to the surprise of fans. As such, a really organic movement of shared Twitter posts and screenshots detailing the new flying bugs began popping up online- mimicking the threadbare way such news would spread in a propaganda controlled militarist fascistic faux utopia like the one depicted on Super Earth in Helldivers 2. And true to his role, the game director took to his account to frankly denounce the rumours of the new flying bugs with the pithy quote "Everyone knows bugs can't fly." Until someone directly tweeted a picture to him which broke the play of ignorance in a smart back and forth.

In a much different way Elite Dangerous had a play at this kind of guerrilla marketing with the way that they introduced Thargoids back into the series lore. As Elite Dangerous kind of plays like an online ecosystem somewhat like a Live Service, only a lot more natural and less predatory. You might think of it more like an MMO of a type- players just go about living their space lives, hunting pirates or running trade routes across the stars for pocket change. This kind of easy living is helped by the fact that the universe of the game really happens around players. Events that shift the lines of the various world factions spread on ingame news sites, but outside of that we are just the people inhabiting the stars- the machinations of the politically inclined hold little affect on our day to day. Or at least, they did until the Thargoids returned.

What little there was in the way of lead-up was portrayed entirely within in-universe snippets of stories and bizarreries. Things going missing, signals heading nowhere- nothing significant enough to be even called preludes to an impending event. No one was actively looking to try and trigger anything hidden within the code. Which is what made it such a special moment when a player, seemingly by accident, stumbled upon an encounter with a fully modelled alien Thargoid ship which appeared, scanned the onlooker and then fled, kicking off a wave of speculation across the community regarding what this could mean and what it portended. Of course, that could eventually become the Thargoid war and there on.

The excitement of that event alone sparked a gold rush of interest surrounding the game and the natural way it was discovered reinvigorated a sense of exploration in a people who suddenly remembered 'oh yeah, this game has an entire Universe- I wonder what else there is hidden away in the stars!' (See, that's what space games like Elite have that space games like Starfield need- wonder.) Now you can argue whether or not the team lived up to that excitement with the following events and how they affected the game world, the new weapon types and the new Thargoid ship combat metas- but that important thing is they got eyes on them. Even if it was a dud- that is an example anyone else can look at, emulate and get right with their own iteration. Out of the box immersive marketing- it works!

There is a time and place for stuff like this, of course. When a game is in dire need of repairs and the community is waiting around with the hands on their ass wondering when it's safe to log into a game- no one wants to play games figuring out an RNG to know what fixes and updates are coming. You really have to be able to read the mood of your players to know when you are comfortable enough to play a few games with them. If Starfield's team came around tomorrow to slyly tease about upcoming content, that might drum up a bit of hype around those that are waiting- but if they did that nearer to release, in the height of the discourse around the design problems of the game- it would have caused an uproar. It's all about reading the room and timing- just like comedy.

I'm all for thinking outside the box and using one's creativity to achieve what others cannot. No one likes a corporate account that acts just like everyone else on social media only with a decade old meme vault to lug around. Being original, finding ways to connect directly with your audience and simply shirking the artificial nature of communication helps distinguish immersive marketing from bland 'hello fellow kids' style social media work. With enough effort we could really see a wide spread evolution of the way that people communicate with their customers, and from that will spawn much more natural growing audiences. Perhaps that is the future of marketing that the indie market can hope to grow from, who can say?

Elite: Dangerous Odyssey

 Now that's a name I haven't heard since...

I do love taking a look at all the cool new games and expansions which pop up during trade shows, even if I have no interest in the game's in question, as it serves me many purposes. On one hand it shows the direction of the industry, what the millions will be spending their hard-earned bucks on and finally, ever now and then, I get to see something that I haven't thought about in literal years. Something that was once very special to me and a staple of my daily living, and something which I find myself greatly missing in these days where it feels like not a single moment is given to itself. (Am I getting too abstract again?) Let me be clear, I saw Elite Dangerous and I forgot how that was, for a time, my cool down game for which I owe a lot.

I'm being serious when I say that Elite Dangerous did a lot for me, or perhaps what I've said is more a comment of what I made out of it, either way the game was exactly what I needed when I need it. (And I'm not exactly sure if I've mentioned it before) Quiet simply, Elite Dangerous proposes a world where the galaxy is largely inhabited by a galactic society of human factions, all trying to make their best of life in the stars. The players all co-inhabit this universe and take on whatever roll they so choose, whether that be life as a mercenary, pirate, legitimate trader, faction loyalist or anything in between. And though that sounds all very exciting, in reality this all played out a lot more like a simulator than you'd might think, meaning that for someone like me, a trader who occasionally partook in light smuggling, the game would literally consist of hours of journeying rather than bouts of intense action.

