How to make people blog about Natural Selection 2 (=> generating links, buzz, attention and visitors)

When NS2 comes out it will be possible to play the game for free for a couple of days or at least some kind of demo. Right?

How about this: Everyone who playes the demo and publishes a feedback (lets say at least 100 words or 50 words + a screenshot) can participate in a lottery.
The feedback could be published on a blog, a major forum [or maybe not, you don't want people to spam] or a myspace profile. Obviously a link to the official NS2 website would have to be included.

To inform UWE about your participation you send a trackback (blog) or comment somewhere (make sure no registration is needed!).

Then after a period of 30 days you check all the people who participated and will probably have to delete 50% for having already deleted the feedback or having written a text that goes "and this are my 50 no 49 no 48 no 46... words to make it 100 words word words blabla". Then a couple of participants are randomly selected and get their prizes.

Prices could be a whole gaming pc or just single hardware (like monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc. etc.). You should be able to get some of this hardware for free or at least for a lower price. Just ask a couple of (gamer related) online shops.

If seen a couple of internet startups using their VC like this and in my eyes it is the most successful way of viral marketing.

The important thing is to make people participate. Entering your email address is dull. But having to test a game for some hours is fun and fun is what encourages bloggers to take part in something like this.

And another good thing is that you get feedback from a lot of gamers.

To promote this you could ask Valve for advertisement space on Steam, post the story on Digg. Or something really cool would be a big print magazine testing computers and saying "this candidate might be the ultimate game pc currently available. Oh and it is possible to get one for free if you take part into this cool lottery from UWE".
In return UWE might have to pay the magazine or sponsor them some hardware.
Just generate enough attention and people will participate. I hope you have some industry contacts to realise something like this?

And apart form the random prizes you should give out some prizes for things like "the best screenshot", "the best resume", etc, etc

You will of course need a central landing page where everyone can see
a) what he has to do
b) what he can win
c) and where he can get help (how to download/install NS2? how to inform you about my participation?)
Before you do this please read something about landing page design. Generally Andy Beals tips at marketingpilgrim are helpful.

And when you pick the prizes make sure to understand your audience. Take cool things like iPods, etc. (and gamer hardware!).



Well sorry fur this unstructured post but I haven been into linkbaiting, social media marketing, etc for quite some time now and I am pretty sure this would work.

Does Unknown Worlds have a budget for something like this?

a free 3 day (or so) trial would be a great idea, I think. (enough time to spend the weekend on it). i've been discouraged away from the 'demo' idea. though i'm not sure how well that'll work (people keep creating new steam accounts or something?)
or.. people that buy the game can get a set of 7-day (or so) trial keys for their friends to try the game. and since they know that their friend(s) is(are) playing the game; and they really like the game (or only like it a little - peer pressure is a wonderful thing;)); and so long as the price remains within reason and they have the means to purchase it; they'll likely get the unlimited game.
i think the 'try before you buy' idea is a good one.


always a concern. and time?

there's no problem with the idea itself, in an ideal world.

Budget does not have to be too big if you can sign up magazines or onlineshops as partners. The donor prizes and get advertisement space on the central landing page.

Time is obviously a concern though. But maybe after NS2 is out there will be some spare hours ins UWE's work schedule?


edit:
Another option would be a contest, like the Crytek/Intel Challange. Of course NS2 will not offer an engine like Crysis but still you might be able to score a small hardware producer or maybe an Online-Game-Server Provider to participate. This might actually work: When NS2 comes out people will want to buy servers and by recommending a certain provider UWE could generate a lot of deals for this provider.

The simple solution to this idea is after the free trial or demo is launched and they participate in the blogging/advertising competition, the randomly selected winners will recieve the game for free via steam. That would cost the developers practically nothing and be exactly what an advertising playtester would want as a prize.

And i dont know if blogging would be as simple to monitor. Maybe the unknown worlds website could have the compitetion set up on the page like on of those "send an email invite to a friend" like most networking sites have. All you have to do is say "Introduce your friends to the world of NS for your chance to win a copy of NS2", and have the setup so forum users can add 5-10 of their friends emails. The email can just say "you're friend such and such believes you will have interest in this game" and provide a banner or link to the 'about ns2' page on the unknown worlds website.

It could work well because every person who is directed to the site and takes interest will in turn want to win a copy and send an email to another 5-10 people. I dont think this violates any privacy laws because the person who sends this email will be a friend or known person to the reciever, or at the very least not working for the unknown world team.

that's not a bad idea. it's like getting a raffle ticket, and giving your friends the same chance, i guess. you'd only get the credit if people actually clicked the link (signed up?) in the email, i suppose.

well just say its a page added to the current NS2 website that will register a forum user for the comp after they have filled out the page correctly and submitted the email adresses. I dont think it should be done on a credit system, as in the more emails you submit the more chance you have, just 1 entry per person with min 5 to max 15 emails. It could be registered via steam account details perhaps

what's to get them to send more than 1 email though?

you just set the amount of spaces that must be filled out to say 5 and put a * next to it, just like when you fill out any other online form. Then you just have more available slots for people who are truly dedicated to the game to introduce more people. Theres nothing to say people will use real email accounts, but atleast the dedicated people on this forum would and there are still some honest human beings out there. Its not like giving out a few free games would cost the developers anything and any publicity is good publicity. It was just an idea anyhow