Wow Facebook ads!

[kestrel79]

Just got my first IL2 Facebook ad in my feed! Very cool guys, well done. Hope it helps during the sale. 

 

Whomever did your last couple videos they are defiantly an improvement in the official videos for this sim as well.

[6./ZG26_Loke]

Artificial respiration. 

[Avimimus]

I'm glad they are putting more effort into advertising... IMHO, the product has always been there... but the challenge was people finding out about it.

[FeuerFliegen]

Personally, I had never heard of IL-2 Sturmovik until after I bought a nice PC, and thought to myself about how I really enjoyed playing WW2 flight sims in the 90's such as Microprose European Air War and Pacific Air War.  So I searched around on the internet, and after looking more in depth into it, I found IL-2 Sturmovik BoX.  If I had known about it, I probably would have started playing years earlier.

 

Really made me think of how many people are missing out on this, due to lack of it's knowledge.  I always thought their lack of advertisement was a terrible decision, and is a large factor for the small player base.  I don't think I've met anyone in real life who knows about IL-2, even when I asked other people at my flight school about it.

[Juri_JS]

29 minutes ago, FeuerFliegen said:

Personally, I had never heard of IL-2 Sturmovik until after I bought a nice PC, and thought to myself about how I really enjoyed playing WW2 flight sims in the 90's such as Microprose European Air War and Pacific Air War.  So I searched around on the internet, and after looking more in depth into it, I found IL-2 Sturmovik BoX.  If I had known about it, I probably would have started playing years earlier.

 

Really made me think of how many people are missing out on this, due to lack of it's knowledge.  I always thought their lack of advertisement was a terrible decision, and is a large factor for the small player base.  I don't think I've met anyone in real life who knows about IL-2, even when I asked other people at my flight school about it.

I think you are right. I was very surprised when people who play civil flight sims like MSFS told me that they had never heard of the Il-2 series. Part of the problem is certainly that the game gets almost completely ignored by mainstream gaming journalists.

[Cynic_Al]

On 12/21/2023 at 12:46 PM, kestrel79 said:

Just got my first IL2 Facebook ad in my feed!.

 

I recall Jason in one of his legendary Q&As saying he had no marketing budget, so the company clearly has evolved.

[Avimimus]

4 hours ago, FeuerFliegen said:

Personally, I had never heard of IL-2 Sturmovik until after I bought a nice PC, and thought to myself about how I really enjoyed playing WW2 flight sims in the 90's such as Microprose European Air War and Pacific Air War.

 

A nice story. I do wonder if relying on nostalgia from the 1990s might not be the best way to recruit people who are younger.

 

4 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I think you are right. I was very surprised when people who play civil flight sims like MSFS told me that they had never heard of the Il-2 series. Part of the problem is certainly that the game gets almost completely ignored by mainstream gaming journalists.

 

Yes, in my experience most people still associate the word 'flight simulator' with MSFS and are unaware of the combat sims... with the exception of War Thunder (and maybe DCS)...

 

I think the shift towards greater community engagement by developers (a very good thing overall), has also led to the decline of sites like combatsim.com and simhq.com as there is no need to have a third party host forums or conduct interviews/previews/reviews... which means that it is harder to find out about the other sim series (which becomes a problem for the genre).

[Trooper117]

I grew up at a time when most of the adults I spoke to had served during the war or had grown up whilst it was still going on... WWII was very much taught in school.

Younger people today who were born much later haven't much interest in WWII, and that's the truth of it.

[jollyjack]

12 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I think you are right. I was very surprised when people who play civil flight sims like MSFS told me that they had never heard of the Il-2 series. Part of the problem is certainly that the game gets almost completely ignored by mainstream gaming journalists.

 

Also die-hards on DCS or MS flightsimming stuff are hard to convince IL2 might even be 'better' as a whole concept, especially the ME. I know; i tried.

One remarkable 'excuse' from a DCS P51 client said its hard to get to know this plane's complexity, so that he does not want to spend time on getting familiar with yet another sim that has it.

 

[Art-J]

Nah, I wouldn't say it's "remarkable". It's quite logical really. I also don't fly GB versions of warbirds featured in DCS, 'cause why would I? I prefer their deeper modelling in the latter so I don't need the former to get their more simplified interpretations. I do come to GB to fly some of my favourite planes that are not available in DCS, though.

 

But then, I'm not quite interested in combat in general and use both sims mostly for civilian flying. I'd hazard a guess majority of MSFS guys prefer non-combat missions as well, with accurate weather, navigation and ATC. In these aspects both DCS and GB lag behind. GB is certainly better as a coherent combat concept, but if that's not what these guys are after, they probably wouldn't get hooked by it anyway, advertized or not.

[Gambit21]

19 hours ago, Cynic_Al said:

 

I recall Jason in one of his legendary Q&As saying he had no marketing budget, so the company clearly has evolved.

