The Great Tree

Eric L · Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject: A Call to Action

First off, I would like to apologize for being so scarce. Putting together a website as complex as Tapestry is gobbling up the vast majority of my time and creativity. However, I have a very important message to relay to everyone here.

About a week ago, Cyan contacted us with some urgent news. As I'm sure you have guessed, the chance of a third expansion pack for Uru depends entirely on the sales of The Path of the Shell. Problem is, it has already come down the pipe that there will be almost no advertising for The Path of the Shell at all. Regardless of where you assign responsibility for the lack of advertising, Cyan needs our help.

Here's the skinny: We need to band together and get the word out about Uru and the expansions. Bottom line is that we need to be seen. Banner ads are great, but we need to get the word out to as wide a spectrum as possible--Websites, forums, bulletin boards at work and random people on the street. We need to get the attention of as many people as we can.

Cyan has just launched a website for us to guide people to. The URL is http://www.thepathoftheshell.com. There is already a fan-run website with a similar URL, but this one is coming directly from Cyan.

Right now, the one thing we have pretty firm is a short message: "The Gathered will tell of the Path of the Shell. www.thepathoftheshell.com". When the site launches, a lot of us are planning on tossing up classified ads with that message (classifieds are pretty cheap) and posting flyers around. It's a short message, but just enough to generate some curiosity.

It wasn't directly discussed during our meeting on Friday, but I think it would be a good idea for us to try and band together geographically. If we are going to be seen , it would be more effective for us to wander around in packs. The larger the group, the bigger the impression we can make on people, and big impressions are what we'll need. I live in Atlanta, GA, so any Uru fans in the area feel free to PM me here or find me over at urutapestry.com and we'll start organizing.

I look forward to hearing from anyone that can help us out.

Shorah,

Eric

P.S. If you're searching for some text to use for flyers, contact me. We're working up a list of potential ads and are also collecting insight on what would help the most.

P.P.S. Brian, sorry about the timing of the message. I don't mean to steal your thunder, but the site has launched and so must the notices. Smile

NSymon · Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 5:14 pm Post subject:

Hi Eric

Thanks for posting about this. I've added the news about Path of the Shell website launching on GT's site, I can't speak for everyone else but I am more than happy to help with anything that needs doing. Carrying banners, flyers and spreading the word. I think what your proposing is an excellent idea and worth the time and energy in doing it.

Ashtar · Posted: Mon May 24, 2004 7:12 pm Post subject:

Eric: Hmmmm.....seems to me I had thoughts about this also:

Message on Uru Obsession

But I'm going to concentrate on getting the word out as much as possible and try to avoid Ubi bashing, at least in this thread Smile

Perhaps Brian can make a more visible link to a TPOTS banner right below The Great Tree logo on the main page.
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Uru Live KI #: 69208

Eric L · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 9:56 am Post subject:

Yeah. It was actually something we'd talked about just before Uru went gold. At the time, there wasn't that big a push because we were all so hyped on the launch itself. It's bad when you think something is going to fly forever and then you watch it flounder.

I definitely agree that we don't need any Ubi (or Cyan) bashing. I think that's been the most destructive factor in all of this. We were all very optimistic at the beginning and right up to the launch, and I think that optimism added to the frustration when things didn't go the way we thought they would. Honestly, the battle over who's fault it is has had me very worried, but I'm really straying off topic here.

BTW, we've got a couple quick classified ads that have been approved so far. Chris Brandkamp at Cyan has asked us to keep a collection of stuff that gets approved and also run any new stuff through him to make sure it won't trip us up later. If you need to run a new idea for a flyer through Cyan, feel free to send it to me and I'll make sure it gets noticed. Smile

So far, we have:

The Gathered Will Tell of The Path of the Shell
http://www.thepathoftheshell.com

Like Exploring?
http://www.thepathoftheshell.com

See ya later. I've got some classifieds to turn in. Wink

Eric

KnightShayde · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 10:09 pm Post subject:

as ive mentioned before in another post somewehre else around this fourm....
a firend of mine happens to be MGR of a local game store..
we're working on establishing an instore display for the game.

display will contain the coverbox from the URU game (glad i kept it)..and some other myst related products..(the big green treasure chest" style box fromt the myst/Rive/Exile 5th anverrsy release will also be on display.. we are also considering the idea of putting a small computer screen on a table (with sound) playing the two diffrent URU trailers that were pubilicly released prior to the Original URU game release.... to try and spark intrest... already have a black/white typed sheet with various URU /Myst related sites *these have been on counter for a while yet).... given out to customers as "bag stuffer"...any other ideas please let me know....
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/to Dn'I ..and beyond..the path of the shell beckons..the journey, not the destination, continues. I await the return of the true URU

Eric L · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 8:20 am Post subject:

Sounds great to me. Which store is it, if I might ask? Is it part of a chain or an independent store?

