I use Gamespot a lot and think that would be a great place to promote the game!

Sins being a pretty hardcore game I think you'd get your best value focusing on hardcore outlets. If it were my decision I'd try sponsoring some podcasts. I'd start with GFW Radio and PC Gamer Podcast and maybe add a few popular niche podcast like Gamers with Jobs (I know they're looking for sponsors). I'd also look into some PC and indie focused game sites like Firingsquad and Rock Paper Shotgun. Of course, you might run into a little bit of a "preaching to the choir" effect at sites like those. Obviously if you're going for the broadest reach you could do a lot worse than sites like Gamespot, IGN, and 1up.com. There's a bit of a backlash against Gamespot for the whole Gerstmann issue, but they still get a crapload of hits every day.

I think general media coverage goes a lot farther than some banner add though. Things like the comments Penny-Arcade made, the interview you guys did on Evil Avatar Podcast, and the lengthy discussion GFW Radio had about Sins can influence a lot of people.

I thought you were talking about ingame advertising at first, and I was gonna say I wouldn't mind it if it were only on the sides of merchant ships or the trading ports.

Viral Advertising is a thousand times better than conventional advertising.

Abuse the internet until you can't squeeze out any more pennies from the suckers who browse it.

The pirated copy bit would work well when an expansion is about to be released.

Times Square, NY?

Inside EA games, which seem to be 60% ads.

/Just kidding. I'd go for the Escapist with the Yahtzee phenomenon, or 1up.com since it's becoming the most credible game site very quickly.

the place is entirely neon. people are completely jaded to the ads. plus, even at night it's too bright to see the ads. wonder if you could get the sins logo painted on the empire state building?

RPGnet might be a good place to advertise. It's a tabletop role-playing / miniatures games site, and I can imagine dozens or hundreds of people from there picking up the game.

Of course, a lot of people from that forum will already know about Sins anyway, so whether putting ads there will do any good is a judgment call.

With the willingness of the community and of developers to participate in discussion around the game, it seems like a no-brainer to not just advertise and sponsor podcasts, but to produce a Sins Official Podcast.

It doesn't have to be fancy, maybe even a group of dedicated players from the forums could host it, and get various devs / other players to drop in via skype once a week or so to talk about the game for a half hour. Topics could include Sins news, strategy/balance issues, tips of the week, discussion/analysis of multiplayer games between top level players, etc. A back and forth discussion can be a much better way to hash out points of strategy and game balance and tactics compared to one post at a time on a forum. I think it would be a great way to promote the game and more specifically to promote the multiplayer aspect (which can be a bit daunting, due to the sheer length of the games). As a model, I used to listen to a great Company of Heroes podcast called Tales of Heroes while I was playing that game.

Not to sound off topic, but does anyone else get th feeling that Yahtzee is updating slower and slower every week?

Should try ads in Podcasts like the PC Gamer podcast or 1UP. Talk about hitting your target audience. And they are usually very cheap.

You should advertise at Gamespy for sure. They're one of the few PC game sites my friends and I trust, especially when it comes to strategy games.   


I suppose you could consider Gamespot as well, but that's a little iffier. On the one hand they have a large audience. On the other hand, their credibility has obviously gone down the tubes lately, and so you might not want Sins to be associated with them.