Has it though?

[Trooper117]

Oh it's evolved alright... 

[Avimimus]

20 hours ago, Trooper117 said:

I grew up at a time when most of the adults I spoke to had served during the war or had grown up whilst it was still going on... WWII was very much taught in school.

Younger people today who were born much later haven't much interest in WWII, and that's the truth of it.

 

Yes, which is why it is increasingly important to include narratives and history lessons, after action reports, quotes from diaries etc. into the flight sims and their promotional material. IMHO, the SWOTL manual and strategy guides were an excellent example of this. Even my Tie Fighter strategy guide came with a novella (and that helped sustain my interest).

[jollyjack]

I tied to convince my grandson, now 14, but he's more into car games alas.

[=MERCS=JenkemJunkie]

Most kids won't want to invest 100s of hours in a game to learn about history, when they can just watch a Netflix/YouTube vid instead in a fraction of the time. 

If you want to attract the kids you need to show them flashy pew pew, big explosions and aerobatic dogfights that look cool in YouTube montages. And don't tell them about all the empty time flying around with nothing going on.

[CountZero]

and thats why WT is place where new players go to play with airplanes, people i know who have 0 interest in ww2 flying stuff, but play other games, know about WT. To get more players you need to count on them getting hoked on ww2 aviation and then get bored by WT to start serching for something more, and even then they will probably first see DCS as something most simulation like, then CloD or GB if DCS get to mutch demanding or boring.

Maybe there is even more kids now wwho know about ww2 tanks and airplanes, but they play game like WT, insted semi sims from 90s or early 2000s 

[ShamrockOneFive]

On 12/29/2023 at 8:08 AM, Avimimus said:

 

A nice story. I do wonder if relying on nostalgia from the 1990s might not be the best way to recruit people who are younger.

 

 

Yes, in my experience most people still associate the word 'flight simulator' with MSFS and are unaware of the combat sims... with the exception of War Thunder (and maybe DCS)...

 

I think the shift towards greater community engagement by developers (a very good thing overall), has also led to the decline of sites like combatsim.com and simhq.com as there is no need to have a third party host forums or conduct interviews/previews/reviews... which means that it is harder to find out about the other sim series (which becomes a problem for the genre).

Indeed. Often when you bring up combat flight sims they do think War Thunder or DCS, that really hard game, and then none of them are somehow aware of the IL-2 series despite over two decades of history.

 

Advertising is good.

[FeuerFliegen]

On 12/29/2023 at 8:08 AM, Avimimus said:

A nice story. I do wonder if relying on nostalgia from the 1990s might not be the best way to recruit people who are younger.

That wasn't the point; I was saying that even me, going through all of that and having a history of flight sims from the 90's, still had no idea about it and even when searching for something like it, it didn't really stick out in any particular way.  I wouldn't be sharing this story to potential new players to attract them.

 

To me, it shows how important advertising is.

 

We don't need to attract the masses or even 1% of the population.  I've talked to so many new players that get really into the game and say things like "I had never heard of this game before, but a friend put me onto it, etc."

[kestrel79]

I know we all love to bash lite sims, but they are the gateway sims that really do help lead people to the more hardcore stuff like DCS and IL-2.

 

World of Tanks, Warthunder are fast and fun, free to play, and work good with mouse controls so you don't need a stick or HOTAS to play. Great games to get people into aviation and historical games. MSFS does a great job of this as well, and I think the 2024 version will help even more.

 

So once you're hooked on those games, you start looking for more. That's when you get into DCS and IL-2. This seems to be the path for younger games to find flight sims these days. Where I'm a little older (40) and got into them in the 90's as a kid during the flight sim boom. 

 

I really do think an amazing, flashy in engine trailer like DCS has would really help get some fresh eyes on IL-2. Whoever that guys is that makes those, just open up the checkbook, give him whatever he wants, and have him make an IL-2 in engine trailer for this game and I think it would really help. IL-2 has done better recently with the videos, but nothing comes close to DCS. That guy is a pro.

[Avimimus]

Aren't they still made by GlowingAmraam? Honestly, there was a thread earlier on the forums (maybe on the Cliffs of Dover forum) that was discussing some of the directorial techniques (e.g. lots of close-ups). Maybe we need someone who is good at capturing virtual footage to team up with a film student on the forums... I'm sure there is someone who has training in reverse engineering directorial and camera techniques. ?

 

We also can produce unofficial content as forum members too... I don't think it needs to be official.

[DragonDaddy]

As a former advertising guy, advertising is almost alway beneficial when it is positioned correctly and aimed at the target audience. Ads with real game users “testifying” their enjoyment of the game could prove productive. Seeing great action scenes in commercials can be exciting but sometimes listening to real-world experiences hits better.