I suppose that with such a concept the game would have a vastly different meaning to folk on another life path when compared to my one, but I basically would cruise around like a deep space trucker, only I worked mostly freelance. Essentially my job would be to roll into a station and fill my cargo hold with whatever item could make me the best profit and jump from star system to star system to get there. Which meant transit times occupied by nothing than the brilliance of space broken up by shimmering stars and the odd time when I would have to scoop in a slingshot maneuverer in order to charge up my engines for particularly long trips. Then I would come across two close by stations who would each have a profitable trade for one another and than exploit that until I was done. It was a very lonely way to play the game, to the point where I rarely ran into any other players at all (and I was skilled enough to wholly scoot around, pirates) but man was it perfect.

First off, Elite has always been such a beautiful game, so taking this sight-seeing tour through the universe was a true visual treat. In fact, despite the many years between them, I'd go so far as to say that Elite Dangerous' Universe is more aesthetically pleasing to explore than No Man Sky's. (Elite's celestial bodies certainly do display considerably less aliasing) Secondly, the very idea of traversing the black empty of space is so tantalising to me in some unexplainable fashion. I just found no better peace than the nights I spent with one screen on drift and the other watching old comedies, it's the sort of peace that can really soothe an agitated soul.

That being said, it's been a very long time since I've been able to partake and enjoy the simple pleasure of trading in Elite due simply to the way that the game snuck away from me. First there was the Horizon update which came with a price tag and thus kicked me offline, robbing me of those rare interactions I enjoyed, and then small nicks here and there wore me off of the game. Now I haven't played in years, but I still remember my time fondly. The game as I know it may be vastly different, but I'm sure my relaxation incentive is still in there somewhere, and maybe this Odyssey update is a good place to restart that adventure... 

If there is one thing that rubs me wrong about almost every single Space Sim ever made, it's the way that they almost always make the player literally be a spaceship, rather a person flying a spaceship. Now don't get me wrong, I understand why that is. When it comes to exploring space most Sims want to focus on the ship driven space exploration and therefore anytime outside of the ship almost feels redundant, but as an RPG lover myself I personally live for the moments of quite redundancy. The times in between that only a handful of folk appreciate. For example, whenever you enter a space port and have to deal with customs guiding you to a landing pad and making that landing, rather than the game going into autopilot the second you enter the facility. It adds that touch of immersion that I feel would only be made more complete if I had the chance to then get out and do my business in my human body. 

Now I don't know if Odyssey is going to go quite that far (I hope it does) but I know that real on-the-ground content is coming to Elite Dangerous and that's actually quite a boon for little ol' me. (I may just get back into it.) Heck, from the look of things this game is even going to have on-the-ground combat scenarios which places it worlds above 'Star Citizen' who, of course, had to exorcise theirs for quality control reasons. Either way, having the chance to explore the world outside of our ships, visiting outposts and maybe getting into the odd fire fight- I'm not entirely certain on everything the DLC will be adding, but even that alone sounds amazing.

So in a way I suppose this marks yet another way in which every other space sim is slowly starting to reach the glass ceiling that 'Star Citizen' set out to break those 8 year past, meanwhile SC can't even get a single fully fledged game together. (Once Capital Ships with multiple seats start coming, Cloud Imperium is gonna be screwed) I know it sounds like such a small thing to get excited over, but for me and others who feel like I do it's like a revolution, that one dream we all thought would never come true. Now all I have to do is wait the 4 years it takes for them to develop working ship interiors and I'll have my perfect Space sim game. But I guess what's there is good enough for now...

SPACE!!!

Isn't it cool?

You might have seen how last Friday I discussed video game aliens. Well today I thought that I might as well take that topic to it's homeground: space. For a long time space-bound science fiction was my favourite genre of fiction, so you can imagine how many spacey games I've played in that time. For one, I used to be an ardent Star Wars fan and it wasn't for the glow sticks. I loved the star ships and space stations that the Star Wars universe provided, and I loved any game that allowed you to explore that space. Heck, I played the The Old Republic just because the player's home hub was a spaceship. That's how obsessed I was.

Nowadays, Science fiction isn't quite the be-all end-all for me anymore. At some point I became infatuated with high fantasy, although that took quite a blow after how Game of Thrones ended. (But I suspect that love affair might flare up again pretty soon after watching the trailer for Netflix's 'The Witcher'!) However, I never forgot my old favourite genre and have always come back to it in those times when I needed that extra layer of escapism. Afterall, what says 'disconnect from earthly troubles' like being off the earth all together? And yes, It is healthy to hide from your problems in a fictionalized simulation of space. (I may need a psychiatrist.)

Speaking of simulations, one can hardly go on about Space games without bringing up that one sub-genre that all the most hardcore space gamers talk about: 4X. Which stands for: Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate. (Feel like someone messed up the acronym there...) To be fair, 4X games don't necessarily have to take place in Space, but all the best ones do. This sub-genre covers games like: Stellaris, Endless Space, the Civ games and Sid Meyer's Alpha Centuri and those games are characterized by their reliance on strategy. In these games, players are typically put in control of a race of people and told to help them grow and prosper in a competitive environment against other races of people. What ensues is a competition of wits, diplomacy and, inevitably, who has the bigger gun. Space games capture this genre so well because they allow players to push the limits of humanity to ends that we can only dream of, vividly sparking the imagination. Winning usually requires players to engage critical analysis and to find a way to solve problems that precludes brute force. Most of the time, anyway. I can only imagine what one of these games must be like in multiplayer; fun, but a good way to strain a friendship.

