作者：Robert Fearon

关于如何接触媒体已经有各种各样的描述，有适当的描述，有糟糕的描述，同时也有圣经般的描述。

之前我也写过这样的内容，但是从我最近读到的一些内容以及收到的邮件来看，我有必要再添加某些特定内容。让我们从最重要的内容说起。

发送审阅代码给媒体让他们评价你的游戏。

我不想再次强调这点了，如果你想让别人评价你的游戏，就这么做。

尽可能减少“我希望你能评价这款游戏”与“嘿，我们可以为你评价这款游戏”之间的步骤。做好这点的最简单的方法便是立即提供给他们一个代码或审阅副本。

我希望你能够评价游戏，这便是我们的游戏。这么简单。

这是最显而易见的事，但是根据我的经验，这也是最容易被忽视的。

你应该站在游戏新闻记者的角度进行思考。你只有10分钟的时间能够着眼于其它内容。你的收件箱里有两封邮件。一封是大肆宣传一款今天发行的游戏，并落下“联系我，我会将审阅代码发给你”这样的话。而第二封是宣传一款今天发行的与众不同的游戏，并说道“你可以在此立刻下载我们的游戏”。

提供下载细节的邮件将会获得优先关注。这意味着你不只是简单地发送一封再平常不过的新闻稿让对方帮助你评价游戏。

games journalists(from twinfinite)

但是审阅代码并不总是可行，所以你需要制定其它计划。

在某些情况下，你并不能轻松地发送审阅代码。如果是面向iOS平台发行的游戏，你将拥有50个代码，你必须非常谨慎地使用它们。如果是面向XBLIG发行？你所面对的代码更是不计其数，甚至会耗费你一整天的时间。而面向Google Play发行的话，你甚至要想想代码是什么了。

如果你并未拥有一个游戏代码，你可以尝试其它方法让别人去体验你的游戏。可以利用飞行试验（游戏邦注：虽然要求较高的精度但却是可行的），可以构建另一个平台（怎样的平台并不重要，因为它们都非常相近），甚至你也可以亲自上阵。

如果你并不能指望于审阅代码，你就需要发挥聪明才智去寻找其它出路。期待着游戏新闻记者会迷恋你的新闻稿或预览页面，并因此购买你的游戏不是一种明智的想法。你的工作（或者你雇佣的PR的工作）便是确保他们能够轻松地访问你的游戏。

礼貌交易。

提供审阅代码是一种非常简单的交易，但却必须足够礼貌。当你为了让别人评价游戏而将其交给对方时，你提供的是密钥，这是必要的内容而不是赢得彩票的机会。这并不是什么特殊对待，也不是什么先到先得的服务。而是“我创造了某些内容希望你能够看看它并做出评价”。

也许你并不会获得肯定的答案，甚至可能连回应都没有，虽然你并未获得许多美味蛋糕（除非你是Spilt Milk的Andrew），但是你却拥有审阅代码能够让其他人去评价游戏。

不要撒谎！

如果你是在Steam或其它没有足够代码的系统中，也别假装是自己很难获得代码。

你所面对的每个新闻记者都了解实际情况。他们知道你不能生成更多代码，所以你不可能骗倒他们。除了你之外，其他人每天都在给他们发送代码。甚至那些不知道Steam代码如何运行的人也知道，如果密钥真的超级有限，那么99%的捆版市场早在不久前就崩塌了，所以你千万别给自己再惹麻烦了，不要做个撒谎精。

如果所有人都能通过捆绑获得数千代码，你便能够轻松地获得任何自己所需要的代码。而这时候，如果你想要别人去评价自己的游戏，只管给他代码便行。

如果你是基于带有有限代码的主机或其它设备上，那么游戏新闻记者便会了解该设备的局限性，你们便可以通过交流去想出更好的方法。

最糟糕的情况并不是你假装自己是一家聪明的大公司，而是你将别人当成彻底的笨蛋并希望对方去评价自己的游戏。如果我希望你评价我的游戏，并通过撒谎去维系双方的关系，这便不是一个合适的开始。如果你真心希望新闻记者能够对游戏做出评价，千万不要把自己变成一个傻瓜。这是再简单不过的事了。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Overlooking the obvious

by Robert Fearon

There’s a lot of words wrote about how to contact the press, lots of good words, lots of bad words, lots of dense words (Mike’s post is great info but super, super dense to wade through, do click through the links at the bottom too) and The Bible.

