From the Discord general chat:
https://discord.gg/7ZKAkEjrecoil wrote:Just to add to the Insomnia dev spamming strategy. Perhaps, icy should consider setting up a presence at E3 and GDC. Jeffrobot is out near San Francisco and I'm near LA. We could get in through press credentials and spam devs in person.
icycalm wrote:Of course that would be awesome, but how would you get the press credentials?(edited)
I am not sure if there's anything I can do to help on that front
recoil wrote:I can look into their current registration processes, but it was pretty simple back in the day, I had a cousin that just created a fake videogame site, said he was press, paid the fee and got in.
icycalm wrote:Well, we don't need a fake one now
So you would just be accosting devs on the floor?
Or going to their booths?
See, lemme tell you the ideal solution
That I have been preparing for years
The idea was to finish all the books
print them
and then make packages, each with a copy of each book plus a cover note
then send them via UPS to the offices of each company each dev works at
But we are talking of a cost of 50 euros+ per dev
This would be the ultimate solution, for the following reasons
1) You don't need to find email addresses or even personal address
since all you need is the address of the company each dev works for, and all that stuff is online
2) There's no way they won't take you seriously when they receive 20 pounds worth of books
you've got their attention 100% then
but I just can't afford this scheme
At most I could afford 2 devs a month, which is nothing
So I moved to the email spamming idea, which I shelved because I can't find their emails
So I finally moved to FB
But now that you mention spamming in person, I've thought of a third idea
How about just mailing them?
A letter, with quotes and links
Maybe 2-3 pages long
Just mail them at their place of business
Much simpler than the FB thing
And perhaps more effective for several reasons
1) Less personally intrusive
2) In the 2-3 pages it's possible to link and quote extensively a dozen essays or more
It would still be somewhat expensive to do for US-based devs from Europe
but I could just ship a box with 1000 sealed envelopes to you, and you could take it to the post office and mail it
I think this would be far more efficient than approaching irl each one of them in turn
the idea is to reach 100,000 devs or more
I doubt you could physically approach even 100 in a year, with the best intentions
what do you think?
recoil wrote:I figure since you might just leave things to a letter writing campaign (I'm all for it and I can do it on my spare time) and be done with it, we might as well go all in on the marketing front and hit as many places as we can. Conventions are perfect since all sorts of industry folk pop in one space. My idea would be booth space and multiple people on the floor talking to devs (maybe getting Insomnia exclusives too lol). First, the booth would be for information on Insomnia and swag (maybe a 1 month sub to the site). I figure with that we might catch a few low level devs and regular joes that way. Second, multiple press people on the floor hitting up dev booths and scrounging for interviews. If they can get time with a big name dev, they can gift him with a physical package (a letter, your first book, etc., I would give up my personal copy of your book, if I met with someone like Sid Meier). I'm sure I can convince a few US based Insomnia members to take a short vacation to LA, I can even host them here for the duration of E3. We'll check out the beaches, smoke some pot, and play some Gunslinger Stratos while we're at it lol. That's the basic ground game. If that's a bit to ambitious, we can make the rounds at smaller conventions before going for the bigger ones.
icycalm wrote:If you can combine it with fun, it would be a good idea
Because a worklike serious spamming effort would be draining
Use the Offline forum for it, and I'll do whatever I can to support it
But as for an Inomnia booth...
There's no way I can afford it
And I wouldn't have any use for interview material either
I mean...
If you talk to low level guys, it would be useless
And no high level guy would give an interview to Insomnia
besides...
what would you ask them?
Or take your book gifting idea
It would cost me close to 20 euros per book, inc. shipping to US
With which money I can mail 20 devs
So I think, I should get on with compiling a lit of all studios and studio heads and addresses
And you can start considering which event you'd like to try first, and start planning for it, and ask me for whatever help you need
You can start a thread in the Offline forum, and we'll do it there
And I'll start a thread in the Games forum where I'll compile the studio details
I could post announcements on the front page(edited)
E.g. "Insomniacs will be present at E3, meet up at such and such place and time"
And perhaps random readers would show up
So you wouldn't be reliant on Rory flying over from the UK or something
After a few events like that you would hopefully have a few California-based readers to hang out with besides Bo
Same thing could be done for the UK or wherever
Just don't expect a crowd at the first event
If one person shows up, we should consider that a success for a very long time