"But what about the actual simulations", I here you ask. "I want to be in space, I want to fly my own spaceship, I want to be the captain of my destiny!" "Or maybe I just want to be a space trucker." Well for folk like you, and me, we have the space-flight simulation games. There was a time when I couldn't sleep soundly without a good hour session of 'Elite: Dangerous' to put be in the right mood. I know, a game with a name like 'Elite: Dangerous' hardly sounds like the most relaxing thing in the world, but trust me when I say: that game is true zen. Or at least it was the way I used to play it. I'd imagine that career bounty hunters might have a rougher go of things. And that's the beauty of Space flight simulators like Elite, they allow you play at your own pace. You can spend your time hunting down enemy ships, smuggling illegal products or, if you're me, cruise around space as an intergalactic courier. On those nights I would turn off all the lights, sit back in my chair, and just jump from star to star losing myself in my own head. Bliss.

Of course, Elite: Dangerous isn't the only Space-flight Sim. Just the best. (In my opinion.) There is also the infamous: No Man's Sky. A game which promised the sky and delivered space. A lot of it, but not much in it. Even now, with the game having been lovingly supported and updated by Hello Games for 3 years straight, the whole thing still feels pretty barebones. Luckily for me, barebones was all I was looking when I picked the game up last year. Yet again all I wanted was to cruise around space, only this time I listened to podcasts. (Maybe I just need a holiday.) There isn't much to the game from a gameplay perspective and the story starts with an intriguing hook but meanders into pomposity by hour 5, but I only really stick around for the exploration anyway. So I enjoyed the game.

That's all the space flight games I can think of. No more come to mind for me. Oh, there's the old Elite games, Star Raiders and Trade Wars, but they're all from the first age of space Sims. Still great games, but all too early and unable to take advantage of modern computing, unfortunately. Don't forget 'Wing Commander', those games were great! Mark Hamill even showed up in one of them. What's that? I'm forgetting a game? One of the most successful kickstarters of all time? And it also has Mark Hamill? Well, could be that I just don't want to talk about Star Citizen right now. It's not that I'm one of the people unluckily enough to be aboard the hype train for this long overdue project, or that I'm scared of all the defenders still suffering the effects of their sunk-cost fallacy. Star Citizen just really pisses me off. That topic really deserves a whole blog dedicated to it, so I'm going to leave it alone with my stern disapproval for now.

Onto less contentious topics, would you believe that I am currently playing through a space game right now? For the past few weeks I have been playing,and enjoying, Double Damage Games' Rebel Galaxy. It's a decently fun western-themed space game with simple, easy to grasp controls and some fast paced action. This may be the only space Sim in which I actually don't just go around exploring. Though I suppose that isn't really a valid way to play for this game, anyway. Rebel Galaxy makes the whole 'Space genre' feel like the high seas by doing away with the 3D maneuverability of space and having everyone travel on the same elevation, making mid-space collisions actually possible. Also the game's music sucks. But hey, you can't have everything.

The future holds some titles that promise to explore space, as though the great black has come back in fashion of late. Borderlands 3 has ditched the world space of Pandora and Sanctuary to emigrate to a space station from which you travel to you mission spots. The Outer Worlds also features several worlds and allows for ship travel between them. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order's gameplay trailer seems to tease the chance to fly your ship to new planets; though I suspect that will just be a cutscene transition. And then there is the most intriguing of all, Bethesda's mysterious: Starfield. A game we know next to nothing about, except for what fuel the space ships will be using. But that's enough to get me thinking about Skyrim in space, so I'm happy.

Finally, I want to bring up a game in which there is no Space at all. So how is it relevant? Well, it isn't. But I'm just distraught that I forgot to include it in my Alien's blog. X-Com: Enemy Unknown is a strategy game about defending the earth from extraterrestrial invaders that have come here for the sole purpose of ruining humanity's day. You control the X-Com military initiative as you struggle to manage your budget, resources, your soldiers and the goodwill of your funding nations. Gameplay consists of turn-based tile combat which is all about positioning and luck. And the aliens come from space, so there's that.

The exploration of space is one of the last great adventures that man has yet to truly conquer, that and the sea, I guess. We can only dream about what it is like to soar amongst the stars and to exist as a race of space nomads. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that we will quite get there in our lifetimes, but we may just hit Mars in the coming decades, and that's a pretty big step. Until humanity is advanced enough to shake off their earthly bonds and take to intergalactic travel, we have the world of gaming to give us a glimpse of what we can expect to find, and who we can expect to meet out there. But maybe I'm wrong and we're closer than I think. Maybe we can all look forward to a future in the stars in a handful of decades. With the unpredictable growth of technology and the understanding behind it, it is genuinely impossible to predict how far humanity will evolve in how short of a time. I do know one thing for sure; if I'm going up into the endless dark, I'm gonna need to bring a heck of a lot of Podcasts with me.