Origins a BIG success

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Paul Vebber -> Origins a BIG success (7/8/2002 7:57:25 PM)
With my constant blathering about the negatives in the industry of late, I have to give equal time when GOOD NEWS comes along!! Matrix made an appearance at Origins teaming with Holistic Designs, our teammate in the upcomming Noble Armada computer game based on the popular miniatures game. We could not have been more pleased with the hospitality of the Holistc folks and the reception of the gamers there. A lot of whom got the chance to try out and purchase on the spot (usually several) of our games! Uncommon valor sold better than we had expected, with the result that new purchasers may see a 'backorder' status on that title for a short time as we refresh our stock. Attendance was quite high with over 10,000 gamers in attendence, and a seeming MUCH greater wargamer (vice trading card and role play enthusiast) attendance than in recent years! Matrix reps built some promising relationships, especially in the area of breaking into retail venues. We were one of only a couple computer game companies at this predominantly board and miniature foccused event, but we were warmly welcomed and VERY happy with the response to our products! We are also now full fledged members of GAMA and will be sporting there member logo on the site soon! This puts us in the "Big Leagues" as fara a game publishing houses go and will hopefull be one of many steps toward a much broader market penetration. We have a ways to go to get our name recognized in the board game community, but the board game "flavor" of UV was VERY well received by those used to the way boardgames work, and the type of abstractions used. We will definately be at GENCON and hope to see many of you there!

Larry Holt -> (7/8/2002 11:33:42 PM)
Glad to see that Matrix did well! This bodes well for the future.

pwdood -> (7/8/2002 11:55:30 PM)
Great. Glad it went well. It was cool meeting David and Daniel. David... expect some "noise" from me soon. Who was the other computer wargaming company there? I didn't notice any others. Hopefully there will be more computer wargaming companies at next years Origins, and maybe some more seminars along those lines. The one thing I took from viewing all of the table top wargames, is that the computer allows for so much more from a design execution standpoint for a wargame compared to simply a tabletop/counter-based/paper and pen bookeeping model. PW

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 -> (7/9/2002 12:56:34 AM)
A VERY nice bit of news indeed. Being both a card player and rolegamer I am of course involved with those hobbies, maybe both have come to a current plateau and will allow for Matrix to enjoy a bit of elbow room in our normally small niche market. Glad to hear sales were encouraging for Matrix as well.

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/9/2002 2:29:14 AM)
Congratulations, gentlemen. "We'rea movin' on up... To the eastside.... We finally got a piece of the pieeeee !! " ----------- - - --- - - -- - ----------------- --- - - - "new purchasers may see a 'backorder' status on that title for a short time as we refresh our stock" NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/9/2002 2:32:28 AM)
Speaking of which I went to check shipping status and received: "The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers. The headers it did return are: Can't locate make-a-store.conf in @INC (@INC contains: C:/Perl/lib C:/Perl/site/lib .) at C:\WebSites\MatrixGames\cgi-bin\store\myorder.cgi line 2."

U2 -> Hi (7/9/2002 3:51:37 AM)
Hi Very pleased and happy to read Paul's post (not depressing for a change;) ) and that Matrix did well at Origins. I really hope that Matrix's products will find its way into stores one day where the largely unknowing wargaming buyers are. Lets hope for the best. Just wish I could have been there to show my support but a few thousand miles is just a few too many for me. Maybe next year.... BTW: What is GENCON? Dan

Zakhal -> (7/9/2002 4:46:39 AM)
Grats! Matrix deserves all the attention it gets:D

Randy -> (7/9/2002 12:14:19 PM)
Paul, that is great news indeed, congratulations. Word of mouth is often one of the best ways to get the word out. Will you be at the computer game show in Vegas when it is there? Once again, great job!

Marc von Martial -> (7/9/2002 5:33:55 PM)
GenCon: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=gencon/welcome @CS: Happens sometimes ;). Just try again, it works, I just checked it.

Paul Vebber -> (7/9/2002 7:33:11 PM)
Our marketing strategy is aimed more at getting folks who buy military books to buy our games too. So that appears to offer more growth potential than trying to get soneone to buy UV instead of Warcraft 3. We are just in such a totally different resource bracket than mainstream computer games that trying to compete for attention with them at a mainstream computer games show is likely a waste, at least for now. Unless you are doing a "near FPS" like GI COmbat I don't think its going work. Focusing on the serious attention to the subject matter in a quality at least on par with "pop history" and "miltary hardware encyclopedia" quality. We think it better to try to get into specialty book stores and military hobby focus shops as our foray into retail, rather than try to bid for and hold shelf space at EB and COMPUSA. The response we got at Origins gave us hope tat even solid cross pollination with the board game community could be a major boast in sales, let alone the much larger military book reading community. We shall see!

