The RPG Advertising Dilemma

There is a reason why advertisement is big business. The way a product is marketed can easily lead to its success or failure.

The movie industry knows this better than anyone, and they have developed a formula that has worked out pretty well for them. Grab some Hollywood stars, jumble together some pivotal scenes, mix in moving music, and add the guy who does all those dramatic voice overs and you have yourself a potential blockbuster.

Unfortunately for many game developers - especially RPG developers - the same recipe can not be simply transferred over.

The issue facing RPG games is that they’re simply too long.

Movies are easily marketable because at 2 hours, they’re a relatively quick and instant source of entertainment.

As a result, it is easy to convey a central story, lay down some themes, and throw in a coherent sequence of scenes that will accurately (to an extent) portray a movie. There are some exceptions of course, Cloverfield immediately comes to my mind. The movie may have been annoying, but it’s hard to deny the flawless marketing.

Now back to RPG’s, which at 30 to 40 hours, requires dedication and definitely does not offer the quick and instant gratification that movies can boast about.

So how can you portray something so lengthy within just 30 seconds?

You can’t. Not if we define a commercial as something that is supposed to be informative.

The overall length of an RPG makes it impossible to present a detailed image of the game. Instead, developers are generally forced to having to reveal generic information. For example, you’re a band of heroes that must save the world from an evil wizard…or something. That exact log line can pretty much fit countless RPG’s.

Then what about the image? You can present some pretty cinematic, but does that say anything about the game other than it’s nice eye candy?

What about gameplay? Gameplay may be the must subjective topic of all. Turned based combat might be great to some but awful to others, and the same goes for real time combat.

It is easy to present these individual topics, but it seems impossible to compact all of them into a commercial.

Furthermore, what about the most important topic regarding RPG’s, the story. I don’t see how it’s possible to condense a 40 hour story into 30 seconds while also revealing information on the other things mentioned above.

The only RPG commercials that even manage to grab my attention are those relating to Final Fantasy, and that is only because the brand is just so well known and proven.

What are developers to do then? The simple answer would be to take advantage of the internet of course.

Television is a slowly dying enterprise thanks to the internet. Major studios have tried to combat the internet and have realized it is impossible. Sites such as Hulu prove that corporations have accepted the fact that the internet is slowly becoming the main source of all entertainment for people.

It’s also probably a lot cheaper to simply post up an extensive YouTube video rather than purchasing slots from networks anyways.
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Thoughts? Think it is actually possible to advertise RPG’s through commercials, or do you believe developers must look towards other outlets?