>> if there is ANY market at all.. and i think there is... you know
>> there *IS* still computer life *outside* of the internet...
> Okay one more thing... lesson of Microsoft: marketing is everything.. (-;
Tim,
I suspect you were joking with the line about Microsoft, but both of
your above comments taken together are absolutely true. I thinkthat
part of the reason why we're such a small group is because of our
relative anonymity on the internet, and a BIG part of why text
adventures aren't being sold in large numbers is due to the way they
were/are marketed (ok, currently, they're hardly marketed at all).
I think the main reason Infocom died out was because they couldn't
keep up with the flashy graphical adventure games entering the
market. However, I think Infocom MIGHT have survived if they have
radically shifted their market focus. They continued to compete in
the computer game market, even though the computer game market was
continually advancing the state of the art.
What they COULD have tried, and what I think would work even better
today today with all of the laptops out there, would be to have
shifted their market focus to a more mature, less game oriented
audience, people who already think of reading as a form of
relaxation/entertainment, and who aren't predominantly interested in
playing games.
The first necessary step would have been/is to downplay the "game"
aspects of IF, and broadly advertise the "literature" aspects. The
second step (this is more applicable today, because of course
Infocom already had national distribution) would have been/is to get
these "interactive novels" or "hyperliterature" or whatever
marketing term people agree on, into book stores, supermarkets, etc.
at a low price (not more than the price of a paperback novel), and
in an obvious, accessible format (a hybrid Mac/PC floppy disk placed
in racks by the checkout with no additional packaging).
I really, strongly believe that IF could be made into a thriving
market with the right marketing and the strength of a good national
distributor.
-- Ivan