I'm sure the company has put a lot of discussion sessions and brainstorming
thoughts to finally decide on the title. It's truly crucial in the
larger
point of view. Luckily they didnt stop at Opal. Only Australians will
feels
warm with that, hehe.
In fact, the catchy title was what attracts me in the first place.
Let's
see, King - it denotes a strategy game (in the tradition of classic
4X games
like "Master" of Orion/Magic, "Emperor" of Fading Suns, "Conquest" of
New
Worlds, "Dominions" etc). It perfectly conveys the idea that the game
is
about "delusions of grandeur", as most strategy games, in fact is, in
the
bare-bones skeleton.
Then let's see about Dragon - it reflects to the general public that
the
game is about Fantasy and most probably an adventure or role-playing
game.
Following the tradition of great games like Age of "Wonders", Heroes
of
"Might and Magic", "Wizardry", "Civilizations", etc. It just gives
folks the
feeling that this is an exotic and traditional game, hence familiarity
breeds understanding, leading to lowering of defenses to impulse
buying.
From the title alone, people should be able to picture what genre the
game
is all about. King of Dragon Pass - a Strategy/Role-Playing Game. The
origin
of the name might be as simple as being borrowed from the boardgame
or as
complex as being thought up by a contracted marketing guru. It just
ooze
professionality in the overall broad sense.
Of course, Feathered Horse Queen and Luminuos Stallion King can be as
catchy
too, hehe. In fact Hero Quest will do just fine, if not for the
copyrights
conflict with Sierra. What a wonderful execution of interactive novel
with
resource management sims thrown in to boot. Encore! Encore!
Then again, some nit-picking folks like few of my friends complained
that
how come its Dragon Pass and "not" Dragon's Pass? Some complained
about the
annoying music/sound effects, while I just love the
bagpipes/highlander
theme of it all. Some prefer abstract Picasso pieces rather than
traditional
paintings like whats shown in KoDP, while I think Picasso art is just
kindergaten kids having fun with rulers and colors. I adores Salvador
Dali
though while Van Gough feels like crayon har har.
There.. everything is just personal taste. That's why we are living
in a
crazy world that is rulez by marketing folks. I hate the fact that
you have
to fork out such an insane amount of money just to promote the game,
that in
fact it cost more than the initial capital used to develop the game.
It
started when one guy have too much money and too ambitious that he
practically floods the market with his products, leading the rest to
follow
up or be left behind. Fair play, justice and honour has gone down the
drain
since the start of this century. The winning combatants always re-
write
history to favour them.
Marketing budget "really" determine whether you are a has-been, a
wannabe or
an idol. We might hate it to the bone, but currently it works best..
so we
either have to swallows our principle and stains our honour or take
the next
flight to Alpha Centauri. If you cant beat them.. join them! I will
kill
myself before I become a liberal conformist, Urox bless my horns! _at_,-p
"May we live in interesting times.." - a chinese curse
Powered by hypermail