Advertisements. They are all around us, and because of the fact that more than 260 billion dollars is spent on the things in the US alone, it's no surprise that the average North American sees more than 200 of these a day. When you turn on the TV, when you're surfing on the internet, when you open your email (Much to your dismay, though), when you read a newspaper or a magazine and, if Futurama's predictions hold accurate, in our dreams one fine day. Yes, it can be argued that no matter where we go, advertisements, or ads, will be around us for as long as we live. Why, some have even said that our society and buisness thrives upon advertisements.
But not all ads are unenjoyable. Some ads actually will point out useful features or show you clips from a movie that seems interesting and exciting and perk your interest in them. Some ads are comedic, and will stick in the back of your mind and make you laugh everytime you think of the punchline. Some are even so powerful that they can inspire you to drop the remote on the floor and buy the product
right frickin' now!!
"
But Patrick!?"
I can hear you questioning, "
What in the name of everything holy and logical does this have to do with the contest? And don't try to make any excuses, because I know this is for the monthly contest! No more lies! I demand answers!"
Some may be politer than that, but the point stands. Just bear with me for a few more minutes, okay?
Right now, you could technically say that there are over 140 different 'products', or holds, that you could sell to other people. Of course, this is ignoring the actual engines, but I'll get to that later. Of course, no one would ever advertise user-made holds that are free, would they? After all, if you aren't going to get any money from the advertisement of it, why on earth would you bother with it?
But, what if they weren't free and were sold out in the real world, just like SS holds? Well, then you'd want to find ways to get attention drawn to your product and make sure that you could get the greatest share of the market. What does an increased market share give you? More money, of course. What is one of the easiest and most interesting ways to do that?
Advertisements!
In this month's contest, you are going to creatively come up with a way to advertise a hold that has been published on the forum. This could be in a number of ways, but is not limited to these options: Poster, graphic, flash animation, movie, audio clip, script, story, endorsement, or interview. In other words, as long as your medium can be uploaded onto the forum for others to see, dollars to donuts it'll work.
Now then, let's dive into the rules of this game, shall we?
1. Your number one goal in the ad is to create both awareness and interest in your product. In your advertisement, you should include the hold authours name or screen name, where you can get the hold from (You don't need to use specific links. drod.caravelgames.com or caravelgames.com is fine), and what makes this hold better than any of the other 130+ out there.
2. While doing so, you also want to make it appealing for the people who are watching the ad. After all, when an ad sticks in a person's mind, they are more tempted to actually buy the product.
Memory and catchiness of the ad will be a factor in the judging!
3. Any endorsements can not use any real celebrities name. While it's okay to have the famous movie star Jacques Strape from the great movie
For the Love of Clam Chowder advertise your product, writing that Tom Cruise plays DROD won't be accepted. Even if he did.
4. All holds are acceptable to advertise, with the exception of
King Dugan's Dungeon,
King Dugan's Dungeon 2.0,
Journey to Rooted Hold,
Perfection,
The Choice, or any hold that hasn't been released on the Holds board yet. If any hold authour has a problem with their hold being advertised, please let me know and we can get it sorted out.
5. For ads that will record something, such as an audio clip or a movie, keep the time reasonable. Try not to make an infomercial or hit series based on the product - just keep it short and simple so that it will describe the product and tell people why they should buy it. If you have a script that goes along with the clip, please send it as well. I won't make it public, but it'll be nice for me to check information on.
6. If you plan on making anything written, try to keep it down as well. Stories, interviews, and *can* be a bit longer than a minute when spoken, but keep it reasonable. For scripts, remember that a page of script approximately equals a minute of actual time, so use that to your advantage.
7. The only catch that I will make in regards to what you can do for this contest is keep the advertisement
outside of the game. While I'm sure you can make something cool via a scripted hold, I'd prefer people to not have to load DROD in order to see it. That being said, screenshots from ingame are allowed, but keep them at a reasonably smaller size.
8. If you so incline, feel free to team up with
one other person on this. No groups of three or more, please.
9. The deadline for this contest will be a fairly late
Local Time:03-21-2006 at 06:00 PM. No later! That's a bit more than three weeks, so you should have more than enough time. I actually extended this time a few more days that I normally would simply because I realise that some of these might take time to complete properly.
10. When the time comes that your entry is ready, you can easily post it in a submission topic found
here.. This means that you can directly attach the file, and not have to worry about spam filters getting to it. Yay! If you have problems uploading a file to the forum, please email the file to me at CrazyCanuck00[AT]gmail.com, but only as a last resort.
Now, let's tell them what they're playing for, Johnny!
The first place contestant will receive an item from the
Prize Pile and a collection of 100 reusuable rank points. Runner up will receive 50 rank points along with a free picture of the
Encyclopedia Britannica. Third place gets 25 rank points, and an imaginary degree for Clown College. All runners up will receive a free copy of our home game, while newcomers will get 10 rank points just for showing up.
The last thing that I'm going to say is that between March 10-13, I'll be away in Winnipeg on a music trip, so if you have any questions at all, it would be wisest to ask them before that time. Other than that, just remember to have fun and be creative!
____________________________
--That guy with a million different aliases since he doesn't like this name anymore.
[Last edited by gamer_extreme_101 at 03-01-2006 05:10 AM]
(But don't feel free to tell me that I'm delusional.)