Les_the_Sarge_9_1 -> (7/9/2002 9:07:09 PM)
Paul, I again mention that you might wish to get access to the Military Book Club (part of the larger Double Day Empire I believe). They are the only source I consider when looking for serious military literature/media. If it's a book or film (yes they do film as well), I look no where else. And that includes online notions like Amazon and massive retailers like Chapters. Sure those two will likely have the item but they also don't have the perks. I get a monthly flyer that highlights the latest things as well as a well catagorised breakdown ie Civil War WW1 WW2 Vietnam, Hardware, Specialties like SWAT or Model crafting. Additionally they market in a better fashion for the consumer (my opinion) a no credit card required payment method I get a bill (very user friendly for us schmucks with no credit card, or love of online pay methods). The product is on my doorstep first, and then my money leaves my account or pocket (just try and tell me that you can beat that with any method of online payment). I have no worries of my bank account being depleted, while being told "my item is in the pipeline". Pre orders, no I don't bother worrying about something until it actually exists in the flyer. I am not a supporter of ordering something before it is even exists. If you gained nothing better than inclusion of the flyer you would be earning a great boon in highly targeted marketing. The people that are part of the Military Book Club are the sort that will want a Matrix game more than Warcraft 3 in a lot of cases (hey I am a good example). I don't know the pre conditions for you gaining access to their means of distribution, but I would gladly tack on 10 bucks to my cost for Combat Leader if I was buying it through my Military Book Club (I reeeeeeally do not like ordering ANYTHING through the internet). So that will tell you how I would deal with an increased cost if the option required something from you the provider, as a deal for use of the Club's distribution method.

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/9/2002 11:29:27 PM)
"Our marketing strategy is aimed more at getting folks who buy military books to buy our games too. So that appears to offer more growth potential than trying to get soneone to buy UV instead of Warcraft 3. We are just in such a totally different resource bracket than mainstream computer games that trying to compete for attention with them at a mainstream computer games show is likely a waste, at least for now. Unless you are doing a "near FPS" like GI COmbat I don't think its going work. Focusing on the serious attention to the subject matter in a quality at least on par with "pop history" and "miltary hardware encyclopedia" quality. We think it better to try to get into specialty book stores and military hobby focus shops as our foray into retail, rather than try to bid for and hold shelf space at EB and COMPUSA. The response we got at Origins gave us hope tat even solid cross pollination with the board game community could be a major boast in sales, let alone the much larger military book reading community. We shall see!" Well I know nothing about Matrix, but here is a good business philosophy: Sell to the classes, dine w/ the masses. Sell to the masses, dine w/ the classes. :) Hey, marcs. I tried to check status and received the same response from the server. Do I need to run 128 encryption? I don't think it's installed on this machine.

Paul Vebber -> (7/10/2002 12:04:33 AM)
By that philosophy we would have never gotten started, or would have "Texas Chainsaw Bikini Babes Kill the Nazis" as our major game focus :D

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/10/2002 12:36:35 AM)
"Texas Chainsaw Bikini Babes Kill the Nazis" Hey! That sounds killer ! When the release date ? From various resources I've discovered the Mccullough chainsaw only hold 2.368 liters of premix fuel mixed at 32:1. Also I know that 1,893 units will fit safely aboard the Dakota transport plane. Let's keep this realistic eh ! I think you guys have a good plan. Plus I know quite a few matrix ppl from various wargaming BBSs and these are ppl who will spend hundreds of hours perfecting a game that isn't even theirs. For no other reason than to just make the game more fun. Good ppl. No matter what the plan is, good ppl make the difference. What a great company. Regarding order status. I upgraded my encryption but yet the server still frowns at me. I ordered by phone, not fru the online store, so I probably cannot use this option anyway.

Supervisor -> (7/10/2002 12:40:24 AM)
Great news guys, I knew there was hope for the world after all.:D

Randy -> (7/10/2002 11:28:28 AM)
Paul, when the game is up and going, I know of a couple of strictly military hobby shops I could contact for you out in the Long Beach area.

