Matrix Games Forums

Markshot:

You began this wonderful AAR almost exactly three years to today's date. I'm three years late in purchasing the game. I'm awaiting the arrival of HTTR this week. I decided to buy after posting my questions over in the thread called "Gunshy."

Thanks to the great responses on this forum, I've taken the plunge. I started with the RDOA demo, got the hang of the basics and then read this AAR again. I have a much greater understanding and will ease into HTTR before deciding on COTA.

Without at least having the RDOA demo to get an idea of this genre of war gaming, I never would have purchased -- especially not at $50 for COTA.

I'm just one consumer, but it's just a marketing tip for you folks. How can you ever hope to capture new customers or expand your base of fans if:

1. You don't offer a demo.
2. They've never tackled a war game before and are looking to understand the basics.
3. They feel intimidated because they're not grognards and yet the level of detail on these forums seem extraordinary.

The reality, after playing the RDOA demo, is that the game is not nearly as tough to understand once you see it for yourself. But I can see that it has a lot of offer and challenge you before you can master.

It's amazing how differently I read this AAR after the demo. Before, total intimidation. Looked way too hard. Saw Markshot as a grognard that no one could hope to equal. Now, I see how wonderful and thorough his AAR is and I really learned a lot about how to approach a bridge to avoid it blowing and a little bit more about managing artillery.

I'm still not completely clear on positioning and direct control vs. AI control of artillery, but I'm sure I'll get a better idea once the game, complete manual and actual playtime are in front of me.

You've picked up a new customer. Can't wait to try it. But it took a tremendous amount of research for me to get to this point. I bet many prospective customers don't take this much time and avoid war gaming unless it is arcade style. A look at sales might confirm this. Yet it makes more sense to support companies like yours that attempt to teach a little history, too.

Rasnell,

Thanks for taking the time to write.

The Mini-Guides were written in what I call my "in the cockpit" style. I used to play flight sims online and was pretty good at it. I had a couple of strategy guides out and also regularly used to teach others online. Unlike the very generic conceptual work that can often be found on air combat, I tried to truely put the reader in the cockpit with me, answering questions like: What am I looking at in the game? What thing on the screen is my trigger point for executing something? How exactly do I use the games controls/features to execute? Effectively, how can one take general concepts that any flight simmer is exposed to like "energy management" and teach the player in a specific game how to on every turn pick on an ever increasing advantage on his opponent.

"in the cockpit" ... I think this accounts for my scary AAR style. I am trying to sit you down next to me while I play HTTR or COTA and have you see the game as I see it. Let you understand when, how, and why I reach a conclusion. Once I decide to take a conceptual action how exactly can it be achieved in the game.

But you are right, it scares people. That's why Eddy came up with the 5 minute video guide to COTA. The alternative to reading through 300 pages.

Demo:

(1) PG's research showed that the RDOA demo did little to help sell the game and possibly even created negative feedback.

(2) Given #1 and PG's limited resources, no future demos were planned. Although for those who are chomping at the bit to test drive the game, I tend to steer them towards the old RDOA demo.

Enjoy!