作者：Ken Johnston

从事通信和手机游戏的人通常会做一些很搞笑的事。比如在你的Google Alerts（游戏邦注：是谷歌提供的新闻定制自动发送服务）中设置了诸如“IAP”、“跨平台游戏”和“Mark Pincus”（游戏邦注：Zynga联合创始人及前首席执行官）等关键词，你每天都会看到大量发生在游戏行业的好消息和坏消息。虽然因为忙于看这些新闻，你的午餐谈话水平直线下降了，但深入了解许多游戏的发布情况可以让你了解到开发者推广游戏时常犯的错误。据估计，手机游戏行业的规模到2017年为止有望达到144亿美元，所以这个市场的竞争只会越来越激烈。以下是推广和营销游戏时常见但容易避开的误区。

1、不要以为游戏报道广就意味着下载量大

游戏PR有许多作用——从帮助招聘人才到支持商业开发。但游戏PR有一件非常不擅长的事，那就是拉动游戏下载量。

把你的游戏拿给手机游戏和评论网站的编辑看，这是一个好想法。他们会给你准确而诚实的反馈，如果他们报道你的游戏，他们会给你一些你可以放在应用商店描述中的评语，进而让无数同行（包括可能雇用的人才和投资商）看到你的游戏。然而，如果你认为游戏报道能拉动游戏的下载量，那么你就错了。

如果你主要看下载量，那么你最好把你的预算和精力放在购买手机和Facebook广告上。借助广告，你还可以让更多目标受众看到你的游戏。如果你要推广的是一款有趣的小游戏，你的目标受众可以有并不是你的游戏被报道的网站的访客。

如果你能争取到苹果或谷歌的应用商店的推荐，那就更好了。当然，苹果每天要审批约1000个应用提交案，所以我不建议你们把它的的推荐当作游戏成功的唯一筹码。

2、误解什么时候应该公布什么

开发者通常太专注于他们的游戏，以至于忽略了游戏教程和转化率。虽然做一款成功的游戏确实需要大量激情和奉献，但开发者往往因此误解了什么才是大事什么不是。所以，对开发者而言，抓住什么才是有报道价值的东西可能很困难。

以下是开发者应该记住的几点：

1）人们通常并不关心你是否获过奖——真的要说就留在邮件签名里吧。

2）人们通常不想知道你的内测消息，除非他们可以玩到它或参与内测。

3）除非是游戏是新的高管负责的，或者该高管有非常有趣的背景，否则媒体不太可能报道你的雇员。

4）我还没有见过某人计划参加某大会的事能成为吸引眼球的报道。

Games_Expo(from visitnsw.com)

也就是说，你可以说的故事太多了。没有人比开发者更了解这个行业发什么了什么大事和趣事。你为什么通宵工作？在扩大商业方面你面临着什么挑战？你从你的游戏中学到了什么你认为有益于行业生态的东西？好好想一想吧，你应该不难找到愿意跟你谈这些事的人。

3、避免任何性别歧视，哪怕是一点点也不行

游戏行业中的性别歧视现象仍然非常普遍——特别是在游戏展上。在2013年的游戏开发者大会，Brenda Romero因为大会方请了一些女孩子来跳舞而向国际游戏开发者协会提交了辞职信。这场表演同样引发了女性开发者的激烈讨论。另外，2014年的游戏开发者大会还加入一个单独的环节用于讨论性别歧视问题。

然而，在明年的E3游戏展和游戏开发者大会，你仍然会看到衣着暴露的女性在推广游戏产品。明白了？如果你认为做某事可能让别人认为是性别歧视，那就不要做了。巧合的是，游戏界不再是“男孩俱乐部”，即使它曾经是。现在有许多优秀的游戏写手都是女性了。

这个世界上不存在能保证游戏成功的公式或准则。有时候你在广告和下载量上投入大量预算却收效甚微。有时候你默默地在应用商店里发布了一款游戏却意外地一炮而红。在激烈的市场竞争中，PR只能助你的游戏一臂之力，任何一个开发者都会告诉你，好内容才能保证游戏成功。（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）

Three Common Mistakes in Promoting a Game

By Ken Johnston

Working in communications for mobile games can do funny things to a person. When you set up your Google Alerts to include terms such as “in-app purchases,” “cross-platform gaming,” and “Mark Pincus” you see a lot of bad and good game stories on a daily basis- and your dinner conversation skills generally take a dive. However, helping to work on hundreds of game launches does give a person some insight into common missteps developers can take when promoting a game. As mobile gaming is on track to be a $14.4 billion industry by 2017, it’s only going to get more competitive to promote and market games successfully. Here are a few easily avoidable mistakes.

1.  Don’t assume coverage of your game will result in downloads.

Games PR is good for a lot of things – from helping recruiting efforts to supporting business development . One thing that games PR doesn’t do a great job of is driving downloads for your game.

It’s always a great idea to get your game in front of editors at mobile gaming and review sites. They’ll give you accurate and honest feedback, if they cover it they’ll give you some quotes you can add in your App Store description, and it will get your game seen by a ton of industry folks from potential hires to potential investors. However, game coverage doesn’t generally mean game downloads, and it is a mistake to think that it will.

If you’re looking mainly for downloads, you’re probably better off putting your budget and energy into buying mobile and Facebook ads. With advertising, you’ve also got a much better shot at reaching your target demographic. If you’re trying to promote a magical pony game, your ideal user probably isn’t reading the sites where your game got covered.

If you know anyone at Apple or Google, shooting for a feature in either of those stores will also probably do more for you than any of the strategies above. Of course, Apple sees about 1,000 app submissions on a daily basis so it’s not advisable to count on a feature to make your game the next big hit.

2. Misunderstanding what and when to announce

Developers are usually so focused on their game that it takes over their lives until they’re dreaming about tutorials and conversion rates. While creating a successful game does require enormous amounts of passion and dedication, it can also skew one’s outlook about what is a big deal and what isn’t. As such, it can be tough for developers to keep perspective on what’s newsworthy.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

People don’t generally care if you won an award- keep it in the email signatures.

People don’t usually want to hear about your Beta launch unless they can play it and participate in it.

Unless it’s a new C-level executive or they have a really interesting background, media probably won’t cover your new hire.

I’ve yet to see a compelling story about anyone having plans to attend any conference.

That being said there’s a plethora of stories you can probably tell. No one knows better than developers and game creators what’s relevant and interesting in the industry. What’s keeping you up at night? What are the biggest challenges you are facing in scaling your business? What’s something you learned in your game that you think could benefit the ecosystem? Put some thoughts together about that and you shouldn’t have a hard time finding someone who wants to talk to you.

3.  Avoid anything remotely sexist

It’s a little crazy that sexism in gaming is still such a prevalent issue- especially at trade shows. At GDC 2013 alone, we saw Brenda Romero resign from her chair position at IGDA due to some dancers that were hired at a GDC party. The same show also saw a standing ovation for a panel where female developers discussed the subject. Additionally, GDC 2014 is adding a new track solely dedicated to discussing this issue.

However, walk around E3 and GDC next year and you’re still going to see scantily clad women hawking games goods. The takeaway? If you’re considering doing something that anyone could possibly consider sexist, just don’t do it. Coincidentally, gaming is no longer a boy’s club if it ever was one. A lot of the best writers that cover games today are women.

There’s really no formula to ensuring a game’s success. Sometimes you can pour vast budgets into advertising and downloads and see minimal return. Sometimes you can quietly launch a game in the App Store to see it take off with viral success. PR is a great tool to give your game a leg up in the market but any developer will tell you that great content is the best way to ensure your game’s success.(source:gamesbrief)