Author
What is the best way of getting people to know about your game? I recently emailed Gamespot.com about my public beta and they completely ignored my email... how do you get big sites to pay attention?
You need to either (1) be a big company with a repuation, or (2) have something new and different that will be interesting to report on. Think about it this way: If you get into a minor car accident (some paint scatched, bumper bent), its won''t get into the paper or on the 6 0''clock news. However if you are in a deadly or otherwise interesting crash (your car flips over, plows into a bus shelter, falls off a bridge), or if you are a famous person (OJ''s car involved in fatal 2mph painting chipping with hydrant) it will get reported.
That''s not necessarily true, Michalson. As I mentioned in another thread, I have lately seen a lot of small, untried dev teams getting coverage on Gamespot. The trick isn''t to be a big dev company or to even have anything that unusual to report (look at the news on Gamespot...it''s all the same anyways). The trick is in the presentation.
How did you send your announcement to Gamespot? Did you format a proper press release following the AP (American Press) guidelines? There are templates for press releases available on the net, you just have to look for them. For a large site like Gamespot, you should write up a proper press release and send it to their news editor (if you don''t know who that is, look in the contact info or get the contact info of an editor who''s posting announcements in their news section; each post is attributed to someone). Even then, you have to be patient. They receive tons of news every day and may not get to yours right away.
Another way to help them is to have a release date identified clearly on the release. If you say ''For immediate release'' this might backfire, because if you pick the same day as Warcraft III is being released, or E3 has just started, well, you''re SOL. If you have the release date be a day or so after you send the announcement, that gives the news editor a little bit of time to react.
Having said all that, if you''re a nobody with nothing to say (which I''m not implying you are), why would Gamespot pick up your news?
For smaller game web sites, just format a small paragraph with the appropriate links, a title, and email it to their news editor, editor in chief, or webmaster. If you make it easy enough for them to include it in their daily news, they usually will.
Hope that helps.
R.
_________________________
The Idea Foundry
How did you send your announcement to Gamespot? Did you format a proper press release following the AP (American Press) guidelines? There are templates for press releases available on the net, you just have to look for them. For a large site like Gamespot, you should write up a proper press release and send it to their news editor (if you don''t know who that is, look in the contact info or get the contact info of an editor who''s posting announcements in their news section; each post is attributed to someone). Even then, you have to be patient. They receive tons of news every day and may not get to yours right away.
Another way to help them is to have a release date identified clearly on the release. If you say ''For immediate release'' this might backfire, because if you pick the same day as Warcraft III is being released, or E3 has just started, well, you''re SOL. If you have the release date be a day or so after you send the announcement, that gives the news editor a little bit of time to react.
Having said all that, if you''re a nobody with nothing to say (which I''m not implying you are), why would Gamespot pick up your news?
For smaller game web sites, just format a small paragraph with the appropriate links, a title, and email it to their news editor, editor in chief, or webmaster. If you make it easy enough for them to include it in their daily news, they usually will.
Hope that helps.
R.
_________________________
The Idea Foundry
Author
Should I post up my email? BTW I have no idea about what the American Press guidelines would be, Ive never heard of them before.
Well, are your fingers broken?? 
Do a search online for the guidelines. Failing that, just look for a typical press release template...
R.
_________________________
The Idea Foundry
Do a search online for the guidelines. Failing that, just look for a typical press release template...R.
_________________________
The Idea Foundry
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