Kudos and Bravo for “Discoverability by Design”

A video game marketing practitioner, I felt my heart racing.  A sense of validation washed over me.  In his June 24 Gamasutra post titled “Discoverability by Design: rethinking how video games get noticed” Simon Carless stated my mind.  Simon said something those of us in video game marketing and video game publishing have known for decades.  Hurray for when making video games and publishing video games unite!

Discoverability is hard and needs to be thought-out and designed-in, from the start.

Consumers have choices.  In fact, lots of choices.  The world has come a looooooooooooooooooong way since the days of single-player FPS games like Duke Nukem, even if that IS still the Video Game Greatest of All Time.  Although my mind is permanently numb from visions of kicking ass and chewing bubble gum.

In his blog, Simon mentioned the 4 keys to “Memetic Shareability.” What are they exactly?  These are: Quirky Hook, Stunning Art, Gif/Replay Exports and Genre-Like Signifiers.  A few examples quickly come to mind.

GAME-CHARACTER COLORATION:  In Heroes of Dragon Age, the Twitter-featured character tier progression for Saboteur Hawke

Visually contrasting and storytelling.  The clear Character Tier Progression (headware from None to stylized Hood; Armor from leather to iron to steel to gold-trimmed steel; matching weapon evolution) were classic RPG attributes, where color and fabric connotes Rank, Defense, Damage and more, not to mention visual appeal. What does this mean?  Simply encouraging player “Peacocking” and sharing on Twitter, Pinterest, and more.