The Challenge of Filming Virtual Commodities
by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
On a recent videocast episode of The Upload, we discussed our favorite games in Home. For me, it’s a pretty short list: Sodiums One and Two, Novus Prime, Cutthroats, and an honorable mention to OrbRunner round out my list.
Novus Prime, in particular, has quite a lot going for it. It was the first true multiplayer game in Home — and that was before the 1.5 update, which introduced some nifty multiplayer APIs to Home’s core client. Although you couldn’t directly compete against other players (as you can with the insanely addictive Cutthroats), you could — and often have to — cooperate with other players to accomplish certain missions.
Let’s not forget that Novus Prime also has a proven, effective formula: spaceships, critters and orchestral music. That is the equivalent of high-fructose corn syrup to gamers: in other words, pure win.
There’s one catch with developing a game for Home, though: you’ve got to keep it interesting for years at a time.
Think about it. Even the most insane disc-based title has a fairly limited first-run sales curve. It can be prolonged somewhat with downloadable content add-ons, but it’s amazing how much money is spent developing titles with remarkably short shelf lives. Home, on the other hand, is a social network for gamers; its attractions have to be kept interesting and dynamic over a much, much longer timeframe.
Certain developers are just better at this than others. And Hellfire Games, in particular, has done a very admirable job of keeping Novus Prime fresh and interesting. Extra mission packs. Outfits with stat boosts. Antigravity. Cool ships. More levels. The list goes on. This stuff is important, because it gives you a reason to go back and revisit an older experience rather than commit time to something else.
Nazgul in space. Win.
Hellfire’s most recent update to Novus Prime consists of stat-boost outfits. They have very cool names and awesome bonuses, but for the purpose of this article, I will simply refer to them as Gold Guy, Tron Guy and Sauron.
Gold Guy gives you stackable nebulon bonuses and makes you look like a Marvel superhero. Tron Guy looks like the E3 outfit, except he has better buttocks. And Sauron (a.k.a. the Obsidian Bladewalker) has a bunch of custom emotes and looks like the sort of well-behaved chap that GWAR would employ as a bodyguard whilst sacrificing virgins to the worm. In other words: epic.
So this got me thinking: how would one go about trying to market these commodities?
Sony marketing videos, if I’m honest, are a bit hit-and-miss. Some of them, like the original promo video for Novus Prime (a sort of Battlestar Galactica rip-off that made Central Plaza look like Caprica City being attacked by Cylons), were so awesome that they automatically lowered my voice four octaves. Other promo videos are so facepalmingly cheesy that they make me want to stab a midget with a banana. And, to be fair, the official promo video for these new outfits is clean, straightforward and effective.
So I figured…what the hey. Let’s see if we can come up with a promo video for these outfits ourselves.
The first thing you discover: this is actually quite hard. Making machinima interesting is a difficult task to begin with, since everything is artificial. But HomeStation has had good success provoking emotions with our virtual estate showcases, so why not try outfits and other commodities as the next challenge?
The second rude awakening: not everything is easy to film. Which is why really top-notch advertising execs get paid in money, supermodels and private islands — because filming something in such a way as to emotionally move someone to spend money is no small feat.
Let’s use the Toyota Paseo ad campaign as an example. The tagline was, “Women Dig It.”
Look at the car itself. Boring. I’ve sat inside one. It’s the automotive equivalent of ambien. It has an engine which churns out exactly the same amount of torque as my pinky toe. But put it against a Big Sur backdrop at sunset, film it from the right angle, superimpose WOMEN DIG IT on the screen over and over, and guys line up to finance the thing for eleventy years at a bajillion percent interest.
The new VW Scirocco Diesel. It's explosive.
There’s a lesson to be learnt here: that the best ads are like my girlfriend — eyebrow-arching and with lots of mushroom clouds. Which is why I could never be an ad exec: because I happen to like Jeremy Clarkson’s “It’s Explosive” ad for the Volkswagen Scirocco diesel. I love Bill Murray’s fake ad in Scrooged. I roared with laughter at the old outpost.com commercials. So I have problems.
(If you are unfamiliar with any of the references in the previous two paragraphs, please go to YouTube and watch them. Like, now.)
Now, in the case of these aforementioned Novus Prime outfits, they’re actually pretty interesting. And after trying my hand at filming a sort-of-but-still-rubbish showcase for them, I have newfound respect for the people who put together these ads every week for Home’s virtual commodities. Because, after you’ve viewed my attempt, you will agree with me that I will not be paid in piles of money and a Mustique fortnight with Bar Refaeli. I will instead be paid in domo-kuns.
But hey, since I bothered to film it, here ya go. To quote the opening line from the Guns N’ Roses Get in the Ring tour, “YOU WANTED THE BEST? WELL THEY DIDN’T (expletive) MAKE IT! SO HERE’S WHAT YA GET!”
April 10th, 2012 by NorseGamer | 9 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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I think you must have watched this video too many times and too closely while you were making it. (Familiarity breeds contempt.) I enjoyed it very much and I’m not even a big Novus Prime fan. I think it was really well made and even more so, considering the limitations of Home filming.
Never before have so many come together from all quarters of the galaxy. But never before have we faced an enemy such as this. The bad guys will show us no mercy, and we must give them no quarter. They will terrorize our populations. We must stand fast in the face of that terror. They will advance until our last ship falls, but we will not fall. We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand fast, stand strong. Stand together. Jayson out.
Great article as always, and fantastic job on the video! We lol’d at the Gwar bodyguard comment.
I think you did a great job on the video Norse. It was well thought out and I am just now starting to play and appreciate the Novus Prime area. Good job!
2 thums up, great video sir and artcle,
If you got paid in a fortnight of any kind with Bar Refaelli, you can bet your ascot there’d be less eyebrow arching and more mushroom clouds from your girlfriend.
I like Sony PR videos, but I am not sure they sell the product they are advertising. I like the super hype Magnus videos. I think those sell better especially when played in the Mall.
The problem with clothes and items is they aren’t very exciting. I would think the games would be an easier sell. I made some low angle and high angle shots of boats for Cutthroats, but the look kept changing so often at the end I would have been redoing them almost weekly to get them in the video.
Someone should create the fireball item similar to the fireworks items. It wouldn’t sell well, but it would get a lot of exposure.
Not so easy to churn out the hamburger commercial, is it, Norse?
You’ve got some really nice shots of the costumes in here. I particularly like the 1/3 shot of the Bladewalker and the CU of the Midas head with the eyeline matched to the red bar in the background. That’s good stuff.
The Midas and Nebulon Armor suits present some challenges in shooting because they don’t have the same visual impact as the Bladewalker, which is so gorgeous to look at that you want to put a bunch of them in a room and just shoot the camera through it.
The main thing to remember, though, is that all the dramatic angles and such are secondary to selling the benefit of ownership. When you’re dealing with something that has a practical use and an impact in the game, that needs to be the central focus. Save the theatrics for something dull, like a chair.
Someone needs to release a chair in Home. A really plain chair. I’ve got a great idea for it.
From the man who coined “Demon War Horse”, I cannot wait.