I’ve done words about press things myself in the past too (1), (2) but there’s a few things it’s probably worth adding given some stuff I’ve read recently and from the state of my own inbox. Let’s start with the most important first.

You send review codes to the press for them to review your game.

I can’t stress this hard enough, if you want someone to review your game, enable that.

Make as few steps between “I’d like you to review this game” and “hey, we can review this game for you” as possible. The easiest way to do this is to provide them with a code or review copy off the bat.

I want you to review the game, here is the game. Ta da.

This is the single most obvious thing to do, yet in my experience it’s the single most overlooked one too.

Put yourself in the shoes of your average everyday hard hitting games journalist. You have ten minutes spare to look at something else. You have two emails sitting in your inbox. The first is a blurb for a game out today, “contact me for a review code” it says. The second is a blurb for a different game out today, “here’s how you can download the game right now” it says.

Be the one with the download details because that’ll be the one that gets looked at. Yes, it’ll mean not just sitting there and mailing out a generic press release to the people you want to review the game. That’s OK, press releases are probably best going out to press release dumps not real people most of the time anyway.

Review codes aren’t always available so have another plan.

There’s scenarios where handing out review codes isn’t quite so easy. Launching on iOS? You’re going to have 50 codes and 50 codes alone initially so spend them wisely. Launching on XBLIG? You’re going to have I don’t know, I stopped counting or caring a while back but that’s your lot sunshine when you’re done anyway. Launching on Google Play? What’s a code again?

If you don’t have a code, try and have another way for someone to try your game at hand. Maybe that’s through Testflight (fiddly but doable), maybe it’s through having a build for another platform to hand (where it won’t really matter what platform because pffft, they’re all the same or close enough), maybe it’s in person or whatever.

Be resourceful, have some way for people to play your game if you can’t rely on review codes to get the work out there. Hoping that games journalists will be so enamoured with your press release or preview page that they’ll nip off and  buy your game isn’t really smart thinking. Expecting them to take time out to mail you is, well, it’s an idea. That’s what it is. It’s your job (or the PR you hire) to make them having access to your work as easy as it can be.

No dancing!

Offering a review code is fairly simple exchange all told and one that should be as respectful as possible. When you throw out your game to someone because you want it reviewing, you’re offering a key which is an essential item not the chance of winning the lottery. It’s not a special treat, get it whilst it’s hot, first come first served special offer. It’s a bit of a matter of fact “I have something I’d like you to look at, can you look at it?” sort of thing.

You might not get a yes (you probably won’t get a yes), you might not get a reply at all (I know I’m bogged down enough to just file things away and I don’t write for any major publications so…) but whatever, you’ve not got a nice pile of tasty cakes (unless you’re Andrew of Spilt Milk), you’ve got a review code so someone else can review your game.

Hand it over. No dancing!

Don’t lie!

If you’re on Steam or any other system that doesn’t have a super tight amount of codes, DO NOT EVER TRY AND PRETEND THEY ARE SUPER HARD TO COME BY.

Every journalist you’ll speak to who does videogame words for a living knows that they will not be. They know you don’t just generate 6 and then you can never ever ever have any codes ever ever ever again. They do this every day, everyone else is sending them codes except you. Even those that don’t quite know how Steam codes work can happily work out that 99% of the bundle market would have collapsed long ago if keys were super limited so just save all that hassle and don’t be a fibber.

If everyone else can get thousands of codes generated for a bundle, you can get the amount you’ll need for review outlets with ease. If you want someone to review your game, just give them the code.

If you’re on a console or any device with a limited amount of codes, the game journalist will be aware of the limitations of that device also so just have a little chat about what the best way is.

The worst of this isn’t that you’re trying to be all smart and big company and come and get it (assuming you’re not a big company, natch), it’s that you’re lying and taking someone for a complete fool and you want them to review your game. If I wanted you to review my game and I opened up our relationship with a great big fat lie, we’re not going to get off to the best of starts. If you want the help of journalists in getting the word out about your game, don’t be a noddy to them as your first move. This is pretty simple BE NICE stuff. So BE NICE.(source:gamasutra)