Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Rosseau

AWNT is honestly my primary site for wargame reviews when you have them. Even Wargamer gets a little wishy-washy and I don't know the new writers there. A Few Good Men and others are fine, but they tend to focus on HPS multiplayer hook-ups, sea and air warfare; i.e., they have become more niche-oriented, which is fine. But I personally would not rely on them too heavily to do a good job on something like Armored Brigade, Panzer Corps 2, OOB Endsieg DLC, etc.

Matrix/Slitherine has grown so much, I think it's a good idea (imo) to focus on their games, both old and new and revisit some older titles that people are still playing like crazy, or may not even know exist outside of our little group here. At the same time maintaining your credibility with games like Check Your Six, just as an example, which may not garner a great review. It's a difficult balancing act and I'm still doing it after 36 years. Based on that print media experience, it is sometimes incredible the respect you can generate by telling it as you see it - even among the companies that don't get that stellar review.

I think it's important to be up close and personal, and let readers get to know your writers and their backgrounds. Other things would be annual or quarterly polls. We did a State of the Industry Report every year relying on paper surveys. We got back more than enough to get a picture of the industry we were serving. Why not your own "Wargame of the Year" awards, etc.? I'm sure the folks at M/S would like to know what their customers think as a whole. Steam is way too diluted. Games get positive reviews but can often be lacking.

Stating the very obvious, create a site that caters to relatively serious strategy/wargame buyers. They don't have to be history nuts, per se, as we're getting older. Good (or not so good) games on Steam like Third Front WWII, Attrition Tactical Fronts, Afgan 11's newer DLC, Air Missions HIND, Ancient Warfare 3, Apollo 4x, Army General, Atlantic Fleet, the simpler (compared to Matrix) HexWar games, Bomber Crew, CoH Eastern Front, Firefight, Graviteam, the old but great Matrix Hell game, IWO: Bloodbath, Longsword Tabletop Tactics.

I could go on and on, but no one is covering this stuff, whether they are winners or not. At the same time deepening your relationships with the Matrix/Slitherine execs and the devs. What might they be looking for that you can provide? You can still be seen as objective even while strengthening your ties right here. Again, I'd say the biggest thing is earning people's respect. You also have some forum members here that could write the book on the wargaming industry. I think you have a lot more allies here on this forum already than any other website. That matters.

You've got some super-intelligent people on these forums both marketing and business-wise. There are some real players here (unlike me) and I am confident they already know you, like you, and would be happy to help. It's still all about relationships, but you're already part-way there.