On another note, an interesting idea was presented in our chat last night. I'm thinking of having business cards made (or getting business card stock and printing them myself). On the one side will be the shell glyph and either "The Gathered will tell of The Path of the Shell" or "Like Exploring?", and on the other side will be the web address. Depending on the circumstance, I'll either pass them around or just drop them off in strategic locations. I'm going to run this through Chris at Cyan and let everyone know if it flies, but I'm pretty sure it will.

Shorah,

Eric

Professor Askew · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 8:46 am Post subject:

Now, I LOVE that plan, Eric!! Living in New York City...people are used to cards and pamphlets and tracts left all over the place. People will definitely pick up this mysterious card. So simple, yet potentially effective. I think it will get them to the site, at least.
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

Daedalus · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 11:46 am Post subject:

I had a very similar idea. Sounds groovy. Very Happy

KnightShayde · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 7:48 pm Post subject:

hey.
its part of a chain...GameStop.

though we had to get permison from his boss to put the display in.
(not part of the companies paid displays)....

however...from the new "final expansion" post....it may nt do much good....GRRRRRRR...

Ubi has manged to tick me off again.... this time with a game that is acutally oneof my fave's....sigh.

time will tell
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/to Dn'I ..and beyond..the path of the shell beckons..the journey, not the destination, continues. I await the return of the true URU

Eric L · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject:

"Final Expansion" post? That can't be good. Where did this happen, and who posted it?

Ugh. Nevermind. I found it. Here's my take on it.

Rand is, of course, right about the money issue. They can't exactly make games that nobody will fund. They have to keep the lights on, the computers powered up and food on their employees' tables. Painful reality. However, let's not let his or Ubi's messages be too big of a blow. The real message, I believe, is that it's up to us.

I'm sorry GD, but I am going to have to resort to mild but hopefully constructive Ubi bashing. It's not bitter and hateful stuff, but more reality as I see it. You can smite me later.

I really feel that Ubi just didn't do a very good job of promoting Uru. All conspiracy theories aside, I just didn't see the same exposure for Uru as I did for any of Ubi's other products. This could be because they felt they were going out of a limb, honestly didn't know how to market something like Uru, or any other of a bunch of reasons that aren't really relevant at this particular moment. The bottom line is, I feel that Ubi fell down on the job when it came to marketing Uru.

Here's the upside. It's fallen to us now to show Ubi what could happen if Uru were given proper exposure. We've got people all over the world here, and a lot of people want to DO something. Fact of the matter is, if each one of us could convince one other person to go out and buy Uru and The Path of the Shell, the sales figures would double. That's just one person for each of us. Doable? I think it's very doable. If we could make the sales figures jump like that, I can just about bet that Ubi would sit up and take notice. After all, game sales are their lifeblood, and their only clue as to where to put their focus.

Bottom line is, don't let the negative messages get you down. That's the way they see it at the moment. It's up to us to change their view.

Eric

Durin Mephit · Posted: Wed May 26, 2004 11:53 pm Post subject:

Ubi put out a press release. Here's GameSpot's version:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/uruonlineagesbeyondmyst/news_6099296.html

Oh, and here's the official press release too... it says 'final' in the title, yet Cyan refers to it as the 'next stages of the Uru story'...

http://mystworlds.ubi.com/US/News/news_pathpressrelease.htm
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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Eric L · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 12:01 am Post subject:

Wow. That's what I get for taking so long on an edit. See above. Wink

Eleri · Great Tree Member Joined: 27 May 2004 Posts: 819

I've been working on this for a while, with the thumbs up from Cyan, and it's almost finished
Uru Demo CD

NSymon · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 4:18 pm Post subject:

Eleri

Welcome to the Great Tree Forum

Just been posting about this on the main GT site. Looking forward to seeing all the available stuff you'll have on the site on Monday Smile

Eric L · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 4:54 pm Post subject:

That is absolutely FANTASTIC! I knew if we got our heads together we could do amazing things. What you've got there is most of a press kit, squeezed onto one CD. Bravo!

Speaking of thumbs up, I've gotten the thumbs up from Chris about my drop cards. I've almost got them designed. Once I do, I'm planning on publishing them as PDF, so people can print them out wherever they happen to be.

Eric