Let me see COH: Theming, gadgets, etc.

A thought struck me as I took a peek at the Win7 theme gallery -

Why aren't we doing these? Or rather, why aren't we doing these any more? And why don't we have more desktop "stuff" for both our Windows and Mac-heads to (a) enjoy COH-ing our gaming systems and (b) do a little viral marketing?

We have, as I mentioned, wallpapers - through (roughly) Ouroboros. They're also tucked away somewhere on the official site, and don't cover a wide range of resolutions (at 1680x1050, I'm generally out of luck without stretching them, scaling them in photoshop or altering the background somehow - black backgrounds help.) Wallpapers are (generally) simple, and usable by both mac and PC - no conversion, coding or the like should generally need to be done. Yes, there's design work, and fitting them to popular resolutions, but the end result is worth it.

Don't forget the "calendars" people were looking for, either - showing COH and useful information - mixed with COH lore items? Why are these not being done yearly?

And quit HIDING them! Honestly, I can say this about a good bit of the info - but a link in a drop-out menu that mentions wallpaper isn't exactly eye catching. A featured one, or a thumbnail that changes - and is in sight all the time - would be.

Heck, throw in some holiday ones. Ghost Widow in a santa suit. Posi Claus. Make it part of the event.

If you want to get a little fancier - though this is more vista/win7 centric - do full themes. And while we're at it... how about a gadget for both Mac and PC (ok, two gadgets) showing, say, server status, and a link to the latest dev digest and/or announcement info? (Of course, that means dev info and announcements would have to go on the site, not on Twitter... *cough*)

I mentioned viral marketing - while I worked in an office, I had the Hero-1 wallpaper on my desktop for a while. Yes, I got questions about it, got to talk COH to a few people. I don't know if any of them subscribed or not - but it got some attention. Would it give the same result as a huge TV or movie marketing blitz? Of course not. But more exposure can't be bad.

See my Guides and Tutorials

Sounds like good ideas to me. Most of them are low cost ideas as well. Just wondering though, how hard is it to make themes like that?

Uuh... I really stepped into the wrong thread here. I always use the Windows Classic theme and have used the same wallpaper since 1997.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Hm...

Well, Wallpapers are only as difficult as it is to actually put the image together in the proper size.

Making a Windows 7 Theme is also fairly simple as long as you have the wallpapers and sounds ready. In fact, I could probably make rudimentary CoH and CoV Windows 7 Theme Packs right now.

In fact, I just did. No custom sounds or anything, but it was that easy. XD

Here, have a sample. I've only got 10. (Though, it's for a 1024 by 768 screen, so...)

http://rapidshare.com/files/31817868...themepack.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/31818007...themepack.html


Basically, as long as you have the wallpapers done, making a Windows 7 Theme is easy.

Kitsune and I worked on a Vista server monitor gadget a while back (before the website layout change). There are a few things in this thread on the Titan forums. (My gadget is near the end of the thread, I haven't tried the others)

Note that Vista gadgets will work with Windows 7.

I have to agree with Bill.

CoH has so much potential for marketing otherwise. The 'Captain Awesome' videos were a big hit (Touch my Awesome Button!), and it wouldn't take too much work to make a few videos similar to Red vs. Blue... Samurai_Aiko, or whatever her name is, already makes some incredible videos that could bring about more people than we know what to do with in the right way.

In short? I love the game, and I love all of the free expansions/add-ons we're getting, but perhaps some resources should be devoted to Marketing once in awhile?

I still hold that the CoX Marketing team are Fail.

Seriously, I have NEVER seen an advert for Cityof in the wider world or web. EVER. The only reason I ever knew it existed was because, thankfully. my older bro played it for a while when I was younger, and let me make a character. Eventually, when I was old enough to tell my parents 'F U, I'm buying this,' I hunted down a box set and got it.

Maybe the US has it on the shelves more, I dunno. But CoX is non-existant on EU/British shelves, except a very old, DvD only version of GvE once in a while.
No posters, no adverts, not even google ads. I've seen a few google ads from the other Superhero MMO, why in the name of frag have the marketing team not done anything as simple as that?!

/despair

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I remember when I got my copy of the game, they had CoH on the shelf but the guy had to go dig around in the back of the store to find CoV.

Really though that's not such a big issue cause you can download the client off the website anyway. So all they really need is the advertising, which to be honest I've never seen any of ever, outside of MMO news sites when they release patches and such.

Back on topic though, I dunno if I'd use a full-on theme but a gadget for showing server status I could see myself using. Or one for showing which of my global friends are online. Or any number of other CoH-related things.