Media attention

[Jeroen D. Stout]

Hello all,

Just letting you know (not even 30 minutes after I knew, mind) that I believe I will be interviewed by BBC Kent (regional radio) on Dinner Date. It will air live sometime around 2.30pm (London time).

Yesterday it was arranged that later this evening BBC World Service will call for an interview as well. Apparently the World Service journalist is called Julian, which amuses me quite a bit. I do not know when this will air yet, it is pre-recorded so it may pop up anywhere.

With the Kent interview and the World Service interview I am happy to say that this type of game is now getting some serious non-game media attention, which is tremendously exciting.

I will certainly focus on the aspect that we have a medium which can make anything playable, and it is a waste to use it for violence. There'll be questions about goals (I believe) so I will focus on the idea of 'play as in theatre'. There was in the World Service pre-interview a question of 'how will this help people', which I will relate to literature, in the way books may help you to see things in new ways.

I will see how the interviews go to see if I can mention things like notgames, but I think for an audience which I am sure is inundated with the idea of games of this kind the context of an art group with a specific name may go a bit far. But I will certainly mention others are doing similar efforts, that is is shaping up to be more of a movement.

In any case, I am very excited, this is a brilliant chance.

[Thomas]

I was interviewed by Swedish public radio last week and have to agree that "normal" media seem very interested when you start talking about notgamey stuff. The thing is that when you are interviewed by the games press, all of the same questions pop up: How long is the game? What kind of enemies are there and so on. And question that concern more interesting things, usually take up a very small part of the talk. However, with normal media, the soon you say stuff like "not having combat made our game better", etc they seem to get really interested and start to ask a lot different questions.

I have not had any huge experience with the non-game press, but it seems to be that notgames is should be possible to reach a much broader audience through more deserve media attention. Usually games only end up under "tech" or "financial" sections, but when you start talking in notgamey terms you can more easily end up along with all other entertainment such as books, music and film.

So glad to hear that BBC has taken an interest in Dinner Date! What I really like about your game is that the concept is so different from normal games. I assume it is this that has peeked the interested in BBC?

[Michaël Samyn]

Congratulations! I think all publicity for this sort of work is beneficial to all of us. Don't worry about saying "the right things".
Though it's probably smart to mention a movement of sorts. The press always love that kind of stuff.

It makes sense that the non-games press would be interested in unusual stories about games. Video games are a trendy subject but there's usually not much to say about them, given that games are always the same. We can take advantage of this. But we shouldn't overestimate the impact. The attention span of the non-games press is very short and they will drop you like a brick as soon as they lose interest.

When/if there's a live stream of this, or a recorded sound file, please post a link!

[Jeroen D. Stout]

Yes, they are quite interested in non-gamey things... they also have less preconceptions about what is normal, like you say (Thomas). I will mention a movement next time, it slipped my mind. As did, can you believe, mentioning my website address. Last time I did an interview they said it for me, this time they left a space only wide enough for me to mention it, not for me to think of mentioning it.

I think there some genuine interest in terms of subject matter, too, Michaël. It is novelty by which they find it, but I hope to retain interest by making things more in line with people's lives.

It is a wonderful challenge to keep everything in line during interviews, I do enjoy it. There very much is an element of being able to relate to a person being stood up on a date which peaks interests, I think.

I will look into when it is available on iPlayer, the BBC World Service one will get repeated multiple times in any case. A friend recorded it should all fail.

Tonight I seem to have an another interview with BBC Solent, 17.35 London time, you may follow them here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/hampshire/hi/tv_and_radio/.

I will ask, actually, before the World Service records their interview, whence they found me.

Good, I am going to get some food and consecutively keep you posted.

(hooray!)

[Michaël Samyn]

Big in Britain! 

(noticed any effect on sales?)

[Jeroen D. Stout]

Yes, I wish I had managed to find out how the BBC came to me, but it is truly nice to be featured on them considering how often I listen to it.

I have not noticed any effect in sales. I think being on World Service would make more of a splash, but through the BBC computer policy they were not allowed to download the game (which makes sense, really) and they are going to play it off-shift. It means the interview will be delayed considerably, I am unsure when. Fortunately they were enthusiastic so it will feature, just not any time soon.

I think the effect of this type of games slowly seeping into the public unconsciousness is worth 'future stock', so it is all good