Marc von Martial -> (7/10/2002 3:25:09 PM)
ROFL @ CS, honestly Pauls title is really a killer. Garantues hugesales, maybe we can just rename Combat Leader ;) [QUOTE]Hey, marcs. I tried to check status and received the same response from the server. Do I need to run 128 encryption? I don't think it's installed on this machine.[/QUOTE] Hmm, it doesn�t work from my machine here in the office also :confused: . I�ll dig into this with the programmer of the shop software.

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/10/2002 11:15:47 PM)
The order status link on the main page: ( http://www.matrixgames.com/insidemg/ ) is broken. I was able to access order status from the online store section: ( http://www.matrixgames.com/cgi-bin/estore/category.cgi?category=0 ). Just doing my part to......;)

Marc von Martial -> (7/11/2002 12:14:43 AM)
LOL, that explains the "wierd bug" from the office machine ;). I clicked on that link there too. Thanks for keeping the eyes open, I fixed it.

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/11/2002 3:42:19 AM)
Does PaulV = Paul Vebber? I bet it does. If that is the case, take the proceeds from my purchase and get Paul a 1 yr subscription to "Creation Magazine". Remember: "The customer is ALWAYS right". This means you must do as I say. ;)

Paul Vebber -> (7/11/2002 4:07:31 AM)
Yup same evolving fellow :cool: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/07/10/ancient.skull/index.html I of course have many propaganda publications of the 'other view" :p

UndercoverNotChickenSalad -> (7/11/2002 4:32:25 AM)
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/scienc...kull/index.html :rolleyes: ;)

Karnaaj -> (7/11/2002 1:02:30 PM)
Hmmm. Mebbe if all us Matrix Fanboys (Fangirls as applicable) had an official flyer with some detail and webinfo that we could print out and drop off at the local hobby-shop (where the "opponents wanted" and "microarmour for sale" flyers live)? I'd planned to demo SPWAW at a local game convention this spring (but due to mispatching/version conflicts on the boxes I was using, didn't get to do it), and have had people ask what I wa splaying at LAN-game rooms at other cons... gameshops with compter availability and dedicated LAN-gamer joints are less likely to work, but a quick black'n'white flyer can go a looooong way. (I'm thinking the American Eagle shop in Seattle at the mo' - loads of RPGs/wargames, models, racks and racks of Osprey and suchlike guides, and two long multishelve units full of assorted military reference books.) They're havaing a wargaming thing (con? I'd have to find the flyer) realsoonnow, and I bet if someone local were willing to drag in a computer or two to demo, it'd fly...(I'm the other side of the state, so... ) Hell, just dropping off a stack of flyers at the local science-fiction convention would be a good idea; you're out paper'n'ink, and Matrix may get some biz, and if you're lucky you might find someone new locally to play with. Cannae hurt, eh? Second-level note: those demo-monkeys with CD-burners might think of making a few copies of the most/more recent SPWAW package (not the MegaCampaigns!) and mebbe War in Russia as an option, for "cost of the disk" distribution. (If that... I can afford to give out some freebies - "first taste is free, kid". ) It's up the flagpole, folks - weapons free!

Paul Vebber -> (7/11/2002 6:55:06 PM)
We should have a "Catalog" (suitable for printing out) of curent and "in development" products available for download in the near future.

davewolf -> (7/12/2002 10:17:06 PM)
The marketing budget is probably quite low at a company which isn't blessed with almost too much money. (Or should I say microsofted?) However Karnaaj's suggestion is one that perhaps should be considered seriously. I guess the wargaming community is a bit more hardcored than the masses of casual RTS players. So there may be a higher willingness to commit to some PR actions for our hobby/passion. Add this to some kind of organization/planning, not too tight and not too loose, and at a long-term it could produce some real effect. Could be worth a serious trial. Back to something less metaphorical. Just out of curiosity I'd like to know what the marketing strategy for europe looks like? Certainly I know that you won't have the money for big shows over here. But is there any kind of representation, besides distribution parnters?

Zakhal -> (7/16/2002 4:41:02 AM)
Still not many people know of matrix games. I remember meeting people last month in our uni who hadnt ever heard of uv or matrix games but were still playing sp1 and the orig pacific war.

davewolf -> (7/16/2002 7:56:45 AM)
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Zakhal [B]Still not many people know of matrix games. I remember meeting people last month in our uni who hadnt ever heard of uv or matrix games but were still playing sp1 and the orig pacific war. [/B][/QUOTE] Wouldn't probably know it myself, if I wouldn't have searched for War in Russia on the net some time ago. Dumb me... However some kind of marketing would make sense IMHO. Maybe with the players' help?

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